Your Daily Song Fix

You know the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin but The Flamin’ Groovies may have been crafting the most timeless music in San Francisco during the Age of Aquarius.  This song from 1970’s Flamingo hooks you immediately and pounds the rock fury home from beginning to end.  The guitar solo routinely makes a fool of me while I try the fingering in my car.

SPN

Resembling characters from a Tom Sawyer book, Brooklyn-based Spirit Family Reunion has created a West Virginian-emo-esque folk song.  “Cold, so Cold” sounds like it’s from back-country middle America, but the band is from Brooklyn, so they’ve hit the image and sound spot-on.  This song could easily find it’s way onto the soundtrack of a rough-around-the-edges horror film.

Spirit Family Reunion – Cold, So Cold – SXSW 2010 from DUKE STREET on Vimeo.

Dr. Dog formed in Philadelphia in 1999 but have only recently gained popularity. Their melodies are reminiscent of The Beatles (the guitar solo here is especially Beatles-esque) and their vocal harmonies are similar to The Beach Boys. However, they’ve molded a style of their own and this song is a great example, with more folk flavor than the pop sounds that Dr. Dog is often compared to.

Imagine you’re a nihilist. Now imagine you’re blasting down a desert highway in a convertible with this song as your non-diegetic soundtrack. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have had an long, illustrious career, and “Albert Goes West,” from their great 2008 album Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! captures them at their most fist-pumpingly energetic. Just don’t ask them to take responsibility for anything.

Baltimore indie power-couple, Wye Oak, are making it in the music bizz.  Maybe.  I don’t actually know how they define, “making it big.”  I would say that a feature in Spin, a record deal with Merge (Spoon, Arcade Fire, Neutral Milk Hotel, etc.) and no 9-5 job definitely denote the term.  This track, taken from Wye Oak’s latest album, features the angelic voice of Jenn Wasner.  Come to think of it, most of Wye Oak’s songs feature the angelic voice of Jenn Wassner.  She wails on the guitar like an ex-member of Sonic youth, and her man, Andy Stack, plays the drums, the keyboard AND sings backup vocals.  Two people haven’t made this much noise since overweight people realized that they, too, could have sexual intercourse.

Oh and look, Incubus has a cover of this song. Thanks for the hat tip, Google video! Tell the high-schoolers from 2003 about that one, but if you are looking for a foolish, feel-good flashback, the original “Let’s Get Crazy” is a good place to start. This track by Prince & The Revolution was obviously recorded at the dawn of the drum machine, but it’s still a good one to bring to an 80s party attended by people you don’t entirely hate.

Practice your two-step too, because this song will have all the wasted people in the room bouncing like a beach ball. “Shoot the jumper. Shoot it.”

“Beyond and Back,” from the 1981 album Wild Gift by iconic and influential L.A. punk band X, filters rockabilly riffs through a jaded sneer. What do punk relationship troubles sound like? This: “Now it’s five to twelve – shut up and smoke.”

This song first appeared in 1969 and did not receive much critical acclaim. Recently, however, the English rock band, The Heavy, have gained success sampling the horn lines from this tune with their song “How You Like Me Now?” That song appeared most recently in a KIA commercial that aired during the Superbowl. The Heavy song is great, but it is always nice to see where the original comes from. I dare you not to dance to this one.