In keeping with the “bells” theme, this week we are listening to Broken Bells. It is not really any wonder that I like them so much. It is a collaboration of musicians that I love. Danger Mouse, and James Mercer from the Shins are the key players. Check out one of my favorite Broken Bells tracks, “The Ghost Inside.”

[photo by: not me]

I have to admit that the Black Keys‘ music is a little bit new to me. Every once in a while I would hear about them, or catch a little snippit of one of their songs. But I never really gave them a shot. About a month ago, they were playing a secret promo show for Kin Spot. We opted out. Now, I totally wish that I would have gone. Shortly after the weekend of the show (that we didn’t go to), I read a really favorable review of their recently released album, “Brothers.” So, I decided that I should check them out.

The beautiful thing about discovering a band after the fact, is that if the band has been productive at all, there will be a modest catalog of songs to discover. For me, working my way through their previous albums was like being able to open a new box on an advent calendar, each time I heard a new song. I really really like their sound. Here are some of the reasons:

1. The guitar riffs remind me a lot of the stuff that my friend Joel used to write, when we had a garage band together, back in the day. Very simple stuff, but super moody and dripping with style.

2. Even though they have a very distinct sound, all of their songs don’t sound derivative of each other. They have enough latitude in their vocal and instrumental writing, that there is some good variety, from album to album.

3. They are from Akron Ohio. You have to give props to a band from the midwest, that makes it this big.

I hope that I didn’t talk them up too much. Ok, check out “All Hands Against His Own,” from their 2004 release “Rubber Factory.”

[photo via]

I’m a fairly new convert to the Pinback sound. This is because I have only discovered them, fairly recently. It’s embarrassing to say this, but I heard them on Pandora, last winter on my Radiohead station. So, I guess you could say that we met online. Hehe. I suppose it isn’t that big of a deal to meet online, anymore. Unless it is like, through the Craigslist “casual encounters” or something.

Reasons that Pinback is cool: They are from San Diego. Can’t go wrong, there; They are a true indie band. Even their scheduled 2010 release won’t be on a major label; They have drummer drama, which makes them real people; They don’t follow the stereotypical rock song formula (verse, chorus, verse, bridge, etc..) This makes some of their songs a bit repetitive. But for the most part, it is a refreshing diversion; They have the cool aspect of the Death Cab sound, but without all of the whiny depressing crap.

Click this link, to hear “Blue Harvest.”

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The funny thing about these guys, is that I really didn’t like them at first. Reagan and I saw them last year at All Points West. They were pretty good, but I wasn’t super impressed. Granted, it was raining all day long, so they probably weren’t too happy to be playing on an outdoor stage. That could have been part of it. But, I have really been digging on them, as of late. If you have the “Rock Band” video game, then you know their song “Maps.” I like that song, but I don’t think that it is really representative of their sound. I think that might be another reason that I may have been disappointed by the APW performance. I really like how raw and simple their stuff is. It’s kind of like White Stripes meets Joan Jett, or something.

The album that I have been jamming to, lately is “Show your Bones.” Two tracks on there, I particularly love. One of them I’m sharing today. It’s called “Gold Lion.” For the record, this song has also been a part of my running playlist. Spin it.

[photo: Josh Wildman]

Morphine came straight out of Cambridge Mass, in the early 90s. The original group consisted of 3 members, with Mark Sandman as the frontman. The group eventually grew to 4 members before disbanding. The original Morphine “sound” was Sandman on vocals and a two-string bass (played with a slide,  a drummer and a sax player who played the tenor and baritone sax at the same time. From the description, it almost sounds like the stuff of circus sideshows. It was definitely unconventional. But for me personally, the sound worked.

I really got into these guys during high school. I bought both “Cure for Pain” and “Good” albums. I kind of lost track of them, after that. Then recently, I discovered that the the group fell apart after Mark Sandman, had a heart attack and collapsed on stage during a July 1999 show in Italy. So crazy!! Anyway, the song that I’m sharing today is a B-side. I imagine it as more of just a jam, that happened to be recorded. It is mellow and infectious.  I have had it on my commuting playlist for that last little while and I have really been liking it a lot, again lately. The track is called “Bo’s Veranda.” Spin it and enjoy.

