Your Weekly Playlist: 2/24/2009
Professor Elmer Honeydew, curator of the old Radio Hoodies mixtapes, humbly submits the second installment of Your Weekly Playlist. Use the tabs below to enjoy each day’s selection…
Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Zero”
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The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have a new record on the horizon and if “Zero” is any indication, it’s going to represent the latest phase in the band’s already illustrious career. The song starts forward on a darkly mechanical lurch with buzzing synths serving as the underpinning to Karen O’s distinctive vocals. Things get considerably poppier thereafter, but things never lose their edge.
The 1990s “The Box”
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We’ll admit that we’re coming around late to The 1990s, thanks in large part to this vampy track that will appeal to fans of Louis XIV and the original ’70s glam that band is so derivative of. Look out for Kicks to drop in March, with a guest appearance by the vocalist of the now-defunct Long Blondes.
The Sound of Arrows “M.A.G.I.C.”
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I almost feel like I need to apologize for not getting this one into the rotation earlier. I’ve been sitting on this track, lustily devouring it all by myself, unwilling to share. Is there anything Swedes can’t do more perfectly than the rest of us? (Okay, apart from speaking English, but that’s just not fair.)
Loney, Dear “Airport Surroundings”
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Oh, did someone say something about sitting on awesome tracks from Swedish acts? Well, consider me doubly guilty, as the latest from Loney, Dear is simply sensational. And–it could just be me–but does the vocal meter of the beginning of this song sound a little too much like Nate Dogg and Warren G’s “Regulate” to be a coincidence? Loney, Dear has to regulate.
New Ruins “Lake”
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Switching gears a bit, here’s one from the latest New Ruins record, all moonshined and gritty. There is something terrific about the way New Ruins swaddle this track in a sense of the tossed-off–the lustre of the unkempt. It is an outstanding bit of songwriting that suggests what a poet like Mark Eitzel would have done if his musical proclivities had a slightly different trajectory.
Sholi “Tourniquet”
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Unruly and sprawling, “Tourniquet” is a good representation of Sholi’s sound on their recently released self-titled affair. With songs that sit comfortably on the indie rock shore while dipping their toes in the post-rock soundscape, Sholi brands their tracks with inventive song structures and unexpected tempo shifts. This is sure to be one of the great, under the radar releases of 2009.
O+S “Do What We Want”
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O+S are a tricky trout to wallop. The duo call Saddle Creek home yet eschew much of what made that label so popular in the late ’90s and early aughts, opting instead for a tender, lightly drifting sound. It’s a nice way, I think, for us to end the week on a wispy, romantic note. After all, there will be more time for drum machines and distorted guitars come March.
Elmer Honeydew posted this in Music.
[...] in February, I wrote about The Sound of Arrows for a different site, and their just-released 12″ for Neon Gold shows how much the band has elevated their game in [...]