Well, we hit ten volumes and still going strong! This week finds me either intensely working for hours upon hours or sleeping in a zombie-like state. Therefore, most of these tracks make me gogoGO on the treadmill, but I need a few here and there help me zonk out when my brain won’t stop moving before the sun comes up. 

The Strokes - 12:51 - Room on Fire

Whistle and clap along, infectious. I put on this song for two seconds on my laptop spreakers to brainstorm what to write, and my roommate is already whistling it. Continuing to marvel at the way these guys put tunes together. Love the keyboard that sounds like a guitar, or is that the other way around?

At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor - Relationship of Command
So… much… energy… like Billy Talent mixed with Rage Against The Machine.

Radiohead - Polyethylene (Parts 1&2) - Airbag/How Am I Driving [EP]

softsoftsoftsoftLOUD. Song is built in measures of 10 instead of 4 or 8, always find myself counting to ten while listening. Vocals swing like a pendulum back and forth crashing into walls like a wrecking ball.

Menomena - Strongest Man in the World - I AM the FUN BLAME MONSTER!

Nice use of alarm sampling that doesn’t get annoying, or make you think a cop is following you when you are driving. These guys have some amazing beats, subwoofer companies should use them as a sampler cd to show off what their gear can do.

M. Ward - Get To The Table On Time - Transfiguration of Vincent

What the hell year was this recorded in? Nice chromatic leads in here.

Deastro - Light Powered - Keeper’s

This guys whole album is amazing at the gym or while working.

My Morning Jacket - Look At You - Evil Urges

Another sample of a wonderfully fine album by My Morning Jacket.

The Gaslight Anthem - Old White Lincoln - The ‘59 Sound

It’s hard to type on a laptop while you are tapping your foot so much.

St. Germain - Rose Rouge - Tourist

Someone please remix this with a Q-Tip or A Tribe Called Quest track.

Thom Yorke - The Drunkk Machine - Harrowdown Hill [EP]

So, Radiohead pretty much saved meaningful rock, then abandoned it to go full blown electro with a socio-political conscience. During which time Thom Yorke was doing his best to imitate Aphex Twin on his own solo record… this is a b-side from that Pre-In Rainbows era.

M. Ward - Deep Dark Well - Transistor Radio

I never think about individual instruments when I listen to Ward… I think about feel, emotion, what fits. It all does. It all travels loose leaf through the tape spool and comes out pulped together, like your cereal if you wait too long to eat it. But in a good way.

The Strokes - Razorblade - First Impressions of Earth

I don’t think you could fit more “winner” riffs in this song. Any one of them another band would gladly pay for and build a song or short term career around. The slinky riff under the vocal during the verse, the exuberant intro, the Pearl Jam-esque major pentatonic solo with a horn interlude (!), the sliding diads of the outro… it’s just too good.

This week seems to be about big picture messages, context and minutiae can pile up and obscure meaning. When you take a step back, its the feeling you get from the parts that make up that feeling in your gut or that smile on your face.

Wilco - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Great free association lyrics here from Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and slightly out of tune instruments from the rest of the band really accentuate the disconnect in meaning line to line. Each line is a fascinating snippet on its own though.

Alexi Murdoch - All My Days - Time Without Consequence

An effortless singing voice and nice crisp guitar lines. Simply enjoyable, that’s all I got!

The Walkmen - In The New Year - You & Me

Production of this whole record has a strange aura making it better on headphones or cranked in your bedroom. Perhaps that is because despite the album’s title, it does feel beautifully solitairy.

The National - Baby, We’ll Be Fine - Alligator

I am willing to bet Matt Berninger is a sleepwalker. Something about his snippets of thoughts strung together give an aggregate feeling without any particular connection among them. It’s the details he focuses in on that are really visceral to me, and I guess that’s what’s missing in much of pop music to me: the fear of being abnormal, weird, fucked up.

All night I lay on my pillow and pray
For my boss to stop me in the hallway
Lay my head on his shoulder and say
Son, I’ve been hearing good things

I wake up without warning and go flying around the house
In my sauvignon fierce, freaking out
Take a forty-five minute shower and kiss the mirror
And say, look at me
Baby, we’ll be fine
All we gotta do is be brave and be kind

I put on an argyle sweater and put on a smile
I don’t know how to do this
I’m so sorry for everything

Minus The Bear - Ice Monster - Planet of Ice

Soft but angular pentatonic hooks echoing around some cold, tight drumming. One of the catchier chorus’ I have heard lately.

Ra Ra Riot - Winter ‘05 - The Rhumb Line

My love affair with stringed instruments continues. If you like Vampire Weekend’s baroque sound, you will dig this. Winter of 2005 was definitely an intense one for me, I guess that adds to this.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Tamacun - Rodrigo y Gabriela

There are many virtuosos in every genre of music. Rodrigo y Gabriela happen to play classical, hispanic-style guitar. Dios mio.

White Rabbits - Take A Walk Around The Table - Fort Nightly

With one of the best rhythm sections in indie rock today and their distinctive vocal harmonies, after a few tracks I can say I now immediately know a White Rabbits song in the first few seconds of play. The antique piano at the end is chilling.

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges - Evil Urges

This was a nice lil mantra for me during the past election to remember to breathe and focus on the positive despite the 24 hour news cycles, gaffes and poll cliffhangers. Well said: “I’m ready for it now.” From verse two:

It’s all the same, we’re tired of waiting come on then
And dedicate your love to any woman or man
No racial boundary lines, no social subdivisions
If you want it, you can

Well we’re not saying, I’m not saying that I want it someday
Well we’re not saying, I’m not saying that I want it somehow
Well we’re not saying, I’m not saying that I want it someday
Woo, I’m ready it for now (I’m ready for it now!)

Death Cab for Cutie - Company Calls Epilogue - We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes

I love me some old Death Cab. This vague and difficult to decipher tale follows a young man whose love has married someone else, so he does what comes natural: steals the plastic bride and groom figurines from their wedding cake, melts them and drinks them. OK, maybe not natural, but at least he didn’t copy Van Gogh and cut his ear off or something.

Jose Gonzalez - Sensing Owls - Stay in the Shade EP

“Come on, come out, from wherever you are.” They should prescribe Jose for high blood pressure. If you are driving with this on, make sure you have some coffee, and fight the urge to recline your seat. Just get all of his stuff, you will be glad you did.

Beirut - Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route) - The Flying Club Cup

These guys would have been The Beatles in 18th century Prague. It hard to imagine a tuba being cool on the Ed Sullivan Show, but you heard it here first. Delicate precise piano and vocals with excellent posture waltz stiffly about until the elephant parade enters at around 2:00 in. Or at least that’s what I hear.