Hey! I did it! 365 songs for 365 days, babies! Each one lovingly plucked from the Interwebs for you to enjoy. What you don’t hear is all of the songs I listened to and did NOT post! You see, that’s the time consuming part, and why I am a filter, a subjective valuer of content, a deejay, call it what you will, I am SuperFan, hear me roar. I love music so much, and the mainstream music biz is still in the toilet, reduced to karaoke talent shows. So my little contribution this year was to feature the best undiscovered or under-discovered tracks I could find, from rock to hip-hop and anything else I fancied. There’s even a classic from Chuck Berry in the mix.

And ya know what? It’s been so much fun, I’ve decided l do it again in 2010.

Closing 2009 with a ferocious track with a worthy message from España’s hardcore worshipers of rock, Tokyo Sex Destruction. Happy new year, music lovers!

Tokyo Sex Destruction
“Power to the People” (mp3)
from “The Big Red Box For the Syndicate of Emotions”
(BCore Disc)

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The Marvelous Darlings‘ single “I Dont Wanna Go To The Party” rocks for two minutes and thirty seconds in a rush of pure and I mean PURE punk pop abandon. Very favorable comparison to Ramones, Clash, Cheap Trick and The Knack. Full on power pop angst-bliss! I love it I love it.

The Marvelous Darlings
“I dont wanna go to the party” (mp3)
from “I Don’t Wanna Go To The Party”
(Deranged Records)

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Ah, sweet power pop. Here we have some well crafted guitar chord bashing and vocal hooks that owe as much to Nirvana as to Cheap Trick. Ultimate Fakebook made a lot of noise for a three piece band from Manhattan, Kansas operating during the darkest days of the music industry. Here’s another neglected gem. In 2009 I have found and posted a bunch of ‘em here. Have a surf around, it beats the heck outta the your local corporate poo radio station, I guarantee you that much. But wait, Dorothy, there’s a Manhattan in Kansas? Now we know.

Ultimate Fakebook
“Wrestling Leap Year” (mp3)
from “Open Up and Say Awesome”
(Initial Records)

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Utterly bratty kick-butt garage punk from Be My Doppleganger, outta Evansville, Indiana – a gritty, rockin’ four piece pop punk outfit with an affinity for Cheap Trick and The Descendents. “I Need a Ride” is an outburst of guitars, hormone fueled teen angst, and self deprecating humor. Gr8 fun!

Be My Doppelganger
“I Need a Ride” (mp3)
from “Protect 2: A Benefit for the National Association to Protect Children”
(Geykido Comet Records)

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Excellent, trashy indie rock with a waltz beat from North Carolina’s own Spider Bags. This recording sounds as unpretentious and natural as a few guys bursting into song at a bar, but it’s also meticulously arranged and well performed. I love the talky-singy approach here, and the lyrics are superb. It’s a perfect marriage of professionalism and reckless abandon. And the chorus is glorious.

Spider Bags
“Que viva el rocanroll” (mp3)
from “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World”
(Birdman Records)

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You can tell a lot from a title. Mindless Self Indulgence is a promising artist name, as is “Never Wanted To Dance” an intriguing song title. But it’s not quite what you’d expect, and definitely NotSafeForWork, my dears. Think Nine Inch Nails goes berserk at Tears For Fears’ house. Hyper-lustful decadent aggro alterna-porn. Good fun.

Mindless Self Indulgence
“Never Wanted to Dance” (mp3)
from “If”
(The End Records)

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A punk rock song about a kitteh? A cool dark feline, creepin’ thru the night? A sleek slinky tom on the scene? Well, yeah. Kid Chaos is all about fun, and they don’t like preaching with their punk rock – all of which you can gather from this ridiculous and entertaining tale of adventure and mayhem. Essence o’ 3rd wave “ska” horns, growling guitars and a breakneck Rancid-esque tempo, provide the purrfect romping ground for our rogue hero, “Lee Vee The Cat.” Superfan is all smitten like a kitten.

