Underrated Song of the Day

Now, I understand that people often overrate things when they call them "underrated." But, considering that this song just simply isn't rated at all, it should not fall to this fate. The song is "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" by The Flaming Lips, the best live band ever. This track, taken from their 1999 masterpiece, The Soft Bulletin, perfectly sums up everything I love about the band: cosmic humility and introspection, desperate love, minimalistic but powerful guitar, pervasive synths, a forceful base line, a nonconstant drumbeat, and studio tricks (i.e. a looped brrrrrapppping human percussion line). It is a good song to cry to, especially when you are lonely.

Enjoy:

The Flaming Lips - Feeling Yourself Disintegrate (The Soft Bulletin, 1999)

BUY The Soft Bulletin

McCain/Fox Ticket = Sure Bet

That's right, folks. Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, is/was very attractive.

The Alaskan governor was once a beauty queen and is now a self-proclaimed hockey mom. I would totally have a crush on her if she didn't remind me of both Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character in Arrested Development and Michael Palin as Sir Galahad. Now I just laugh when I think about her.

Anyway, what does this VP selection mean for this November's election? Not sure. Maybe it'll determine whether America is more misogynistic or racist.

Here's to you, Sarah Palin.

Jimi Hendrix - Foxy Lady (Are You Experienced?, 1967)

Farewell to Eric Morrisexxx; NEW FINAL FANTASY

Two big stories today: Eric Morrissey, loyal Pablo Bunny reader, left for Tufts University today. The Pablo Bunny community wishes him the best of luck at college -- not that he needs it. After all, Eric Morrissey is on Chuck Norris's pajamas.

In his honor, here is the song he allegedly listened to as he pulled out of his driveway today, probably in that big green car of his:

Tunng - Bullets (Good Arrows, 2007)

Oh, and this, too. (Pssst! That's Eric singing!):

Inequity - Car-Jacked (One of the best tracks I've posted so far!!!!)

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In other news, Stereogum premieres two new Final Fantasy tracks from two forthcoming He Poos Clouds EPs, entitled Spectrum, 14th Century (on which he collaborated w/ Beirut) and Plays to Please (on which he pays tribute to Alex Lukashevsky and Deep Dark United). For those of you who don't know Final Fantasy, he is a violinist who churns out catchy and intersting classically-tinted pop songs. GO DOWNLOAD THEM!

BUY Good Arrows by Tunng

BUY the Polaris Prize-winning He Poos Clouds by Final Fantasy

The Flaming Lips Make Me Happy

The Flaming Lips make me happy. Their earnestness and ambition, well-grounded sensibility and sheer nonsensibility, irreverence and humility, all combine to create music that resonates with a hopeful but confused human species. This has been the unifying theme of the band's work, from "She Don't Use Jelly" to "The W.A.N.D." Thus, it only makes sense that the Lips would be obsessed with the idea of Christmas, which incorporates the emotion of hope unfiltered by confusion.

I can't wait to see their film, Christmas on Mars, when it is released on DVD in October, packaged with a soundtrack.

But to get the saliva going, here are a couple of Christmas-y Lips tracks:

The Flaming Lips - White Christmas (.wav file)

The Flaming Lips - Galactic Melancholy (Christmas on Mars, 2008)

NEW Parenthetical Girls: September 9th

*Loud, high-pitched siren noise*

Yikes! I guess the Parenthetical Girls are finally coming out with a new album! This is good news, I assure you.

I have never gotten into the Parenthetical Girls. It has been one of those forgotten leads in my iTunes library. I've downloaded about 10 of their songs from blogs, loved one, but forgotten the rest. This has been a mistake.

The Parenthetical Girls, as Said the Gramophone describes, are "unbearably sexy," and not just that, "but also just 'relating to the body'." You only have to listen to one of their songs to understand what is meant by this. For example, "Love Connection," from their 2006 album, (((GRRRLS))), begins with uncommonly overt sexual imagery: "Chapped lips, tongue kiss - insert expletive/Fluids of a summer night." It then proceeds to describe those fluids as "a delicate blend of sweat and menstrual blood seeping into trampled grass."

So, yes, The Parenthetical Girls are worth getting excited about. (Maybe that's why a siren went off in my head when I heard the news...)

The forthcoming album is to be entitled, Entanglements. Perfect. According to Insound, Entanglements is "an eleven song linear narrative of moral ambiguities," whatever the hell that means. I'm psyched.

Parenthetical Girls - Four Words (Entanglements, 2008)

Parenthetical Girls - Love Connection ((((GRRRLS))), 2006)

PRE-ORDER Entanglements from Insound!

Back Home

Hello readership. I'm back from New Hampshire, which means blogging as usual.

As friends have been leaving for college, I've been getting very into my music -- particularly, music that expresses nostalgia with an energetic mood. Here are three such songs:

Penny & the Quarters - You and Me (Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label, 2007)

Polaris - Hey Sandy (Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete, 1999)

The Notwist - Boneless (The Devil, You + Me, 2008)

UPDATE: The glitch has been fixed. You can actually download these files now. Sorry about that.

Okkervil River Leak!!!

Well, well, well... what have we here? It seems as though Okkervil River managed to leak their new album, The Stand-Ins, which is due for early September. The result?

I haven't listened to the whole thing -- ok, let me rephrase, I haven't listened to more than one track -- but it is promising. The folks at The Rawking Refuses to Stop wrote quite the review. If the new album can stir up so much emotion and introspection in that guy, it must be something to behold.

The track I have heard, "Lost Coastlines," suggests just that. Okkervil River paves the way for a new "soul" genre, I believe. The Stage Names, and then this song, both summon swooping strings, (multiple) teary male voices, bold and simple melodies, and an unabashed and honest lyrics. Okkervil River, like Jens Lekman, is not afraid of focused themes or cheesiness. They fearlessly embrace lyrics involving the overused metaphors of maps, stars, light, and the sea to create something fresh and original. Sheff's voice is stirring and passionate and bodes well for this latest effort.

So here's a sample, along with a lesser-known Okkervil River selection that is equally good, in many of the same ways. Raw emotion:

Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines (The Stand-Ins, 2008)

Okkervil River - The President Is Dead (The President's Dead 12", 2006)

BUY The Stage Names and pre-order The Stand-Ins, etc.