SotD: "Hyperballad " - Dirty Projectors (2008)

In between 2007's concept-cover album Rise Above and 2009's unbelievably complete Bitte Orca, Brooklyn's most forward thinking band Dirty Projectors made many adjustments. They traded a female vocalist, added a permanent drummer and bassist, and signed to Domino. They also recorded a few key band-in-trasistion tracks in 2008, which showcase band leader and singer Dave Longstreth's push to be less art and more pop. Two of those songs were collaborations with indie icon and Talking Heads leader David Byrne, and the other a cover of Bjork's "Hyperballad."

Released on Stereogum's 10th anniversary tribute to Bjork's seminal Post, it is the first DP song to feature Angel Deradoorian in place of Susanna Waiche. Angel's tight, rising harmony with bandmate Amber Coffman fill out the chorus, giving the listener a much needed counterweight to Longstreth's nasally, unsteady lead. That balance, along with some explosive but minimal drumming, became the centerpiece for Bitte Orca. And really, that's why this song is so interesting. Its growing pains for a band already way ahead of the pack, who (partly due to the exposure from this song) would share the stage with Bjork at a small record store a year later (pictured above). A year later there is also a cover of "Stillness is the Move" by Beyonce's sister, and NYMag naming "Stillness" the #1 song that defined the Brooklyn sound. Here's to growing pains.

I go through all this
Before you wake up
So I can feel happier
To be safe up here with you

SotD: "Vibrationz" - Javelin (2009)

Javelin are a couple of electro-pop nerds who recently relocated from Providence to Brooklyn. They traded in their laptops for old school drum machines and samplers, and created something beautiful, groovy, and...well...just listen to it...

SotD: "Little Bit" - Lykke Li (2008)

In this age of electronic clutter, one of the amazing things that can still happen is overnight success. In fact, its more common than ever. And now you don't even have to have years of hardnosed, underground touring to make it a possibility! Just ask Lykke Li, the swedish indie rockers performing "Little Bit" here. The song may sound familiar, it's in that Victoria Secret commercial and saw heavy rotation in the blogosphere in 2008. And thats all it takes, one song, one connection (Bjorn from PB & J who produced her record) and then you too can be an indie star and hang out with Kanye...and be on American Idol...wait, is that indie?

SotD: "Smokestack Lightning" - Howlin' Wolf (1956)

In one of my "Music History" courses in college, a professor asked us to compare this song to "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Both are considered essential to Rock music, both with genre defining singers, who also happened to have completely self destructive personalities. But what struck me more than anything was the choice of Howlin' Wolf. Why not Muddy or Sonny Boy Williamson? Or a original delta bluesman like Robert Johnson or Charlie Patton? Then I realized, for ever band in the 90s that tried to sound like Nirvana, there was a band in the 60s that tried to sound like Howlin' Wolf. Except instead of Puddle of Mudd they were The Rolling Stones.

SotD: "How Does It Make You Feel?" - Air (2001)

Between their 1999 soundtrack for The Virgin Suicides and the 2001 album 10,000 Hz Legend, the band Air was making a strong push to the forefront of the burgeoning indie-electro movement. They had the same producer as Radiohead, their video's were as creepily memorable as Bjork's, and to top it all off, they were from France! When's the last time you heard a great band from France? But of course they slowly dismantled their own mythology by putting out the same record time and again, letting themselves fall behind the curve.

SotD: "Cissy Strut" - The Meters (1969)

In the mid-60s, "funk" was just another word for describing body odor. A nicer way. As in "man, you smell funky" instead of "man, you smell like shit." Not that funk didn't exist. Looking back there is no dispute about who invented funk, just listen to the horn stabs and backbeat on James Brown's 1965 hit "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag." Brown was way ahead of his time, blending soul, R&B, Jazz, and first wave Ska to create the earliest form of funk. However, one vital ingredient was missing from his formula, the guitar.

The guitar (usually with a wah-wah pedal) would end up being an essential piece to the funk sound that defined the 1970s, and that was in no small part a result of The Meters self-titled 1969 release, and specifically this breakthrough track. Sure others (Sly, Shuggie) had guitars in their band, but they never used them like the Meters. Then theres that back-breaking hi-hat. Or the rhythmic B3 organ. It's all here, forty years later.

SotD: "As I Went Out One Morning" - Mira Billotte (2007)

Roger McGuinn joked about the Dylan inspired/mindfuck of the century film I'm Not There, "So, it took seven people to play Dylan?" And its true, seven actors (male, female, young, old, black, white) were used in the Todd Haynes directed film as metaphors for the many lives Dylan has lived in his musical career. The two disc soundtrack, made up entirely of Dylan covers, finds even more Dylan impersonators. There's Stephen Malkmus getting real nasally on "Ballad of a Thin Man," and Cat Power doing her best "awww, mammma" on "Stuck Inside Mobile..." But for me the standout cover of the album is this version of "As I Went Out One Morning" by Brooklyn native and Magic White bandleader Mira Billotte.

Like the others, she does her best to stretch her syllables like taffy and husks up her voice, but where the others sound like they're imitating, Mira is actually creating her own song. Her and her tightly knit band (just bass, drums, and acoustic guitar) give the song a dry toughness not found on the original version, due in part to Mira's confessional style of delivery -a strong contrast to Dylan's half-drunken groans and meandering harmonica. And, strangely enough, this song seems to make more sense sung by a woman!

I offer'd her my hand,
She took me by the arm.
I knew that very instant,
She meant to do me harm.