Kid Chaos
“Lee Vee The Cat” (mp3)
from “Love In The Time Of Scurvy”
(Beatville Records)

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The Mountain Movers hail from New Haven, Connecticut, which is under mountains of snow right now, so I guess they have their work cut out for them. A friend recently described their record “Let’s Open Up the Chest” to me as “hipster church music,” which sounded promising but I wasn’t sure exactly how. Pleasantly surprised I am – what we have here is big, wide open country rock, with shades of Camper Van Beethoven / Cracker as well as a bit of Cake and Mother Hips. Going back further, this actually sounds a lot like The Band.  On the single “When I Die,” a massive Hammond organ grows tornadoes around a miles-deep-in-the-pocket bass and drum groove, with rootsy guitar and piano accompanying sublime, chill vocals like a sunset over calm seas. Quite lovely.

The Mountain Movers
“When I Die” (mp3)
from “Let’s Open Up the Chest”
(Safety Meeting Records)

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One of the gr8est and longest running live reggae acts, Steel Pulse has a sound to match their name. This very unexpected treat comes from “Dub Like An Antelope – Legends of Reggae Celebrate Phish,” and yes, you read that correctly. Toots and the Maytals, Yellowman and other reggae superstars lend their talents to this collection of covers – of songs originally performed by that most revered of jam bands. Huh? No, really Dorothy, and what’s more, it’s good. Pay a visit to the Phish “Farmhouse” with Handsworth’s finest.

Steel Pulse
“Farmhouse” (mp3)
from “Dub Like An Antelope – Legends of Reggae Celebrate Phish”
(Red Hillz Music)

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On the subject of “Fools Want Noise” by Oh My God, I have to start by simply saying, they’re right. These lyrics are brilliant – kind of a “Satisfaction” updated for the Idiocracy. Celebrate the downward spiral into high decibel mindlessness? Or rage against it? Can we do both? This song is loud, fast and brash, but unlike the cultural Twinkie-filler it confronts in horror, this is actually very smart. And it rocks, too. Damn fine work.

Oh My God
“Fools Want Noise” (mp3)
from “Fools Want Noise”
(Split Red)

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This instrumental track from The Uptones “Live!! 924 Gilman” CD is a hi-energy ska punk jazz opus. The album influenced a lot of great bands that followed, and it’s a joy to listen to. This was my Sunday morning dance in the kitchen wake up record for a year! Superfan sez pick it up.

The Uptones
“East of a Western Bay” (mp3)
from “The Uptones Live!!”
(Fun Fun Fun Recordings)
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Now why exactly would LA’s legendary punk band X do a version of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” we wonder. Ah! Because theirs is the coolest take ever conceived of the song. It’s a lot of fun. So whatever holidays you may celebrate, you’ll want to punk out with the greats Exene, John Doe, D.J. Bonebrake and Billy Zoom as they summon pogoing elves, stage diving reindeer, and a corpulent laughing man in red sporting a white mohawk. Be good.

X
“Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” (mp3)
from “MERRY XMAS From X”
(Anko Records)

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I always find the music of Film School so warm and pleasant. The simplest little progression can sound glorious in the hands of such skilled and sensitive players. This is soothing, medicinal music, however dark and melancholic, and there’s a certain genius to hitting that blend just right. “p.s.” is a big yet understated composition, rendered with a minimal Velvet Underground style rhythm section ethic, exquisite droney guitars, and obsessively well informed keyboard and string parts, all gathered around and tending to a poetic and precarious lyric like doctors and nurses around a mysterious patient. Beautiful work.

Film School
“p.s.” (mp3)
from “Alwaysnever”
(Amazing Grease Records)

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Song titles say a lot. Band names, too. So, if I find a song called “The Faint Smell of Moss” by a band called Dark Meat off an album called “Truce Opium,” I will immediately download it with a certain glee, hoping it lives up to those lovely words! And I wouldn’t waste your time, dears, if it didn’t. But indeed, a fertile scent of nature is invoked, a soothing narcotic bliss induced, through a sexy rhythm faithfully rendered by a band of real live psychedelic noir road animals from Athens, Georgia. It pleases me that such a band as this exists in 2009, sounding as they do, like an early Jefferson Airplane went off its scheduled course, arrived in the Himalayas with flowers in hair and bells on feet and had an orgy. Reverb-y guitars and glorious male-female vocal harmonies are carried aloft by superb rock drumming, an old school “invisible” bass player (one of my favorite kinds) and – stop the presses! – a lead melody played on that most misunderstood and maligned of wind instruments, the Recorder. These people are crazy. Genius work.

