Earworm: "Wild Horses" by The Sundays

First, I would just like to say that I am now Dr.Queen of Sheba. Thank you.

This one goes in the category of unexpectedly lovely covers--who would've agreed that The Sundays would do beautiful justice to a Rolling Stones song? It's like agreeing that it would be good to make a movie out of a Disney ride, or to put Keanu Reeves in a dystopian cyberpunk epic; it seems a terribly improbable proposal. But I think maybe being The Rolling Stones distracted the actual Rolling Stones from making Wild Horses as it wanted to be. Nothing else in The Sundays' repertoire quite seems to measure up--their other songs are lovely but insubstantial; but achieving aesthetic rightness is nothing to sneeze at, even once.
tags: [Music], [mp3], [Sundays], [Rolling Stones], [Covers]

Earworm: Bob Schneider - Wish

Bob Schneider used to be a favorite of mine, in the years right after college; I haven't listened to him much lately, but Wish off of Songs Sung & Played on the Guitar came up on random the other day, and it was arresting. It's a wispy, insubstantial song, but the understated grotesquerie of the opening image saves it from being saccharine. It's not as cutting as some of Schneider's other lovely, acidly melancholy songs like The King of the World, but striking nonetheless.

tags: [Music], [Bob Schneider], [Wish]

Earworm: Jens Lekman - Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song

Last winter there was about a seventy percent chance that Jens Lekman would be an earworm at some point in the day; but on going back to him now, I find him uneasily precious most of the time. Melodious and soothing and well-constructed, generally, but very precious. This morning, though, I woke up with the twee twinkling opening of Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song echoing in my head. It's from an EP called Rocky Dennis, which apparently led to some confusion about whether the artist was named Rocky Dennis or Jens Lekman, which was resolved by this song. Now all I have to do is find out why Jens has a thing about the main character in Mask.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Jens Lekman], [Rocky Dennis]

VS: Rilo Kiley and Neko Case

I remember reading somewhere--Phoenix? Dig?--that there are some who have created a rivalry of redheaded-alt-country-singers between Neko Case and Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley); which seems kinda foolish, since everybody can have both. Neko Case was my first exposure, and I was addicted almost immediately: the loping grace in Star Witness was unarguable. The whole of Fox Confessor Brings the Flood was similarly stellar, and since the Rabbit Fur Coat tracks that I'd heard failed to grab me, I figured Neko'd won. But then Last.fm starting playing me Rilo Kiley songs, they're now back on more of an even par; A Man/Me/Then Jim is particularly compelling.

Neko has more strength in her sound, but Jenny tends to be more willowy; Neko's lyrics are more likely to be reflective and Jenny's bitter; Neko's more consistent, but Jenny sings with Postal Service! How does anyone choose?

Luckily, no one has to.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Neko Case], [Jenny Lewis], [Rilo Kiley], [Postal Service]

Earworm: Sting - Ghost Story

Sting's Ghost Story (from Brand New Day) is the song sitting in my ear today, after Ray LaMontagne's Be Here Now (from Until the Sun Turns Black) reminded me of it: the guitar lines are very similar in the beginning, and both songs have similarly hushed vocals and hesitant, upward-flowing melodic phrases.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Earworms], [Sting], [Ray LaMontagne]

Earworm: Lily Allen - Knock 'Em Out

This is a bit of a mystery. Normally I have an allergy to slick pop (it's pretty bad, I should carry an epipen but I don't)--but I am finding Lily Allen's Alright, Still very, very addictive. I'm not sure how that happened, but I'm enjoying it; her lyrics are nimble and sharp, and delivered with a fluid, easy creativity that makes them better still. It seems all of the tracks on the CD have been earworms, but at the moment it's Knock 'Em Out.

Can't knock em out, can't walk away,
Try desperately to think of the politest way to say,
Just get out my face, just leave me alone,
And no you can't have my number,
"Why?" Cause I've lost my phone.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Lily Allen]

Earworm: Psapp - Hi

Psapp is one of my most charming recent acquaintainces, and only partially because of toytronica, the lovely word invented for the music they make; although both The Only Thing I Ever Wanted and their earlier Tiger, My Friend have some of the tinkly, comforting sound you'd expect from such a name (like Velvet Pony)--an indie music box in the toy world--there are also surprisingly jaunty pieces like Hi, so full of angular, stylized motion it would have to be a clockwork tango doll.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Earworms], [toytronica], [Psapp]

Earworm: Frou Frou - Hear Me Out

It's been two years since I first heard Frou Frou, and I still think Imogen Heap is one of the best vocalists out there: her voice is powerful and versatile, and either she isn't inclined to melismatic overkill like many vocalists, or she's got a smart listener giving her feedback.

