April 26, 2004
1) Last Nite – Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This Before – The Detroit Cobras
Having the Cobras cover the Strokes creates some sort of hipster overload, but it works for me anyway. I kind of wish the Cobras would have reworked the bridge to something bigger, because the lax style doesn’t work as well for the Detroit Cobras.
2) Me and the Bean – Girls Can Tell – Spoon
Of all the songs I saw Britt Daniel play solo at Spaceland, “Me and the Bean” stood out the most. With the spooky keyboards and the slinky bassline, the album version’s even better than the solo performance.
3) One More Time – Look Sharp! – Joe Jackson
With all the new new wave floating around, the first song from the first album from Joe Jackson doesn’t sound out of place at all. There’s a great bassline on the last three measures of the song that jumps in out of nowhere.
4) It’s a Law – Beat Beat Heartbeat – The Natural History
The aforementioned new new wave. I wish I listened to this record last year when it came out. It probably would’ve slid into my Top 20 somewhere.
5) Red Right Hand – Let Love In – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
They used this as a music cue to intro the title character in “Hellboy,” and I thought it was a bit on the nose. That said, it’s still one of my favorite songs.
6) Hands Down – Album Covers on M2 – Dashboard Confessional w/Michael Stipe
I generally hate Dashboard, but Stipe creates some cool melodic hooks in the verse and gives the makeout anthem some subtext that makes it actually interesting. I still hate myself for listening to it.
7) Drink To Me Babe Then – The Slow Wonder – A.C. Newman
Carl Newman tones it down without the rest of the New Pornographers, giving us a slow country pop number with this wild bridge with him whistling alongside a wonky organ. Terrifically bizarre / bizarrely terrific.
8) Hong Kong Blues – Peel Session – Laura Cantrell
I’m a sucker for faux-Asian guitar licks in country songs. You just don’t hear it enough. I also think songwriter Hoagie Carmichael has one of the greatest names ever.
9) Portland, Oregon – Van Lear Rose – Loretta Lynn
Jack White’s guitar playing and production make it sound like Lynn and the band performed the song on a dilapidated porch somewhere. Flat out terrific.
10) Weight of the World – Sea Songs for Landlocked Sailors – Tarkio
Colin Meloy was in this Missoula, MT band before the Decemberists, and I can only find this one song. Similar thematically and lyrically to his current band, the main difference is that Tarkio sings about modern times in a peppy y’allternative style that’s like early R.E.M. on a bit of speed.
11) More Gender, More of the Time – The Song is Love – The Quails
I find myself popping in the Quails more and more, if only to listen to Seth’s absolute ass rocking bass playing. The horns in this song are a total blast too.
12) Dirt – ONoffON – Mission of Burma
The riff sounds like a reworked version of Gang of Four’s “Not Great Men,” but it’s delivered with typical Burmese fire. Burma’s new material’s got so much teeth and ferocity, it’s like the band was never really gone.
13) Remember Today – Fuckin’ A – The Thermals
The production values on Fuckin’ A got a bump, but I think the Thermals still work best when they sound like they’re trying to fight their way out from inside your stereo.
14) Winterlong – The Bridge – The Pixies
I was surprised to see their Neil Young cover pop up on the Pixies’ reunion setlists, but it’s a great little nugget from their catalog.
15) Every Day is Like Sunday – Live at the Lazy Lounge – Colin Meloy
There’s nothing particularly special about this Moz cover, but I was just all about Colin Meloy this month.
Posted in Mixtape
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