Blog: Your New Favorite Song

One for people like you

Nov 6, 2007, 2:53am Your New Favorite Song
The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
The Wombats - "Let's Dance To Joy Division" [ buy ] There are a lot of bands today leading with the sharp guitars that once belonged to another generation's skinny ties. Some are fun. Some are empty copycats. I first saw this video at Pitchfork a month ago. I tracked down the song, downloaded it and let it cycle naturally from time to time in the course of shuffling through Recently Added tracks. Every time it has come on, [...]
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“Have you seen? Have you seen?”

Nov 2, 2007, 7:09pm Your New Favorite Song
“Have you seen? Have you seen?” Miracle Fortress - "Have You Seen In Your Dreams" "Oh nothing" Just another splash in the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Add Miracle Fortress to your Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and Islands as proof that Montreal, Quebec is a place where good things continue to happen. Twenty-three-year-old producer/promoter/multi-instru mentalist Graham Van Pelt (he of Think About Life ) has done the whole thing up by himself on the first recording of his new project, Five Roses (Secret [...]
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Artist:Miracle Fortress
Title:Have You Seen In Your Dreams
Link Text:Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen In Your Dreams
File Name:Miracle_Fortress_Have_You_Seen _In_Your_Dreams.mp3
Bitrate:256 kbps
Year:2007

Ain’t life short

Nov 1, 2007, 4:25pm Your New Favorite Song
Ain’t life short The Mae Shi - "Run to Your Grave" Before you scroll down and play the video below, listen to the song above. It's fun, right? L.A.'s The Mae Shi have smoothed out their experimental-punk edges in favor of clapping and hollaring at us to "Tear! Burn! and Soil the flesh!" Because we can't take it with us, and all that. Now, thanks to Pitchfork , I've seen this: [...]
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Link Text:The Mae Shi - Run to Your Grave
File Name:The_Mai_Shi_Run_To_Your_Grave. mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps

Release the Kracken!

Nov 1, 2007, 12:28am Your New Favorite Song
Meredith Bragg - My Absent Will
Meredith Bragg - "My Absent Will" Remember how in the film Clash of the Titans , Zeus and his crew would take the little clay action figures of mortals off the shelf and screw with their lives by physically placing the tiny version of Harry Hamlin on a beach, or right in the path of a giant scorpion? ( It's still really cool .) As a kid, I don't remember worrying too much about the implications of the gods controlling human lives. I think I was preoccupied with [...]
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“You’re new”

Oct 30, 2007, 3:17pm Your New Favorite Song
“You’re new” The Pack - "My Car" [ buy ] I dig this for basically the same reason I dug yesterday's song. At first blush, that might seem like a nutty thing to say. But this new one from the Bay Area's The Pack (new disc, Based Boys out today on Jive) might just be more bubblegummy than MIKA's "Lollipop." "I'm in my car. I'm standing in my car. You know I'm [...]
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No visiting the Jerk Store

Oct 30, 2007, 2:37am Your New Favorite Song
No visiting the Jerk Store MIKA - "Lollipop" This song is so fun so that I'm mapping out imaginary dance routines in my head. What totally bites is that I am feeling defensive about it. There was a time in my life when campy (and vampy) primitive pop tunes were my and everybody else's favorite songs, but in the U.S. at least, our pop stars have become fearful of standing out too much from their crowd these days. I think we're missing out. I fully admit that it could just be me. I could be [...]
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Artist:Mika
Title:Lollipop
Link Text:MIKA - Lollipop
File Name:MIKA_Lollipop.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps

The ocean is full of noise

Oct 26, 2007, 3:58pm Your New Favorite Song
The ocean is full of noise Cheyenne - "The Whale" I gotta get a message to you: "It's really your guts that let you breathe." How will it make it that far? We haven't spoken for days. The road is busy, your inbox is full and the power lines are buzzing like crazy. "Last night on the radio I heard it trying to come through." I'll tap out a code here on the piano, you clap along-don't stop ever-and someone out there is bound to pick up the signal. "All the kites [...]
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Artist:Cheyenne
Title:The Whale
Link Text:Cheyenne - The Whale
File Name:Cheyenne_The_Whale.mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps

