Song of the Days

Henceforth, we here at the Disclaimer Music Review Archive will be recommending a different song everyday on our home page. (Or, more likely, every couple days because we're lazy.) Basically, we hope this new feature will give you all something new to download and check out on a daily basis. For those of you who don't have time to read reviews but for some reason still have time to visit the site, this should prove mighty useful. Some of our recommendations will naturally be fairly popular and some of them fairly obscure, because we're probably just going to randomly choose whichever song we happen to be listening to on any given day, but you should be able to find plenty of really cool stuff you haven't heard before. If you have any suggestions for Songs of the Day, e-mail us and we'll download whatever you recommend. If we like it, we'll include it here and credit you with the suggestion. Sound good? Oh, and if you miss a day or two, we'll archive all the Songs of the Day right here, so they're easy to catch up on. Enjoy!

SONGS FROM THE DAYS OF YORE:

9/22/05: Arthur Fields- "Good Morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip!" I first heard this swingin' li'l song when Of Montreal's drummer James Huggins played it before a show, but the original is every bit as cheesily catchy as you might hope. Like "The Bugle Boy of Company B," this tune is sort of a revelie-as-pop (or vice-versa) chesnut that is about as cool as the armed forces ever got. And for those of you who are war entertainment buffs, it's much easier to stomach than those racist Private Snafu cartoons. It's evidently on a compilation called Songs of WWI: From Original Recordings 1914-1926, but you can download it here: http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/zipzipzip.htm.

9/19/05: The Yummy Fur- "Playboy Japan (1971)" (Thanks to Adam Smith of the Plimptons.) Snobby as it may sound, it's difficult not to begrudge the success of formulaic "new garage" bands like Jet and Cloud Room- bands who strain so much to get every detail of their songs and posture correctly "cool"- when there are bands like The Yummy Fur who make genuinely, effortlessly cool, no-frills rock songs like this. Without being in any hurry to get anywhere, "Playboy Japan" exhibits as nifty a mastery of rock dynamics as anyone since the Pixies (not in the quiet/loud sense so much as the tension/release sense) and dazzles you with little touches like the vocoder in the chorus and the piano on the outro, lifting what could very easily have been a nondescript, Strokes-style exercise in distorted detachment into a gem that proves that simple rock songs can still be meticulously crafted. From Sexy World.

9/17/05: Erykah Badu- "Tyrone" Fflo writes, "One middle-of-the-night in Baltimore I was watching the Video Jukebox channel, and the video of this performance was being picked by more than 2 out of every 3 people calling in at 2 bucks a pop. All night. What I like about the narrative especially is that she starts out just musing and by the end has kicked the guy out of her life- we witness the decision being made in real time. Probably just a fluke of the tossed-off nature of its writing, but I don't care." That's to say nothing of the great kiss-off humor Badu exudes, or the fun backing vocals in what could've been a fairly ordinary track (it's admittedly pretty thinly arranged for a live song). It's the sort of thing VH1 would be unable to describe without the phrases "diva," "go, girl," or "girl power," while you and I can just enjoy Badu's cocked-eyebrow intelligence. From Live.

9/15/05: Mason Jennings: "Adrian" (Thanks to Bev.) Just a simple, acoustic indie-folk song. No Will Oldham-style whispered nightmares, no Red House Painters-style meandering, no Sufjan Stevens-style orchestration. "Adrian" manages to make straightforwardness seem like a novel idea as a result. It's a gentle lullaby from a condemned man to his son before the former is taken to the gallows, and Jennings presents it with a simplicity that invests every word with meaning and beauty that could never be managed with more florid attempts at eloquence. Thoughtful, touching, and pretty. From the very good album Century Spring.

9/14/05: The Hollies- "Stop Stop Stop" SoulCrusher77 writes, "Not to be confused with the more well-known hit 'Bus Stop,' and actually a little bit weirder than you'd think the band responsible for that song would be capable of. Instead of clear Beatles-isms, here they employ an off-kilter Indian snake-charmer-sounding melody, which is only appropriate considering that the narrator of the song gets so mesmerized by a dancing woman in a bar that when she eventually comes near to him he panics, knocks over all the tables and drinks, and is kicked out. While lots of other bands were using pseudo-middle-eastern melodies and/or instrumentation at the time, there's something fascinatingly 'off' (and yet still catchy) about this one, especially when the frantic cymbal-crash-punctuated refrain of 'stop stop stop all the dancing!' comes in, plus the banjo (!) part cleverly mimics a sitar. I could see Camper Van Beethoven doing a good cover of this, although somehow it also strikes me as the kind of thing that would fit right in on The Third Reich And Roll, The Residents' suite of brutally deconstructed 60's hits. From the album For Certain Because, although a good Best Of would probably have it as well."

9/13/05: Third Eye Foundation- "La Dispute" (Thanks to Mark Monastyrski.) This is a remix of a track from Yann Tiersen's score from Amelie (one of the best films of all time). The original is plenty great in its own right, but Third Eye Foundation's remix is so subtly twisted and slowly haunting that it's positively possessed. It's the sound of being trapped in an abandoned carnival, a funhouse mirror reflecting your most recent heartbreak, and the ghost of Nelson Muntz floating around, shouting "Haw haw!" at you. If Edgar Allen Poe had an accordion and a sampler, he would've recorded this. From TEF's I Poo Poo on Your Juju.

9/12/05: Edith Frost- "Wonder Wonder" You will never get this song out of your head once you hear it. Ever. You may go slowly senile, forgetting the names and faces of your loved ones, memories disappearing from your brain until you live in a continually refreshing three-second span of experiences like a goldfish, but you will be cheerfully humming this simple indie-folk tune until the day you die. So it's a darn good thing it's an absolutely perfect composition. Like many of Frost's songs, this one is set to a loping, cloppity tempo that will have you instantly picturing happy cartoon horses trotting along, but it manages to become happier still by incorporating a lead Casio, a bassy pitch pipe, and silverware percussion to back her indelible melody. The song is a winking admission of ambivalence toward a lover, but the entire arrangement is so life-affirming and upbeat that it's hard to feel as though the guy's actually in the doghouse. I wish I'd written this. From, appropriately enough, Wonder Wonder.

9/6/05: Jackson Browne - "Late For the Sky" Amanda Kenyon writes, "I know that there are many people out there in the world who are not fans of Jackson Browne, but this is just too fabulous a song to disregard just because of that. Browne's somewhat weak voice is actually an asset here, adding to the plaintiveness of the song. The lyrics are some of the most heartbreaking I've ever heard ('How long have I been dreaming I could make it right/If I closed my eyes and tried with all my might/To be the one you need?') and there's a gorgeous melody to go along with them. It's gentle and sad and beautiful, and I really see nothing in this song that's not lovable. From the album Late For the Sky."

9/5/05: Brewer & Shipley- "One Toke Over the Line" (Suggested and supplied by CosmicBen.) If you think "1970s hybrid of rock and country," you're naturally going to think of the Eagles and then vomit copiously, but this song gets the mix right. Breezy acoustic pickin' gently drives the song, but instead of dragging along the Eagles' momentum-killing control-freak pomposity, Brewer & Shipley soar on a genuine "it's all good" optimism that's much closer to the stoned smiliness of CCR or the Doobie Brothers. Add country music's requisite ne'er-do-well yearning and an endlessly singable chorus, and you've got yourself what should've been an era-defining icon of a song. AMG (and therefore this critic) doesn't seem to know what album this is originally from, but it's available on any number of '70s compilations.

6/27/05: Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra- "Some Velvet Morning" A song that I think more people have heard of than actually heard, this has quickly become one of my five favorite songs of all time. It's late-'60s psychedelic pop at its trippiest, jerking back and forth between Hazelwood's glowering, ominous babblings about some creature named "Phaedra" and "how she gave me life," and Sinatra's swooning, Glenda the Good Witch vocals during the bridges, at which point the music clicks over from being a driving, nearly martial folk-rock thing into a lushly orchestrated waltz. It's way too odd to have ever been a single as successful as, say, "These Boots Were Made for Walking," but it's so catchy and singularly bizarre that it's indelible. From Nancy Sinatra's Movin' with Nancy album, but also available on Ladytron's excellent Softcore Jukebox compilation.

6/25/05: Sage Francis- "Sea Lion" Sage Francis is a rapper whose licketysplit cadence owes a lot to Eminem, but whose lyrics won't make you wince with distaste, and this song is basically his equivalent of "Stan." Rather than sampling Dido's pabulum, however, Francis turns to Will Oldham (aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) for the spine-chilling chorus here, and Oldham's fudged-up persona blends perfectly with Francis's quavery/psychotic hip-hop logorrhea. The entire track twitches and writhes in a way that's just dangerous enough that you'll be unable to stop watching from out of the corner of your eye. Best song I've heard all year, thus far. From A Healthy Distrust.

6/23/05: Prefuse 73- "Nuno" Blurring the lines between rap and so-called "glitch" electronica, Prefuse 73 chops up dozens of hip-hop records into fascinating musical collages that subvert many common criticisms of the entire genre of rap. Specifically, rap's opponents frequently whine that it takes no talent to simply talk over a beat and call it music, while hip-hop artists insist that it's all about the phonetic rhythm. This song takes that defense to its extreme, by literally splitting a rapper's flow into individual phonemes that don't form any words when you put them next to one another, and pasting the jabberwocky onto a similarly shredded beat that has as many digital clicks and mistakes as actual sounds. It's as intricate as anything you'd hear on Hot Rats, and anyone whose body resists the infectious channel-surfing should be classified as handicapped. From Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives.

6/22/05: Saul Williams- "List of Demands (Reparation)" Jon Walter writes, "A brilliant poetic rant set to an insanely driving beat, this is a great song to listen to to get yourself fucking amped." It really is cool, with a buzzing loop that suggests TV on the Radio covering R.E.M.'s "Leave." Hooky, too! From Saul Williams.

6/20/05: Buggles- "I Love You (Miss Robot)" If your familiarity with The Buggles only extends as far as the answer to the trivia question about which band made the first video ever broadcast on MTV, you need to hear this one. It was probably deemed to risque to be a single (though the vocals are emotionless enough that you might not listen to the words the first few times through, Trevor Horn mutters lines like "I feel so hard when you take me in" about sex with a robot), but it's nonetheless one of the best new-wave songs I've ever heard. Everything about it is distant and mechanized in the most wonderful way, from the tastefully determined slapped bass to the empty-sounding vocoderized chorus. For those of us who find it easier to relate to machines than to people, this song hits the mark better than anything even by musical geniuses like Kraftwerk and Devo. From the masterpiece The Age of Plastic.