Dark Meat
“The Faint Smell of Moss” (mp3)
from “Truce Opium”
(Emergency Umbrella)

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Easily mistaken for a “jam band” at first listen, The Mother Hips are on closer inspection a tight, country flavored rock unit in the tradition of The Band and other 60’s and 70’s masters of song arrangement and organic, live combo playing. Plopped as they were by fate in the early 90’s, the Hips’ sweet guitar serenades and soulful harmonies were in contrast to the flood of Nirvana sound-alikes which came to dominate the airwaves then. Signed to Rick Rubin’s American Records for a while, then back to indie life, these generous and talented musicians remained true to their art through it all, never straying from their vision nor trying for to fit into any style but their own. Commendable, but more importantly, their music is gr8. This single, “One Way Out” is from their most recent album, “Pacific Dust,” and it’s a gem.

The Mother Hips
“One Way Out” (mp3)
from “Pacific Dust”
(Camera Records)

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A band name like that can be the headline of my post, sure, why not? Here is some alterna-pop that is a cut above the noise. Edgy and minutely arranged, “Heart Surgery” by The Aimless Never Miss weds prog rock sensibilities like odd time signatures and angular, syncopated riffs, with a more contemporary emo-ternative lyrical approach. Emoternative? But yes! The guitars and vocals on this track are quite beautiful. The pieces all come together to evoke a unique feeling that is delicious yet hard to describe. Ultimately, that is what original art accomplishes, isn’t it? Lovely work from this Cotati spawned, San Francisco / Oakland based California band.

The Aimless Never Miss
“Heart Surgery” (mp3)
from “Tran EP”
(500 Records)

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Extra trippy guitar pop from the Sonic Youth side of Husker Dü approximately. Luscious psychedelic vocals and a Devo meets King Crimson arrangement make this worthy of both New Wave and Prog Rock tags. Unusual. Lovely. Strange. Check it out.

Birds & Batteries
“TV Commericals” (mp3)
from “Nature vs. Nature”
(Birds and Batteries)

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One of the cooler regional hits of 1982 was the lo-fi garage punk of “Radio Moscow” by a Southern California band called Kent State (formerly Red Brigade). They played every punk venue on the west coast and then some, adding a twist to American hardcore music that was more Troggs than Sex Pistols. Rodney Bingenheimer played this song heavily on The ROQ, and even made it the lead off track on one of his famed compilation LP’s. The lyrics are such a time capsule – pure cold war angst plus a needed dose of irreverent humor. More yummy goodness from Posh Boy Music.

Kent State
“Radio Moscow” (mp3)
from “The Future Looks Brightest – Rarities and Orphans Volume 1″
(Posh Boy Music)

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And how do we like our emo? Why, with kick ass power pop hooks and punk pop aggression and yearning teen angst on that razor’s edge between bliss and despair, thank you, how else? This song has it all. In fact, “Lukewarm” by New End Original has been one of my faves in this genre since it first popped up on the MP3 Jackpot radar a few years back. The band was a sort of supergroup, composed of refugees from some very loved and respected underground rock bands – namely Onelinedrawing, Far, Chamberlain and Texas Is The Reason. NEO burned hot out of the gate, recording a monster debut album which they had the charming audacity to name after the best selling album of all time.

New End Original
“Lukewarm” (mp3)
from “Thriller”
(Jade Tree)

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And what for the interstate drive to the ‘rents house for turkeyopalypse? Big rock, sweeties, big, loud, top-down, preferably decadent glam goth, can we do that? Thank you. Living 80’s zeitgeist Flesh For Lulu has re-recorded some of their classic material, with more modern production values, and created a record which is bound to introduce them to new starry eyed romantics the world over. “Baby Hurricane” is just the kind of thing I love from this band – huge guitar powerchord-scapes remind of Mott the Hoople and T-Rex, as smoky English power pop vocals melt down into a sort of heartbroken lustful bliss. Spectacular.

