Monday Music Roundup

For Mother’s Day I got this handmade wooden box from my little four year old. It held various treasures, including a coupon, some chocolate covered espresso beans (good choice), and an ant. The ant apparently escaped. It seemed like a good idea to him at the time to include it in the gift. I feel very lucky. I hope you all tried to take care of your mamas as well yesterday.

When not busy being a kickass mom this week, I listened to this stuff (actually, sometimes simultaneously):

Tessellate (remix by Tom Campesinos)
Tokyo Police Club
The folks at Saddle Creek (home of Bright Eyes / The Faint / Cursive) sent this over on Friday just in time for Mother’s Day. The first line here talks about “all the boys who call their mothers on that day,” and sonically the remix is an electrifying combination that admittedly your mother may not like, with what sounds like crashing garbage can lids over cheerily chiming xylophones. It works for me. The original version of the song is featured on the Tokyo Police Club‘s debut full-length Elephant Shell, which was released last month after two previous critically-acclaimed EPs. The remix can be found on the new 7 inch or the limited edition of Elephant Shell.

Gratification To Concrete
Robert Pollard
As we all know, Robert Pollard can’t stop, won’t stop. After releasing no fewer than four solo albums on Merge in the last two years, former Guided By Voices frontman has amicably left that fold to form his own GBV record label. Robert Pollard Is Off To Business will be released on June 3, and this song about a lady who somehow gratifies concrete will be the first tune to hit the internetwaves. In an odd Stipe-ian dichotomy, this will work best if you don’t try to understand Pollard’s lyrics but just enjoy the crunchy riffs at play on this monster jam of a summer pop song.

Cheap Champagne
Sloan
This new song from Canada’s powerpop/rock foursome Sloan starts with a sunny vocal breakdown that’s all retro-goodness, sounding like just four guys standing around on a street corner snapping in time. Each track that I’ve heard so far from their upcoming release Parallel Play (June 10, Yep Roc) wins me over in a unique way, and there lies some of the underrated genius of Sloan. They can fluidly slide between many different styles (most recently demonstrated on the 30-song tour de force of 2006′s Never Hear The End Of It), and it all works.

Sirens In The Deep Sea
Longwave
The cascade of swirling, sparkling guitars in this song from Brooklyn’s Longwave sound like the moment you roll your car to a slow stop on a gravelly roadside overlooking the lights of the valley. This single was produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol) and boasts some gorgeous, epic-sounding production. After tour dates opening for The Strokes on their North American and European tours, Longwave is playing some shows with the re-formed Swervedriver in the coming months.

I’m Now
Mudhoney
Recorded in just three and a half days, this 8th full-length album from Seattle’s Mudhoney possesses a raw and immediate punch. Although folks like Nirvana propelled to larger successes from the Sub Pop label in the late 80s/early 90s, Mudhoney laid seminal groundwork with the indie label through releases like Superfuzz Bigmuff. They were also featured on one of the first 7″s in the Sub Pop Singles Club with “Touch Me I’m Sick” (split with Sonic Youth). Hard to believe, but Mudhoney has been at it for twenty years (!!) and the sounds of this new song would suggest that they’ve lost little of their spitfire. The Lucky Ones is due May 20 on Sub Pop.

Monday Music Roundup

I’ve been sort of jamming with some gal friends in an acoustic mini-band for fun (and no, we didn’t name ourselves something dainty and/or involving unicorns or sparkly things). I wail on the djembe and we have a grand time — sounds very hippie but it’s not.

In any case, yesterday afternoon we were talking about how one gal just had her guitar swiped out of her car. The best I could come up with was a consolation which suggested that perhaps said thief thought that Takamine actually read, “Take-mine.”

Aaand . . . I crack myself up. I do apologize for that groaner.

On to the tunes for this week (better than the humor?):

F Train Girl
The Attachments
We’ll start things off today with an unassuming sonnet to a girl on a train (ah, the elusive ones are the best kinds) that sounds like something that could take me along the tracks, looking out the window at the passing countryside. The Attachments are four young guys from Berkeley (CA) who really just want to pay a bit of homage to the Beach Boys, spoon in bed, and write you haikus (see their MySpace). What could be wrong with that?

City Skies
Dylan In The Movies
I adore getting 7-inches in the mail (sounds dirty. it’s not.). Every once in a while amidst the pile of promo CDs, I get an actual vinyl 7″ to digest slowly and viscerally, and it truly makes my day to crouch near the record player and watch it spin, hear it crackle. American Laundromat Records is a little label with a 7″ series (they also released that fab High School Reunion CD of ’80s movie song covers by folks like Matthew Sweet and Frank Black). I’ve enjoyed the A & B sides of both their releases in this series thus far. Pressed in limited, hand-numbered quantities, this truly wonderful song from Boston’s Dylan In The Movies is the b-side from the newest one. The a-side is from John P. Strohm (Blake Babies, Antenna, Lemonheads) and the vinyl is available directly from ALR. It’s also on iTunes, which takes some of the fun out of it, but for those who don’t have a record player (yet). . .

Young Folks
Peter Bjorn and John
I vigilantly resisted this kitschy song from Swedish sensations Peter Bjorn and John until I heard it out in its natural habitat recently in a loud bar and I found myself irresistibly drawn to it, from the whistles that start things off to the harmonies and the skittery beat that made me shake my hips. I heartily enjoy whistling along to things, and songs like this are in short supply (other than, maybe, Zipadee-doodah and the theme to Andy Griffith). Don’t try to resist, just acquiesce to the blogosphere on this one. From their 2006 album Writer’s Block (Wichita/V2).

HFXNSHC (“Halifax, Nova Scotia Hardcore”)
Sloan
This song is apropos of nothing else off Sloan‘s recent album Never Hear The End Of It (on Yep Roc), which is a fine double disc that I think you may be hearing more about in the weeks to come from this blog. Its unrelenting thrumming-bass punk rock (squeezed into just over a minute) has been rocking my world these last few days. I’ll leave it at that for now, but hot dang. Who saw that one coming from Canadian power poppers?

Storia Di Un Corazon
Jovanotti
I feel like ending with some world music today, an irresistable Latin-tinged duet with Italian Jovanotti and Spaniard Pau Dones (of Jarabe de Palo) with a flirty samba/salsa beat and engaging call-and-response verse swapping. It’s from Jovanotti’s excellent 2002 album Il Quinto Mondo, and my absolute favorite snippet of it starts around 3:20. I think this may be the next piece I practice to on djembe, but it’s also suitable for dancing ’round the house, pretending like you know how to do Latin dances (and no, the Macarena doesn’t count).