Friday Music

Here we go… a bit of an odd mix this week, but hey, that’s how I roll.

First up, a track that I heard while I was in Austin this past week, on KUT, which is easily the best NPR station I’ve ever heard. I originally thought that it was some kind of mid-to-late-80s art-wave stuff (in the same vein as Talking Heads). I was quite surprised to discover that it was from an album released in late 2009. YACHT – “The Afterlife.”

While I was at SXSW, I had the pleasure of meeting Damian Kulash, the lead singer of OK Go, who was attending the Interactive portion of the conference, talking about viral video and direct-to-fan delivery models. They just left their label, over arguments about spreading their videos and singles virally (the label didn’t approve). Here’s their latest single: OK Go – “This Too Shall Pass.”

Alright, you can take this ironically if you want, and revel in the cheese. But if I’m being honest, when I received this cassette for Christmas 1983, I played the hell out of this song, and absolutely *loved* it — even though it was far from my usual musical tastes (which at the time was solidly New Wave). I still love it. Def Leppard – “Rock Rock (‘Til You Drop).”

I’ve always been a big fan of Steve Earle’s alt-country/rock song, “Copperhead Road”, which tells the story of a son of a bootlegger, who serves in Vietnam and returns home to become a drug dealer. I got a chance to hear the rest of that album recently, and found myself really liking this song — not only for the historical-Western subject matter, but because of the traditional folk ballad rhyme structure. Steve Earle – “The Devil’s Right Hand.”

The first official single from Kate Nash’s forthcoming album, My Best Friend is You, which comes out next month. (I had posted another track, “I Just Love You More”, last month.) Kate Nash – “Do Wah Doo.”

I’ve always liked when songwriters produce love songs to the city they call home. I heard this track while shopping in Borders last night, and immediately fell in love with the cleverness of the lyrics (“I don’t know what I was on, but I think it’s grown in Oregon.”). Train – “Save Me, San Francisco.”

There you go kids, enjoy!

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