6/19/05: Sufjan Stevens- "For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" This is one of the saddest songs ever written. I mean, even if you can't make head nor tail of Sufjan's somewhat elliptical lyrics, it's a quiet folk song built around a banjo and a trumpet, and even though that description makes it sound like a song from The Muppet Movie, it manages to be seriously one of the most haunting arrangements in rock history. Imagine Elliott Smith's solo work if he'd ever branched out from his acoustic comfort zone. Personally, I currently live in Ypsilanti (the Michigan town after which this song is named) so the boy-girl harmonies and morbid lyrics hit me on a more personal level than they may hit you- lately, it makes me contemplate how broken I'd be if my dad died (happy Father's Day, Dad!)- but Stevens doesn't have to say anything specific to totally rip you apart with the loneliness of the tune itself. From Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State, which you need to own.

6/18/05: Matthew Dear- "Dog Days" I guess this particular flavor of electronic music is called... *consults cheat sheet* "microhouse"? Yes? No? I dunno. Anyway, it does have the persistent and addictive beats of quality house bands like Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx, so that's fine, but it's also based around a funky clavichord that sounds like Stevie Wonder channeling Kraftwerk, and a fantastic, hollow-sounding vocal refrain that sounds like Bowie at his most robotic. Too danceable to be truly sinister, but nonetheless powered by a certain musical scowling, "Dog Days" is one of those songs that makes you feel really proud for listening to music at all. From Leave Luck to Heaven.

6/17/05: Keren Ann- "Sailor and Widow" (Thanks to Jess.) A perfect, fatalistic little folk-rock number, "Sailor and Widow" finds French chanteuse Keren Ann singing about an emotionally damned woman whose husbands keep dying, alongside a slinky guitar line that Henry Mancini wishes he would've been on the ball enough to write. Really, this one is all about the guitar line. It's like an Inspector Gadget/Pink Panther spy theme, but dead fucking serious. And when the chorus hits and the lush chords break out, it's the rock equivalent of the weather report predicting torrential downpours all day long and throwing your shutters open to discover the greatest sunrise you've ever seen. It's magic, and there's no other word for it. From Not Going Anywhere.

6/14/05: Big Daddy- "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (Thanks to Twila Price!) I know the semi-ironic-covers-of-classic-songs gimmick is totally played out at this point, but Big Daddy's run at the best song in the Beatles' discography is much closer to a cross between the lovable enthusiasm of "Weird Al" Yankovic and the barbed mash-ups of the Residents' Third Reich and Roll than to witless novelty singles like Save Ferris's version of "Come On Eileen" or Reel Big Fish's version of "Take On Me." With a saxaphone-intensive, twist-derived rhythm and an arrangement that's directly stolen from "Palisades Park," "Mr. Kite" loses the brilliant snake-oil-salesman ominousness of the Beatles' version, and is really clever for having done so. Big Daddy obviously doesn't top the Beatles' version, but it's a much more interesting interpretation than Beatles covers usually yield. Check it out unless you're sick of this sort of thing. From the band's cover of the entire Sgt. Pepper's album.

6/13/05: Jim White- "The Wound That Never Heals" When Jim White is at his best- as he is on this enthralling piece of funk noir- he suggests a Deep South David Byrne, able not only to hit you with any number of stirring, slow basslines, but also a master at telling twisted rural stories that would shame William Faulkner. This one's about a female serial killer, whose misandrous and brutal ways are whispered in White's nonjudgmental voice during the verses, and pitied in the growling chorus. White's all about the details- she doesn't just kill her husband, she wraps his corpse "in a red velvet curtain stolen from the movie theater where she works"- and with the sympathetic production of Morcheeba, you'll never get sick of this creepy little lied song. From the otherwise hit-or-miss No Such Place. (While I'm at it, White's debut album, Wrong-Eyed Jesus! is an unheralded masterpiece. Get it.)

6/12/05: Chicken Damage - "Amplifier" SoulCrusher77 writes, "This is a cover of a dB's song that replaces the deceptively upbeat funkiness of the original with a somber acoustic folk feel more fitting for a song that starts out with the line 'Danny came home and killed himself last night.' But really this beautiful rendition of an already sad (yet clever) song is worth hearing whether you're familiar with the original or not. From the EP Synapse Like Popcorn, which you can download all of here: http://www.wckrspgt.com/spgt/discography/cash_nexus_chicken_damage_synapse_like_popcorn.html."

6/11/05: Unicorns- "Jellybones" The only truly great cut from what would be the Unicorns' final album, "Jellybones" starts with the sounds of some guy playing a really catchy bloopity theme on a scratchy old synth, which kick-starts a rickety, uptempo indie-pop number about a guy who's afflicted with the jellybones. It's kind of cutesy, but if you like the self-assured looseness and ramshackle eclecticism of bands like The Fiery Furnaces or The Scene is Now, this song will be a godsend to you. From Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?

6/10/05: Gillian Welch- "Dear Someone" Amanda Kenyon writes, "Here's another example of lovely vocal harmonies. This is a very sweet little acoustic lullabye, with another of her deceptively simple melodies. On first listen there's not much to it, but as with so many of Gillian's songs, there is much to discover if you listen more closely. From Time (The Revelator)."

6/8/05: Daft Punk: "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (Thanks to Rich Bunnell.) It is impossible to do futuristic disco music better than this. If you put Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Bernie Worrell, and Gary Numan in a blender with a glowstick and all their best funk-electro-disco elements got whirled into one transcendental milkshake times infinity, this is the sound that would be reverberating around your kitchen. Fast, determined, robotic voices, sexy house beats... and it just builds and builds and builds, to a total orgasm of music that features the robotic vocals vocoded into a killer guitar/synth solo... It's one of those songs that ends and all you can say is "Wow." From the semi-underrated Discovery.

6/7/05: Wilbert Harrison- "Kansas City" Fflo writes, "I guess these are the 12-bar blues. Walk it, man. I've been to the place in KC where the scene used to be. There's about a block and a half now, surrounded by nuthin'. I haven't yet gotten myself a crazy little woman there, but it's an appealing idea. Anyway, there's something quintessential in this one. Far be it from me to describe it. Or it's far from me right now how to." Apparently, this was originally just a single, but it's available on any number of compilations. I personally don't have a huge tolerance for the blues, but I love this.

6/6/05: Herman's Hermits- "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" If you claim to like pure, joyous '60s pop, you're only clowning yourself if you don't have at least one Herman's Hermits compilation. No, they didn't generally write their own songs, and yes, you could describe them as "calculated," but even if they don't have piles and piles of artistic credibility, what they do have is hooks out the wazoo. And this song may well be the highlight of their entire career. Guided by a great rhythm guitar (much peppier than most), it's your basic, head-bouncingly catchy post-Beatles pop, but what makes "Mrs. Brown" a true standout are the incredibly sad lyrics, about the resigned victim of a romantic dump running into his ex's mom and asking her not to tell the girl that he's heartbroken. I'm not afraid to tell you that I like it better than the Beatles' "In My Life." From Herman's Hermits.

5/27/05: Sesame Street- "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" The old, classic Jim Henson crew could really write songs, I tell you whut. (Another good one is "Let Me Be Your Song" from Fraggle Rock.) This one has Jim, as Ernie, wistfully singing about how, although there are any number of fanciful places in the universe he'd like to visit, he's happiest where he is, with "all the places and people I love" as an expressive and pretty flute twitters behind him. And dammit, I'd like to get through this song without crying once. It's just so sweet and gorgeous, it'll totally make you wish you were a kid again. From some old Sesame Street album or other, but beware of the Shawn Colvin version that's floating around out there. You do not want that one.

5/26/05: Lemon Jelly- "Experiment Number Six" (Thanks to Bert.) Combining the trepidant strings of a '50s mad scientist flick, an old field recording of a doctor dispassionately detailing the ongoing results of some sort of biological experiment, scuttling jungle percussion, and the peppy exotica of Esquivel (or at least Austin Powers and Stereolab), this song is that most unusual of creatures: an electro-lounge-pop number that's actually memorable. Good, tense fun. From Lost Horizons.

5/23/05: Timmy T- "One More Try" My early-'90s nostalgia must be tiresome by now, but I still love every single thing about this, the whitest R&B ballad of all time, which comes complete with "Take My Breath Away"-style wow-bass noises and even a hilarious spoken bit calculated to earn ol' Timmy the "heartthrob" title ("Oh girl, you know I love you. I just want you to know, our love I'll always treasure. So please, just don't let me go"). This big bag of cheese at least has a memorable melody, though, which is more than you can say for similarly embarrassing crap from, say, any of the American Idol winners. My brother and I heard this song in his car recently, after neither of us had heard it for about ten years, and we both instantly remembered all the words, and were singing along at the top of our lungs, so it does have some possibly voodoo-induced staying power. Girl. From Time After Time.  

5/22/05: El Captain Funkaho- "My 2600" This thing is a lo-fi hip-hop ode to Atari that's built around pitch-changed vocals (name-checking games like Dig Dug and Frogger), a loping old-school funk beat, and an ear-grabbing, snake-charming keyboard. Despite the played-out irony, the result is charmingly cheap homemade rap bliss, not unlike "OG Simpson" by The Moistboyz. Originally part of a 7" single, but it's available on Peanut Butter Wolf's Jukebox 45's compilation.

5/20/05: The Icicles- "I Wanna Know" Pijean writes, "Not exactly the Ramones, although I think the Ramones would appreciate them. A girl group (w/someone's dad on drums) for the '00s (oughts?). Sugary sweet, cute, incredibly infectious. Perhaps a little too cute? Yeah, but it's a nice change from the self-important indie bands who are just so damned whiny. You can hear the tune at http://www.microindie.com/player and see if you can get it out of your head. Perfect for a summer driving mix CD. And they're from Michigan!" From A Hundred Patterns.

5/18/05: X-Ecutioners (feat. Anikke)- "Like This" This four-DJ collective pulls together a tight, upbeat slice of dance-funk here, with a great bassline that drops and slowly ascends like a bowling alley claw game, relentless breakbeats, and scratched-up guitar samples coming together for pure rhythmic joy. Some chick named Anikke raps endearingly over the whole thing, recalling the nasal aerobicizing of Technotronic's Ya Kid K, and there are enough interesting touches like the jungle beats toward the end of the song to keep it from getting too repetitive. Great party track. From the otherwise underwhelming Revolutions.

5/17/05: Barcelona- "I've Got the Password to Your Shell Account" (Thanks to Jess.) Just an addictively breezy little indie-pop gumdrop whose pairing of friendly new-wave electronics and user-friendly hooks can stand next to anything by The Postal Service or the Future Bible Heroes. Plus, it's a song about a jealous girl who breaks into her crush's e-mail because his password is too easy to guess, and who can resist pithy lines like "Put my comp. sci. skills to work/Engineered your logon word"? From the fine compilation Moshi Moshi: Pop International Style.

