The Not-Pop Jukebox

It's time for a fun, rock-filled, somewhat profane song just in time for Friday night. Pony Pants lives up to their wacky name with fuzzy guitars, foul mouths, and a fine sense for the absurd. Haircutz takes you through a grooming session in which a significant other is asked to perform such services as shaving, manicuring, and other personal hygiene activities. It's a goofy song, particularly suited for a weekend spent wallowing in the weird relationship you may have with your own partner (or appreciating the fact that you don't have one, actually). It's also great for just jumping around, dancing like and idiot, and thinking, "TGIF!"

I've been grooving to some great Tokyo Police Club today and thought I should share a track with you. Cut Cut Paste actually reminds me a great deal of The Violent Femmes, with all of the good things that implies. At points it sounds like the band and the singer are performing completely different tunes and then they'll mesh together again in a shouting, happy coincidence that makes the song. In fact, even from Cheer It On from the EP I thought that Tokyo Police Club might be a worthy successor to the sort of do-whatever-I-want, overwrought punk music that has made the Femmes a huge favorite of rebellious teens and disaffected twenty-something the world over. That might be a bit of an overstatement but I'm feeling melodramatic today and I've been doing a lot of cutting and pasting. Just ignore me and have a listen to the song.

I've had an infuriating morning and I was all ready to post a fast and furious song about being mad when I encountered Kitten Is Angry. I cannot hold onto my inner cursing when listening to this song. It's about the least angry song you can imagine. It gives you mental images of a fluffy kitten attacking lint. Here I am, all ready to hear some adrenaline-fueling, hardcore punk when I make the mistake of clicking on Lemon Demon. All of those horrible bits of stupidity that created my mood are now down the drain and I'm laughing. I'm pretty sure that liking this song marks me as a complete geek, but I'm also sure you already knew that I was so where's the harm in sharing this little piece of fluff with you all? Be warned. If you're in a bad mood it will be completely wrecked by the Tai Kwon Do kitten.

I've been listening to Foals today, trying to decide if they're a sign that the 80s New Wave sound is coming back into vogue. (Please, lord, not another Vogue, though.) Sometimes they sound remarkably like The Cure, particularly Two Steps Twice but on other songs, like Total Life Forever have a more generic 80s sound with Casio synths, plinking guitars, and angsty, geeky vocals. It just so happens that I generally like that combination, having grown to musical maturity over the bridge from punk to New Wave, which makes me predisposed to like Foals, at least some of the time. Then again, I used to like The Pet Shop Boys an awful lot. Suburban angst doesn't work on me like it used to, now that I've shed most of mine.

I know that Foals is dangerously close to pop, having charted a few times in the UK and all, but I don't think they're quite there yet. I still don't know if their popularity heralds a return to the Pretty in Pink era but I'm willing to listen until the answer becomes clear.

It pays to stay on top of your favorite artists. DJ le Clown has a new track with a video, and I'm thrilled to share it all with you. He's taken Wilson Pickett, Prince, and Jazzy Jeff and mashed them into a blend of Battlestar Galactica goodness, complete with a video. You can download Bumble Star Galactica for free from the ever-helpful folks at Mashuptown. What more could I say for a video that speaks for itself?

Not only has it been months since I've posted some Taj Mahal but I've never posted my favorite song from his "Maestro" album and I've been posting relatively down-tempo songs this week. I say, "It's Friday! Let's get down and dirty!" In that spirit, have a listen to Scratch My Back and understand why I consider Taj Mahal to be one of the hottest bluesmen ever. I'm shaking my think all over the place and would be casting "come hither" looks at hubby were he anywhere near. This is the perfect song for dancing around on a Friday. Enjoy!

I thought it was about time I posted one of my secret favorite songs. One of the very first 45s I ever bought was (Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty by KC & the Sunshine Band. As so often happens to me, I found the B side of the record to be even better than the popular single. Boogie Shoes was a wildly popular song in the late 70s. It appeared in a couple of movies when I was a kid but what I really remember is listening to is on our Mickey Mouse record player over and over again. While roller skating. I still have the 45 and I still love to listen to it, whether I skate around the driveway while doing so or not. It's strange to me to hear the song without the hisses and pops that have become a part of it in my mind, but I still say it's a fantastic, feel-good song. Heck, the first thing I did in designing my blog was to put a pair of Boogie Shoes in the side bar. I hope you remember it as fondly as I do, or learn to love it as much.