More milk, more honey, please

Oct 25, 2007, 3:37pm Your New Favorite Song
More milk, more honey, please Dusty Rhodes and the River Band - "Dear Honey" [ listen & buy here ] If a band is telling me that their main influences are The Band and Yes (Wouldn't it be Kansas that came out on the other end of that?), I am obviously going to be very very curious. I was on hand last fall at one of those band-members-outnumbered-audie nce-members shows that my beloved [...]
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“I took myself out walking…” ;

Oct 24, 2007, 2:21pm Your New Favorite Song
Taken By Trees - Lost and Found
Taken By Trees - "Lost and Found" [ listen ] [ buy ] How do I get put in charge? Making a great pop song is too easy. If you just put a Swedish pop singer in front of a piano and a microphone, ask her to coo over her breaking heart, and bring in the string section for the chorus? Done, done, and done. Add a peek-a-boo tropical vacation reel of our chanteuse Victoria Bergsman (formerly of [...]
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Brutally handsome … terminally pretty

Oct 24, 2007, 1:39am Your New Favorite Song
Brutally handsome … terminally pretty MGMT - "Time to Pretend" "Yeah it's overwhelming, but what else can we do? Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?" All right! You heard the band. The line has been drawn: Out every evening until it was light OR No longer riding on the merry-go-round ? Speaking of carousels, this is the kind of song I think would work really well on a carousel. That is, if your conductor barker was T [...]
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Artist:MGMT
Title:Time To Pretend
Link Text:MGMT - Time to Pretend
File Name:MGMT_Time_To_Pretend.mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps

Go! Me!

Oct 22, 2007, 5:47pm Your New Favorite Song
Go! Me! The Go! Team - "Doing It Right" [ listen ] [ buy song ] [ buy album ] Can there be a better way to start of any week than with a chorus of horns, a pep squad's worth of handclaps, a pocketful of feedback and a foxy rapper named Ninja leading a chant of "Do it! Do it! All right!"? No, there cannot. I'm feeling energized because my [...]
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No Title

Oct 19, 2007, 6:34pm Your New Favorite Song
No Title Los Campesinos! - "International Tweexcore Underground" [ listen ] [ buy ] [ buy ] You know those songs that you can't help but love despite a glaring fault that makes the whole enterprise suspect? It is usually a Top-40 embarrassment with a pop-culture- informed choice that threatens to take down an otherwise enjoyable pop tune. Jamie Foxx impersonating Ray Charles on Kanye West's "Gold Digger" is one very unfortunate example. [...]
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…more from your new fave band!

Oct 18, 2007, 2:18pm Your New Favorite Song
…more from your new fave band! Vampire Weekend - "Mansard Roof" [ listen here ] [ buy here ] I can't help myself! This damn band is under my skin. When we last partied with Vampire Weekend , we were hopping around to the afrobeat pop of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" , and for this second round with the NYC champs (and Rolling Stone magazine's "Hot New Kids" [...]
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Old friend, new fave

Oct 17, 2007, 4:12pm Your New Favorite Song
Old friend, new fave Emma Pollock - "Adrenaline" I have to figure out how I'm going to refer to this friend-the one who sent me the note that recommended I listen to Emma Pollock. I have a 21-year history with him, and in those couple of decades, no one has introduced me to more new music (R.E.M., Violent Femmes, Sonic Youth ... yeah, I owe him for sure) and he will no doubt be steering me toward many new faves as I turn this column out. I know he'd be shy about his name showing up on your screen, but props is props so [...]
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Artist:Emma Pollock
Title:Adrenaline
Link Text:Emma Pollock - Adrenaline
File Name:Emma_Pollock_Adrenaline.mp3
Year:2007

