….and here we go: The first Friday Music post of 2010!
We recently finished watching the UK series Misfits, about a group of young offenders in a work crew who get struck by lightning during a strange storm, and develop superpowers. Fun stuff, and some really excellent music as well. The theme to the show, for example, is this track: The Rapture – “Echoes.”
One of the episodes featured a club scene, spotlighting this great example of Grime (the UK’s home-grown electronic/dance-music based variety of hip-hop, which I’ve posted about before): Skepta – “Rolex Sweep (Vandalism Mix).”
Excellent series — give it a go if you haven’t seen it yet.
Track from the Canadian band You Say Party! We Say Die!, from their third album, XXXX, released in late September. Twin Peaks reference, retro-80s sound (seriously — very OMD), and a female vocalist — Sign me up! You Say Party! We Say Die! – “Laura Palmer’s Prom.”
Speaking of retro — for a new year, I’m doing an awful lot of listening to old music. Over the holidays, I picked up a real gem — A 4-CD set of music from the immortal Stiff Records, the label responsible for ushering in the late-70s/turn-of-the-80s post-punk/new-wave movement in the UK. A lot of great stuff on this collection: Elvis Costello, Ian Drury & the Blockheads, Lene Lovitch, Madness… and several brilliant pieces by Stiff’s live-in producer and occasional solo act: Nick Lowe – “So It Goes.”
This is new, but it sounds old — another “super group” has reared its head: Them Crooked Vultures, a three-man jam formed by Josh Homme (Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin). Straightforward 70s-esque quasi-psychedelic cock-rock — for example, check out this VERY Cream-influenced track: Them Crooked Vultures – “Scumbag Blues.”
Listening to that reminded me of the very Led-Zep influenced track from one of my favorite “almost-was” bands of the 80s, Zebra. I really expected these guys to be much, much bigger. I still regularly listen to their first album, which featured “Tell Me What You Want”, “One More Chance” and this track: Zebra – “Who’s Behind The Door?”
Lastly, here’s a symphonic metal track from the Dutch band Within Temptation — I have to admit that I have a soft spot for this genre. It’s almost genetically designed to be the background music for the most Awesome D&D campaign EVER! Within Temptation – “Ice Queen.”
There you go, kids. Copy-and-paste the links if they give you any trouble.
More next week….
