1) One Of Us - Object 47 - Wire

Wire’s one of the few reunited bands that seem to actually make good NEW music too. “One of Us” favors the more melodic side of Wire’s later output, and has a touch of Stone Roses as well.

2) Get Better - Re-Arrange Us - Mates of State

One of the Mates prettiest songs, where the melodies layer and build and build to this overwhelming joy. Whoooo.

3) One Big Holiday - It Still Moves - My Morning Jacket

Listening to the Bonnaroo performance of this song (featuring Kirk Hammett, oddly enough), made me revisit It Still Moves quite a few times this month. I love the bizarro structure of this song, which basically starts with a solo before falling back to a dreamy verse only to end with even more guitar heroics.

4) Stay Positive - Stay Positive - Hold Steady

The simultaneously self-effacing and self-congratulatory lyrics are enough to put me off this song forever, but I ended up coming back over and over again for the simple rah-rah chorus. I am such a sucker.

5) My Old Jacknife - Ladyhawk - Ladyhawk

Surprise! Ladyhawk’s first record has some kickers too. This one’s got handclaps and a light country touch. If you ever see them live try and figure out how the bass player got into the band. It’s like they transplanted some nerd hesher into a bunch of weirdbeards.

6) Slow Show - The Virginia EP - The National

This is a live version of “Slow Show” that haunted me for most of the month. “Bring me the head of a love song…”

7) Treatment Bound - Hootenanny! - The Replacements

This alternate version is a bit of an anti-demo… where the album version sounds like it was recorded on a microcassette, this one’s polished and full. It doesn’t have quite the same desperate charm of the original, but it’s a fun curiosity.

8) Furr - Furr - Blitzen Trapper

Blitzen Trapper’s stripped single sounds like a lost Bob Dylan tune, and honestly one of the best songs they’ve written. My expectations for their upcoming album are unreasonably high now.

9) Drum And Bone - Momofuku - Elvis Costello

This seems like a companion track to “Monkey to Man,” featuring the same country blues feel and evolutionary imagery. If you listen carefully you might pick up Jenny Lewis on the backing vox. I do adore the phrase “limited primitive.”

10) I Was Made For You - Volume One - She & Him

Zooey Deschanel’s a pretty good singer for an actor. This sounds like M. Ward’s late contribution to the Grace of My Heart soundtrack, all girl group and Brill Building. For a little side project, I’ve becoming quite enamored with She & Him.

11) Cupid - Sings Sam Cooke - Colin Meloy

Colin Meloy’s no Sam Cooke, but along with the lovely Laura Gibson, he’s able to extract a plaintively pretty folk take on Cooke’s original.

12) Here’s To You - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Lisbeth Scott

Yoinked from a videogame soundtrack! Lisbeth Scott and composer Henry Gregson-Williams give us an operatic version of the Joan Baez/Ennio Morricone track from “Sacco and Vanzetti.” What does a musical eulogy to a pair of misunderstood anarchists have to do with Metal Gear? Dude, it’s a long, long fucking story.

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1) The Kelly Affair - Get Awkward - Be Your Own Pet
2) Sequestered In Memphis - Stay Positive - Hold Steady
3) I’m Amazed - Evil Urges - My Morning Jacket
4) You Are Free - Re-Arrange Us - Mates of State
5) Corpse Paint - Shots - Ladyhawk
6) California Dreamer - At Mount Zoomer - Wolf Parade
7) Go Away - Momofuku - Elvis Costello
8) Good Times - … Sings Sam Cooke - Colin Meloy
9) Without Permission - The Virginia EP - The National
10) Sweet Darlin’ - Volume One - She & Him
11) The Coo Coo Bird - Two Beers Veirs - Laura Veirs
12) Just Like Heaven - Fire Songs - Watson Twins

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I am so behind that I’m skipping notes for a bit. Starting this month, I’m going to try and keep a streaming version of the current mix on http://hqd.muxtape.com

1) The Dugout - Ladyhawk - Ladyhawk
2) The Bell - This Gift - Sons and Daughters
3) The Cheapest Key - Asking For Flowers - Kathleen Edwards
4) Fried Out - In A Cave - Elf Power
5) Language City - Kissing The Beehive - Wolf Parade
6) George Michael - Walk It Off - Tapes ‘n Tapes
7) Strange Currencies - Monster - R.E.M.
8) Librarian - Evil Urges - My Morning Jacket
9) Big Kid Table - We Brave Bee Stings And All - Thao Nguyen
10) Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? - Volume One - She & Him
11) Marduk T-Shirt Men’s Room Incident - Heretic Pride - Mountain Goats
12) Bring it On Home to Me - Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke - Colin Meloy

