The Dead Weather - "Treat Me Like Your Mother"

With all due respect to Meg White and Brendan Benson, I'm finding The Kills' Alison Mosshart to be a much more suitable foil for Jack White (at least for the time being). The woman can't help sounding ravenous and lustworthy with every breathe she takes. A friend once told me that Mosshart performs like she wants to fuck you or kill you or both. I can't argue much with that. Although she shares vocal duties with Jack White in the Dead Weather, she is very much the band's frontwoman. Fans of The Kills can attest: this role is supremely natural for her. Jack is in the backseat - a seat behind the drum kit. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that he is a beast on the drums as well. "Treat Me Like Your Mother" is a swinging, swaggering, thudding behemoth skipping through time signatures while Mosshart and White caution you to "stand up like a man/better learn to shake hands/and shake it like your mother." Naturally, there is an aesthetic common denominator shared by the Dead Weather and Jack White's other two bands, but the Dead Weather is stylistically divergent enough that it makes sense for this third entity to exist. To put it plainly, they are heavier, darker and sexier than the White Stripes or the Raconteurs. Between this track and first single "Hang You From The Heavens," my appetite is sufficiently whetted for the band's debut.

Download MP3: "Treat Me Like Your Mother"

Blah Blah Blah - "Why Am I The Only One Laughing"

I apologize for the lack of updates, but I was out of town for a rather long weekend. I wanted to share a song I've been loving on lately: "Why Am I The Only One Laughing" by Chicago's Blah Blah Blah. I don't know much about the band at this point. Their debut LP, Charm, will be released in the near future and I assume this song will be included on it. As it stands, the song is a great single and worthy descendent of The Smiths. Lead singer Solomon's vocals clearly recall the breathless beauty of prime Morrissey, but he and the band also display a bit more of the soul and muscularity that you hear in Jeff Buckley and Prince. You know, the kind of guys who can lay down a killer falsetto with balls intact.

Download MP3: "Why Am I The Only One Laughing"

Micachu & The Shapes - "Golden Phone"

Micachu is Londoner Mica Levi, a 21-year-old singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, who even makes her own instruments like the Chu, an adapted guitar that she named after herself. Although she was classically trained from a young age, her compositions are decidedly non-classical. Micachu & The Shapes' superb debut, Jewellery, is informed by a hodgepodge of styles: electronic/hip-hop beats, found-sound samples and choppy guitar are all processed into tunes that are both deceptively complex and insanely catchy. It is worth noting that electro-guru Matthew Herbert produced the album and aided with arrangements. Gang Gang Dance, Björk, Dirty Projectors, Animal Collective and Deerhoof are definitely kindred spirits, although Micachu does not necessarily sound much like any of those bands. On "Golden Phone," acoustic and electronic elements are chopped and screwed into an irresistible, syncopated bounce. It is madcap, pop perfection and, best of all, a great summer jam.

Jewellery is out now on Rough Trade.

Download MP3: "Golden Phone"

Heavy Rotation: The Joy Formidable

After listening to this Welsh trio a great deal in the past week, I can attest that they are definitely not guilty of false advertising - their music is a joyful, formidable blast. Lead singer/guitarist Ritzy Bryan is a sprightly force to be reckoned with, and The Times Online summed up her appeal better than I could: "Imagine that the indie timeline went askew, and Karen O and Ian Curtis had a secret lovechild. Who sat next to Kim Deal in music class. This is surely what she would sound like." So, yes, there are shards of Joy Division, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Breeders/Pixies evident throughout the band's debut, A Balloon Called Moaning. The first two singles, "Cradle" and "Austere," are about as immediate and infectious as indie rock gets. At the moment, "Austere" is my personal fave - it's strutting baseline and cooing "ah-oh-whoa-whoa's" make the Kim Deal comparisons impossible to resist, but it's the warm maelstrom of guitar and thundering drums in the second half that really get my pulse racing.

A Balloon Called Moaning is available for free here.

Download MP3: "Cradle"
Download MP3: "Austere"

Sunset Rubdown: Introducing Moonface

Introducing Moonface is part of a 7" series on Aagoo Records. While it is credited to Sunset Rubdown, the two songs that comprise the 7" were written and recorded by Spencer Krug all by his lonesome. This solitariness is immediately apparent upon hearing "Coming To At Dawn" and "Insane Love Is Awakening." The former is a gorgeous, solo piano piece that would make Thom Yorke envious. The latter features Spencer accessorized with only a scuzzy, electric guitar riff that sounds like a disjointed reprise of "Sweet Jane." Coincidentally (or, perhaps, intentionally), his vocal cadence on the track is decidedly Lou Reed-esque - especially while he repeats the penultimate line "flashing silver like the knife of killer." From what I can tell, the 7" is already sold out and there are no plans for a digital release. Therefore, the only way to obtain the songs now is via a vinyl rip. I will keep the songs posted below unless I make someone mad. Enjoy!