Flesh For Lulu
“Baby Hurricane” (mp3)
from “Best Of (Re-Recorded)”
(Corporate Risk Products)

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Enter at your own risk, “The Lost Album” by 13th Chime on Sacred Bones Records. “Sarah’s Got a Chainsaw” is not so much the bloodbath the title might suggest, but instead a raucous and beautifully recorded note from the grave from this driving goth-esq Texas band. Gr8 80’s flavored reverb’d out vocals bounce around on an urgent guitar bass and drum bed that hints of Joy Division, Gang Of Four and The Cramps. Superb.

13th Chime
“Sarah’s Got A Chainsaw” (mp3)
from “The Lost Album”
(Sacred Bones Records)

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Why, it seems everyone and their cousin has a reggae band these days. Coming from the jazzy swingy new skool funky side is a band from Wellington City, New zealand called The Black Seeds. Boasting monster horn players, sophisticated arrangements and a scary solid rhythm section, they are not a simple reggae knock off, as they have been proving to a growing international following. “Slingshot” is their latest and gr8est, a powerful single with lyrics that work a karmic angle somewhat reminiscent of Peter Tosh’s “Downpressor Man” or The Heptones’ “Hypocrite.” Nice one.

The Black Seeds
“Slingshot” (mp3)
from “Solid Ground”
(Easy Star Records)

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Rock is not dead. It is brain dead. The Sons Of Hercules understand the power of not understanding. The subtle genius of retardation. The mastery which flows from lobotomous guitars, beer soaked vocals, and swaggering drum beats. As The Stooges demonstrated in the late 60’s, for a certain kind of rock, dumb is smart. From their “A Different Kind of Ugly” album, I give you, The Sons Of Hercules from San Antonio, Texas, performing “Brain Dead”. Gr8 stupid fun.

The Sons Of Hercules
“Brain Dead” (mp3)
from “A Different Kind of Ugly”
(Saustex Media)

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Creepcore! Creep-a-billy? I wish I had found this for Halloween! But here ya go, this track rocks. This trio of Scum from Erie (where else?) PA are a tight and fun band, drawing heavily on the sound of The Cramps and surf music. “You Creep Me Out” is, I believe, a love song, of a fashion! So sweet and tender. Creep out.

My 3 Scum
“You Creep Me Out” (mp3)
from “Night Of The Living Scum”
(Smog Veil Records)

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Not that they ever went away, but Los Fabulosos Cadillacs just released their first studio album in ten years, and it is gr8. “Contrabando de Amor” is the lead off single, and it is an undeniable smash. Truly anthemic, joyous, fun, passionate, tight, unpretentious.. let’s see, did I leave anything out? Oh and glorious! K? SuperFan approved, hit it up.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
“Contrabando de Amor” (mp3)
from “El Arte de la Elegancia de LFC”
(Nacional Records)

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Southern California’s beloved surf punker pioneers Agent Orange have rocked for over three decades, and they continue to tour and deliver a gr8 live show. This song from their brilliant 1981 album “Living in Darkness”- recently re-released digitally by Posh Boy Music – is a good taste of their innovative guitar work and unique collision of power pop, surf and punk. The lyrics to “Everything Turns to Grey” are brilliant, at once idealistic and resigned. A classic song from a classic LP. Surfs up!

Agent Orange
“Everything Turns to Grey” (mp3)
from “Living in Darkness”
(Posh Boy Music)

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In the lush, synthetic universe, inhabited by Bear In Heaven, anything can happen. The arrangement of “Wholehearted Mess” is surprising at every turn, with each bridge, verse and chorus opening a new door. An unusual and inspired chord progression, expressed in bold strokes on saturated, pitch-melting keyboard patches, frames a sweetly understated vocal magnificently, and it all adds up to, well, a wholehearted mess. Lovely, original work.

Bear In Heaven
“Wholehearted Mess” (mp3)
from “Beast Rest Forth Mouth”
(Hometapes)

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A nice big psychedelic musical conflagration from some moddy boys called Bombs from Toronto, Canada. Kinda like Oasis meets the Godfathers! A cool rocker from their eponymous EP, with some gr8 wah-wah guitar work and a yearning, echo drenched vocal. I like it.

Bombs
“Empty Noise” (mp3)
from “Bombs – EP”
(Mint 400 Records)

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Virtuoso acoustic guitar jam fer daze. Perfect find for the slow autumn drizzle that descends like fine mist on this SuperFan’s Oaksterdam home today. “Today is forever, now that we are through” is the haunting refrain that frames this instrumental exploration of steel string slide guitar, furious pluckin’, and one suspects, a little blood.  Mad @ The Live Creek? Or Live @ The Mad Creek? Take your pick. Mad flatpickin’ from a talented solo artist on the ever lovin’ ItsAboutMusic label.