SotD: "Shake That Devil" - Antony & The Johnsons (2008)

Antony Hegarty is a member of one of the most exclusive clubs in music...the "voice that will never be confused with another singer" club. That trembling falsetto- caught somewhere between Oberst, Pavarotti, and Kermit the Frog- is definitely the band's strongest weapon. Over his career, Antony's weakness seems to be his indulgence in sparse arrangements and that ever searching falsetto. "Shake that Devil," like his best work, has a sense of direction and a finely tuned vision. The atonal bed which Antony sings over slowly draws the listener in, before opening up to a shuffling rockabilly beat, saxophone, and a small group of backup singers. Like a defeated sinner saved by Rock n Roll, Antony comes to life in the second half, and ends triumphantly on the same words he unttered so meekly in the beginning: "That dog!" He shouts it with such conviction, you can almost see him pointing towards the creature.

Shake that pig out of the bush

Now lets give that pig a push
Shake that pig right out of me

SotD: "The Loco-Motion" - Little Eva (1962)

Eva Boyd, better known as Little Eva (after a character from Uncle Tom's Cabin), scored a #1 hit in 1962 with this Carole King/Gerry Goffin penned tune. And while King and Goffin were bonified Brill building songwriters, their relationship with Eva was alittle unsual. Eva was their babysitter, and when they caught her dancing around their house one night, they were so inspired by her moves they decided to write a song about it. "The Loco-Motion" was written, and they couldn't think of anyone better to demo it than Eva herself. That demo impressed Producer Don Kirshner so much, he wanted her to sing it for the single. She did and her career was launched.

King/Goffin also wrote a song "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)" which was a hit for The Crystals, inspired by Eva's confession to King/Goffin that her boyfriend abused her. So, when listening to this delightfully groovy and gummy track, don't kid yourself that the 60s were in anyway more innocent then our society today. In fact, I think Eva would be more controversial in our society because we take everything at face value. It would be like Rhianna changing her name to Amistad and releasing a song called "Hit Me With Your Love" and having it go to #1.

Now that you can do it, let's make a chain, now.
(Come on baby, do The Loco-motion.)
A chug-a, chug-a motion like a railroad train, now.

SotD: "Do the Evolution" - Pearl Jam (1998)

I think I would have been a bigger Pearl Jam fan if I had actually grown up with them. You know, picked up Ten a couple months before Nevermind came out, and called the Nirvana the knock off band. Followed them on their never-ending tours, like a grunge Dead-head, telling my friends about the night Eddie Vedder's eyes rolled up into his head just as he got to the chorus of "Even Flow." But I didn't. I grew up with Pearl Jam's unfortunate legacy, bands like Nickelback (is it one word or two? I'd rather type this aside then look it up) and Creed. Those alt-rock crooners made me sick, and subsequently I avoided going into Pearl Jam's back pages. Then I heard Yield. It's Pearl Jam sounding only very slightly like Pearl Jam, and it still sticks out as their most creative and diverse record.

On "Evolution" Vedder is at his wildest, barking and howling like Johnny Rotten, atop a buzzsaw riff that wouldn't be out of place in a Metallica record or James Bond movie. All the while he's menacingly asking the listener to "do the evolution" as if its a hot new dance. 11 years later, Pearl Jam has never given Yield a proper follow-up, instead they've fulfilled the mainstream corporate prophecy Kurt Cobain bestowed upon them all those years ago. You can catch them on Target and V-cast commercials, they've got their own Rock Band game coming, and Fox's tighty-whitey sports commentator Joe Buck called their newest release album "awesome" during the World Series. Do the evomition.

I am ahead, I am advanced

I am the first mammal to make plans, yeah

SotD: "Lost in the Supermarket" - The Clash (1979)

There was a period in time when "the only band that mattered" was The Clash. Listening to London Calling now, it's easy to see who, exactly, lived by that mantra. There's the early 80s punk (Minor Threat, Husker Du), pop-punk of the 90s (Green Day, Foo Fighters) and they certain had alot to do with the afro-pop movement and its recent revival. What isn't always noted with The Clash is that they were punksters with more than political/rebelious snarls. Their lyrics we're often deep, social commentary, and I might even go as far as saying they are the most intelligent punk band ever. Who else could gets millions to cheer "rock the Casbah"?

I wasn't born so much as I fell out
Nobody seemed to notice me
We had a hedge back home in the suburbs
Over which I never could see

SotD: "Down There By The Train" - Johnny Cash (2003)

I've decided that since I don't have the time, motivation, and/or immediacy that I want went writing album reviews, i'm going to try discussing my favorite (and not so favorite) artists by means of "Song of the Day". This means everyday (well, mon - fri, this aint Russia!) I'll post a song, maybe two, and shed alittle light on how they came to be, why their so important, and many other tidbits. Yes, tidbits.

So, rather than start with a well known, Macy's Day Parade type number, i'm gonna go with a more somber one. "Down There By The Train" was written by Tom Waits specifically for Johnny Cash. Both men are fans of each others work (obviously) and like many artists, there was a great sense of urgency from Tom to contribute something to Cash's now well document run of recordings with Rick Rubin shortly before his death. Those sessions saw Cash doing old standards, duets with new/old friends, and slipping in a few original and commisioned works, such as this one. The heavy imagery of the afterlife being a train-yard, were life continues to be hard is part eulogy, part tribute for Cash. Waits later released his own version as part of 2006s 3CD comp Orphans, but it is Cash's tenderness that gives this song longevity.

There's no eye for an eye, there's no tooth for a tooth
I saw Judas Iscariot carrying John Wilkes Booth
He was down there by the train