Your soul for the rock

Oct 16, 2007, 3:05pm Your New Favorite Song
Your soul for the rock Deadstring Brothers - "Meet Me Down At Heavy Load" You know those people who say, "They don't make good music anymore"? I don't hate those people. … They do motivate me though. In fact that's part of the impetus for this site—to prove that there's so much good music being made that you can discover something new every day (ahhh … warm hugs for everyone). With that said, Silver Mountain , the new album by Detroit [...]
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Artist:Deadstring Brothers
Title:Heavy Load
Link Text:Deadstring Brothers - Meet Me Down At Heavy Load
File Name:Deadstring_Brothers_Meet_Me_Do wn_At_Heavy_Load.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

It’s spanish for “arms”

Oct 15, 2007, 3:46pm Your New Favorite Song
It’s spanish for “arms” Brazos - "Mary Jo" Is that a chord organ at the beginning? Maybe a synth that sounds like a chord organ or an accordion? It's some kind of fun air-moving-to-create-sound instrument, and it's producing the speedy riff that opens this song and makes you want to dance with it right away. But where this songs starts is not where it ends. That melody is relayed to a guitar along the way and gradually gives in entirely as this little heartbreak song from Texas builds into a fuzzy shoegazer with a soaring "hoooooo" with which [...]
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Artist:Brazos
Title:MaryJo
Link Text:Brazos - Mary Jo
File Name:Brazos_Mary_Jo.mp3
Bitrate:256 kbps

Killed By Pop

Oct 12, 2007, 12:52pm Your New Favorite Song
Killed By Pop Killed By Bears - "I'll Be Back May, So Long" This pop song is so good at being a pop song that it doesn't even need to record handclaps for the choruses. You'll put 'em in yourself. This pop song is so good at being a pop song that you could play it, from beginning to end, five times in ten minutes. This pop song is so good at being a pop song that the boy doesn't "get in her pants" or "learn about romance" and you're still tapping along. [...]
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Blackball False, Truth!

Oct 11, 2007, 8:23am Your New Favorite Song
Blackball False, Truth! Blackball False, Truth! - "Knives Chau Luvs LCD And I was all set to unlock the stomp box full of swirling My Bloody Valentine comparisons. Then my ears tuned in finer and started peeling back layers of synthesizer … not guitars (well, there is one guitar in there). No less warmly lush though (even with electronic drums). Four melodies/counter-melodies (driving bass included) buzz along, running, jumping dancing. Tucked away snugly below the surface are a couple of voices, one plain-spoken, another floating behind wondering what's going down: "Something is happening. Something is changing. She [...]
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Artist:Blackball False, Truth!
Title:Knives Chau Luvs LCD
Link Text:Blackball False, Truth! - Knives Chau Luvs LCD
File Name:Blackball_False_Truth!_Knives_ Chau_Luvs_LCD.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Year:2007

Pourin’ Suga’ all over myself

Oct 10, 2007, 4:19pm Your New Favorite Song
Pourin’ Suga’ all over myself Sugababes - "About You Now" I get the feeling that the Brits having me on here. This is really a Saturday Night Live skit …. that's Kenan Thompson, Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler and this is all just late-night-television dream world playing it better than the players, right? Please. Watching the video for Sugababes first single from their just-released Change is … heck, I don't know. Confusing? Un-con-trollable urge to constant-ly be vogue-ing. Someone watch it and explain it to me. On second [...]
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Artist:Sugababes
Title:About You Now
Link Text:Sugababes - About You Now
File Name:Sugababes_About_You_Now.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps

Your new fave … band?!?

Oct 9, 2007, 2:54pm Your New Favorite Song
Your new fave … band?!? Vampire Weekend - "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" Oh my. This song… this is that other kind of good. Not just sing-into-my-thumb while driving out of town this weekend good. Not just send-immediately-to-the-top of my Best of '07 year-end mix good. This is more like, I'm going to throw-a-series-of-parties and use this song as the theme good. No decorations or party drinks necessary. I'll just crowd all my friends around the computer speakers and we'll listen on repeat and dance and laugh and pat each other on the back till dawn over and over until winter comes. [...]
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Artist:Vampire Weekend
Title:Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Link Text:Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
File Name:Vampire_Weekend_Cape_Cod_Kwass a_Kwassa.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Year:2007
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