The Lew Jones Act
“Today Is Forever” (mp3)
from “Mad @ The Live Creek”
(ItsAboutMusic.com)

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Here’s San Francisco indie rock champs Oranger with one of their more than orange explorations of colorful guitar tone and mysteriously overwhelmingly satisfying vocal hooks. Yum.

Oranger
“Eggtooth” (mp3)
from “Doorway To Norway”
(Amazing Grease Records)

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New to the ever growing stable of brilliant labels in the IODA camp is Asian Man Records, the indie pop punk ska and whatnot imprint founded by Skankin’ Pickle’s Mike Park. Typical of their signings is For.The.Win out of the label’s own backyard, San Jose, California. Musically belligerent and lyrically hopeful, at once idealistic and ferocious, this is punk rock by people who never got the memos that said “punk is dead” or “punk is mainstream now” or “punk ended when Green Day got big.” As with the blues, rock n’ roll, or any other genre, the heart of punk beats strong as long as there are bands and fans who believe it. Download and punk out.

For the Win
“Another Day” (mp3)
from “The Black & the Blue”
(Asian Man Records)

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Ok, let’s rock. With Sacramento, California’s most unlikely export, the fine heady border-crossing rock n’ roll of the ever reliable Cake. You can never quite tell with lead singer and lyricist John McCrea, where his cynical humor ends and a hopeful idealism begins. And in that flux lies a magic that sets their songs apart. The band matches his wit with a musical quirkiness that skillfully teeters on the brink of farce, but never stops doing the essential job of rocking out. I love this song.

Cake
“Ruby Sees All” (mp3)
from “Motorcade of Generosity”
(Upbeat Records)

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Taking lo-fi art to another level, Brooklyn’s Japanther sees evil, hears evil and speaks evil, while blurting out distorted perversions of rock n’ roll music. From the “Skuffed Up My Huffy” album, “See Evil” is fun, strange, entertaining and very short. A Huffy is a bicycle, by the way. If ya didn’t know. It’s an American made bicycle, and just about every kid in the USA has at some point ridden and probably skuffed up a huffy. Take this tune for a spin around the block. I dare ya’s.

Japanther
“See Evil” (mp3)
from “Skuffed Up My Huffy”
(We Are Busy Bodies)

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“Like boots or hearts, when they start, they really fall apart,” sings Grady. Excellent lyric. Add grit-swallowing, gut-churning, soul-vomiting guitar work, and some damned to sh!t wicked sexadelic southern rawk vocals, and, well, I’m diggin’ it. I think you will too. Tha’s wha’m here fer! Enjoy with Jack and Coke or similar. As eclectic Texas music vet Gordie ‘Grady’ Johnson Gordie Johnson puts it, “This record really is the byproduct of the musical environment we live in. Cowboys, metalheads, rednecks and punk rockers all congregate around us. Someone actually described us as ’shredneck’ which of course brought gales of laughter.” Makes sense when you hear it. This track is killer. That’s all.

Grady
“Boots Or Hearts” (mp3)
from “Good As Dead”
(C12 Records)

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Ah, love at first play. The splendidly named Kissing Party’s minimalist, dark romantic bliss pop gem, “I Just Want to Get Out of This Body” floats my boat like pain killers over a broken heart.  Goth-y 80’s English gloom-glamour meets present day Denver, Colorado angst, and speaks of cre8ive defiance in the face of vast cultural isolation. What could be wrong? Hand claps and bells complement the Joy Division-simple beats and guitars beautifully, lifting lustful lonely vocals above the fray to a shining peak where uncertainty becomes something to be sure of. All in 2 minutes 17! Yay.

Kissing Party
“I Just Want to Get Out of This Body” (mp3)
from “The Hate Album”
(Massive Music)

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The Tits? Why yes, Dorothy. Raw rock n’ roll from a garage of grease and sweat in Nashville? But yes again! Though Nashville does have a lesser known  history of gr8 rock and roll, it is certainly not the music the city is most famous for. The Tits sound more like a motor city post-MC5 muscle car fueled teenage outburst than anything from the Grand Ole Opry of old or new.  This rocks balls. And it needs to be said, forgive me.. MORE COWBELL!!