5/16/05: The Avalanches - "Rock City" SoulCrusher77 writes, "Despite being released a good 4 or 5 years before their full length debut Since I Left You, this track has all the hallmarks of the group's dense but playful production style; in under 4 minutes they manage to squeeze in a jazzy flute, jew's harp, car crash sound effects, opera singing, a Beastie Boys vocal sample, a 70's hard rock guitar riff, and Raymond Scott-esque big band horns. The main difference is that this is all topped off with the delirious, sometimes incomprehensible (pseudo-?) japanese-accented rapping of, um... actually I'm not entirely sure who's rapping here (and on the rest of the EP it's from), and AMG is of little help. Anyway, whoever they are, they have a knack for such nonsensical yet ear-catching lines as 'Super heavy duty ever-ready! Backflips, kicks, legs like machetes!' not to mention the gleeful party-ready refrain of 'Cocaine! Bubbly! Wheeee! That's rock city!' From the El Producto EP, which is out of print but can still be found online."

5/15/05: Cassandra Wilson - "Sankofa" Amanda Kenyon writes, "One of my very favorite forms of music is a capella with very tight harmonies, and this song delivers spectacularly. Cassandra Wilson has a wonderfully mellow voice and a great ear for melody, and even though it's a very simple song, it's hard to beat for pure loveliness. From Blue Light Til Dawn."

5/14/05: Tangerine Dream- "The Dance" (Suggested by Bev.) Bev compares this instrumental synth piece to something from Ray Lynch's Deep Breakfast, but to me it sounds less like Lynch's soothing new age landscapes than the sort of song that might be played by a haunted merry-go-round. It's a really dark snippet of carnival music, basically, and even though the pump-organ theme will send shivers down your spine, it's pretty beautiful. (Beautiful even if you don't find carnival-related things as inherently creepy as I do.) From the Legend soundtrack.

5/13/05: Johnny Cash- "I See a Darkness" (Suggested by Scott Floman.) One of many highlights from Johnny Cash's late-period infatuation with interpreting other artists' songs is this pensive, haunted take on the title track from a superb album by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (aka Will Oldham). With just an acoustic guitar, dramatic piano, and Oldham's own, twitchy voice to back him, Cash soulfully confesses the unnameable horrors that flit through his mind from time to time: "Many times we've shared our thoughts, but did you ever, ever notice the kind of thoughts I've got?" Cash could always face down mortality in a humble, vulnerable fashion, but rarely did he sound this engulfed by it. From American III: Solitary Man.

5/11/05: The Chemical Brothers - "Where Do I Begin?" Jon Walter writes, "This song moves me to tears and I don't know why. Just listen to it. Don't let the fact that it was on the soundtrack to the horrific film Vanilla Sky deter you." The tune opens with a clear-eyed guitar loop and Beth Orton's silken voice, which give the song an almost Cranberries-esque feel until it slowly builds to a rhythmic climax of beats and effects. I could do without the tacked-on outro, which consists of the Brothers having way too much fun with their "delay" effect button, but until then, as Jon said, it hits you like a bright sunny day when you're least in the mood to handle that kind of happiness. From Dig Your Own Hole, as well as that soundtrack, which is actually infinitely better than the movie that spawned it.

5/01/05: Moby- "Landing" The music? Full of more simmering Orb-style skittishness than anything Moby has done since Everything is Wrong, what with the energetic keyboards that sound like something from Jock Jams played underwater, and the smooth, recent-Underworld-style bassline. The vocals? Murmured in the beautiful voices of Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor, taking a break from the whispery peculiarity they exhibit in Azure Ray to sing an ode to human disconnection here. The result? A spacey electro-pop beaut. From the 18 B-Sides collection.

4/28/05: Dar Williams- "The Babysitter's Here" Fflo writes, "I first saw Dar Wms when she was opening for Ani DiFranco at a little club. Saw her CD in the shop beforehand & was put off by its title: The Honesty Room. Ugh. She is awfully sincere, sometimes cloyingly so, but I like this one. Maybe cuz I too wondered about Fantastic Voyage as a kid, and thought hippie-type teenagers were figures to be admired. And witnessed and noticed many a flare-up of anti-feminism before being old enough to get what was going down."  This song totally made me cry. That is all.

4/27/05: 2 Nu- "Ponderous" Okay, this isn't a good song by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a semi-interesting late-'80s novelty, in which a guy who's trying to sound like Steven Wright describes a dream he's supposedly had, over a cheapo dub arrangement that uses lots of Casio percussion samples and synth-bass noises. Lots of sound effects, lots of wince-inducing attempts at humor (e.g., "I'd been here in other dreams. There's usually a water polo game and a girl who'd talk with her eyes, and she'd say, 'Can you see what I'm saying?'"), and not a lot of relistening value, I'll admit. I loved it when I was nine and it was first on the radio, but it doesn't even hold a lot of memory-jogging pleasure the way things like Musto & Bones' "Dangerous on the Dance Floor" and Rhythm Syndicate's "PASSION" do. However, there's one really cool part where a telephone operator starts talking in Hugo Ball-esque fake words (and it's reprised later), and I like fake words. So the song makes for good mix tape filler, but those who like their '80s nostalgia to have some sort of quality to it might stick with Trio's "Da Da Da" or something. From Ponderous.

4/26/05: The Konks - "King Kong" SoulCrusher77 writes, "I was kind of hoping this was an original, due to the way the singer throws himself into such winningly ridiculous lyrics as 'my heart is making a monkey out of me/just a great big monkey filled with misery/ 'cause you don't go king kong when you see me', but apparently it's a garage-rocked-out cover of a song written by Soupy Sales. Go figure. Regardless, from one of the best opening rock-n-roll screams I've heard in recent memory to the primitive but enthusiastic performance style to the infectiously dopey 'king kong, go king kong!' backing vocals, this is just insanely fun listening. From their self-titled debut, and you can also download this track for free here: http://www.bomp.com/konks.html."

4/23/05: Rasputina- "Sign of the Zodiac" I remember reading some interview with The Dead Milkmen's Rodney Anonymous in which he described Rasputina as "three women with cellos who rock harder than 1,000 guys with guitars." Pretty much, yeah. I haven't yet heard their entire discography, but this is easily the most haunting track I've heard spill from Melora Creager's dark, vibrato-soaked lips. Over a barely noticeable bed of mechanical scrapes and squeals, the cellos swoon sickeningly about as Creager moans lines like "In ancient times if you were sick, they'd make you bleed/Oh, honey, I know it hurts" in a Goth moan that's as full of sympathy as black-humored disgust. It's a beautiful melody, but it takes a special mind to pull it off in such a creepy fashion. From How We Quit the Forest.

4/21/05: Boredoms- "Super Are" Oleg Sobolev writes, "One word: Epic." This eight-and-a-half minute track is very impressive in its deconstructive mood swinging in a way the Boredoms don't always pull off: "Super Are" starts off with some droney keyboard noodling, then Yamatsuka Eye announces that things are a-changin' by jumping in with his triumphant wailing voice, and it's not long before we get stomping guitars, insane drumming that sounds like the cymbals are being hit three times before they have a chance to swing back from the initial hit, and a total catharsis of jubilant noise. It's actually a lot of fun! From Super Ae.

4/20/05: Laura Love - "Mahbootay" Amanda Kenyon writes, "This is one woman's ode to her 'big ol' bootay.' The hilarious lyrics (I take it shopping, I buy it presents, I feed it with peanut butter) combined with the hypnotic Middle Eastern-sounding instrumentation make this one of my favorite songs ever." I will add, in the description I wrote before Amanda coincidentally recommended this song herself: (Thanks to Paula Shanks- RIP- and Lisa.) I'm a total sucker for songs that are difficult to describe, so if you haven't realized it by now, the more ham-fisted my descriptions of Songs of the Day are, the better the songs themselves are. And this is one of the best. It's a rhythmic, fat-and-proud ode from Laura Love to her own bum, and it incorporates Middle Eastern-derived vocal stylings, David Byrne-inspired percussion pretensions, and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks-esque weirdo violin work that defies genre descriptions (courtesy of Barbara Lamb). Hooky, too! Best of all, the most subversive part of this song (already pretty awesome for its celebration of women who aren't Survivor-contestant skinny) is the way its massive low end is perfectly designed to make teenier people look silly if they try to dance to it; it's such a substantial rhythm that it requires a substantial person to look good if they're gonna take it on. Kind of like Sir Mix-a-Lot, without the lack of dignity. From Shum Ticky.

4/18/05: Bobby Womack- "Across 110th Street" If there were any justice in the world, this sweepingly beautiful slice of '70s soul would be just as well known as the scores to Shaft and Superfly. Of course, if there were any justice in the world, the seal-killers in Canada would themselves be skinned alive, Lynda Barry would have a Nobel Prize in Literature, and Seth MacFarlane and Bill Frist would be sharing a cell in Guantanamo Bay, so there clearly is not. You can rectify a little bit of this, however, by checking out the musical masterpiece that I'm supposed to be discussing here. It's your typical blaxploitation funk fare, with waka-chika guitars, a great rhythm track, heart-stirring orchestration, and lyrics about junkies and pimps, but man, WHAT a chorus. When Womack launches into the titular phrase, it's a moment so sunny and uplifting that it's easy to believe that anyone can rise up from their hardscrabble roots and make good... and then the dramatic, descending strings at the end of the chorus undercut all the hope. So. Cool. From the soundtrack to the film Across 110th Street, but probably easier to find on the soundtrack to Jackie Brown. God bless Tarantino.

4/15/05: God Bullies- "Ordinary Man" (recommended by Mark Prindle) You remember that movie Falling Down? Well, if it didn't suck and it was a grinding, two-and-a-half-minute musical freak-out that melded the hallucinatory bad vibes of early Butthole Surfers with the tight hard-rock of any-period Motorhead, it would be this song. As guitarist David B. Livingstone (I think) churns out a speedy cowpunk riff, Mike Hard's white-collar narrator stooge completely snaps from the ennui of having "lost control of my life," determined that "this time, they're gonna have to listen to me." It's catchy and effectively creepy, but the best part is the way his voice is run through any number of chilling vocal effects and pitch-shifters that emphasize the way the man has suddenly become completely unplugged from reality. A good song to listen to in a traffic jam. Unless you're particularly susceptible to road rage. Then don't listen to this song in a traffic jam. From War on Everybody.

4/14/05: MC Paul Barman- "I'm Fricking Awesome" From the moment Barman's defiantly effeminate voice pops in atop a great, Prince Paul-produced hip-hop beat, jabbering, "What is it? 'From the Mixed-Up Files of Basil T. Frankenweiler' or something like that? 'Mixed-up files'? Powerful files!" this tale of the MC's frustration with other men with whom he's looking to score will have you doubled over with laughter as well as shakin' the ol' rump. Debates raged over whether Barman's shtick transcended novelty at the time of this song's release, but apart from an annoying hardcore drum fill in the middle, this song makes a pretty solid case for Barman's genuine rapping talent, inextricable though it may be from his snarky humor. After all, novelty rap songs are generally listenable maybe once, but Barman strikes a great balance between hilarious logorrhea and solid, flowing rhyme skills that you'll want to revisit frequently. From the It's Very Stimulating EP.