Today it's Hear Me Out from Details that's on repeat; it's got a nice, steady tempo that doesn't quite hint at what the words are describing, but as that's all in Imogen's voice, it makes a nice contrast.

tags: [Music], [Earworms], [mp3], [Frou Frou], [Imogen Heap]

Earworm: TV on the Radio - Modern Romance

Modern Romance is TV on the Radio's stickiest song, more so than anything from Return to Cookie Mountain; it reminds me of sitting on top of the dryer as a kid, and feeling that buzzy wum wum wum wum vibrating through me.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Earworms], [TV on the Radio]

Earworm: M. Ward - Vincent O'Brien

This, it seems, is the song that plays in your head when you wake up at five o'clock on a day where six inches of water have frozen solid in all the places you want to walk.

M. Ward - Vincent O'Brien, from Transfiguration of Vincent

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Earworms], [M. Ward], [Transfiguration of Vincent]

Earworm & Upcoming Show: Alexi Murdoch

Alexi Murdoch's 2006 release Time Without Consequence is one of those nice CDs where the tracks take turns: each time I listen to it, a different one strikes me. This time it's Home; its lyrical repetition contrasts nicely with the evolution of the sound, from cozy and acoustic at the beginning to the rougher, more impressionistic end.

Alexi Murdoch has a show with DJ Carbo and Midnight Movies at Great Scott tomorrow night, as part of the Fenway Recording Sessions series.

tags: [Music], [Live music], [Alexi Murdoch], [Great Scott]

Earworm: Decemberists - The Sporting Life

This is one of those persistent earworms that resurface every couple of days; the rollicking sock-hopper sound disguises the bitterness of the lyrics, in the frozen moment of a fall on an athletic field. The Sporting Life has less of a historical setting than most of the songs on Picaresque, but it's no less a comedy-of-manners song.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Decemberists]

Earworm: Stars - Going Going Gone

Stars aren't news to anybody these days; but their music is still a melancholy, hardnosed, powerpop good listen. Had a strange dream this morning, but Going Going Gone is all that's left of it.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Earworms], [Stars]

Earworm: Innocence Mission - Moon River

So it was my grandma's eightieth birthday this weekend, and the family had a surprise birthday party with neighbors, coworkers, kindergarten classmates, bridge partners--all of those connections that accumulate in a small town where people tend to stay put. One of the features of the party was a slideshow of pictures of my grandmother, from childhood til now, accompanied by chronologically-appropriate music; one such selection was an instrumental of Moon River. This reminded me that, as unimpressed by Now The Day Is Over as I was as a CD, the cover of Moon River is graceful and compelling.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Covers], [Moon River], [The Innocence Mission]

Earworm: Emily Haines - Our Hell

Devastating, gentle, heartsick, graceful, equivocal, regretful: Our Hell is a blow to the chest, disguised as the first track on Knives Don't Have Your Back. How does she manage to sound so sad without being sentimental?

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Earworms], [Emily Haines]

Earworm: Primus - My Name is Mud

I'm not the Primus fanatic several of my friends are. I don't declare Les Claypool a god--but I will declare him a remarkably talented bassist. Most of Primus is not too my taste, but My Name is Mud, with its wooden baseline, gets Earworm status pretty regularly.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [earworms], [Primus]

Earworm: Rogue Wave - Publish My Love

I remember that my brother, as a small boy, got his head stuck between porch railings; I think my mother used butter to get him out.

This song is stuck like that.

Rogue Wave - Publish My Love from Descended Like Vultures

Rogue Wave has a particularly pressing claim on your money, too: Pat Spurgeon needs a new kidney. Hear it direct from the kidney in an interview with Lemony Snickett/Daniel Handler, and then donate.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Earworms], [Rogue Wave]

Earworm: Electrelane

I've caved once again and paid for Last.fm personal radio, and I love it; but I'm not sure I understand it--songs I'd swear I've never listened to keep coming up on my personal radio, where I didn't think recommendations figured. This is hardly a bad thing, since one of them was Electrelane's Gone Darker from their live CD Axes.

Ambient instrumental semi-electronica (math-rock, is it?) like Explosions in the Sky or This is a Process of a Still Life, or Mogwai in their less dissonant moods, are good working music: there're no distracting lyrics, but they're not as shapeless as true ambient music. I'm not sure what I think of the tempo change in this track, but given how useful this kind of music is, it's just good to have another name.

Stream it (M3U)

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Electrelane]

Earworm: Metric - Empty

Not that I'm obsessive or anything, and not that my particular obsession of late has been infectious, often heartsick, acidic, girl-fronted indie coolness (see also: Spektor, Regina), but today's earworm is Metric's song Empty. (Stream it here.) Does this kind of music herald the return of the rockstar, after the thankfully temporary triumph of the Carrabba-style emo wuss? I'd be happy if it did.

Metric songs make me think of shoe boots--those weird, quintessentially-eighties boots that stop even below ankle-boot territory. Like these.



Is that a bad thing? I can't stand shoeboots, but I love Metric; it's the sharp, fearless, rockstar quality that connects them, I think.

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Metric]

I hear in my mind all this music

I know this is quickly turning into All Regina Spektor, All The Time, but damn, her songs are addictive. And I'm beginning to realize the lyrics equally smart: among other things, she uses rotating rhyme schemes!

You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

On the Radio, from Begin to Hope

tags: [Music], [mp3], [Earworms], [Regina Spektor]