At first listen, Augie March's One Crowded Hour is your typical, angsty song about love lost. Indeed, if you simply hear the song in passing you likely would think to yourself, "What a nice song," and nothing more. The beauty of this song, though, lies in the lyrics and the way it builds. What caught my ear after having heard the song a few times, was these lines in the first verse:

If love is a bolt from the blue
Then what is a bolt but a glorified screw
And that doesn't hold nothin' together.

Suddenly I started to listen to the song rather than simply having it on the background. Augie March's imagery, both clear and unusual, sweeps you along and makes One Crowded Hour much more than the sum of its parts. The same holds true for so many of his songs--the writing makes them much stronger than a simply first listen would imply. If you like this one, have a listen to much more at Grooveshark. Try Honey Month for a New-Orleans-flavored opening from this Australian gent. One Crowded Hour may be a lot more mellow than my usual selections but not every day can be happy.

Maps & Atlases are perfect for a mellow Sunday afternoon, and this video gives you a taste of how talented David Davison really is. The first time I watched this one I was so fascinated with watching his hands that I didn't even listen to the lyrics. It turns out that Barsuk Records, home to indie darlings Death Cab for Cutie, is set to release the band's first album June 29, 2010. As luck would have it, you can download a free track from the "perch patchwork" pre-order page. While you're waiting for the album to be released, you can enjoy a pile of great live videos on YouTube, including this one.

Once again, I've got a band for you today that doesn't sound at all how the name led me to believe it would. I expected Action Figure Party to be some perky indie, goofy and endearing, a little like Junior Senior but geekier, with GI Joe and Star Wars references. Instead, I got a wonky sort of jazz combo with secret electro bonus material. Luckily, I like wonky jazz combos and settled in to listen to their self-titled album at length. I still admit to expecting them to sound more like their Action Figure Party song and much less like The Clapper, but it turns out that the latter holds up to repeat listens better than the former, as does most of the rest of the album.

With a name like Love Is All, you'd expect this band to be sappy and predictable. I'm here to tell you that they are anything but. I've been entertaining myself today listening to their work and grooving on the drums and synths, the saxes and the semi-punk sound that they've put together. Kung-Fu on the Internet embodies a lot of what I post here on The NPJ - "What you need is kung fu kicks not emotional content!" I try not to get too emotional on here, to post some fun and perhaps something thought-provoking from time to time. I think Love Is All falls into the former category, but it did make me think enough to inspire this post so maybe it covers both intentions.

Ferraby Lionheart's Before We're Dead was one of the first songs that I posted here at The NPJ, but I never did include a way to listen to the tune itself. On this beautiful spring Thursday, as much as I adore you all, I can't be fussed with creating a long blather about something about which I already posted so I'm going to let the old post stand (you can click the link above to read it) and just give you the song here. I still think it's a fabulous song, filled with harmonies and horns enough to make even the grouchiest person start tapping his or her toes. You can listen to a whole lot more at Grooveshark if this taste whets your appetite and, yes, he was an SXSW artist (in 2007).

As ever, I was meandering through some music at The Hype Machine today and happened upon something interesting. I'd never heard of Yawn (yes, it's time for SXSW bands to take over my blog again) and was immediately captured by the stereo introductory seconds of Kind of Guy. It may not be ground-breaking music but it's catchy indie rock with a driving drum keeping it from being just like every other indie band out there. The vocals on Yawn's tracks tend toward swooping [Alert: Geeky gamer moment! "Swooping is bad."] and sounding like Vampire Weekend but that doesn't keep them from being a fun and repeat-listenable set of tunes. The electronic touches that grace each song keep them a little more wild and interesting then you'd expect. Have a listen and pick up their EP for free from the official Yawn web site.

When I went to make a Grooveshark widget for Bo Diddley's version of Sixteen Tons I ended up finding a whole lot more than I'd meant to include. Once I saw both The Eels and Frank Zappa on the list I couldn't resist including a whole dozen versions. Unfortunately, the Frankie Laine cover was bugged and it won't play so you only get eleven. But Tom Jones, Stevie Wonder, and The Platters make up for it, honestly. Have a good time with these. I know I did!