The Tits
“Get Up!” (mp3)
from “Jesus Says Relax”
(SPAT! Records)

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Still. To this day. Iggy Pop is my favorite rock star. And like it ever was, you either get this music or you don’t. It’s well known, to the point of being a cliché, I suppose, that nothing under the sun has rocked any harder than Detroit’s four horsemen, the first harbingers of punk rock, The Stooges. Yet there will always be new generations to be inspired, enthralled, elevated, corrupted, disgusted and possibly destroyed by the insane power of this singular act. The bare frontal assault of sex, gleeful aggression and reckless abandon perpetrated by Iggy and the Stooges in the early 70’s obliterated much that was making mainstream rock music increasingly unbearable at the time. Yet it didn’t become clear until years, even decades after the last echoes of Ron Ashton’s apocalyptic power chords finally faded away, what had happened.

Iggy And The Stooges
“Cock In My Pocket” (mp3)
from “Metallic K.O. – The Original 1976 Album”
(Jungle Records)

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Sometimes you love something just because you love it. This song makes me feel good. Is that reason enough? I think so. “Come Out, Come Out” is an instantly memorable hook-fest with a pounding 4 on the floor beat, wide open female vocal harmonies, and a creamy layer cake of guitar genius. Yum.

I Was Totally Destroying It
“Come Out, Come Out” (mp3)
from “Horror Vacui”
(Greyday Records)

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Truly some of the freshest and funniest indie angst-y rock happening right now is coming from an odd little band out of the UK called Sarandon. Named after the actress? Due to unsettled memories of her quivering voice and half undressed body in the Rocky Horror Picture Show? One can only speculate. But listen, do, to their ferocious rendering of The Membranes‘ post punk classic (yes dears, there is such a thing now), “Spike Milligan’s Tape Recorder.” This is, I’m afraid, about as hip as you can possibly get with guitars and drums in 2009. Repeated listens may cause spontaneous ironic mustaches. What’s the drummer eating for breakfast, I wonder? Excellent track.

Sarandon
“Spike Milligan’s Tape Recorder” (mp3)
from “Spike Milligan’s Tape Recorder”
(Slumberland)

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Ah, the travails and adventures of a good motorcycle road trip. Somewhere between a Bob Dylan yarn and a Lynyrd Skynyrd cautionary tale, we find Nathaniel Street West seeking help from a stranger, sleeping under a stove and running for his life. I won’t tell ya the rest, that would be a spoiler. But I am delighted to present this honky tonk, rock and roll, blues-y fried number for your listening pleasure.

Nathaniel Street West
“Motorpsycho Nightmare” (mp3)
from “Light Out For The Territory”
(Puffin Records)

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Here’s a driving slab of garage power pop to spin with the top down and the volume up. Grindy guitar dissonance and sexy dark vocals propel this testosterone fueled rock and roll outburst from The Fantastiques into the fan-o-sphere. Very tight and promising work from this band from of all places, Minsk, Belarus. Yet another reason to love the Interwebs. Check it out!

The Fantastiques
“The Dog Is Blind” (mp3)
from “My 1st Car”
(24 Hour Service Station)

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Count Von Count. Performing “Daddy Bong Legs.” Totally buggin. There’s a demented vocal in there somewhere, processed to hell and back, to go with the sick guitar rape and drum buggery. This is the sort of artist the PMRC (remember them?) was formed in vain to thwart. The little “parental advisory” stickers quickly became effective sales tools for perverted and deranged material. I trust Count Von Count will duly earn their warning sticker. Fun stuff.