4/13/05: Alison Krauss- "Forget About It" Amanda Kenyon writes, "A great breakup song from the point of view of the breaker. Alison's sweet, expressive voice does a great job of capturing the pain that comes with ending a long-term relationship, even when it's the best decision for everyone involved. It has just the right blend of grief and vindictiveness, and the line, 'When forever's over I won't remember how much I loved you anymore' just about breaks my heart. From the album Forget About It."

4/12/05: Galaxie 500- "When Will You Come Home" Mike Bryant writes, "Beautiful, lush, but catchy sorta-dream pop, wonderful melodic guitar/bass interplay. Vocals are a little whiney and 80s, but Pitchfork summed it up best actually '(every song) is shot straight into the golden late afternoon light.'" From On Fire.

4/11/05: Farben- "Farben Says: Love Oh Love" If you like the dubby hypnosis of minimalist glitchers like Pole, the chilled-out electronics of Detroit techno artists like Luke Hess, or the heavy-lidded subtlety of Kraftwerk's Tour de France Soundtracks, you'll totally dig German electro-dub guy Farben. For nearly seven minutes, one muted, cheerful bassline plays over and over, accompanied by clicks, buzzes, and woozy orchestral samples that would do Mark Degliantoni proud, all of which serve to nail that keeping-things-moving-while-staying-in-one-place vibe that's the linchpin of this genre. Great music for nighttime driving or foreplay. From Farben Says: Don't Fight Phrases (and if anyone would like to send me a copy of the whole album, I wouldn't angrily dismiss him...) (or her) (probably him, though, knowing what I know about electronic music fans).

4/10/05: Don Ho- "Shock the Monkey" Yup, it's the Don Ho, wrapping his slimy/gregarious lounge stylings around the Peter Gabriel hit, and infusing the song with a million times more personality than the sterile original has, while retaining all its angular catchiness. The Ho version (hee) drops in some fancy late-'90s electronic beats and everything, but it really is just Don Ho singing "Shock the Monkey." What more do you need by way of description? From the fine charity compilation When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear (which also features Devo's great smartass run at CSNY's "Ohio," a song that would be a Song of the Day itself except I think I've already done like three Devo songs, so other bands probably deserve a chance).

4/9/05: The Village People- "Macho Man" CosmicBen writes, "This ubiquitous disco song deserves a snobby critical appreciation. The verse melody is almost nonexistent, and the backbeat is nothing more than functionally danceable. But the chorus is gigantic. It punches you in the face with enthusiasm and sadness every time it comes around. It's possible to hear the song as one man's love letter to his biceps and chest hair. But when the backup singers cry out that they want to be Macho Men too, it breaks my heart. They want it so badly. These aren't the guys flexing their muscles in the gym; they're the ones sitting on couches and realizing they will never achieve their dreams unless they become Macho Men. I hope it worked out for them. At the very least, for singing such a perfect chorus, I hope they got some muscular groupie sex out of the deal. From Macho Man."

4/7/05: Beef! "Memory Fast Forward" Pijean writes, "Beef! is a Dutch reggae/ska/funk band. This song is from a Dutch compilation put together by Radio Netherlands. All the bands played at their big deal music festival, Noorderslag 2005 (there's probably an umlaut or two back there). This is a poignant but bouncy reggae-pop ditty originally released in 2002. Is it one from the album that has a sample on the RN website? Of course not. But you can hear it here: http://www.dutchsound.nl/index.php?pageAlias=dsnl.artist_detail&label=FM127740."

4/5/05: The Tiger Lillies- "Snip Snip" SoulCrusher77 writes, "This is a song from an album (and apparently also a musical) based on a nightmare-inducing German children's storybook entitled Struwwelpeter. In this particular tale, a little boy sucks his thumbs despite his mother's warnings, and as soon as she leaves, a tall tailor comes from out of nowhere to cut them off with a large pair of scissors. All of this is of course set to a peppy accordion waltz and the sing-along refrain 'snip snip! the scissors go/ and Conrad cries out "oh oh!"/Snip snip! They go so fast/and Conrad's thumbs are off at last.' Vocalist Martyn Jacques' trademark over-the-top falsetto (which is somewhere between Tiny Tim and Terry Jones playing a woman in a Monty Python sketch) only adds to the surreal morbid humor. You can also read a translation of the entire book here: http://www.fln.vcu.edu/struwwel/struwwel.html. From the album Struwwelpeter."

4/4/05: Carissa's Wierd- "So You Wanna be a Superhero" A beautiful indie-pop nightmare whose quiet-yet-tense guitars and broken, whispery vocals (Jenn Ghetto seriously sounds like she's choking back sobs at a few points) perfectly capture the hopelessness and sadness that follow a night of paranoid insomnia. The guitars gently twinkle behind lines like "You were right/I can't do this/I'm going crazy" and "Can't tell a single soul that my soul's gone," and it's a wonderfully fragile mosaic clearly made from the remaining shards of someone's life. It should appeal to everyone, but it'll stick with you particularly if you've ever futilely attempted to rock yourself to sleep at five AM, unable to stop the world from closing in around you and convinced that the morning will never come. From Songs About Leaving.

4/3/05: Ol’ Dirty Bastard- “I Can’t Wait” One of the best songs from one of the best batshit loonball hip-hop albums ever recorded, this revolves around a nagging sample from what sounds like the theme to a 1970s newscast, and then the late, lamented ODB starts in chanting, “Big Baby Jesus/I can’t wait/Nigga, fuck that! I can’t wait!” And it just gets more hilariously insane from there (despite the Neptunes' inventive production), as he seemingly starts to argue with his own multitracked voice, claims that he "can't use the word napkin," and then gives shout-outs to Suge Knight, all the Eskimos, submarines, all the "munchkins," and himself. Seriously. The Dirt Dog makes Wesley Willis look like a paragon of stability. From Nigga Please.

3/31/05: Cloud Cult- “Fairy Tale” (stolen from SoulCrusher77) A short, addictive little indie-rock song that’s really more about nursery rhyme characters than fairytale characters. Whatever- it’s the music that’s the important part. If Built to Spill removed most of their guitar overdubs and relied on a chipper, pounding piano to carry a song instead, you might get something like this. It’s not the best song ever or anything, but it packs a few solid hooks into two minutes, and employs some smart drumming and nifty, wordless falsetto crooning between the verses, so it’s a nice, compact pleasure. From They Live on the Sun, and you can download this song at www.earthology.net/cloudcult/albums.htm

3/29/05: Y'all- "The Egg Man (for Edith Massey)" Fflo writes, "Y'all is a duo of cross-dressing hillbilly men who are lovers. Oh, wait---only one cross-dresses. And does so as a hillbilly housewife. They're from Appalachia. John Waters reference here, but cool on its own, or so the kids I give it to seem to think." This is a short, funny singalong about eggs and falling in love with the guy who delivers 'em. Simple and catchy hoedown stuff that I love, and so should anyone who likes They Might Be Giants or Corky and the Juice Pigs, for instance. From The Next Big Thing.

3/28/05: Crowded House- "My Telly's Gone Bung" Crowded House drummer Paul Hester apparently killed himself over the weekend, which is obviously awful in a million ways, so... just seemed like a good time to mention this flighty rarity that he wrote and sung. It's a loping, smart-alecky little slice of folk-rock catchiness that sounds like an off-the-cuff XTC outtake, about how bummed Hester is about his broken television. Really nothing special from a musical standpoint, I suppose, but I grew up with a fanboy brother who was constantly telling me funny anecdotes he'd heard about Hester, or playing me great bits from Crowded House bootlegs where Paul would borrow the spotlight from Neil Finn and either improvise a great little tune or just say something incredibly funny, so this song captures the goofy way he'd hide his talent beneath an exterior of amiably smirky attitude. He'll be missed. From Afterglow.

3/27/05: Fela Kuti- "Expensive Shit" Oleg Sobolev writes, "It's the best song from one of the best artists ever. You can't beat it." Apparently inspired by a night spent in jail in which the authorities were waiting to examine Kuti's... leavings after he swallowed a joint they'd planned to plant on him, this is a supple, furious explosion of polyrhythmic Afrobeat brilliance. Great percussion, funky guitar underpinnings, jazzy keyboards, insistent horns, and call-and-response vocals, all wrapped up in one expertly arranged package. Even at thirteen minutes, "Expensive Shit" never meanders for a second, keeping to a steady beat, stomping through a memorable melody, and performed with the fury of the righteous. From Expensive Shit.

3/25/05: Dexy's Midnight Runners- "Geno" Thatcoolbrotha writes, "An exuberant piece of horn-driven new wave soul-pop that has, despite the fact that it's stolen from Bowie's 'Heroes,' one of the most anthemic and optimistic choruses ever about how sucky academia is. In your face, Franz Ferdinand's 'Dark of the Manitee'!" From Searching for the Young Soul Rebels.

3/24/05: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins- “I Put a Spell on You” There are plenty of versions of Hawkins’s blues standard out there (Nina Simone has a very good one as well), but only the lunatic delivery of Mr. Hawkins, replete with unhinged giggles and shrieks, can do justice to the sociopathic obsession of the lyrics. “I DON’T CARE IF YOU DON’T WANT ME! I’M YOURS!” he yells atop the appropriately weird horn/drum/piano arrangement (which slinks and shuffles along in a manner a little too restrained to fit comfortably with the vocals, and that’s a good thing), and the effect is flat-out creepy. Good creepy. From that Levi’s commercial. And Hawkins’s album I Put a Spell on You.

3/22/05: Benoit Charest- “Belleville Rendezvous” This Oscar-nominated bit of weirdo French pop might’ve lost an award to that piece of crap from Lord of the Rings, but that doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly cool. And when I say “French,” I mean that it is identifiably a product of that nation, in the best way possible. I don’t know enough about their traditional music to be able to describe exactly how you can pinpoint the melody’s French aspects, so just trust me. It’s stomping, sexy, and gorgeous, but it intentionally confuses things with a flamenco guitar, kazoos, and percussion performed on spinning bicycle wheels and someone’s cheeks. (The face cheeks. It’s not a Lords of Acid song.) From the soundtrack to the awesome film The Triplets of Belleville.

3/21/05: Pearl Jam- "Yellow Ledbetter" CosmicCarin writes, "I like almost every Pearl Jam song, but I've been listening to this one a lot recently... I think the melody is beautiful and there is so much soul in Eddie Vedder's voice, especially in the first few lines. The song makes me feel good and allows me to close my eyes and drift into it, something that not all of their songs can do." Looks like this one is from the Jeremy EP, but I might be wrong.

