Boys Will Be Boys – The Majority Rules – Local talent waiting to make the jump with a tight pop combo melding 80s rock to 80s pop and a tough little drum paddle sound. The double tracked vocal is cute and there is a kitchen sink pop sensibility -sounds keep on floating inL here a squack of horns, there a synth hook and the chick singer is like a reject from the John Hughs musical in your mind. Heard they kill live.
No Future – Titus Andronicus – From the new rarities album. This is just Patrick performing an acoustic and what is so interesting is how when Stickles louds up he sounds punk, and when he quiets down he sounds folk. This is a lovely folk take -like Guthrie without the accesnt.
Hello Goodmorning (feat T.I.) – Diddy – Dirty Money – Dance tracks are the opposite of summer movies: summer movies hit big and disappear but dance tracks linger and linger and linger. Like this real good one. Diddy -since We Invented The Remix, has understpood where to put dance rhythms on hip hop songs better than ANYBODY (Drop the Lime do the same for rock). This song shoulda been and gone but I bet it lingers all summer.
Wanna Be (Feat. Lilly Allen) – Dizzee Rascal – Can something so grimey be simultaneously so pink? Rascal is the calling card on grime and his accent doesn’t get in the way of his ability to actually rap and it sounds so different it’s kinda great. Lilly’s chorus’s are great, her “rap” not so much. A huge hit over the pond, dunno why we couldn’t get it.
The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness – The Feelies – I’ve always thought writers were like me: introverted, extroverts, hall of mirrors self-examiners hiding in the inner recess, the crevess of our brain as we tap tap tap on our keyboards. But that isn’t true at all. Some are social and sexy, married and happy and not downbeat losers. BUT WE DOWN BEAT LOSERS HAVE THE ULTIMATE THEME SONG AND THIS IS IT. The Feelies uncool slide show take on the Velvets is jittery and subdued and it’s single string intro seems to come from a subconscious place of… I dunno, abandonment: Mercer doesn’t know why he is the way he is but he knows he is something that is hidden and away, and sulky… like us.
Holding On To Love (One Life to Live) – Frankie Negron – Is it me or did it feel like Spanish music came close to nailing it down Stateside in the nineties but couldn’t quite seal the deal? If it had crossed big time it woulda taken Negron to the top here. This is last years full blown English language ballad and the flamenco (flamenco’s improve everything) almost saves it and when he sings in Spanish the song improves fast -probably because the lyric is dead naff.
Burn Bridges – The Grates – I saw these pop giants at Bowery ballroom opening for Tigercity awhile back. These Aussies are real friendly mate and the chick singer is a little knock out. Burn bridges is like a very intense nursery rhyme for adults.
Ian Hunter – OK, I’ll review this and call it a playlist. The Mott the Hoopler starts the song kinda ho hummy and doesn’t get it back till the chorus but once he reaches there the pub-glammy hookmeister is tight and tasty. Kill the bridge, stick in the hook a coupla more times, and he’d have had a hit…