More Shit on My Turntable

My music attention-span goes in waves. It's usually feast or famine. And praise Jesus it's finally back to feast, because I've been hard-up for some new good shit.

1. Beck's Guero--I finally got my hands on this cd on Friday, after digging on "Girl" for a few weeks (you can watch the video, and thus hear the song if you haven't already, HERE). I dig Beck. I realized this weekend that he definitely ranks somewhere in my Top 10 Sexiest Singing Voices list. He can croon with it and he can funktify and he can freak out. I mean, he's quite the man, wrapped up in a foxy little shaggy-haired boy's body. Yes yes. But back to the music--Guero is quite quite good. Nothing like Sea Change, nothing at all. But damn good summer music. And surprisingly, "Girl" has been bumped from my favorite song on the cd to be replaced by "Hell Yes" which is way more fun than one person should have while trapped in their freaking hot car. Oh wait. Well, there are other things that'd probably be more fun. But you get my drift. And "Que Onda Guero" is a good strutting-down-the-hot-summer-streets-while-drinking-a-sweaty-cold-bottle-of-pop-and-grooving-on-the-ladies kinda song. Oh yeah.



2. The White Stripes' Get Behind Me Satan--By far, the best song on here is the last song, which has a nice bit of quiet sass to it--"I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)." Again, we have another fella up on my list of Top 10 Sexiest Singing Voices--I mean listen to the boy wail all falsetto and shit in the first song and you'll get what I'm saying. *Getting a little hot under the collar* Plus, he has such a knack for cute weird love songie songs like "Hotel Yorba" and ones on his new album like "The Doorbell." "Little Ghost" is also a weird little romp into some crazy-ass bluegrassy shit. And damn, I'm all leaving Meg out--she does a bit of singing on here as well, in "Passive Manipulation," but it didn't do much for me like "In the Cold Cold Night" did. It's a fun and cute song, but that's about it. Overall though, there's a lot of fun shit on here that will make your stereo very very happy. Check it out.

3. The Books--I mention them again, only b/c they've been getting the most airplay out of any new cd of mine at work, in my car, and at home. They's some really really good shit. Again, listen to the title track for "The Lemon of Pink" HERE, and dammit, go out and buy their albums. Especially listen to "Take Time" as that is one of my favorite songs. Yeah. You heard me.

4. Andrew Bird--He is so pretty in the voice department, despite looking alarmingly similar to that dude from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anyways, he's got a weird thing for lots of whistling which you'd THINK would be annoying but which ends up being rather cool. He also sounds (yeah, I hate doing comparisons, but it's hard not to in this case) strikingly similar to Jeff Buckley sometimes, in that pure and haunting kinda way, and Mason Jennings in that stripped down and peaceful kinda way. These are good things. And his live shit is quite amazing: Listen to some of his stuff HERE.



5. The Killers Hot Fuss--The lead singer is way too fricking pretty for his own good. And normally that would annoy me. But the music is sexy in a way that I haven't felt since my long months of Strokes-obsessed lusting. Everybody's heard "Mr. Brightside" a hundred trazillion times on the radio at this point, but dammit if I don't dig that song. As for the rest of the cd, there's little burps and pimples that don't do it for me (mainly in the realm of lyrics: "This is your last chance to find/ A go-go dance to disco now") but dammit if the cd doesn't end up making me want to be sweet-talked over beers and pool by some shaggy-haired New Yorker and then break his heart whenever I listen to this album. Catch 'em HERE.

-------