Two doses of the band Liars today. I don't even know what to call them, but I guess you could call them kind of smooth, experimental post-punk or something like that. If you have to.

They just came out with a new album and I love the song and the video (it's a wittle scawwy, if you're sqweamish):

Which reminded me that although I never really got totally into their highly acclaimed last album, there was a song from it I ended up just loving:

Arctic Monkeys – 505

I'm going back to 505
If it's a 7 hour flight or a 45 minute drive
In my imagination you're waiting lying on your side
With your hands between your thighs

Stop and wait a sec
Oh when you look at me like that my darling
What did you expect
I probably still adore you with your hands around my neck
Or I did last time I checked

Not shy of a spark
A knife twists at the thought that I should fall short of the mark
Frightened by the bite though its no harsher than the bark
Middle of adventure, such a perfect place to start

But I crumble completely when you cry
It seems like once again you've had to greet me with goodbye
I'm always just about to go and spoil a surprise,
Take my hands off of your eyes too soon,

Born Ruffians – Little Garçon

I don't care just where you go, as long as it's with me
and I don't mind just what you do, as long as it's with me too

Well I get told to never get old
But the way it unfolds
I'm a little garçon in my head
With a little fille that's stuck in bed

Oh, okay, yeah, that's where you go
Oh, come and dance with me

Bon Iver – Woods

I'm up in the woods, I'm down on my mind, I'm building a still, to slow down the time.

Air France – Collapsing at your Doorstep

It's sort of like a dream, isn't it?  No, it's better.

Roger Miller

An Informercial (Time/Life) I saw in Rockford got me obsessed with Roger Miller.  King of the Road is just so fucking beautiful.

Micachu still thrills me.

My mom keeps me into country music, but we don't like the same kind, exactly.  I bought this amazing album for her… I wonder if she'll get into it.

Did you know Bob Dylan curated an amazing XM radio show for 3 years?  Bob Dylan is a better-than-average DJ.

And last, but not least, Four Tet can get you laid.

Now you know, and knowing is (contrary to popular belief) 28.62% of the battle.

Something in me needs metal. The seed was planted at 16 when my friend Aaron inexpertly rocked the Metallica "Four Horsemen" riff in his basement, forever melding my young energy to the driving force of its dorky power.

This is the kind of orchestral, explosive metal that makes me want to listen to it over and over and over.

Just take a deep breath and let it wash over you.  Who cares what it's about?  The album is a concept album about like, Rasputin and astral travel and gnarly stuff like that, like metal should be.   

But… wait.  There's more to it than that.  Is that some strange rockabilly lick?  Is he teasing us with some kind of LA hair metal shit?  Why does he sound so much like Ozzy?  Is it wrong to let Heavy Metal caress you?

If you don't find yourself saying "whoa" at sometime in this 13 minutes then pack it in.  You have no metal in you.

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I've been listening to the new P.O.S. album Never Better for a few months now, and Pearl Jam's recently reissued Ten for a lot longer than that.  Why Go? has always been a song that strangely caught me back in the day, and I find myself involuntarily beginning to sing the song while I walk alone down the street.

She scratches a letter / Into a wall made of stone
So maybe some day another child / Won't feel as alone

It's just got that feeling to it like you're about to start singing something serious or something, and it's well within my comfortable singing range, so a dozen years later it's well burned into my neural pathways.

That's why I'm so impressed to see P.O.S. knock out a quick loop on a synthesizer and effortlessly sing this song much better than I ever could.  One thing I love about his version is how much more he enunciates the punchline to this bitter little song about a kid in a mental institution:

What you taught me, put me in here.  Don't come visit.

There's a no-commercial version on YouTube but the sound and video quality on this one makes it worth sitting through the commercial:

Then, just to remind you… don't underestimate the power of the scrawny, apoplectic young Vedder himself doing the song in his heyday:

And lastly, if you're curious what kind of music P.O.S. really makes, it's kind of smart, ascerbic rap.  This is the track I'm really impressed by from Never Better called Savion Glover:

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