3/20/05: Tiny Tim- "Santa Claus Has Got the AIDS This Year" It's just as horrifyingly hilarious as its title, my friends. Any song that needs to be qualified with the introduction, "I wrote this way before Rock Hudson" is a song that's sure to offend, and Tiny Tim, of all people, has come up with perhaps the most objectionable Christmas carol in history. Nick Bougas's liner notes describe this as a "highly original holiday number which mysteriously appears to liken the incurable AIDS virus to a pesky case of the sniffles." Which is a pretty charitable way of describing a ukelele-based song that contains lines like, "He won't be singing out 'ho ho ho ho!' but he'll be yelling out 'NO NO NO NO!'" It's seriously one of the most bizarre things you'll ever hear. From the novelty compilation Celebrities... At Their Worst! Vol. 2.

3/19/05: Petra Haden- "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand" Joe Friesen writes, "Okay, this comes from Petra Haden Sings: 'The Who Sell Out', which is Haden's song-by-song a cappella cover of The Who Sell Out. And when I say that it's 'a cappella', I REALLY MEAN it's a cappella; she doesn't just sing the vocals without musical accompaniment, she does vocal impressions of The Who's musical accompaniment to back up the regular vocals, with weird studio trickery a-plenty to make it sound even wilder. It makes for a listening experience that's, errm, to put it lightly, ODD. It might sound like a screwy experiment, but what takes it beyond mere novelty and into 'Damn, this actually some pretty cool music!' territory is, simply, Haden is one hell of a great singer. She has a high, soft voice that adds a pretty cool dynamic to the raucous, energetic Who originals. 'Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand' might be my favorite from that album, just because the original has such a pretty melody that fits PERFECTLY with the tonal quality and harmonies that Haden brings to the table here."

3/14/05: Liz Durrett- "Vine" Pijean writes, "I'm really impressed with Durrett's first recording effort, although I like to cut most folks' debut albums some slack. It helps to have her uncle, Vic Chesnutt, manning the control boards. All the songs are of a piece, really, and I could've picked any of the others just as easily. They're all structured around Liz's haunting vocals and Vic's minimalist production. Acoustic and electric guitars wind their way around Liz's voice as she sings about her teenage angst. Ethereal, dark, spooky." From Husk.

3/13/05: Christian Bok- "Seahorses and Flying Fish" (thanks to Jess Grabowski) This is a three-minute slice of sound poetry in which Bok hyperactively (but rhythmically!) makes a bunch of nonsense sounds that I think are supposed to expressively represent the sounds of the titular aquatic creatures. It's kind of like Shooby Taylor's air saxophone gibberings, but there's really no melody, just the forceful phonetic glee of the noises Bok makes, trilling, yelling, making splashing sounds, and energetically chanting things like "billaby billaby billaby!" It's hilarious, but so well practiced and expressed with such conviction that it's definitely not just a one-off. Trivia: this poem was apparently written by Hugo Ball, the Dadaist who also wrote the series of non-words that make up the lyrics to Talking Heads' "I Zimbra." This is available for download at http://www.ubu.com/sound/bok.html.

3/12/05: Moonshine Hangover: "Swamp Song" (thanks to Alexandra Haller) Just a big ol' countrified honkytonk shitkicker. Southern accents, thumpy hoedown bass, self-pitying lyrics, you know the drill. What makes this such a great song is really the boozy energy the band pours into the performance. It's like a Hank Williams 45 played at 78 RPM, with lightning-fast guitar picking and an insistent, snare-intensive drumbeat leading the way. From Mulberry Squeezins. You can get this song at http://www.moonshinehangover.com/music.htm.

3/9/05: Bush- "Head Full of Ghosts" Jon Walter writes, "Without a doubt, one of the greatest pleasures in music for me is hearing a terrible group pull a great song out of seemingly fucking nowhere. This is one of those cases. What a great, great pop song this is." From Golden State.

3/8/05: Urinals- "Beautiful Again" After a 20-year hiatus, hyper, minimalist punks the Urinals reunited as a more melodic indie-pop band that more closely resembled the goofy post-punk of The Embarrassment than their previous incarnation. This two-minute gem sounds like they've been listening to some R.E.M., too, and although the jangly guitars can barely keep on tempo, the power of this song comes from John Talley-Jones's paranoid-yet-resonant plea for the entire world to right itself. "I'm afraid to open my eyes; I see that every flower is diseased," he sings, and it's a great anthem for anyone who's ever suddenly been slapped with the horrible, empty feeling that we as a species have messed things up so badly that humanity is pretty much beyond repair. I've been getting that a lot lately, and thus, listening to this song, which makes a good compatriot. From What is Real and What is Not.

3/7/05: Midwest Product- "Bank" Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator" is such an adorable and huggable slice of early-synth technology that it might seem impossible for anyone to ever equal it, but I'll be snookered if Ann Arbor's Midwest Product hasn't recaptured their ability to make automation seem really cute. Chintzy synths and programmed percussion merrily dance about in lockstep rhythms as some guy mechanically intones his satisfaction at his job at a bank in phrases that seem to come from an Onion editorial ("I work at the bank/Approving short-term loan/Want you buy a car!/Want you buy a home!"). From World Series of Love.

3/6/05: Mytwilightpilot- "This Static Chair" (at the behest of Jugdish) The All Music Guide entry for this band refers to their "abstract electronic grooves," but that's really… just… not right at all. On this song, they suggest the moving, upbeat slowcore of Explosions in the Sky (i.e., all organic instruments, with a focus on dynamics above all else) with the addition of a singer. Frankly, I wish Matthew Crow's vocals were a little more distinctive, but his minor limitations don't detract from the spacious, well-paced charm of the music, which builds from a swaying, ringing bit of friendliness to a distorted catharsis over the course of seven minutes. It's nice! From the 555 EP.

3/5/05: The Free Design- "Kites are Fun"(suggested by Norville Barnes) One of the most deliriously cheerful things I've ever heard, this is pretty much the quintessential embodiment of all the good aspects of hippie silliness. A trilling recorder is the lead instrument, and along with brushed drums, a poppy bassline, and an acoustic guitar, the arrangement sounds like the theme to a late-'60s educational film about how drugs are an impediment to Doing Your Own Thing. However, the lyrics- delivered in really white boy/girl harmonies- are all about kites. And how kites are fun. "See my kite? It's fun." If this song doesn't make you happy, then you're trying too hard to be sad. From Kites are Fun.

[At this point, Willie spends about 14 months in an ultimately futile pilgrimage to what he initially believed to be Mount Kailas, but what was in reality the home of TV's Meshach Taylor.]

12/23/03: Paul Evans- "Happy-Go-Lucky Me" Fun! An old-timey banjo singalong tune, with Evans cheerfully singing and giggling lyrics about how great things are. It has the same sort of weird catchiness as songs by Hasil Adkins or Leapy Lee, and it really is effective at cheering you up! Or giving you a bitter, ironic chuckle if you're not in the mood to be cheered up. I don't know where it's originally from, but it's on the Pecker soundtrack.

12/21/03: Radiohead- "The Gloaming" (Hail to the Thief rough mix) Of all the rough mixes that were leaked to the Internet before Hail to the Thief was officially complete, this is the only one that actually sounds better than the finished product. It's not tremendously different; it's just longer, with an extra verse of Thom Yorke's desperate, paranoid chanting over the hypnotic percussion that forms the "music" of the tune. Since I wish this song were ten minutes long to begin with, longer "Gloaming" is better "Gloaming."

12/20/03: Toto- "Africa" Yes, it's cheesy as all get-out- particularly that synth break in the middle- but it's Toto doing what they do best. Not as bombastic as "Rosanna," but every bit as anthemic and memorable, there's something ineffably comforting about "Africa." I think it has something to do with the '80s harmonies. Check it out. From Toto IV.

12/17/03: Junior Senior- "Move Your Feet" Cole Bozman writes, "So stupid... yet so catchy." And that about sums it up! (He adds, "I was trying to think of something thematic to the holiday, but I couldn't come up with anything. If I hear another Mannheim Steamroller song or rendition of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland", I'm going to have to hurt someone.") From D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat.

12/13/03: Hal Kemp and the Smoothies- "Three Little Fishies" (Thanks to Jon Wyeth Chambers.) A wonderfully stupid Vaudeville song that attempts to create a "hip" new language like Pig Latin or Alfalfa Talk(?) in which you talk like a fish. They never explain how it works, so I don't think it ever caught on, but it's a fun couple minutes of those awesome Vaudeville harmonies, silly voices, and some nonsense about fish swimming over a dam. I can't find what album this song is from.

12/12/03: Bergman Rock- "Help The Band" SoulCrusher77 writes, "I really don't know much about this band, other than that they're basically Swedish indie rock act Bob Hund (who I also don't know a lot about) recording new songs in English. But the important thing is that someone I know reccomended this song to me, and I'm glad that they did. It's a boppy but oddly catchy slice of indie pop that's somewhat akin to Pavement or the rare whimsical moments of Modest Mouse, with appealingly goofy lyrics like 'I have never been to Woodstock/ maybe I'm too old for punk-rock/ I don't care, I like this song, help the band sing along,' a vocalist who sort of sounds like a Swedish accented Frank Black, and to top it all off, a joyously beautiful theremin line towards the end. From the album I, Um, Don't Think They Have An Album Out Yet (note: not an actual album title)."

12/11/03: The Willard Grant Conspiracy and Telefunk- "Just a Little Rain" It's a cute, old folk song reworked by Telefunk (a Dutch electronica band, apparently) and the WGC (an indie folk band). Not as weird as that sounds, the song lopes on by to a chintzy drum machine and cello sample, but most of its unassuming beauty comes from the chiming guitar work and sweet vocals. Head-bouncingly catchy, too. From the excellent In the Fishtank EP.

12/10/03: X- "Crystal Ship" It doesn't take much to improve on most of the Doors' songs- mostly, you just need to let all the air out of Jim Morrison's pomposity tank- but X's zippy cover of "Crystal Ship" is so much better than the original it bears mentioning. Produced by Ray Manzarek and mumbled by John Doe, it retains just enough of the original's druggy haze to not seem desecrated by Billy Zoom's (I guess) firebrand, punky guitar stylings, or Exene Cervenka's joyous backing vocals. Plus, it's shorter and faster. From the X-Files movie soundtrack.

12/7/03: Clinic- "Distortions" Probably the closest these hyperkinetic weirdos will ever get to a love song, it abandons their usual mechanical sputtering in favor of a gentle, Stereolab-esque drone painted with plaintive lyrics expressing a desire to be "free of distortions." It's actually quite beautiful. And then a squaky saxaphone comes in at the end to shatter the mood for no reason, but whatever. Still a great song. From Internal Wrangler.

12/6/03: Belle and Sebastian- "Legal Man" Wheeeeeeeee! Belle and Sebastian taking a merry run at '60s go-go music! With sitars! And cheesy keyboard bits! And interplay between five singers! And oh, the catchiness! And witty use of legal jargon to define a commitment to one's lover ("Extend contractual period: me and you forevermore")! It's really hard not to be happy when you're listening to this song. I mean, I did it, but it was hard. From the Legal Man EP.

