Friday 5’s got more records than the KGB

Wilco - “Poor Places” from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

One of those songs that mentions the album’s title but is not the title track, “Poor Places” comes from what is generally considered to be Wilco’s magnum opus…while the eerie electronics mix very well with Jeff Tweedy’s organic songwriting, it’s the ominous repetition of “Yankee…Hotel…Foxtrot…” at the end that makes this song really impressive…that bit of the phonetic alphabet comes from a collection of shortwave radio transmissions called The Conet Project, and is notable for its supposed documentations of government communication with spies…

Psapp - “Hi” from The Only Thing I Ever Wanted

Combining the bossa-nova sass of Stereolab with the glitchy electronica of múm and the toy instruments of Pianosaurus, Psapp love cats more than most people…This song was the first single in the United States from the group’s third album (“Tricycle” had that honor in the UK)…released on Domino Records, the album furthers the label’s reputation for signing bands that aren’t British and play guitars (that means you, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and Clinic)…

Clinic - “If You Could Read Your Mind” from Visitations

Speaking of Liverpool’s surgical mask- and top hat-wearing quartet, the arty, experimental stylings of their latest album should not go unnoticed…Citing Sonic Youth and The Velvet Underground as influences, Clinic make some of the freakiest music this side of Animal Collective…adding flutes and clarinets to lead singer Ade Blackburn’s “high-pitched, clenched-teeth” singing, the foursome not only toy with the look of a rock band, but the sound as well…

CSS - “Alala” from Cansei de Ser Sexy

You might know them for the song “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex”, which is currently featured in an iPod Touch commercial…or maybe you’re acquainted with drummer Adriano Cintra’s quarrel with United Airlines for over-selling their flight out of New York, causing the band to miss their appearance at 2007’s Lollapalooza (the band’s luggage, on the other hand, did make it to Chicago)…at any rate, the upbeat, electro-new wave tunes that fill the group’s international debut are enough to make you side with them (especially front-grrrl Lovefoxxx) on just about anything…

The Pipettes - “Pull Shapes” from We Are The Pipettes

This album came out over the summer in the UK, and it would have made for a great party album (in fact it did if you, like I did, got an import copy)…recently released in the States, the feisty trio draw equally from The Ronettes and The Shirelles as they do more recent girly groups like The Go-Go’s and The Waitresses…with simulated strings and awesome dance moves (which you can learn right here), The Pipettes prove, once again, that everything old is new again…

This entry was posted on November 30th 2007 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Music, Friday 5. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.