1) Sealings - Spider-Man 3 Soundtrack - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I gotta say I’d never thought I’d see a YYYs track stuck onto a Spider-Man movie, but here it is. Classic YYYs all the way around.

2) Dear Confessor - Fables - Immaculate Machine

If this single is any indication, Immaculate Machine may be letting some of that New Porn magic rub off on them. Brooke Gallup and Kathryn Calder finally get their voices to co-mingle effectively, and slip in some very Newmanesque turnarounds.

3) Red Microphones - Spells - The Comas

The guitars and D&D lyrics scream early Weezer, and I’m not going to complain about anything like that.

4) Rappaport’s Testament - Mo’ Livin EP - Ted Leo / Pharmacists

Leo’s Chumbawumba cover just killed in concert… lyrics like “I crawled through the mud but I never gave up” don’t really sound right until you get hundreds of people yelling it, and Leo’s never failed getting a bunch of kids to scream along.

5) Grip Like a Vice - Untitled - The Go! Team

New Go! Team track has some familiar production with some throwback rhymes. Not quite Roxane Shante or JJ Fad, but what is?

6) Eye In The Sky - Bridging the Distance - Viva Voce

I can’t really hear this song without thinking about there’s a basketball game about to break out. Once you get the prog-rock intro though, Viva Voce makes it seem like a real song, including a flawless vocal baton relay around the 3 minute mark.

7) Don’t Lose Yourself - Saltbreakers - Laura Veirs

Veirs is doing some really cool stuff with her drum machine folk songs. Everything sets up as cooly detached but there’s something warm and personal about it too.

8) You Turned My Head Around - Back Numbers - Dean and Britta

I can never get over the fact that she was the voice of Jem and the Holograms. Jem’s doing a Lee Hazelwood cover! WTF?!?!

9) Fear City - New Moon - Elliott Smith

Indie Tupac keeps cranking tunes out.

10) Brandy Alexander - The Reminder - Feist

Feist brings it WAY down with a piano and fingersnaps.

11) The Underdog - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon

This track has that bouncy “Sister Jack” vibe with some jaunty horn work to take it over the top. Great lyrics too.

12) Fake Do Gooders - Heroes and Sheroes - The Eames Era

I actually thought this was a Rilo Kiley song. I got totally faked out.

13) 3 Away - EP - Pretty Girls Make Graves

Another stroll down PGMG memory lane, when Derek screamed a lot and everyone was just a bit off-key and they rocked like crazy.

14) Apartment Story - Boxer - The National

Another month, another National dirge to end it.

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