12/3/03: Fleetwood Mac- "Little Lies" Goodness me, but I do love this song. Wish it was ten minutes long. I know there's not much to distinguish it from other synth-based, adult contemporary songs from the late '80s- seriously, it could be a Taylor Dayne song without too much tweaking- but with a memorable melody, a killer chorus, and backing vocals that totally make the song ("Tell me tell me lies!"), it's definitely the apex of its genre. From Tango in the Night.

12/1/03: The Autumn Defense- "Written in the Snow" Man, judging from the beauty of this song by the side project of Wilco's John Stirratt, Jeff Tweedy should seriously consider handing over the songwriting reins to the member of his band who can actually write hooks. This is a great, Paul McCartney-style slice of piano pop that doesn't feel the need to spill over into a bombastic chorus, instead remaining content in the casual, infectious beauty of a few verses and bridges. Sweet song to put on a mix for your sweetie. From Circles.

11/23/03: The Polyphonic Spree- "Light and Day" SoulCrusher77 writes, "You may have heard this song in a recent Volkswagen commercial, or at very least read a short article somewhere about that weird band of 24 hippies from Texas who perform in robes. The thing with this song is that at first you almost want to hate it for it's vague hippy optimism, but the whole thing keeps building up into one joyous chorus and by the end of it you're smiling from ear to ear, wanting to 'follow the day and reach for the sun' even as you have no idea what exactly that would entail, and wondering why there aren't more bands out there with such positivity flowing through their music. And that kind of sums up the appeal of this band in general I guess. From the album The Beginning Stages Of..."

11/22/03: Lovage- "Book of the Month" A funny-weird-sexy trip-hop tune from one of Dan the Automator's dozen-or-so musical outlets, "Book of the Month" features Mike Patton (from Faith No More and Mr. Bungle) growling a duet with Jennifer Charles over a rotating velvet bed of rhythm. Like a Ween-ized take on trip-hop's inherently libidinous qualities, it functions both as great make-out music and a parody of make-out music, with lyrics about diseases and meat. From the wonderfully titled Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By.

11/21/03: Sixteen Horsepower- "Black Lung" One of the catchier songs this interesting goth-country band has written, "Black Lung" is a weird hoedown that seems to have sprung from the darkest Appalachian woods you can imagine. (Camper Van Beethoven collaborating with Burn Witch Burn on a song for the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack would be a convoluted way of describing it.) It's not outright creepy or anything, but the drawlin' and fiddlin' do lend it a certain Deliverance vibe... From Low Estate.

11/19/03: Kyu Sakamoto- "Sukiyaki" An absolutely gorgeous doo-wop (or something; I'm fuzzy on my pre-punk genre distinctions) ballad that avoids fading into Perry Como-style background fuzz by virtue of the fact that the melody draws lightly from traditional Japanese music. It's all in Japanese, too, so he could be singing about anything (Pepsi), but man is it pretty. From any number of '60s compilations.

11/18/03: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds- "Jangling Jack" The most unhinged I've ever heard Nick Cave, this song is basically one noisy, breathless rant about a guy who gets shot dead in a bar. Mixing Nick's typical love of ghastly imagery with smirky black humor, and backed by squalling guitars, this is one insane crystal meth jag of a song. From Let Love In.

11/17/03: Joni Mitchell- "Woodstock" I'm not sure if Joni initially wrote this for Crosby, Stills & Nash or if they covered her version or what the story is, but her version blows theirs into bits of Smithers. With nothing more to accompany her than a big, full, buzzy keyboard (same one used in the opening to Beck's "Where It's At," I think- don't know the name of it), Mitchell's voice takes on a somewhat spooky tone as it winds its way through the serpentine melody. I've only heard this once, so I didn't really catch the lyrics, but the song's so beautiful I'm sure I'll pick up on its meaning on my many subsequent listens. From Ladies of the Canyon. (Thanks Anne!)

11/13/03: Thompson Twins- "Hold Me Now" Try as I might, I can't not be affected by this cheese. I love everything about this song, from the silly '80s synth-bass to the screechy falsetto backing vocals to the befuddled lyrics about relationship discord. Besides being impossibly catchy, this song is so sincere and twinkly in its new wave naivete that I just want to hug it. From Into the Gap.

11/12/03: Disclaimer: "Please Pardon Our Progress!!!" Oleg Sobolev writes, "You see, this song has probably the best use of dissonant vocals around chaotic guitar background and completely awesome techno beat. Joe Hinchcliffe contributes some incredible vocals too. For its 5 1/2 minutes the song never bores me, due to its excellent drive, weird speaker-switched intro and that closing 'Happiness is no longer an option' part, which stops extremely sudden and leaves me speechless. Probably the best track of 2003 I've heard so far." Thanks, Oleg! From The Airbag's Lipstick Kiss, but you can download this song over at Adrian Denning's place.

11/10/03: Mogwai- "R U Still In 2 It?" Jon Walter writes, "This is the most depressing song ever written. Over a echoey and simple guitar line repeated for 7 and a half minutes, a voice intones in a bored manner about a dying relationship. Simple, but utterly captivating. This is the best track Mogwai have ever written, from one of the best albums of the decade. A masterpiece." Word, Jon. From Young Team.

11/7/03: Bad Religion- "What Can You Do?" My friend Jon complains about this being the slowest and poppiest song on Suffer (surrounded as it is by angry punk uppercuts), but come on- it's so catchy! Maybe the best vocal line the band has ever come up with! Listen to Greg Graffin's awesome, staccato delivery of hooky lines like "Although the world rotates itself, the only thing you twist is your mind"! Wow! And anyway, it could easily beat the crap out of any other "punk" song you'd care to mention from the past ten years or so. You should really just go get the album, but if you insist that only one song will do, this is it. From Suffer.

11/6/03: Okkervil River- "Lady Liberty" An amiable, bouncy folk-rock tune that borrows elements from the Elephant 6 and Saddle Creek collectives (overreacting vocals, a full brass arrangement, etc.) without seeming derivative. Vocalist Will Robison Sheff earnestly bleats about an unfaithful lover- or something- and makes me giggle by almost quoting that famous misheard CCR lyric, "There's a bathroom on the right." That may or may not be intentional. From Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See.

11/3/03: Full Frontal- "You Think You're a Man" A fun, clubby cover of Divine's campy gay anthem, this version stays fairly true to the original, except updating Divine's early-'80s, Dead or Alive-style production with sequencers and more modern, post-Pet Shop Boys synths and such. (At some point while writing that, I stopped caring whether it was a run-on sentence.) Bouncy! From the Queer as Folk soundtrack.

11/1/03: Beats International- "Dub Be Good to Me" Apparently a big single in its day, this is what I guess is a "dub reggae" song, if you know what that means. (I don't, really. Some guy at a party last night tried to explain it to me, but it didn't take.) At any rate, its hypnotic pairing of soulful, R&B-style female vocals and a sexy, funky rhythm loop is hip-thrust-a-riffic. Great tune. From Let's Talk About Love.

10/31/03: The Faint- "Worked Up So Sexual" It is a little messier than I'd like it to be, but this stew of Frank Black-style surf freakouts, Grandaddy-style atmospherics, and Duran Duran-style new wave hooks has more than enough good ideas to make up for its clattering instability. From Blank-Wave Arcade.

10/30/03: The Verve Pipe- "Hero" Jon Walter writes, "A great song from a terrible group. One of the catchiest rock singles I've heard. This song is possessed of that quality called 'obsessive catchiness,' where try as you might, you CAN'T get the chorus out of your head. 'Burn like a cancer when the answer did occur to me....' aaarghhh...I'm doing it again!" I personally loathe the Verve Pipe with every fiber of my being, but again, I trust Jon, and I'm also late for work, so we'll go with that. From their self-titled album.

10/28/03: Grandaddy- "The Group Who Couldn't Say" Hands down, the best song on Sumday, this is a bouncy little indie-pop nugget about a group of professionals and office drones who "were the shrewdest unit-movers," so they actually get to go outside. At which point, they become hilariously and rather sweetly baffled by what they're seeing. "Becky wondered why she'd never noticed dragonflies/Her drag-and-click had never yielded anything as perfect as a dragonfly" may be the best lyric of the year. From Sumday.

10/27/03: New Bomb Turks- "Veronica Lake" The past few years have seen no shortage of great, neo-garage rock hooks being written by bands like the Strokes, the Hives, the Libertines, and so forth, but I have yet to hear a song of this genre touch the ebullient chorus that Eric Davidson spews forth here. So catchy! So very catchy! Fast and noisy and catchy! What's not to like? From At Rope's End.

10/23/03: Beastie Boys- "Song for the Man" A loose, funky jazz-pop song that actually features someone or other singing! (I haven't bothered to check the liner notes to find out who is singing because they're printed in, like, two-point font.) Insubstantial but catchy and fun to bounce around to. From Hello Nasty.

10/20/03: Ben Folds- "Still Fighting It" Cole Bozman writes, "The lyrics make 'Brick' sound positively joyful in comparison. I wonder why Ben couldn't have written stuff this mature with BFF. Oh, great chorus, too." Word, Cole. From Rockin' the Suburbs.

10/17/03: Andy M. Stewart and Manus Lunny- "Take Her in Your Arms" If you dig the bittersweet, Celtic-tinged melodicism of Belle & Sebastian's wonderful new song "Piazza, New York Catcher" (yes, it's two Songs of the Day in one today), why not go the extra mile and check out this genuine Irish tune? It's a gently funny song about a lovesick guy who's considering suicide, but it's not nearly as dark as you'd think, especially with the bubbly tin whistle and accordion backing. I like Irish music. From Dublin Lady, though I've got it on Joyful Noise, the Green Linnet label compilation, which is packed with similar gems.

10/16/03: The Verlaines- "Aches in Whisper" Pretty much your typical, jangly-crunchy New Zealand guitar-pop tune (by and large, a great subgenre to begin with, overrated though The Clean may be), only with an impressive slow burn of a melody that becomes subtly more frantic by song's end. It's not a huge, catchy single or anything; just one of those deep tracks that sticks with you. From Way Out Where.

10/14/03: Detroit Cobras- "Shout Bama Lama" This garage-rock cover of the Otis Redding song is a showstopping, irony-free hotwiring of the original, with Rachael Nagy's powerful (but not overbearing) vocals and a punky guitar arrangement bringing forth gallons of energy while still respecting the song's inherent soul. You'll love this. From Love, Life and Leaving.

10/13/03: Morcheeba- "World Looking In" A fabulous, sexy trip-hop tune whose most addictive and effective element, strangely, isn't Sky Edwards's blissful voice, but the haunting slide-guitar lick that pops up every now and then. From Fragments of Freedom.

