Paul Westerberg. Can't Hardley Wait.

Hurry up, hurry up aint you had enough of this stuff!?



God does this song make me happy and remind me, though the time was not otherwise synonymous with happiness BUT indeed with MUSEic, of being 15. 

I am going travelling, and woke up this morning with the mythic and lyrical genius of this timeless number in me head...The best part of course, 2:48 after the interlude of only anticipatory crowd noises and the low mechanics of a pause in the musicless club...

Passion Pit. Manners.

So in addition to this being my official "Spring Training" (read=rally) song, it is also fully exemplary of why I LOVE Passion Pit. They're so damn cheery and those lyrics! AND, though I really wasn't in to that whole electronic influence in mainstream alt music that saturated every new sound starting a few years ago (how funny does that sound, mainstream alt music) I guess MGMT changed that for me. And Passion Pit is all about it, which matched my window-down-driving-coastal-highway-while-full-on-dancing-to-the-music last summer in a way that made it so I had options other than the miserable pop-hop here in OC. This is my fave song off their first full length Manners. Check them out.

Rock and Roll Tuesday. Talking Heads.

This isnt a good example (because of the obvi-80's synth and chorus) but the Talking Heads produced some of the finest rock and roll there is.   Maybe it's my imagination or maybe it's just because it's all Brit-rock, but I cant help feeling that everything that was post-punk from the UK shamelessly maintained such awesome punk influence, even though the Talking Heads and Roxy Music were more soft than the Clash or BAD.  Byrne just has such edge and still does, and what he's done more recently with Brian Eno makes me so happy that time slips away when I hear them together.  Anyhow, like I said this and the link are both simple versions not representative of anything I mentioned here other than the unique (read=rebelious) musical aesthetic that true rock or punk is notorious for, but this song was on my mind today so give a listen.

Rock and Roll Tuesday. Down By the River.

I heard this song over the weekend on local-supported radio where I grew up, and again yesterday on a local station here at the beach.  I was driving with the windows down, the sun was shining and the air smelled warm and like salt and three surfers were at the top of 48th at about 1:55 when that fabulous, unreal electric finger-picking starts.  I felt like I was in a movie.

This song kicks my ass.  It rocks the poetry right out of all the dirty untalked crevices in my heart and soul AND the instrumental progression is insane.  I love you Neal Young.  Thanks Brandon.  This is re-released but was originally off his 1969 album Crazy Horse.

Rock and Roll Tuesdays. Best Coast.

I heard LA's Best Coast on a local-supported radio station.  The song they played was off their July 2010 album Crazy For You, and clips off that are all over youtube.  I've been checking out their older stuff though because they are about tunneled garage-band simple hard instrumental sounding as it gets, with a female lead who admittedly tweaks on every old riot-grrrl germ now matured but still rebellious as hell from deep within me. I hear that movement's influence all over Best Coast, thereby granting them designation as this weeks RaRT artist. This is Sun Was High, off their 2009 7 inch.  

Ma Muse. Glorious.

I dont do nearly enough posting about a type music that is so dear to me that it actually is all I listen to sometimes for full days straight.  I call it La Luna, la mama de las estrellas on my Pandora station which equals The Moon, Mother of the Stars.  It is of course female folk music.  I love the harmonies the most, second only to the poetry.  The way poetry and quiet can be at once the same thing, or at least make you infinitely aware of the other.  Today I heard this song for the first time, and the sun is shining I am writing and it was such a, such a, such a goood theme song.  NEW BAND!  Yay!  Ma Muse are two fabulous voices of La Mama out of Chico, CA.  Indy through and through, this clip is off their 2009 debut All the Way.

Born Ruffians. The Ballad of Moose Bruce.

Born Ruffians just make me happy, they're rally music to me.  When a song by them plays on random on my Itunes I always get all revved up inside.  They're Canadian indies that came my way the way that most my best discoveries did last year: my cousin's man Micah.  He's the shit.  This is my fave song off their 2010 album Say It.