I hadn't intended to post this song, as it's dangerously close to pop and just about everyone has probably heard it at some point. I love James Brown, and I adore Get Up, but I figured so did everyone else. Then I happened upon this video, which gives you clips of James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince, Fred Astaire, and Cab Calloway doing some of their funkiest dance moves. How could I resist sharing it with you all? Truth be told, I didn't realize Prince could get down like that. No wonder the man needs new hips!

In obsessing over...I mean thinking about yesterday's proposal for a Prince/Robert Randolph collaboration, I've been listening to a pile and a half of great songs featuring Robert Randolph. I know that he's played with a bunch of people, but I hadn't really sought out too many of the songs. I don't know that I'd name this one as my absolute favorite, but I do know that it's a rockin' song and puts all dozen of the dirty brass to use. As I'd never heard it before, I thought you might like it as much as I do. I'm still working on a debate page for getting him into the studio with Prince, but in the meantime enjoy this one. I'll post a link when I've got a place ready for you to tell me what an idiot I am (or not).

Sometimes I listen to music and associations pop into my head. I was listening to Prince this morning (I don‘t think he counts as pop anymore so I can admit that freely) and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if Prince played with Robert Randolph and the Family Band?” Considering the gulf between their usual subject matters (sex and religion, respectively), I don’t know how likely that collaboration would be. I would love, however, to just pass that thought on to one or both of them.

The question? How to start a movement to attract the attention of both and make Prince and Robert Randolph think that maybe, just maybe, they could smoke some mean guitar riffs into the musical stratosphere together. Then they could release an album that really wails and send me a free copy for coming up with the idea in the first place. How hard could that be to accomplish?

No, really, I’m asking. Can I start a Twitter movement? Are either of them even on Twitter and would they notice? If I create a page extolling the virtues of both and asking people to vote for such a collaboration could it go viral? How would I promote such a thing? I think I’ll experiment and see how much I fun I can have with this idea. If anyone has more suggestions (or would like to help), please let me know. It seems a worthy experiment and I’d love to see it bear fruit!

My husband and I have very different tastes in music. The other night, for instance, he was listening to Kidney Thieves and I was enjoying Pale Young Gentlemen. There are some places, however, at which our musical tastes intersect, generally those that are a little (or a lot) weird. The stranger the song I’m enjoying the more likely he will ask the name. Such was the case with this little piece of the bizarre, Honkeyfinger’s Burning Skull Blues. It's a fuzzy pile of noise with a bluesy feel and barely-intelligible lyrics. What's not to love?

When I first bought the Brighton Port Authority album, "I Think We Need a Bigger Boat", it was solely on the strength of David Byrne's Toe Jam and the name Iggy Pop. I thought the album relatively uneven but definitely including standout songs. For some reason, my computer also thinks certain songs on this disc are better than others. It has recently become obsessed with Seattle and plays the song from a list of 1,200 at least once every two hours. I have found myself fast-forwarding the track less and less often of the past several weeks and can now officially admit that it has grown on me. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Emmy the Great really is as adorable as she sounds. Have a peek for yourself:

I’ve been a fan of Simon and Garfunkel since I was a kid, since I first heard the "Concert in Central Park" record (which I liberated from my parents’ neglected collection and still have, by the way, and from which this track comes). I’ve followed Paul Simon’s solo career over the ensuing decades, as well. Of all of the songs I love from both the collaboration and the solo work, Kodachrome remains my favorite. It’s just such a pure song, toe-tapping happy without being sappy, now-retro but celebrating something that everyone used to love--color film.

These days, few people worry about their film and on what paper it will be developed. We take a hundred shots with our camera phones, keep four, and stuff them into a dark hard drive where they won’t see the light of day unless we want to post them on Facebook. If I had to make a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time, Kodachrome easily make the cut. Not only does it make me smile but it reminds me of a time when sharing your photos meant gathering together the poring over a photo album, passing around embarrassing shots of your pals among your close friends but not publicly making fools of them. The glossy, colorful little rectangles were pieces of shared experiences, inside jokes you could carry with you. Every one of mine is printed in Kodachrome.