Song of the Week - March 27

By: Charbarred | in: Music |

Every once in a while each of our writers (and esteemed guests) shares the song that made his week just a little bit brighter. Our honoured guest this week is Ryan from Ryan’s Smashing Life.

Lee H
Nickel Eye - Brandy of the Damned (Mark Ronson Remix) (feat. Wale)
Nickel Eye is the side project of The Strokes’ bassist Nikolai Fraiture. The original version if this song, which is available on his album The Time of the Assassins, has a dub-rock kind of feeling to it. Mark Ronson (Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Adele) does what he does best by adding some horns, shuffling snares and a guest verse from Wale (the D. C. native that’s probably best known for releasing The Mixtape About Nothing, an entire set of hip-hop songs inspired by Seinfeld.) Most importantly the song contains a refrain that has been the motivator for many of my past few weeks: “Don’t let them get you down. They’ll step on you to get to higher ground.”

Charbarred
Harlem Shakes - Natural Man
It’s good to see bands are still investing in proper productions. This song is all kinds of crazy: It starts off like a Decemberists tune and quickly goes Rocky a-la Rolling Stones. It then descends into CSNY territory and bounces right back to indie rock. I especially love female na na na vocals in the chorus. Special stuff!

D Thompson
L.E.O. - Don’t Let it Go
One of my favorite albums has always been E.L.O.’s Out Of The Blue. It managed to turn what I now regard as the worst musical excesses of the 70’s into catchy, hummable, singalongable strengths. With Jeff Lynn pretty much out of the picture these days where can a guy go for his E.L.O. fix but into the past? Well, rather than breaking out the soundtrack to Xanadu you could always pick up a copy of Bleu’s 2006 side project, L.E.O. - Alpacas Orgling, which is the most perfect E.L.O.
imitation in the history of EVER.
As proof of my claim I submit L.E.O.’s “Don’t Let It Go” which sounds like like nothing less than some amazing outtake from Out Of The Blue or New World Record.

Ryan
Johnathan Rice - Further North
My Song of the Week selection is the title track is from Johnathan Rice’s highly recommended 2007 album Further North. Rice just had a guest appearance on Elvis Costello’s new record (along with girlfriend Jenny Lewis). Here’s to hoping we hear something new from Mr. Rice in 2009!

Kendall
Janelle Monae - Many Moons
Open your minds, earthlings, and prepare to be launched headfirst into an alternate universe. A place where robots fall in love with humans. Where your tour guide into this alternate realm is a demure lil thang with a bold set of pipes. “I’m an alien from outer space,” declares Janelle Monáe on the first song of her debut album, Metropolis: The Chase Suite (Special Edition). Yes, Toto, we are no longer in Kansas anymore. Or even planet Earth. – from www.janellemone.com
This is all pretty interesting for a girl raised in Kansas City. She slayed SXSW this year, and have been garnering attention from her live show, that appears to mix the energy of James Brown and Andre 3000. This video seems to match all the live footage I’ve seen of this gal so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHgbzNHVg0c

So what’s your song of the week?

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Posted on March 27, 2009

Comments

4 Responses to “Song of the Week - March 27”

DThompson on March 27th, 2009 9:42 am

OK, I’m just going to start at the end and work my way back to the beginning.
Best SOTW EVER!!
Lee - Always and always with the positive tunes my soul craves but I never find on my own. ‘re-write history without the word ‘couldn’t’.” Nothing more I can say. Fantastic.
Char - It’s rare someone else plays me a song that gives me that old “this is going to be a hit” feeling from my college radio days. Thanks, you took 15 years off me, and at a perfect time.
Ryan - What would you call that song? Acoustic hardcore? Anyways, it somehow reminds me of The Woodentops without sounding anything like that band. Same asthetic, completely different results. Cool.
Kendall - In my day we just called them videos. But, this isn’t just a video good enough to be worthy of the moniker “short film”, it’s also a great song all on its own. Her dancing early on in the song reminded me of the first time I saw Elvis Costello. How often does an instantly catchy pop song and a compulsively watchable video reference something as serious as slavery without descending into polemics? Just this once. She’s a real talent.
Verdict: Best SOTW EVER!!

Charbarred on March 27th, 2009 10:18 am

15 years? Damn, I think we stumbled upon the cure for..everything!
As Mr. Thompson is so good with words I will have to merely second the above.
I have to admit that for some reason I’ve never listened to E.L.O. I have no idea why, it never came up.
Downloading Out of the Blue as we speak…if the tribute band is so good, I have to hear the original.
Great job this week guys!

Ryan on March 27th, 2009 1:53 pm

I think acoustic hardcore is a pretty apt description for Johnathan Rice’s music … a little unraveled rock, maybe? I really dig Rice’s ability to share his emotions on the record. Completely different, but much the same way that Matthew Sweet can. He too was able to find an unusual place to rest (a unconventional plateau in the middle of a rock song) and just hang out there for a while!

Music Judge on April 13th, 2009 5:08 am

Wow, now that was quite a selection. This is pure poetry on rock elements. I love the way these guys express themselves, it quite unconvetional but creative.