Friday 5 is Actual Size!

The Fratellis - “Acid Jazz Singer” from Here We Stand

I’m just as surprised as you are that Glasgow’s trio are back with another album…not only that, but the record is just as good, if not better than their debut, Costello Music…with longer and more adventurous songs featuring more elaborate instruments (keyboards, even!), Here We Stand is an incredibly strong follow-up from a group who never really had to do much more after their debut…no, this song isn’t really ‘acid jazz’, but they can save that for their third album…

Carney - “There She Goes” from Nothing Without You EP

It’s kinda funny that Queen originally wanted to make music like Led Zeppelin (since they were the ‘kings’ of rock, Freddie and company would settle to be the ‘queens’), and then, thirty-some years later, along comes Carney…led by Reeve Carney and his brother, Zane, the four-piece make epic rock that sounds like Queen and Zeppelin at times…this song in particular has a very “You’re My Best Friend”-like refrain, while “Testify” and the title track are pure Plant-esque wailing blues…here’s to more great material from this band in the future!…

Transplants - “Diamonds & Guns” from Transplants

What do you get when you combine Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, roadie “Skinhead” Rob Aston, and Travis Barker of blink-182 together with a bunch of other nu-punk friends?…you get Transplants, a very eclectic group that makes sorta punk, sorta rap music that’s evidently perfect for hawking hair care products…unlike most supergroups, though, they came back for a second record in 2003…they’ll be back from time to time, I’m sure, but their own individual bands require a lot of attention, too…

The Normal - “Warm Leatherette”

Long before there was Nine Inch Nails (but not before Throbbing Gristle), there was The Normal…the project of Mute Records founder Daniel Williams, this was the b-side of The Normal’s lone single…the song has gone on to be wildly popular and covered by many artists, like Grace Jones, Nine Inch Nails and even Duran Duran on their most recent tour…recent bands that have released records on Mute include Nick Cave, M83 and Dave Gahan…

Destroyer - “Foam Hands” from Trouble In Dreams

I’ll be damned if I know where Vancouver’s Dan Bejar gets the accent that so heavily carries his work with and away from The New Pornographers…part Bowie, part Dylan and part Hitchcock, the voices on each song may vary, but the music is consistently enjoyable…there’s a world of influences in Bejar’s music, and his songs on the Pornographers albums tend to be the most interesting, so just imagine how good his solo work can be (and is!)…

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