Random Track of the Day: Old 97s

Welcome to one of the universe's most underrated songs. The Old 97's have a loyal but small following, and my favorite O97 song has always been "Adelaide", but it seems to have been forgotten by everyone else. It was nowhere on their best of album, and there's not a single clip of the song on Youtube outside of a scene on "Veronica Mars" that the song was used very well in. Check out the song and spread the word.

Random Track of the Day: Angelfish

If you're a fan of Garbage, then you need to have Angelfish in your life. A year before Shirley Manson joined Butch Vig and Co to form Garbage, she was the lead vocalist for Angelfish, an industrial-sounding rock band behind halfway between Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode. The music stands up alone without the usual goth-cliches that often go with this kind of music. It's not as good as Garbage at their best, but it's still damn good 90s rock.

Random Track of the Day: The Maginot Line

Here's another unknown act that's better than 90% of mainstream radio right now. Today we're talking about the UK's Maginot Line, a band that specializes in mile-thick walls of sound and Oasis-y melodies, with some unknown factor that sets them apart from everyone else. You can't find them on iTunes, but Myspace has four of the songs available for streaming, and arguably the best of the four is "Tucked In Sleep", a song that effortless builds an epic, widescreen surround-sound quality carried by vocalist Jonny Galloway soulful vocals.

Random Track of the Day: Dan Tharp (Via Amiestreet.com)

Here's a website that anyone who gives two fucks about music needs to know about. If you're looking for new music that you've never heard about, go to Amiestreet.com for suggestions. Seriously, legitimately talented people who are complete unknowns are hard to find, but this place helpfully compiles them all into one place. Plus, if you register, you can make money by making good recomendations. One example of really cool, random obscure tracks you can find is an amazingly well-produced acoustic intrumental by Dan Tharp called "Amber". You can find plenty of more mainstream-sounding tracks at Amiestreet, but I thought it would be more fun to post the most left-of-center thing I can find.

Random Track of the Day: Leticia Wolf, Part 2

We've posted about an awesome but relatively unknown artist named Leticia Wolf before; we talked about her "Heart-Shaped Box"-ish sounding song "Married to Grunge" two months ago, snd now we've found a track of hers that we like even more, so we're posting that too. It's an earlier song called "drain" (no capitalization), and it's a much different side of her than we saw in "Married to Grunge". This is a much more real and vulnerable side that really lets Wolf's lyrical skills show through. "Married" coasted on the lyrics (repeating the same line 20+ times) but made up for it with an intoxicating instrumental and production, while this is more lo-fi and basic guitar work with deeply personal and well thought-out lyrics. It's a lovable and relatable breakup song that's so smartly written that it makes you want to cheer for a verse describing how she cleaned her tub during the weekend. You need to hear it to believe it.

Random Track of the Day: Sia

I've gotten so used to thinking of Sia as the down-tempo performer from Zero 7 and "Breathe Me" that I was a little shocked when I heard this song. In "The Girl You Lost to Cocaine", from her new album "Some People Have Real Problems", she's pissed. Really pissed. And it's amazing.

Random Track of the Day: Ryan Adams

I kinda forgot what a good album "Love is Hell" was until I ran across it yesterday while I was iShuffling (my word). Yeah, there's a stretch in the third quarter where the album wallows way too much to be engaging at all, but there's still some classic stuff on there. One of the more impressive tracks was its quiet opening song, "Political Scientist". It doesn't do anything special sonically, but the lyrics are ridiculously well-written. They're the kind of lyrics that you can study for days and still not get a complete understanding of what he's trying to say. It could be about corruption, and how politicians sit on the sidelines of their town while the core falls to pieces. It could also be about The White Stripes. Really, it could. Check out the bold lyrics below the audio. Is it one, the other, both, or neither? Or does it even matter?



He is drinking water from the faucet from the river
From the tributary it comes through rusty pipes
Outside his window sees the water
That's supposed to be clean by the chemicals
Polluted by the candy factory lines

Someplace on the edge of town
Someplace on the edge of town
Is where they live
Political scientists

So now she is crawling on her hands and her knees
She is dirtying her jeans choking on her own perfume
With a pen she writes below the sink
In someone’s restaurant
This place is inconvenient for my name
She forgets to write it anyway
She forgets to write it anyway
The government supplies the cocaine
Political scientists

There’s no guarantees
There’s no guarantees
There’s no guarantees

Banging hard upon her crooked drum
She feels them tearing down
Salvation Army houses back in Michigan
Her husband’s divorced
But he treats her that way of course
Because he needs her just like he needs medicine

She forgets to write him anyway
She forgets to write him anyway
What’s red and white and nearly over?
Political scientist
Political scientist
Political scientist

There’s no guarantees
There’s no guarantees
There’s no guarantees

Random Track of the Day: "With Arms Outstretched"

I've had a fucked-up day and I need some Rilo Kiley to get me through the rest of it. I always loved "With Arms Outstretched" from "Execution of All Things". The instrumentation is simple and the vocals are far from perfect, but Jenny puts miles of charisma into it and makes the song really endearing despite how flawed the technical aspects of it are. Check it out.