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1) In A Coma - Moon Rock - Paul Steel
2) Spiral Stairs - In A Cave - Elf Power
3) Hang Them All - Walk It Off - Tapes ‘n Tapes
4) S.T.H.D. - Shots - Ladyhawk
5) Remember When (Side B) - Attack & Release - Black Keys
6) Becky - Get Awkward - Be Your Own Pet
7) The Nest - This Gift - Sons and Daughters
8) Oh Shenila - Introducing - Cadallaca
9) Bag of Hammers - We Brave Bee Stings And All - Thao Nguyen
10) Cold Son - Real Emotional Trash - Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks
11) Michael Myers Resplendent - Heretic Pride - Mountain Goats

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1) Supernatural Superserious - Accelerate - R.E.M.
2) Gilt Complex - This Gift - Sons and Daughters
3) Bitches Leave - Get Awkward - Be Your Own Pet
4) I Got Mine - Attack & Release - Black Keys
5) Fear - Shots - Ladyhawk
6) We Can’t Help You - Real Emotional Trash - Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks
7) Metal Heart - Jukebox - Cat Power
8) San Bernadino - Heretic Pride - Mountain Goats
9) Travel - We Brave Bee Stings And All - Thao Nguyen
10) Tonight You Belong To Me - One Too Many Hearts - The Bird And The Bee

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1) Flags - This Gift - Sons and Daughters

“Flags” is one of the more muscular numbers off This Gift, which is generally how I like this band. My favorite songs of theirs always have that deep, growling bass line. This track also a howling guitar solo too, which is a real bonus.

2) Docudrama - Sweet Revenge - Bangs

Guitars with slight AC/DC and Sabbath tinges, girly call and response vocals and lots and lots of handclaps. What’s not to love?

3) (I’m A) Donkey For Your Love - Let’s Drag Our Feet! - BOAT

Falsettos are funny. Animal imagery, mixtapes growing on trees, unabashed romanticism fuel this great, great pop number. Yes, the chorus really does say “I’m A Donkey For Your Love!” No false advertisement here!

4) Swimming Pools - We Brave Bee Stings And All - Thao Nguyen

Nguyen’s album isn’t particularly political, but “Swimming Pools” plays with the idea of making the world a better place for the kids that come after her: “We brave, beestings and all / we don’t dive we CANNONBALL / we splash our eyes full of chemicals / just so there’s none left for little girls” This song also a nifty banjo track.

5) “Burn, Don’t Freeze!” - The Hot Rock - Sleater-Kinney

This has always been one of my favorite, underrated S-K tracks. It’s a little puzzlebox of a song, with Corin and Carrie actually singing two completely different songs that bounce in and out of each other, complementing and counterpunching each other along the way. Extending their guitar interplay to the vocal melodies and lyrics, it’s a logical extreme that remains emotionally satisfying while being insanely complex.

6) The Same Fire - June - Bishop Allen

Bishop Allen actually cranked out an EP a month for a whole year in 2006, most of which ended up on their full length. This is one of the tracks that didn’t make it onto the album, despite it being a mainstay of their setlists. The throwaway reading of “goddamn… you were beautiful” gets me every time.

7) Autoclave - Heretic Pride - Mountain Goats

Heretic Pride is the early front-runner for my 2008 album of the year. To quote John Darnielle himself, this song is about “people whose hearts involuntary pulverize any good feelings that come within a city block of them.” It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it too… awkwardly.

8) Gardenia - Real Emotional Trash - Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks

“I kinda like the way you dot your J’s … with giant circles of naivety!” is the kind of wry, whimsical lyrical turn that Malkmus pulls off every now and then that just flips my shit. In an album full of jammy goodness, “Gardenia” is condensed hooky perfection.

9) Naked If I Want To - Jukebox - Cat Power

Stuffed onto the bonus disc of Jukebox, this is Chan Marshall’s second pass at the Moby Grape song. The sparseness of the first cover was fantastic, but I think there’s something to be said for this soulful New Chan style.

10) Bryn - Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend’s album is a bit too “college kids do world music” for me, but the trippy little guitar lick carries “Bryn” quite a ways for me, even past the singer’s goofy calypso accent.