Introducing Moonface is out now on Aagoo Records.

Download MP3: "Coming To At Dawn"
Download MP3: "Insane Love Is Awakening"

Animal Collective - "Bleed"

This echo-drenched, ambient new tune from Animal Collective may not qualify as entirely "hopeful" sounding, but you'll still hear Panda Bear ghostly intoning "I feel hopeful/I feel thankful." This recording of "Bleed" is from the band's show in D.C. last night. The wonderful folks over at NPR were kind enough to make a professional recording of the show, and, consequently, this song.

Download MP3: "Bleed"

The Thermals - "Now We Can See"

At the enthusiastic behest of a dear friend, I gave Now We Can See a listen last week and have not been able to get the title track out of my head since then. From the opening "Oh-way-oh-whooaa's" onward, every second of the song is ridiculously infectious. The Thermals are churning out some seriously epidemic-worthy shit here. Since I had never heard the band until about a week ago, I'm not qualified to say how their new album, Now We Can See, compares to their previous repertoire, but it's an unabashedly joyful, fun record. They beautifully crossbreed the blustery power-pop of Big Star and the blazing surf-punk of the Pixies. It actually reminds me (in spirit and execution) of another youthfully exuberant album that I have been loving on this year: Japandroids' Post-Nothing. Now, if someone could get these two bands to tour together.

The video for "Now We Can See" was directed by the legendary (at least, in these parts) Lance Bangs.

Now We Can See is out now on Kill Rock Stars.

Download MP3: "Now We Can See"

Bat For Lashes - "Use Somebody" (Kings of Leon cover)

As you can tell, I'm kinda obsessed with Bat for Lashes this week. Also, it's been a slow week, but that's beside the point. The lovely Ms. Khan recently recorded a somber, moody cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" for Live Lounge on BBC Radio 1. Bat for Lashes deftly strips the original's surging emotionalism down to a quiet yearning that is as moving as it is surprising. While I will never claim to be a huge Kings of Leon fan, I do enjoy a fair amount of their songs ("Use Somebody" included) and this cover made me appreciate them a bit more. While at Live Lounge, BFL also recorded an equally stunning performance of "Daniel (Lo Fi version)."

Download MP3: "Use Somebody"
Download MP3: "Daniel (Lo Fi version)"

Dirty Projectors & David Byrne - "Ambulance Man"

(Photo by Natasha Ryan)

One of the highlights of the recent Dark Was The Night compilation was "Knotty Pine," a collaboration between Dirty Projectors and David Byrne. Turns out those two wickedly talented Davids recorded a second collab that didn't make it on to the compilation: "Ambulance Man." Somehow, the fine folks over at Stereogum got their hands on it and were nice enough to share. "Ambulance Man" is more subdued and contemplative than "Knotty Pine"and could have easily fit onto the Dirty Projectors' brilliant new album, Bitte Orca. The presence of David Byrne, as iconic as he is, barely stands out which only proves how fated this pairing had to be. Dirty Projectors are shaping up to be the modern day Talking Heads, and between the aforementioned Bitte Orca, these tracks with David Byrne and Angel Deradoorian's excellent Mind Raft EP, 2009 could very well be the Dirty Projectors' year.

Download MP3: "Ambulance Man"

Bat For Lashes - "Daniel"

Yes, that is none other than the karate kid himself, Daniel LaRusso, painted on Natasha Khan's back for the "Daniel" single's cover shot. He is the very sincere subject of "Daniel," the first single off Bat for Lashes' fantastic sophomore album, Two Suns. It is a love letter not just to Daniel-san, but to the movie itself which, apparently, cast quite a spell on her as a child. I discovered Bat for Lashes' debut, Fur and Gold, a bit late, but fell in love with it in a heartbeat. As I mentioned in my previous post, Natasha very much has a sylvan-priestess-from-a-fairytale vibe à la Björk or Kate Bush. Depending on your tastes/preferences, that's either a very good thing or a very bad thing. Obviously, I fall into the former camp. I'm an unabashed sucker for it. Over moody synths and programmed beats, Khan coos "Daniel, when I first saw you/I knew that you had a flame in your heart/And under our blue skies/marble movie skies/I found a home in your eyes/We'll never be apart" with absolute earnestness. Cool bonus: Yeasayer's Ira Wolf Tuton plays bass on this song as well as "Pearl's Dream."

Make sure to check out the awesome and very Karate Kid inspired video for the song below.

Two Suns is out now on Astralwerks.

Daniel - Bat For Lashes

Daniel - Bat For Lashes