The next stop will be…

El Matador by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

This track entered my consciousness when I watched the recent Pierce Brosnan film Matador, as it appears on the soundtrack. It’s a kick*ss song that also appears on the Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack. The band is from Argentina and this particular song is in the style of ska. Odd? Yes, but it totally works.

Ps. Matador, the movie, was much better than I expected. Pierce plays a hit man suffering from an existential crisis about his line of work.

Lump by The Presidents of the United States

One hit wonder from the mid-90’s. Their discography page on allmusic has a photo of them with Bill Clinton. I really miss the good ole’ days.

“Morning Song” is a new feature for the blog that I’m hoping I can maintain. At the very least it should help me post more often in the event nothing else is going on.

You see, I rarely remember my dreams but hardly a day goes by that I don’t wake up with a song in my head. And I thought it would be interesting to start posting them. Maybe I’ll say a little something about each one or maybe not but it’d be nice to have a record. No pun intended.

Today’s Song:
White Lines by Duran Duran

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five did this originally back in 1983. It’s an excellent song about the dangers of drugs. While I like the original a lot, Duran Duran’s version from their covers album “Thank You” has this vocal hook that goes Dang a Dang Dang ga Dang ga Dang and that’s what was rattling around my head this morning.

Johnny Cash
“God’s Gonna Cut You Down” from American V

Either I’m growing more jaded music-wise or I’m just not trying hard enough to find new music. Scratch that second one, I just did some checking and I don’t think it’s for lack of trying so maybe I’m jaded.

I’ve downloaded and listened to no less than twenty albums since my last Single of the Week post, everything from Gnarls Barkley to Xiu Xiu. I’ve found some decent albums and while there are songs that I think are good, no one song has stood out. The common factor in most of the prior singles that I’ve posted about is that they have some kind of hook or melody that winds up playing on repeat in my head. You’d think with that much source material it wouldn’t be hard to find a hook but it has been.

That changed today with a discovery on the new Johnny Cash album. Johnny and I go way back as my Dad was a fan so I heard his stuff as a young child. His boom-chicka-boom rhythms and molasses voice worked themselves into my growing brain so deep that they’ll never come out. Consequently, I’ll give any new album of his plenty of opportunity to make an impression.

He manages to get my attention with “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” by triggering a memory of a song that captured my psyche back in ‘99. Moby sampled an old traditional song called “Run on for a Long Time” by Bill Landford and the Lanfordaires to make his track “Run On” from the album Play. The Landford track contains the lyric “go and tell that lonesome liar, go tell that midnight rider, tell the gamblin’ ramblin’ backslider…”. Johnny’s version of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” which is also an old traditional song contains a very similiar lyric that goes “go and tell that long tongue liar, go and tell the midnight rider, tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter…”.

I think both songs are just slightly different takes on the same old traditional but it’s a traditional for a reason. It’s got that hook and I can’t shake it loose.

Honorable mention goes to Gnarls Barkley for pairing sixties soul to modern day electronics and production on “Crazy”.

Islands
“Where There’s a Will There’s a Whalebone” from Return to the Sea

I remember reading a review of Mercury Rev’s first album that described it as a half-assed masterpiece. It was a brilliant description that totally nailed the album in three short words. Flashes of utter brilliance juxtaposed against an interesting sense of laziness and wandering.

I wouldn’t use the exact same metaphor to describe the Islands debut album but it’s not far off the mark. The album starts off with the ambitious track “Swans (Life After Death)” which is a sort of trippy stoned romp along the lines of Mercury Rev’s early work. It’s my favorite track on the album. The only reason it’s not the Single of the Week is it’s length at over nine minutes.

“Where There’s a Will There’s a Whalebone” is a catchier and more digestible slice of Return to the Sea even if it does stick out a little bit, what with the rapping. It starts off with mellow spacey vocals and instrumentation then out of nowhere they drop in some guest rappers. It works a lot better than it sounds.

The rest of the album owes a lot to the Beatles, sometimes to the Islands credit and other times not so much. Regardless, I can’t stop playing it and that’s as a good a recommendation as any.

The Raconteurs*
“Broken Boy Soldier” from Broken Boy Soldier(releases May 16th)

Brendan Benson(indie posterboy) teams up with Jack White(Billy Corgan Jr.) to create the perfect validation of “the sum is greater than the parts”. Those of you disappointed, as I was, with the latest White Stripes album will find that Jack has redeemed himself with this collaboration and album.

“Steady as She Goes” is the first single from the album. It’s a fine sounding indie pop effort but a little on the bubblegummy side for me. I much prefer the darker sounding title track “Broken Boy Soldier”. The rolling ominous beat overlaid with Jack White’s strained vocals creates a sense of dread that you can bob your head to.

*The band’s website has creative navigation but is kinda annoying.

The Fiery Furnaces
“South is Only a Home” from Gallowsbird’s Bark

Somehow I missed the boat when this brother/sister duo hit the scene in late 2003 so I’m playing catch up here. The best compliment I can give this song is that it makes me want to dance and that’s not a bad thing at all.

Imagine if Antony and the Johnsons played rock music and that will give you a fair idea of what the rest of the album sounds like. Alternately, you could mentally cross Arcade Fire with the White Stripes.