11) Wild Mountain Nation - Wild Mountain Nation - Blitzen Trapper

The first few notes make me think I’m listing to “Signs” by The Five Man Electrical Band. I liked this Malkmus bit about Blitzen Trapper opening for them and this song in particular: “I was blown away by that (song). But then Janet’s like, ‘That song is absolutely amazing, but don’t worry, not every song on the album is that good. They’re not going to completely shred us.’ “

12) Night You’re Beautiful - Shots - Ladyhawk

Ladyhawk’s kind of the band for people that like The National and Band of Horses but think they should hunker down and just rock some ass. Great song, great album, great band. Horrible band name (and I like that movie).

13) “Aly, Walk With Me” - Lust Lust Lust - Raveonettes

The Raveonettes throw together a sexy, slightly trip-hop beat with Morricone guitar lines and a few guitar washes and make a walk through Portland sound like a 60’s spy movie.

14) Shake A Fist - Made In the Dark - Hot Chip

Who puts a 5 minute dance track at the end of mix? I do, cuz that kinda shit just wears me out and makes me tired.

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1) A Trip Out - Do You Like Rock Music? - British Sea Power

British Sea Power must be fairly confident to title their album Do You Like Rock Music? but this track, at the very least, does rock a little.

2) Stormy High - In The Future - Black Mountain

Like a Canadian Wolfmother, Black Mountain is blatantly Sabbathy. Like Wolfmother, they’re pretty good at it.

3) Wrigley Scott - Curses - Future Of The Left

Sadly, this song has little to do with the Cubs or Blade Runner, but it does have a lot of lines about eating sausage on a stick. THAT MAY BE AN UNSUBTLE EUPHEMISM.

4) Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? - Of Montreal

MAJOR props for combining Norse and Greek mythology in the title and not having it sound like Ragnarok in Zeus’s Beard. This bipolar tune (as far as I can tell, actually about manic-depression), works best in the sections about chemical euphoria.

5) “Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)” - We Brave Bee Stings And All - Thao Nguyen

After hearing this track, I’m really looking forward to the Thao Nguyen album due next month. She has a warble like Chan Marshall but she brings it with a confidence and assurance that Marshall only recently found.

6) Anyone Else But You - Moldy Peaches - Moldy Peaches

I adored Juno, but I found a lot of the musical references kind of shaky. Choosing the Moldy Peaches as the closer was dead-on though.

7) Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again - I’m Not There - Cat Power

Chan Marshall seems a little trapped in Bob Dylan’s phrasing, elongating her syllables to match but she sounds great anyway. Her band is working triple-overtime too, especially the horn section which is so happy and fun that it makes the seven minute number just fly by.

8) Country Caravan - Wild Mountain Nation - Blitzen Trapper

This is a great road song, reeking of Americana like a lost track from The Band.

9) Do What You Gotta Do - Golden Opportunities - Okkervil River

I’m always a sucker for a good Jimmy Webb cover, and this is a good one. Will Sheff can sing the shit out of sadness and sacrifice so this was a perfect fit.

10) You And Your Crystal Meth - Brighter Than Creation’s Dark - Drive-By Truckers

I don’t think this song is supposed to be funny, but I find crystal meth fucking hilarious.

11) Chains - This Gift - Sons and Daughters

Sons and Daughters seems to be polishing down their ragged edge for a more danceable, easy going appeal. This track is like their shot at a sock-hop jam.

12) Lover In The Snow - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo - Rivers Cuomo

Even in his b-sides, Rivers Cuomo is rejected by girls and obsesses over them. While it’s not quite a Weezer classic, it is suitably creepy.

13) (My Head) - Rip It Off - Times New Viking

Times New Viking is the lowest-fi record I’ve heard in a while, and downright difficult to listen to. Underneath the breaking up of the speakers, there is a great exuberance trying to fight its way through.

14) Baltimore - Real Emotional Trash - Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks

Modern Malkmus can be a bit of an acquired taste, and the first couple of minutes of this number is decent but pedestrian psychedelia. Somewhere after the guitar and keyboard call and response section though, this song just starts kicking ass all over the place. It’s heavy, heady, trippy and highlighted by Malkmus’s hilarious reading of “Baltimore, Baltimo-oh-oh-whoa-whoa-whoa.” I’m not sure if I can refer to it as Bodymore, Murderland if I can get away with just sing Baltimo-oh-oh-whoa-whoa-whoa.

