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“Bitte Orca feels nothing less than a modern equivalent to Talking Heads’ Fear Of Music” (Uncut)

DL: That’s not my favorite Heads album. Probably Remain In Light is the one I’ve listened to the most. Fear Of Music, is that the one that opens with “I Zimbra”? Whether Bitte Orca is more like that one, I don’t know. That’s a compelling thing. Is he just saying it sounds like Talking Heads, or does he mean it in a deeper way—like in terms of the way the songs are put together and the actual arrangements, it really reminds him of Fear Of Music? It would be dumb of me to pick hairs and disagree with these things. So, yep. I like the Talking Heads. [Laughs.]

via www.avclub.com

Dave Longstreth on the many X-meets-Y-on-Z comparisons that the Dirty Projectors receive in reviews, via A.V. Club.

Out of full disclosure, I have, in the past, compared the Dirty Projectors' Rise Above to early Scritti Politti (think "Skank Bloc Bologna"-era Scritti). And I stand by that comparison!

Amerie: "Why R U"

Amerie's new album, In Love & War, is really good, and "Why R U" is one of the reasons why.

Related: Idolator (R.I.P.) lists five reasons why you should give In Love & War a listen.

Corrections

Liz Colville's "Corrections to Other People's Music Writing" series (first installment here) is brilliant.

Here's a snippet from the most recent installment:

Due to an unfamiliarity with HTML, our "Top 2000 Albums of the 2000s" (November 1, 2009) mistakenly listed the albums in alphabetical order by first letter of band name instead of in long-argued-over numerically-ranked order. The resulting flood of comments about the proximity of Jay Reatard's Blood Visions to Joanna Newsom's Ys caused our server to crash, which then erased every document and website containing information about what albums came out between 2000 and 2009 and how we felt about them. We were forced to collectively recall the albums from memory and came up with the following:

Joanna Newsom - Ys
Jay Reatard - Blood Visions
Air - Talkie Walkie
Mariah Carey - Butterfly Was that really 1997? Man, time flies.
Adam Lambert - Y'all Ready For This? (We are not sure of the title of this one but believe we are capturing the tone accurately.)

via lizzyville.blogs.com

Is it a crime?

via www.youtube.com

New York Dolls, "Frankenstein": probably my favorite ever New York Dolls song.

And also, you know, monsters, Halloween, &c.

Dead Man's Bones: "My Body's a Zombie for You"

I'm still not sure how I feel about the rest of the Dead Man's Bones album, but I absolutely love this song; and they--despite this being an incomplete performance of the song--look like they'd put on a good show.

Plus, Halloween.

Sleigh Bells: "Crown on the Ground"

I like this. (also: more noise!)

Gainsbourg

Merlin's Melody Nelson post this past weekend got me on a Gainsbourg kick.

Histoire de Melody Nelson is, indeed, one of my favorite albums of all time, but this weekend I spent some time with some of my other favorite Gainsbourg--and Gainsbourg-related--albums, any of which would be perfect for someone who loves Melody:

• L'Homme à Tête de Chou: a mid-70s sort of rock opera about murdering a shampoo girl with a fire extinguisher.
• Anna (soundtrack): a late-60s soundtrack for a musical with Anna Karina; it's a lovely bridge between Gainsbourg's 60s pop and 70s rock.
• Jean-Claude Vannier, L'Enfant Assasin des Mouches: I wrote about this back in 2005 when it was re-released. Vannier collaborated with Gainsbourg on Melody Nelson, and this early-70s album has a really similar sound, but it's even more bizarre.

All highly recommended.

Somebody yelling at somebody else

"Cuban Linx II" sounds like an old Wu-Tang record: scraggly samples from soul records and rapid, gnomic bundles of rhymes about drug-selling and agitated encounters. Almost every skit involving Raekwon or his partner, Ghostface Killah, involves somebody yelling at somebody else.

via www.newyorker.com

That's Sasha Frere-Jones on the recent Raekwon album. It's true!

Here's "The New Wu":

Glorious noise

It's been a while since I've listened to My Bloody Valentine. Too long: "Only Shallow", from Loveless, is one of the noisiest, loveliest album openers I can imagine.

Janelle Monae: "Come Alive"

via www.kiasoulcollective.com

Janelle Monae, who I adore and whose Metropolis: The Chase Suite was one of my favorite things last year, has a new song!

It's called "Come Alive (The War of the Roses)", it's awesome, and you can listen or download on Kia's "The Soul Collective" site.