10/11/03: The Scene is Now- "Yellow Sarong" Yo La Tengo's cover of this tune on Fakebook is probably better known than the original, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't seek it out. Its plinky, plunky arrangement (bongos, piano, xylophone) runs counter to the sweet melody, but that just means it's a wonderful pop song that was built by Doozers who are more interested in architecture than art. A great combination. From Burn All Your Records.

10/10/03: Panjabi MC- "Mundian To Bach Ke" (Suggested by Oleg Sobolev.) Oleg writes, "I must say the guy is a finest example of a man who completely lacks ANY kind of talent, but still managed to put together a FANTASTIC song." I'm not familiar with the rest of Panjabi's work, so I don't know if I'd go so far as Oleg in dismissing the guy's musical skills, but we're in agreement that this is a great song. The main attraction is an endless mandolin-or-something lick that will nag at you all day, but Panjabi's spirited singing and the driving electronic beats make this a simple winner. As far as I can tell this is the title track from his album.

10/4/03: Northern State- "A Thousand Words" An unbelievably fun hip-hop track that suggests a female Beastie Boys (right down to one member of the trio approximating Ad-Rock's endearing abrasiveness), only much friendlier. Which isn't to say the Northern State is soft- their lyrical rhythms and energetic delivery are well-practiced and effective- but their unaffected white-girl voices and lines about Al Gore and Snoopy bring a playfulness to the proceedings that's most welcome. From Dying in Stereo.

10/1/03: Bollywood Brass Band- "Kehta Hai Mera Dil" This is a loungey, brass band reworking of a song from some Bollywood film or another. The result, mixing horns with a tabla-based rhythm section, sounds like the theme to an especially exotic '70s cop show; it's really interesting and addictive. From Rahmania: The Music of A.R. Rahman.

9/28/03: Daniel Johnston- "Walking the Cow" From what I've heard of his body of work, this is one of the precious few songs Daniel Johnston has ever written that is listenable on its own, without being reworked and covered by some other artist (see "Speeding Motorcycle" by The Pastels and Yo La Tengo, "Rocketship" by the Dead Milkmen, "Hey Joe" by Sparklehorse, etc.). Luckily, it's a really great song in its own right. Accompanied only by a furiously pounded air organ, Daniel's yearning, childlike voice spins a melody so sweet and naive it could bring tears to your eyes. From Hi, How Are You.

9/27/03: Eilert Pilarm- "In the Ghetto" This Song of the Day assumes you have a certain familiarity with Elvis Presley's famous performance of "In the Ghetto," because Pilarm is a Swedish Elvis impersonator. Perhaps the best Elvis impersonator in the history of the occupation, because Eilert sounds more like Andy Kaufman's character from Taxi than The King. On this song in particular, he seems to have never heard the original version ever, seemingly reciting the lyrics phonetically with no regard for rhythm, and it's just wonderful and innocent and wrong. From his Greatest Hits album, I think.

9/25/03: Christie- "Yellow River" War historian CosmicBen tells me that this song is about a Vietnam vet after the war ended (perhaps having trouble readjusting to civilian life? I forget exactly what Ben said. This was a few months ago), but you'd never know it if you were paying attention only to the cheerful, CCR-style pop of the music. Once you're attuned to the subject matter, though, it becomes as haunting as it is infectious. From Yellow River.

9/24/03: lb.- "Angie" Rock purists will probably be offended by this electronic deconstruction of the Stones song, which is full of crosstalk, aural snow, and transmission errors, but the dissonance never gets in the way of the melody. In fact, the tune's yearning and resignation are made that much more poignant by the fact that the song sounds like it's being broadcast from some lonely planet on the other side of the universe. From the excellent Pop Artificielle.

9/23/03: Dump- "Daily Affirmation" This is a majestic, slow-building indie-rock song that crescendoes in a crazy, noisy way that James McNew hasn't done in his day job band (Yo La Tengo) since Electr-O-Pura. Neither especially dark  nor especially upbeat, it bascially presents the sound of square-jawed determination, with a stirring bassline to guide you from the charming vocal bits into a frenzied solo. A good waking-up song. From A Grown-Ass Man.

9/22/03: My Bloody Valentine- "Sometimes" The louder you play this song, the lonelier it gets, for some reason. Something about the way Kevin Shields's voice is nearly buried beneath his uniquely mixed guitars that are both roiling and still, as a barely audible bass drum provides a steady pulse... There's a lot going on in the mix, but nothing disturbs the song's inimitably distant mood. It's currently being put to great use in Lost in Translation, but it's originally from Loveless.

9/20/03: DJ Shadow- "Fixed Income" Like most of DJ Shadow's sedimentary trip-hop compositions, this one is built around an entrancing sampled rhythm (breakbeats and a drone of "wow" noises, in this case), which is spiced up with other great, ominous samples. Here, snippets of guitar, violin, and what sounds like a snake charmer's woodwind add up to a somewhat sickly, disorienting mood, and it's great. From The Private Press.

9/17/03: Blur- "Song 2" (Suggested by Oleg Sobolev.) Oleg writes, "I mean,
'WOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!' Enough said." Well, besides the fact that the joyous yelp into the chorus is the song's most instantly identifiable feature, you could also mention the band's interestingly mechanical approach to the patented Nirvana/Pixies quiet/loud dynamic formula, which is the song. Cheeky rock minimalism. From Blur.

9/15/03: Yellow Magic Orchestra- "Firecracker (Zero B Mix)" I have yet to hear the original version of YMO's song, but this remix transforms it into a great house track that's built around a fascinating Asian flute riff. That's pretty much all there is to it, but it's got all the things you need from a house song: interesting, catchy, nice beat, and so on. This is not my most inspired Song of the Day description, but check it out anyway. From Hi-Tech/No Crime.

9/14/03: Shooby Taylor- "Stout-Hearted Men" There may be no more ecstatic sound in the history of the human race than Shooby "The Human Horn" Taylor doing his inimitable thing. Over a pre-recorded, public domain backing of chintzy organ music, Shooby plays a wildly enthusiastic "air saxaphone": it's sort of like scat-singing, only... more wonderfully uninhibited. If you can get past him shouting, "Poppy poppy poppy poppy doppy da-SHRAW!" without bursting into appreciative giggles, there's something wrong with you. You can download this song here, along with many others that are worth checking out.

9/13/03: Fay Lovsky- "Alle Liedjes op de Radio" (Eternal thanks to Anne Becking.) This Dutch indie-pop song gets more and more fun every time I listen to it. Built around a peppy acoustic guitar hook that sounds a little like the Inspector Gadget theme song, the song builds to an infectious, bouncy singalong of a chorus that somehow involves "MTV" and a cute, exuberant exclamation of the phrase, "Look at me!" (the two things that come out of Fay's mouth that I understand). It's impossible not to love. I don't know which album this is from, but you must find it.

9/12/03: They Might Be Giants- "Am I Awake?" The theme song to the new show Resident Life on The Learning Channel, TMBG's new song perfectly captures the crappy feeling of sleep deprivation. John Linnell wearily notes, "When I close my eyes, it looks the same as when I open them again," set to the most ambitious foray into electronica the band has yet attempted. With squelchy bass noises and ghostly samples, it almost sounds like Adult or µ-ziq- but with TMBG's typical catchiness. I think you can get this at the band's website; it hasn't been properly released anywhere that I know of yet. Now I'm off to go be bummed about Johnny Cash for the rest of the day.

9/10/03: Wire [aka Wir]- "Foosti-Footsi" Jon Walter writes, "Who would've thought that three old English guys could write a song that would make you want to shake your ass so much!?!? This song is hella catchy. It might be my favorite Wire song--and that includes everything on Pink Flag. Fantastic track." I haven't been able to find this song myself, but I trust Jon, so check it out. From The First Letter.

9/8/03: Golden Palominos- "Boy (Go)" With Anton Fier's crazy rhythms, Richard Thompson's unimpeachable guitar stylings (I think he plays on this track...), and Michael Stipe singing lead vocals, there's more talent crammed into one song here than on "Do They Know It's Christmas?" There's an oddly crisp mood to this number that works really well, as the principals each do their thing, nailed together by a sturdy, danceable bassline. This song makes things seem slightly less horrible. From A History (1982-1985).

9/7/03: Echo & the Bunnymen- "Get in the Car" The Bunny-Men do a delightful 180 here from the mopey darkness of their classics like "The Killing Moon," instead poking their collective head out into sunny, life-affirming Brit-Pop. With horns! And a killer melody that's casually upbeat without being obnoxious about it. It's a shot of carefree spontaneity that's perfect for driving around on the last day you can reasonably leave your car's windows open before autumn's chill hits. From What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?

9/6/03: Steely Dan- "Charlie Freak" (Thanks to Anne Becking.) A typically smart pop song from Walt Becker and Don Fagen, "Charlie Freak" sounds like it's being played in two unusual time signatures at once, from the nifty way the driving piano line rubs up against the vocals. (Whether it actually is two signatures, I don't know- I'm not schooled enough in music theory to be able to identify these things.) But the galloping, clockwork arrangement wouldn't mean a thing if the tune itself wasn't so terrifically weird, and at under three minutes, you may have to listen to this one three or four times to get your mind around everything the Dans are trying to do here. It's simple, but it's not. Accessible, but it's not. Just a huge, heaping plateful of interesting pop contradictions. From Pretzel Logic.

9/5/03: Bennet- "Mum's Gone to Iceland" A memorable, mechanical riff and gobsmacking harmony bits place this single in the same supercharged new-wave niche as "Connection" by Elastica. Even though they use the trick six or seven times throughout the song, it always kills me when they leap from the noisy power-pop guitars at the end of the verse into the a capella hook, "My mum has gone to Iceland." Wheee! From Super Natural.

9/3/03: The Venus in Furs- "Baby's on Fire" This cover of an early Brian Eno song (by a fictitious glam supergroup that includes members of Radiohead and Grant Lee Buffalo, with Bend It Like Beckham's Jonathan Rhys Meyers on vocals) is pretty similar to the original. However, it ups the dissonance factor (more squalling guitars in the middle section) and cuts down on the filler (the middle section is two minutes shorter than that of the original), so what's left is a concise, smarmy glam singalong that threatens to fall apart at any moment. From the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack.

9/2/03: Elvis Costello- "I Want You" One of the most astoundingly dark songs in Elvis's catalog, it starts off as a sweet-sounding acoustic ballad... and grows with intensity and bitterness over a bed of sulking bass and organ as it becomes clear that it's more of a self-destructive monologue of jealousy regarding his ex's new guy (referred to through gritted teeth as "that clown"). I love stuff like this. It's gorgeous. From Blood & Chocolate.

9/1/03: Kula Shaker- "Tattva" This Brit-pop band might not wave the psychedelic flag as fervently (or stare at the amazing trails the flag is making, man) as crazies like Acid Mothers Temple, but they're still several shades of trippy, swirling color more psychedelic than Oasis or The Verve. At least on this single, which is the only song of theirs I've knowingly heard. An incredibly catchy, Indian-influenced chant serves as a chorus- backed by great wah-wah guitaring- and the rest of the song melds Stone Roses-style pop instinct with darker instrumentation, and it's incredibly addictive. From the album K.