Random Track of the Day: Letita Wolf

Sometimes every once in a while I like to post about an artist so obscure that they only have 1600 search results on Google. Leticia Wolf is one of those artists. She may be a complete unknown, but the girl's got talent. "Married to Grunge" is an absolutely chilling song about a band fucking up a relationship. It's got too many rough edges to be a ballad, it's too vulnerable to hard rock, the vocals are too polished to be Grunge, but it's too left-of-center to be mainstream rock. It balances a lot of elements, but it works so well that I don't even care that the last third of the song is basically the same 12 words repeated over and over again.

Random track of the Day: Von Iva

I'm not going to lie to you people. I know almost nothing about Von Iva. What I do know though is that this song is hotness. It's called "Same Sad Song" and it's from their self-titled six-track EP. I've only heard a handful of songs from that EP and I already know that they're my favorite thing to come out the Dance Punk genre since The Gossip.

Random Track of the Day: W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.

"D.A.N.C.E." always annoyed the crap out of me, but this Wale song makes me not mind it. "W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E." was easily my favorite song on the Wale mixtape (If you haven't heard it, Google it, because it's brilliant). The awesome lyrics (Was I the only one a little surprised when he called out the Lindsey Lohan-Samantha Ronson situation?) somehow manages to salvage a sample from a song that I hate so much.

Random Track of the Day: The Dollyrots

You may not know the Dollyrots' name, but you've probably heard one of their songs before. "Because I'm Awesome" is now plastered all over a set of nation-wide Kohls commercials, giving them more exposure than ever before. "Because I'm Awesome" is the kind of pop rock song that may annoy you at first, but slowly gets stuck in your head and digs itself into your memory until you can't forget it. In a good way. Here it is:

Random Track of the Day: Curve

If you're a fan of Garbage and want to hear the band that they borrowed their sound from, here's Curve. They had a lot of success in the UK during the 90s, but a lot of people I talk to hear in the states don't know much about them. "Gift" and "Come Clean" are two of my favorite albums, and here's "Gift"'s opening track, "Hell Above Water" on iMeem. It sounds like a really amazing B-Side right off of "Version 2.0".

Random track of the day: Blaqk Audio

Blaqk Audio's album "Cexcells" was released last week, and I forgot about it. If you don't know about them, Blaqk Audio is an electro-rock band side project of some members of A.F.I., the only emo-looking band from the '00s that I really have no problem with. The vocals on "Cexcells" do nothing for me, but the production on the beats and instrumentals is amazing. I bought the entire album on iTunes just so I can pull the songs apart and use samples of the instrumentals. Check it out on iMeem.

Random Track of The Day: Bitter:Sweet

Bitter:Sweet is probably the best electronic artist to come out in the last couple years. Probably because their music is synthesized without sounding like techno. They've developed their own unique sound, and they're proof that not all electronic music soulless crap. You've probably already heard "The Mating Game" on a couple of a commercials, even if you don't realize it. It was the title track for their 2006 debut album, a fun and diverse album that also includes "Dirty Laundry".



By the way, here's "The Mating Game" in case you don't recognize it by name:

Random Track(s) of the Day: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Last week, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs released a new EP that I completely forgot to post about. The tracks on the new EP, "Is Is", were originally recorded three years ago around the time "Fever to Tell" was being made. They've performed the songs live, but they've never recorded them until now. I don't know why, they're all good enough to be on "Fever to Tell", and some of them are even good enough to be singles. "Rockers to Swallow" and "10x10" both go nowhere and end before they ever really gets going, but the overall sound of the songs are great. "Down Boy" and "Kiss Kiss" sound like indie rock classics, and "Kiss Kiss" builds up to a great ending. "Isis" is just amazing. The EP has a very unique sound, so it's not for everybody. I know it took a few months foor me to "get" them. But if you're already a fan, you'll love this EP.

Random Track of the Day: Pharoahe Monch

It took me about an hour to learn how to spell his name right, but that's okay. His music's amazing. He's been around since the 90s, but for some reason I forgot aboout him until a couple weeks ago. The title track from last month's album "Desire" is the best I've heard from him. Couldn't find it on iMeem or Odeo, but it's all over Youtube. Check it out.

Random Track of the Day: Timbaland

I'm really getting sick of loving everything this guy does. "Shock Value" is one of my favorite albums of the year even though I hate 1/3 of it (He really does owe America an apology for that fucking Fall Out Boy track). The 2/3 that works is really good though, especially the first track, which samples Nina Simone's "Sinnerman", because... why not? And as I'm typing this I'm realizing that I can't remember if I already posted about this on the old blog last month, but whatever, this one is worth carrying over.


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