Count Von Count
“Daddy Bong Legs” (mp3)
from “Heyasshole”
(Punk Rock Payroll)

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October. Hottest month of the year in Cali. Appropriate then that Fun Fun Fun Recordings would release the digital debut of the long rumored but seldom heard Sex 4 Moderns album, in fall of ‘09. The single “I’m Frying” sizzles and bursts, as singer-songwriter John Hanes intones in his sexy bass voice, like “an underground nuclear blast.” Hanes, you see, is like Lou Reed meets Barry White on an overdose of Love Potion Number Nine. Nearly every song on this record is a poetic ode to sex. I bought the album from the iTunes store and can’t get enough. “Swallow,” “Candy Dish” and “Penetrating Love Ray” are highlights, plus the highly original “Mr. Ed” – a personal identity revelation built around the 1950’s television talking horse – is a stunner.  Lead guitarist Steve Kirk’s angular, explosive riffing lends an urgency to the solid rhythm section work on every track. Add producer Matthew King Kaufman’s power pop sensibilities and Michael Rosen’s thunderous engineering work, and the sum is this Gr8 undiscovered rock album. I’m proud to share it with you here.

Sex 4 Moderns
“I’m Frying” (mp3)
from “Sex 4 Moderns”
(Fun Fun Fun Recordings)

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L’Aventurier

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Not just crazy, not merely insane, but crazy crazy insane. There’s a difference. Check it out. This is a clever, quirky pop song about being mad about someone. Not a new concept really but one which will never grow old. The laugh sample and whistling and humming on this track might be enough to have you committed involuntarily, but if not, the duet vocal will finish the job. Listen at your own risk. Second thought, you’d better not. Nothing to see here. Move along. Oh dear, you’re downloading. Ok, the nice young men will be there in their lab coats to collect you shortly.

ApSci
“Crazy Crazy Insane” (mp3)
from “Best Crisis Ever”
(Quannum Projects)

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This band is a trip. Their bio is entertaining in itself, but it would only amount to a cute story if it the music didn’t rock so. “Easy,” the lead off track from Deer Tick’s latest full length, “Born on Flag Day,” features some brave, intuitive combo playing and lovely instrumental work. Chief tick John Joseph McCauley III sings with a wild man’s spirit and effortlessly good pitch, which isn’t something you hear in your average drunken indie garage band. The lyrics are engaging and intriguing, and these ticks have excellent guitar tones, too. So what’s not to like? Have a listen.

Deer Tick
“Easy” (mp3)
from “Born on Flag Day”
(Partisan Records)

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Rediscovered in recent years through re-releases and bootlegs of her classic 1970’s records, Betty Davis’ amazing voice and incendiary vision blew away the walls between soul, funk, and rock. I’ve crowed about her in these pages before, but I think we need another dose of her exquisite musical medicine. The vocal on this song is an unrestrained outburst of passion that is physically affecting. This is the uncut, the real, the antidote to auto-tune. Take it away, Betty!

Betty Davis
“Is It Love Or Desire” (mp3)
from “Is It Love or Desire”
(Light In The Attic)

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Dramatic headline, yes, but I had to get your attention. For the record, K’Naan is the real deal. The exploding buzz around this young Somalian expatriate is entirely justified by the quality of his output. His music is fearlessly original and widely accessible, with lyrics that are nothing less than profound. You’d never guess that English is K’Naan’s second language, but indeed, he mastered it by studying and emulating the hip-hop and rock artists that he loved as a kid. Check his media rich website, and illuminating wikipedia article for some background. This mp3 is gr8, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. This is a major, major talent, and he’s going to be a big star. For all the right reasons.

K’Naan
“I Was Stabbed By Satan” (mp3)
from “The Dusty Foot Philosopher”
(Interdependent Media)

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Update, Sep. 23 – Wouldn’t you know it! K’Naan and J. Period have made a tribute to Bob Dylan, Fela Kuti, and Bob Marley. Read about it on Henry Adaso’s about.com blog. Makes sense. Gotta hear that one too.

Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, now living and performing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ben Kyle is an old school song smith whose music echoes his transatlantic journey. There’s so much heart in this track, it practically bleeds out the speakers. An accomplished vocalist with gr8 songs, teamed up with a dynamic and sensitive backup band that breathes his every line like it’s their own, well, this is the sort of stuff stars are made of.

Romantica
“Queen of Hearts” (mp3)
from “America”
(2024 Records)

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There are things heavenly and dark about this single. As a pulsing bass and drum line backs an elegant, haunting vocal arrangement, dreams merge into waking and the light changes all at once. Is it dusk? Is it dawn? This sounds like the smell of rain.

Liechtenstein
“All At Once” (mp3)
from “Survival Strategies In A Modern World”
(Slumberland)

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