8/31/03: Scud Mountain Boys- "Grudgefuck" As vitriolic and bitter toward the woman who scorned him as Elvis Costello's best work, but the Scuds' Joe Pernice adds the dimension of self-loathing to the bile pile. It's a soulful indie-pop song that reeks of desperation, as Joe's stoned narrator calls up his ex and offers her "everything I own" for a booy call. Darkly hilarious and sad, it's yet another lonely masterpiece from Joe's oeuvre. From Massachusetts.

8/30/03: Aphex Twin- "Windowlicker" (Suggested by Jon Walter.) Effective as both a parody of cheap porn music and just an addictively sexy, throbbing electronic dealie, "Windowlicker" is among Richard D. James's catchiest compositions. It's still sprayed with alien noises and bizarre echo effects, but it's impossible not to get sucked into. Also, if you get a chance, check out the jaw-droppingly unsettling video! From the Windowlicker EP.

8/28/03: American Analog Set- "Magnificent Seventies" Despite being based around a two-chord organ drone that I'm positive R.E.M. or Yo La Tengo has used before on a song I can't place, this song is up to the engagingly gloomy standards set by both those bands because it's a really addictive two-chord drone. AAS also toss that Taxi-theme keyboard into the mix, and some friendly "doo doo doo" murmuring. A nice, sad song to wake up to, to prepare for your crummy day! From Through the '90s: Singles and Unreleased.

8/27/03: John Southworth- "It's Not the End of the World" With lush, Brian Wilson-style production and sprightly lyrics to cheer you up even if it feels like everything's collapsing ("No matter what the preachers/anchors/neighbors say, it's not the end of the world!"), this is a must for any fan of bouncy, piano-based pop. Southworth's innocent, nasal voice manages both sweeping emotion and cute lounge-singer grandiosity, and the flutes, trumpets, and other instruments fluttering all around him make the song sound like a big party- one to which you've actually been invited! From Mars, Pennsylvania.

8/26/03: Warrant- "I Saw Red" I would love to hear some indie-pop band do a straightforward remake of this song. In Warrant's hands, it's a schmaltzy power ballad, but beneath the gooey soloing and "sensitive" heartbreak lyrics ("Ooh, it must be magic...") is actually a pretty good song. I dig the way the bright verse does a hard right turn into the darker melody of the chorus, and all irony aside, it captures the betrayed mood it's going for in its own ham-fisted way. Seriously. From Cherry Pie.

8/25/03: Donovan- "Atlantis" This folk-rock ditty is hardly perfect: the first two minutes of it consist of an unintentionally goofy monologue about the inhabitants of Atlantis, and the second half consists of the same simple, stomping piano hook over and over. So why am I recommending this? Because that simple piano hook is among the brightest and catchiest I've ever heard, and it earns its endless repetition in a "Hey Jude" kind of way. Hail Atlantis! From Barabajagal.

7/21/03: Canned Hamm- "Platonic Friend (Monotrona remix)" This remix of Canned Hamm's already-hilarious dinky-pop song "Platonic Friend" (in which the Hamms cheerfully sing, "She just wants to be my platonic friend") is turned into an even stranger creature by Monotrona. With weird, mechanical vocals and a vibrating clavichord, the song sounds like a cross between Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll pt. 2" and the Flying Lizards' cover of "Money (That's What I Want)," with lots of great lines like, "We've got so much in common except for the lovin'!" From Karazma Reimagined.

7/18/03: Swingers- "Lovesick" The best song from Phil Judd's post-Split Enz band, "Lovesick" is a twisty, grumpy new wave song about feeling lovesick. A bunch of cool hooks collide into each other- jangly verse, bridge borrowed from Jethro Tull's "Aqualung," upbeat, Enz-y chorus- in non-sequitur ways that nevertheless sound great together. From Practical Jokers.

7/16/03: Hasil Adkins- "No More Hot Dogs" (Suggested by Mike DeFabio.) If this song is any indication, Hasil Adkins is a weirdo whose music sounds like the product of some ungodly menage-a-trois that contained Jerry Lee Lewis, Jandek, and Napoleon XIV. It's a brilliant, lo-fi rockabilly song on which Adkins's guitar stylings are made practically inaudible by virtue of the fact that, when he's not giggling maniacally into the microphone, he's singing about chopping off some girl's head and hanging it on his wall- all the better to prevent her from eating any more hot dogs, my dear. It's not as creepy as that sounds; Adkins has a nice, light touch that's more interesting than unsettling. From Out to Hunch.

7/15/03: Leapy Lee- "Little Arrows" A feel-good country tune (That is, Hank Williams country, not Garth Brooks country- could you just assume that every time I recommend a country song?) about falling in love and Cupid and whatever blah blah love-is-grand-cakes. But it's got just enough weird touches to sound every bit as sunny and cheerful as Ol' Leapy probably intended: a goofy wah-wah effect on the rhythm guitar, a brief break in which he sings, "Ohh... ohh... ohh... the pain!" in a funny impression of Johnny Cash, etc. It's nice. From Little Arrows.

7/13/03: Crispin Hellion Glover- "These Boots are Made for Walking" (Thanks to Rich Bunnell.) Eternally perplexing thespian Glover- the guy who played George McFly in Back to the Future and then got kicked off the Letterman program- covers the Nancy Sinatra classic in a manner that can only be described as "Crispin Glover-esque." Too funny to be scary and too scary to be funny, Glover is backed by a cheap, Wesley Willis-style synth... and proceeds to frantically, desperately sob the lyrics. It's dark and it's annoying, but it's also wonderful. From Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution. The Solution = Let Ie Be. (And apparently "Weird Al" Yankovic plays on that album!)

7/12/03: Mountain Goats- "No Children" There's a funny Life in Hell cartoon where Akbar and Jeff are describing their relationship through increasingly evil threats, and finally one of them says, "I could spend the rest of my life making us both miserable with low-level whining and hostility." (That's not the punchline; I forget how it ends.) That's pretty much what this song is about. John Darnielle's narrator doesn't have the courage to leave the mutually unhealthy, alcohol-fueled relationship he's in, so he commits himself to destroying them both. (The refrain is, "I hope you die! I hope we both die!" sung in a voice that's both chilling and amusingly chipper.) Catchy song, too, with a piano, acoustic guitar, and bass chugging along the rail to destruction. From Tallahassee, which is all about this unhappy couple.

7/8/03: Sean Paul- "Get Busy" This is apparently a big club hit right now, but for those of us who would rather freak out and walk randomly around Windsor's red light district for a half hour than set foot inside of a club, it's better to just download the thing. In a mushmouthed Jamaican accent, Sean Paul entreats the sexy ladies to drop X with him and get it on till the early morn. People still call it "X"? Anyway, it's really a better song than you'd think: repetitive, sure, and stupid to beat the band, but it's got a killer beat (that actually sounds a bit ominous) and the hypnotic, minimal melody works really well. It's a novelty, but one that you'll fondly remember in a few years. Someone (The Other Leading Brand, most likely) needs to splice this song with "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz. From Dutty Rock.

7/6/03: Skik- "Dankjewel voor de Zon" (Thanks to Anne Becking!) This is a tremendously fun goof-pop song, with an endlessly singable refrain even if you don't understand Dutch. It starts off as a catchy, acoustic, syrupy pop song in the vein of Supergrass or the Divine Comedy, but halfway through, they bring in silly, Sgt. Pepper's-style (or Dukes of Stratosphear-style) horns and strings, making for pop song bliss that just makes you want to yell, "Wheeeeeeee!" I don't know wha' album this is from.

7/3/03: Wyclef Jean- "Bubblegoose" Former Fugee does a simple, happy, bouncy, laid-back guitar-based singalong that could be a traditional sea chanty if it weren't arranged in stoned-rapper style, and didn't refer lyrically to urban gunplay. It's one of those songs that's so catchy it's almost maddening. I want sleep. From Presents the Carnival Featuring the Refugee All-Stars.

7/1/03: Southern Culture on the Skids- "House of Bamboo" Possibly the weirdest track from their thoroughly weird album Plastic Seat Sweat, this is a fudged-up cover of an Andy Williams song about a coffeehouse made entirely of bamboo. I gather the original is more of a martini-lounge-jazz sorta thing, but in the hands of the SCOTS, it's a deep-fried bossa-nova mishmash led by an electric sitar, a Hammond organ, and Mary Huff's snarkily sultry vocals. It's a catchy little lab experiment gone awry. From Plastic Seat Sweat.

6/30/03: Sean Lennon- "Photosynthesis" Just a fun little jazz-longe-pop instrumental that blows the rest of the wimp pop on Lennon's debut album out of the water. After it's over, it's likely all you'll remember will be the spirally funk bassline and the trumpet aerobics, but what more do you really need, honestly? It's the best neo-'60s mood piece I've heard in a long time (after revisiting this album for the first time in about three years). From Into the Sun.

6/28/03: Saturday Looks Good to Me- "Ambulance" Despite an arrangement so loose it threatens to come unraveled at any second (but doesn't), this casual indie-pop song is quite pretty in its thrown-together way. With a guitar in the left channel that's echoed and tremoloed just the slightest bit past "surf" territory and into "strange," and the sincere, multitracked vocals of some girl in the other channel, "Ambulance" is all about the sweet, uplifting melody that it keeps developing in a strange way throughout the song. There's no real running theme or refrain, but all the parts fit together anyway. You'd probably have to listen to it four or five times to really get your mind around it, which is why it's good that the instrumentation is so sparse. At any rate, it's not mindblowing, but it's nice and chewy. From All Your Summer Songs.

6/27/03: Tia Carrere- "Ballroom Blitz" Yes, on one level, it's an embarrassing failed attempt to jump-start another actress's unnecessary singing career (and an amusingly random one at that, not unlike Brian Austin Green). Thing of it is, our woman Tia turns out to be a damn good rock screamer on this cover of the Sweet song. Though her version jettisons the enjoyably demented idiosyncrasies of the original, that just means that the song finally clicks into place as a tight, fast, and above all catchy rock number. This chorus would sound good even coming from the mouth of Marlon Brando, but Carrere hurls herself into it with all her might, and her energy is infectious. From the Wayne's World soundtrack.

6/25/03: Iron & Wine- "Such Great Heights" (Recommended by Colin Jaffe.) Some time ago, I recommended "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service as a Song of the Day. Well, for the EP of that song, The Postal Service recruited lo-fi acoustic popster Iron & Wine to cover it as a B-side, and what a difference the reinterpretation makes! What was once a sweeping electro-pop anthem is here transformed into a snuggly, intimate lullaby with whispered vocals, gentle acoustic plucking, and a sweet mandolin fill at one point. Your lady friend will like this one. From the Postal Service's Such Great Heights EP.

6/24/03: