The Peter Bjorn and John Award for Catchiest Indie-Pop Song of the Summer of 2012

A couple days I heard some people discussing what the song of the summer was and depressingly they came up with Call Me Maybe and really there was not much of a debate. But that got me thinking about last summer when I made an off comment that The Naked and Famous would have won the Peter Bjorn and John Award for catchiest indie-pop song of the summer if it were not for Foster the People. Since the actually songs of the summer list would be boring, I thought I would make the Peter Bjorn and John Award (who may not invented catchy indie-pop, but certainly perfected it with Young Folks) a real thing. So without further ado, here are the top five catchiest indie-pop songs of the summer, some bonus picks, along with the official inaugural winner of The Peter Bjorn and John Award.

Honorable Mention: Call Me Maybe – The Roots, Jimmy Fallon, and Carly Rae Jepsen: Yeah, I just said I was disappointed that the original version is everything that was wrong about the summer of 2012 (severe droughts are what happens when you let a Canadian rule pop culture), but The Roots, along with some children toys, can make anything awesome. If you have not seen The Roots version, which is the only version worth listening to, check it out below:


Legacy Artist: Don't Leave Me (Ne me quitte pas) – Regina Spektor: No one does indie-pop better than Regina Specktor who dusted off one of her older songs and managed to make it weirder and better at the same time. Who else could make Paris the rain sound fun?

5. Bottom of the River– Delta Rae: A big year for folk this year with three songs on this list that could also be categorized in the genre. This song is just handclapping and footstompingly awesome.

4. Tongue Tied – Grouplove: Nothing like a good shout along chorus to get you in consideration for this award. Bonus points for the weird backwards video that went along with the song.

3. Warrior – Kimbra, Mark Foster and A-Trak: Yeah the chick from the Gotye song (which is not on the list because it was more of a winter / spring song and it is not really peppy enough) released her own album this year while you were trying to teach yourself the xylophone solo, this is the catchiest song from it with a little help from last year’s unofficial winner of the Peter Bjorn and John Award.

2. Little Talks – Of Monsters and Men: Whenever you encourage shouting, you are destined for this list. And music does not get more awesomely weird then when it comes from Iceland, where this sextet hails from. Horns are also a plus too.

1. Ho Hey – The Lumineers: But when it comes to shouting during the summer of 2012, no one will make you go hoarse faster than The Lumineers. The trio took a hip-hop phrase mainstay (I want to ignorantly believe this song was inspired by Naughty by Nature) and essentially turned into the percussion for the song. I dare you to try and listen to this song and not put it on repeat for the next hour or two.

I Want My Music Television - 6/25/12

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas) - Regina Spektor



Not to self: do not let Regina Spektor house sit for you. On a serious note, if I were to do one of those silly Best Songs of the First Half of 2012, this would probably be number two on the hypothetical list.


Houdini - Foster the People



Foster the People may not have scored that elusive second hit yet, but at least they are making some entertaining music videos why they try, even if their latest is a bit creepy. Although watching it begs the question, when is a Weekend at Bernie’s reboot coming?


My Life – Slaughterhouse featuring Cee-Lo



It is odd that the first two minutes of the new Slaughterhouse video is dedicated to Eminem who is not even featured on the track (note Slaughterhouse is signed to Eminem’s label)


Days Go By – The Offspring



If you had asked the sixteen year old version of myself who would have a better career, The Offspring or Green Day, I would have smacked you for suggesting Green Day would ever be better than The Offspring. Yeah, the sixteen year old version of myself got that prediction horribly wrong. I am not sure if this song and video are supposed to be semi or fully ironic like Pretty Fly for a White Guy, but is does not work either way.

Today We’re Younger than We’ll Ever Gonna Be

In the past I have talked a lot about “quirky pop,” the sub-genre that was popularized by iPod commercials in the middle of last decade which is too weird for mass consumption but still manages to be highly assessable. I am not entirely sure who created the sub-genre, but Regina Spektor certainly perfected it. The Soviet born pianist has an eclectic delivery and sometime crams more words than you would expect into a line but still manages to deliver a beautiful song almost every time.

Now on her sixth album (and third since Fidelity became the closest thing as a smash hit for her) Regina has not changed much for What We Saw from the Cheap Seats. Mike Elizondo, who produced four songs off her last album and is best known for his work with Dr. Dre and Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine, is back full time co-producing with Spektor which could explain why this album sounds a bit tighter production wise than her previous albums. But that is not necessary a bad thing like on Don’t Leave Me (Ne me quitte pas) which is an updated version of a song from her second album Songs (but sans any English in the title). Where the original is just Regina and her piano, the piano parts on the updated version is replaced by synthesizers and drums and a brass section is added. This may upset purists, but the song is much better with the makeover.

Even with the tighter production, the album still retains its fair share of quirkiness, for better or worse. The worse is on Open where Regina makes these weird and terrifying gasping sounds. But her beat boxing, scatting part of Oh Marcello works much better. I am still undecided on the loud pounding blows during first single All the Rowboats. And only Regina Spektor could tell the title character of Ballad of a Politician to “Shake what your mama gave you.” Though quirkiness if what people are drawn to Regina Spektor for, she still shows that she can write and perform more traditional and beautiful love songs like How.

Song to Download – Don't Leave Me (Ne me quitte pas)

What We Saw from the Cheap Seats gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

The Five Most Anticipated Albums of Spring 2012

A pretty slow week for music releases (unless you’re a fan of the 90’s: Wilson Philips! Candlebox!!) and where spring has become a wasteland for new music ever since the major labels pushed 90% of major releases to the weeks before Christmas, there is a surprising glut of great music coming in the next couple weeks, here are the top five album I am must looking forward to in the next couple months.

1. …Little Broken Hearts – Norah Jones (May 1): Sure the spaghetti western soundtrack album Danger Mouse released last year was a bit of a letdown, but the three standout tracks all utilized the vocal talents of Norah Jones (sorry Jack White). The duo is back together for a new album, but unlike Danger’s previous duets with Cee-Lo and the dude from The Shins, no new band name instead the album is being released under Jones’s name. Despite the darkness of Rome’s tracks, the first single from …Little Broken Hearts is the bouncy break up song Happy Pills. And looking at other track names (Say Goodbye, Travlin’ On) we will be getting a full on break up album.

2. Born and Raised – John Mayer (May 22): Let’s get out of the way first: Mayer’s last album sucked massively because nobody wants to hear a concept album about dating and breaking up with Rachel Green. In the three year since the album his stupid mouth has gotten him much more publicity than his music but has been relatively quiet since starting recording the album, which may just be because of a lingering throat problem, but the first single Shadow Days suggest that he is truly sorry for saying things like how his genitalia is racist. I just hope the album is more on par with his first three.

3. What We Saw from the Cheap Seats – Regina Spektor (May 29): The first song off the new album from Spektor, All the Rowboats, sound darker than anything she has done before. This could be thanks to producer Mike Elizondo who is most famous for working with Dr. Dre but also produced that last album from fellow pianist Fiona Apple. But the second single, Don’t Leave Me does fit much better into her back catalogue, most because it is actually a new version of a song she released a decade ago.

4. Blunderbuss – Jack White (April 24): Now that he has stated no more new bands, Jack White is now on his own, but I get the sense we will still get the blues-pop-rock through a weird filter that we have come to love from the guitarist.

5. The Idler is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do – Fiona Apple (June): Much like her last album, Fiona’s new album has been sitting on the shelf for a while but will supposedly get a June release, though no specific date gives me pause that we will actually get to hear the album before then. Unless, of course, you caught her nine date tour last month where she unveiled some new song (I avoided listening to them because I do not like to judge songs based on a crappy YouTube recording). (Scooter Update: It seems like whenever I create one of these music preview lists, inevitably that day a major release gets announced and today was no difference as just an hour after I published this post, Fiona Apple wrote on her Facebook page that her album got an official release date: June 26 along with the cover art. No presale on Amazon as I write this update.)

And here are some other notable releases. Click on the album title to preorder on Amazon or the artist name to be taken to their iTunes page.

Today
Dedicated – Wilson Phillips
My Head Is an Animal – Of Monsters and Men
Bottoms Up – Obie Trice
Love Stories & Other Musings - Candlebox

April 10
Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation) – Counting Crows
Boys & Girls – Alabama Shakes
Slipstream – Bonnie Raitt
MTV Unplugged – Florence + The Machine
A Wasteland Companion – M. Ward
New Life – Monica
Scars On 45 – Scars On 45

April 17
Love Is a Four Letter Word – Jason Mraz
Picture Show – Neon Trees
California 37 – Train
I Missed Us - SWV
Moving Up Living Down – Eric Hutchinson

April 24
Speak in Code – Eve 6
This Machine – The Dandy Warhols
Landline – Greg Laswell

May 1
Blown Away – Carrie Underwood
Master of My Make-Believe – Santigold
Strange Clouds – B.o.B

May 8
Strangeland – Keane
After Hours – Glenn Frey
After Hours – Silversun Pickups

May 15
Not Your Kind Of People – Garbage
Heroes – Willie Nelson
Rize Of The Fenix – Tenacious D
The Only Place – Best Coast
Bloom – Beach House
Welcome To: Our House - Slaughterhouse

May 22
Apocalyptic Love - Slash

May 29
Here – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

June 5
Americana – Neil Young & Crazy Horse

June 12
The Bravest Man in the World – Bobby Womack
Sythetica – Metric

June 19
Cherry Thing – Neneh Cherry

June 26
Overexposed – Maroon 5

TBD
Handwritten – The Gaslight Anthem
The Diving Board – Elton John
Life Is Good – Nas
The Lion the Beast the Best – Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Lollipops and Politics – V.V. Brown
Write Me Back – R. Kelly
Undisputed – DMX
Songs of Accent - U2
Mumford & Sons
The Avett Brothers
The Beach Boys
Bob Seger
D'Angelo
Diane Birch
Pearl Jam
Green Day
Linkin Park
Taylor Swift
M.I.A.
Wu-Tang Clan
The Offspring

And of course let’s not forget the obligatory this may be the quarter we finally get to hear Dr. Dre’s Detox.

Feed Your iPod the CD vol. II

Feed Your iPod was created to highlight songs that may not have been hits, or even released as singles, but deserve a much bigger audience. And now I have posted enough for a second CD. Of course Feed Your iPod is just a catchy title and any of these can be for any mp3 devise, just your computer and now you can make a CD out of them as the first set comes in at 78:57. You can even help create volume three by emailing me (or use the comment section) song suggestions and a short description on way everyone should have it on their iPod for me to post. Click the links below to be taken to iTunes or the Amazon MP3 widet at the bottom where you can sample the songs or use the label function to scroll through what I had to say about these songs when I originally posted about them and full song previews.

1. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room – John Mayer

2. Two Wrongs – Wyclef Jean featuring Claudette Ortiz

3. Breakdown – Handsome Boy Modeling School

4. Like a Feather – Nikka Costa

5. Fireflies – Rhett Miller Featuring Rachael Yamagata

6. I Got Mine – The Black Keys

7. Bold as Love – Jimi Hendrix Experience

8. ‘Til I Get Over You – Michelle Branch

9. If God Would Send His Angels – U2

10. Hitchhiker Joe – Rugburns

11. Summertime – D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

12. On the Radio – Regina Spektor

13. Summer in the City – The Lovin’ Spoonful

14. Broken Hearted – Eric Clapton

15. Mass Appeal – Gang Starr

16. We’re Going to Be Friends – The White Stripes

17. Follow the Leader – Eric B. and Rakim

18. Regulate – Warren G featuring Nate Dogg

19. Spin the Bottle – The Juliana Hatfield 3

Feed Your iPod vol. XXXI: On the Radio

With the recent release of her latest album, I went back and took a listen to some of the earlier work of Regina Spektor. Fidelity may have been the song the broke her and featured on a few television shows, but my favorite of hers is still On the Radio. It is hard not to enjoy a singer-songwriter on the piano wax poetic about November Rain.

On the Radio – Regina Spektor

I Want My Music Television vol. LV

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


21 Guns - Green Day



I guess these are the two characters that Green Day chronicles throughout their new album and even recreate the album cover for good measure. The song is still a Boulavard of Broken Dreams retread.


(Expletive Deleted) You – Lily Allen



Like I mentioned during my review of her latest album (see: I Am a Weapon of Massive Consumption) Lily Allen randomly ripping on George Bush after he is out of office is just bad form. But the special effects are pretty cool and the video as a whole comes off as a less creepy version of Smack My (Expletive Deleted) Up.


Laughing With – Regina Spektor



For more on Regina Spektor check out yesterday’s review of her new album Far, It Was so Easy and the Words Were so Sweet.


100 Little Curses - Street Sweeper Social Club



For his fourth group of the decade, Street Sweeper Social Club, it sounds like Tom Morello splits the difference between Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. But it is hard to take any social statement away from a video when it stars the dude from Road Trip and the chick from Joey.

It Was so Easy and the Words Were So Sweet

You would think if you went into the studio with as diverse producers as Jeff Lynne (ELO), David Kahne (Tony Bennett), Jacknife Lee (Snow Patrol), and Mike Elizondo (Eminem) you would come out with an eclectic groups of tracks. Yet for the third album by Regina Spektor with those for four producers all contributing, Far still sounds like classic Spektor with only those with the highest musical I.Q. would even come close to matching songs with the producer without peeking at the liner notes.

Far continues Spektor’s trend of quirky female piano pop that many people try but fail to get her recognition (it is no surprise that she recently recorded with her male counterpoint Ben Folds). Really, Spektor is the only person that could wax poetic about a DJ forgetting to take November Rain off of repeat and turn it into a kids sing a long for a video or turn heart and fall into fifteen syllable words. And that continues on the new album whether she is making dolphin sounds on Folding Chair, a chorus that just repeats the word Eet, lines about making computers out of macaroni (The Calculation) or creating a whole song about thumping through a stranger’s Wallet.

But the strangest of them all may be Dance Anthems of the 80’s which despite the title still has Spektor’s signature piano instead of the decade’s familiar synthesizer. And the oddness of the song is only outdone by the video for Dance Anthems of the 80’s. Spektor gets plenty existential on the album like on Blue Lips where the Adam and Eve verses work much better than the simplistic chorus. Or Laughing With where she takes a look at some of the more depressing creations God have given us like poverty, hospitals and natural disasters. While Machine is one of her more brooding song thanks to some heavy percussion and lyrics that deal with humans become one with them.

Song to Download – Eet

Far gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

The 9th Green’s Readers Favorite Songs of 2008

First off, congratulations are in order Emily and Niv who both picked up Amazon gift cards for sending in their top ten lists and thanks to everyone else who also contributed to the list (check your e-mail that you sent your lists from if you haven’t got it yet). After sending all the ballots sent in this year through my patent pending algorism that makes the Electoral College seem reasonable in comparison, here is what it came up with. If you do not like the results start get ready to send in a list for 2009.


1. Viva la Vida - Coldplay

2. Shut Up and Let Me Go - The Ting Tings

3. Electric Feel - MGMT

4. I Will Posses Your Heart - Death Cab for Cutie

5. Heartless - Kanye West

6. Where I Stood - Missy Higgins

7. The Show - Lenka

8. Signs - Bloc Party

9. You Don’t Know Me - Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor

10. Human - The Killers

11. Violent Hill - Coldplay

12. In This Life - Delta Goodram

13. Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend

14. If I Never See Your Face Again - Maroon 5 and Rihanna

15. Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Beyoncé

16. Come on Get Higher - Matt Nathenson

17. Live Your Life - T.I. featuring Rihanna

18. Broken - Lifehouse

19. She’s a Lady - Forever the Sickest Kids

20. Paper Planes - M.I.A.

21. Shape Shifter - Keri Noble

22. The Resolution - Jack’s Mannequin

23. How I Could Just Kill a Man - Charolette Sometimes

24. Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon

25. My Medicine - Snoop Dogg

You Wanna See What’s in My Head

On his last album Songs for Silverman, Ben Folds sang “wiz man never fit you like the wiz kid did” which seemed to forecast his tradition from bratty pop to more adult contemporary music highlighted by Landed, a sweeping song that was void of any wit or sarcasm Ben had been known for. Fast forward three and a half years and Ben seems to back to his old tricks on Way to Normal. Even on songs Cologne which starts off sounding introspective like Brick but then Ben starts singing about astronauts wearing diapers and traveling cross country to kill a boyfriends lover.

So the old Ben Folds is back for better or good depending how you look at it. Also following on former themes on The (Expletive Deleted) Went Nuts which answers the age old question, this time posed by someone sounding like Stephen Hawkins if his voice modulator was programed by a Hispanic, why do relationships go bad. The song just seems like piling on the girl from A Song For the Dumped, but still has plenty of bite to it.

The best song on the set starts off the album, Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hits His Head), which as the title suggests does owe a bit from the Elton John as they both have that driving march feel to it. The song is heightened thanks to a live audience that help Folds sing the chorus near the end and just reinforces the notion that if you have yet to see Ben Folds live that you at the very least need to check out his live album.

Elsewhere on the album, Folds recruits fellow quicky piano pop singer Regina Spektor for You Don’t Know Me, yet another ode to a failed relationship that is their fault. Despite the overran theme, the female voice over the otherwise mellow sounding song making the song a freshness the album needed. Maybe this spark more change for Folds’ next album.