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1) Cool - Gyrate Plus - Pylon

Delving into old bands can be a dangerous proposition, but getting to rediscover something like Pylon is what it’s all about. Simultaneously caustic and captivating, Pylon still has a jarring freshness to modern ears.

2) The Wicked Messenger - I’m Not There - The Black Keys

There’s a ton of great material on the I’m Not There soundtrack, but I love the Keys because they make their cover completely unDylanesque (hello, completely made-up word). While everyone is coming an inch short of doing actual Dylan impersonations, Auerbach and Carney are grinding out bog heavy blues as they are wont to do.

3) This Time Tomorrow - The Darjeeling Limited - The Kinks

This was already a classic track, but whenever Wes Anderson really nails a song placement he claims a little piece of it. Just hearing it makes me visualize everyone running in slow motion… is that just me?

4) Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe - The Stage Names - Okkervil River

I’m a big fan of someone trying to do an extended metaphor in their song lyrics, but film references is dicey. It’s just too easy to sound like video store clerk poetry. Despite shoehorning the word IMAX into the song, Will Sheff does admirably. I’m pretty close to calling Stage Names my favorite record of the year.

5) Sci-Fi Kid - Wild Mountain Nation - Blitzen Trapper

Most of Wild Mountain Nation has a folksy throwback country sound to it, but this song merges humble roots music with spacey keyboards and random digital samples to create their own space oddity.

6) Man - Please Clap Your Hands - The Bird And The Bee

The Bird and The Bee is a little bit trip hop and a little bossa nova. Their dreamy lounge music spikes with danceable beats and sharp melodies but is just slightly more interesting than your standard cutesy electronica.

7) Butterfly Nets - The Broken String - Bishop Allen

This is one of the few Bishop Allen tracks with Darbie Nowotka on lead vocal, and one of their most beautiful and fragile numbers. Even the trombone solo has a trembling frailty, which is stunning in its subtlety.

8) White Wedding (Billy Idol Cover) - Bridging The Distance - Whip

Buried in the middle of the Portland covers compilation, The Whip makes Billy Idol’s hit into a darkly beautiful murder ballad.

9) The Bleeding Heart Show - Twin Cinema - New Pornographers

I was revisiting Twin Cinema, and I was shocked to find that this didn’t sneak onto any my monthly mixes the year it came out. Despite being attached to a horrible Phoenix University commercial, it’s still one of the best New Porn tracks. The build and layering are tremendous, with the band going into Polyphonic Spree territory only to have Neko Case blast through the mix.

10) I Give Up - Live Shit - Quasi

The actual proper “song” is only the last half of the track, with a 90 second instrumental intro featuring the wacky drum stylings of Janet Weiss. Great intro, great song. It also captures the weakest audience reaction on a live album I’ve ever heard. To be fair, this was live IN STUDIO and not in a club, so the clapping is probably just three guys in a booth at Jackpot Records.

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1) Polite Dance Song - Please Clap Your Hands - The Bird And The Bee

This track skirts the edge of novelty with Inara George chanting out every dance floor cliche in a dreamy pop backdrop, like Zero 7 doing a booty anthem. It’s funny and charming but also slyly sensual.

2) Roman Statues - Fables - Immaculate Machine

Kathryn Calder’s vocal star again for Immaculate Machine, but bandmate Brooke Gallupe gets the best line, “Sell off your statues under the table / let all your stories turn in to fables…” The Immaculate Machine only achieves greatness occassionally, but they reach for it often.

3) Black - Black Sheep Boy - Okkervil River

Wow. Passive listens at Okkervil River really don’t do the lyrical work any justice. In “Black,” the singer tries to get through to a child abduction survivor, promising bloody revenge and only getting a blank stare in return. Will Scheff sing lines like “Though I tell you, like before, that you should wreck his life the way that he wrecked yours, you want no part of his life anymore” until his throat is completely raw.

4) You Don’t Know Me At All - The Scene of the Crime - Bettye Lavette

Lavette’s soulful sass makes even Don Henley songs sound rough and tough.

5) Highway 61 Revisited - I’m Not There - Karen O & The Million Dollar Bashers

It’s less intense and more whimsical than PJ Harvey’s landmark take, and a totally rollicking good time. The Million Dollar Bashers (Nels Cline, Lee Renaldo, Steve Shelley, Tony Garnier, John Medeski and Smokey Hormel) are a a ridiculously good house band.