Since it is the week of Christmas, I thought I should post something festive. I didn’t want it to be too cliche though. So I’m doing “Snow” from “Stadium Arcadium.” As an added bonus, I’m also including a link to “Deck the Halls,” performed by RHCP A’capella. Merry Christmas.

Snow (Hey Oh)

Deck the Halls

Beck is a pretty amazing musician. It seems like most people have an opinion of his work. It is one of those hate it, or love it situations. I personally love it. I was first exposed to Beck, when the singles from “Mellow Gold” were in rotation. So, songs like “Beer Can” and “Loser” were my introduction. At first, I was really confused about the seeming lack of continuity in the ideas expressed by his lyrics. It took a little bit of digging deeper for me to finally understand that the stream of conscious-style-flow was one of earmarks of Beck’s M.O..

One great thing I really like about Beck, is that he has been a very prolific artist, over the years. I have a lot of respect for musicians who work hard. I can’t say that I have loved all of his records, with equal enthusiasm. Just the same, I appreciate that he is getting it done. The song that I’m sharing is from Midnight Vultures. To me, this is one of those albums that I could start from track No. 1 and just let it play the entire way through without skipping a song. Even though a lot of the songs are kind of experimental sounding, I’m sure that I’m not alone in my opinion on this one. Anyway, the song is “Nicotine and Gravy.” I really like the title for a couple of reasons. First, my friend Joel, who I used to play music with in high school, had a song called “Nicotine and Caffeine.”  I feel like this song is probably Beck’s version of that same song. Here it is: Press Play.

As with probably half, or even more than half of my generation, one of my all-time favorite rock bands is Nirvana. There is nothing that I can write about them that hasn’t already been written 1000 times over. The song that I’m sharing from them, is not actually a Nirvana, song. It was actually written by a group called the Wipers, out of Portland OR. Kurt was a big fan of theirs, and actually covered a few of their songs. This one is called “D7.” To my knowledge it was only available on the “Outcesticide” imports. I love it. If you like Nirvana, you probably love it too. Turn it up and press play.

Taking it back to the garage band revival, again this week with The Vines. I love these guys, bad. The Vines, hail from from the land down under. Which is kind of cool, considering that I can only think of 3 other Aussie bands that made it big. (although I’m sure there are many more). Midnight Oil, Men at Work, and Silverchair are the ones that come to mind. When they released the “Get Free” single, it was instantly one of my favorites. Their most recent album “Melodia” seems to have mellowed out, a bit. The songs aren’t completely soft, or anything like that. But they definitely seem less angry, generally. In addition to the musical style, I love the sound quality. The guitars all have rich deep tone, reminiscent of analog recordings from the 60′s. The song I picked out for today is from “Melodia.” It’s called “Orange Amber.” It was between that and “Rainfall” from the “Winning Days” album. They are both currently two of my favorite songs. Ultimately, I went with “Orange Amber” because it is short and sweet, at just over 2 minutes long. Chekkidout.

When I was in high school, the group released an album called “Sailing the Seas of Cheese.” It was an amalgamation of the weirdest/coolest music that I had heard, at that time in my life. Claypool also does vocals and has a very Kermit the Frog-esque voice. Despite the odd vocal quality, Claypool’s voice doesn’t detract from the music, as much as it does give it character.

When I first obtained a copy of “Sailing the Seas of Cheese,” I was in the beginning stages of learning to play bass guitar, myself. As I would listen to the album, I though that there was no way that all of that noise was coming out of a single bass track played by one person. It was not until attending Lollapalooza 1994, and seeing Primus live, that I truly appreciated Claypool’s skills. He is amazing to watch.

The song that I’m sharing today is from the seas of cheese album. It was one of the more heavily played singles from the album. It is called “Jerry was a race car driver.” Give it a listen.