Song to Download - Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hits His Head)

Way to Normal gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

100 Best Songs of 2006

Since 1996, long before I had a blog, I have made of my favorite songs from that year once it concluded. Sometimes songs near the top of those list haven’t stood the test of time while some songs near the bottom have over the years have become some of my favorites. This year I took a list of 162 songs that caught my ear the past twelve months and came back with my top 100 using a complex racking system that makes the BCS look like Middle School algebra. So here are the songs that you should have been listening to this past year:


1. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

2. God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash

3. Waiting On the World to Change - John Mayer

4. Boston - Augustana

5. How to Save a Life - The Fray

6. One - Mary J. Blige and U2

7. Leave the Pieces - The Wreckers

8. Hurt - Christina Aguilera

9. I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie

10. When You Were Young - The Killers

11. Black Horse and the Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall

12. Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield

13. Fidelity - Regina Spektor

14. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean

15. Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks

16. Smile - Lily Allen

17. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

18. Nothing Left to Lose - Mat Kearney

19. The Saints Are Coming - Green Day and U2

20. Save Room - John Legend

21. Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray

22. I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) - Sandi Thom

23. Cab - Train

24. Gone - Pearl Jam

25. Dynomite (Going Postal) - Rhymefest

26. Hip Hop Is Dead - Nas featuring Will.I.Am

27. Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood

28. White & Nerdy - “Weird Al” Yankovic

29. The Mixed Tape - Jack’s Mannequin

30. Promiscuous - Nelly Furtado & Timbaland

31. Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall

32. In the Rough - Anna Nalick

33. 9 Crimes - Damien Rice

34. I Gotcha - Lupe Fiasco

35. Wine Red - The Hush Sound

36. I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys

37. Hospital Food - David Gray

38. Here I Come - The Roots

39. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae

40. Steady As She Goes - The Racontuers

41. Ever the Same - Rob Thomas

42. Black Sweat - Prince

43. Call Me When You're Sober - Evanescence

44. Bad Day - Daniel Powter

45. Crooked Teeth - Death Cab for Cutie

46. Original Fire - Audioslave

47. SOS - Rihanna

48. Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers

49. Three More Days - Ray LaMontagne

50. Streetcorner Symphony - Rob Thomas

51. For Us - Pete Yorn

52. Help Me - Johnny Cash

53. Cry Now - Obie Trice

54. Irreplaceable - Beyoncé

55. Not About Love - Fiona Apple

56. Where'd You Go - Fort Minor featuring Holly Brook and Jonah Matranga

57. Is It Any Wonder? - Keane

58. Temperature - Sean Paul

59. Touch the Sky - Kanye West featuring Lupe Fiasco

60. Memories - Eisley

61. Hands Open - Snow Patrol

62. Say It Right - Nelly Furtado

63. Remember the Name - Fort Minor featuring Styles of Beyond

64. Heaven - John Legend

65. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - Jet

66. Move Along - The All-American Rejects

67. Mama's Room - Under the Influence of Giants

68. Brand New - Rhymefest featuring Kanye West

69. Can't Let Go - Anthony Hamilton

70. Be Without You - Mary J. Blige

71. I Call It Love - Lionel Richie

72. Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera

73. Ridin' - Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone

74. Rollin' W/ Saget - Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone

75. That's That (Explative Delteted) - Snoop Dogg featuring R. Kelly

76. Take It Back - Barenaked Ladies

77. Walk Away - Kelly Clarkson

78. Curious - Holly Brook

79. Easy - Barenaked Ladies

80. Drive Slow - Kanye West featuring Paul Wall & GLC

81. It Ends Tonight - The All-American Rejects

82. Too Little, Too Late - JoJo

83. Upside Down - Jack Johnson

84. World Wide Suicide - Pearl Jam

85. When Your Heart Stops Beating - (+44)

86. Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

87. Don't Download This Song - “Weird Al” Yankovic

88. Come Back to Me - Vanessa Hudgens

89. Get out of My Mind - Hootie and the Blowfish

90. Don't Forget to Remember Me - Carrie Underwood

91. No Hay Igual - Nelly Furtado

92. Snakes On a Plane (Bring It) - Cobra Starship

93. Vato - Snoop Dogg featuring B-Real

94. Bones - The Killers

95. Cash Machine - Hard-FI

96. Work It Out - Jurassic 5 and Dave Matthews Band

97. Under the Weather - KT Tunstall

98. Kick, Push - Lupe Fiasco

99. It's All Coming Back to Me Now - Meat Loaf featuring Marion Raven

100. Lithium - Evanescence