6) Hard Sun - Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild - Eddie Vedder

Pretty standard Eddie Vedder cover song, but check out Corin Tucker on backing vocals.

7) Life And How To Live It (Live) - And I Feel Fine - R.E.M.

Stashed away on the 2nd disc of their IRS years retrospective, this live track captures the band in fine mid 80’s form, including one of my favorite pre-song anecdotes. Mysterious, enigmatic and absolutely entrancing… and man, Bill Berry sounds good behind the kit.

8) Marry Song - Cease To Begin - Band Of Horses

I can’t imagine this song anywhere near a wedding anywhere. I can’t quite make out the lyrics but I’d say it’s 50/50 that it’s about stabing someone.

9) All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth - Challengers - New Pornographers

This is one of those New Pornographers where they pretty much toss all their paint on the wall and see what shakes out. It’s an absolute cacophony, with little bits of melody peeking from under the covers. Those last few sentences were written by my Mixed Metaphor Machine. Thanks!

10) Bleeding Powers - Shake the Sheets - Ted Leo / Pharmacists

I think it’s really funny when Ted Leo sings in falsetto.

11) Eve of Destruction - Charm School - Bishop Allen

“And I tell you over and over and over again, my friend
That I’m down with you, even on the eve of destruction.” The indie apocalypse will end with awkwardly appropriated slang.

12) Girls In Their Summer Clothes - Magic - Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen doesn’t wow me much anymore, but there is something comforting about his ability to create an instantly nostalgic sense of time and place. One listen through and you can visualize every single lyric.

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1) Sunday Sounds - New Magnetic Wonder - Apples In Stereo

Drummer Hilarie Sidney gives a dreamy vocal performance but Bob Schneider throws in a fantastically wonky guitar solo.

2) Fortune - Challengers: B-Sides, Demos, Alternate Mixes - New Pornographers

The New Pornographers have slipped quite a few gems onto their “executive edition,” including this track that just barely got cut from the official release. Kathryn Calder (I think, it may be Neko) has some lovely undercutting backing vocals on that chorus.

3) Click, Click, Click, Click - The Broken String - Bishop Allen

I will be shocked if this doesn’t get picked up for a commercial for digital cameras. Every time you hear the words “take another picture with your click click click click camera” you will want to buy some photo equipment.

4) Plus Ones - The Stage Names - Okkervil River

Okkervil River does some lyrical math rock here, co-opting number based lyrics from the Mysterians, Nena, REM, The Zombies and Paul Simon, among others. The result is a classic love letter to classic love songs .

5) Hot Knives - Cassadaga - Bright Eyes

I got on a big Janet Weiss kick this month, and check how much life she gives the song, which is at its core a pretty mopey track with a flatline vocal.

6) Our Happiness Is Guaranteed - “Featuring Birds - Quasi

More classic Weiss work here, from the jazzy intro to freewheeling melodicism of the verse and a crushing backbeat all the way through.

7) Ode To LRC - Cease To Begin - Band Of Horses

The new Band of Horses sounds a lot like the last record, big and shimmery with touches of seductive quiet.

8) Come My Sunshine - Spells - Comas

I love a good fuzzy guitar.

9) Devil With the Green Eyes - Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet

Flashback! Somehow I always forget how good Sweet’s studio bands were during this era. Yes, the refined power pop is there, but those are some serious guitar licks too.

10) Polyester Bride - whitechocolatespaceegg - Liz Phair

Another early 90’s callback here. This was almost certainly the most overplayed song in my apartment circa 1998. Maybe 1999 too.

11) Don’t Stop Believin’ - B-Sides and Rarities - Petra Haden

I’ve been resisting this Journey cover for awhile, since Haden takes the easy way out on the chorus, talk-singing her way through. How can I hate the vocal take on that guitar solo though?

12) A Sunday Smile - The Flying Club Cup - Beirut

Is everyone ready for some gypsy rock?

13) 15 - Under The Blacklight - Rilo Kiley

“15″ is one of the few likeable songs off Under the Blacklight, with a strong country twang and more of the Memphis soul aping that Jenny Lewis got so good at.

14) Release Me - B-Sides and Rarities - The Like

Z Berg’s performance here is breathtaking, as she breaks down further and further into the track, full of the back and forth pain of the relationship she describes.

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