Well, first of all, there's this Tallest Man on Earth cover of Paul Simon's Graceland:

Then there's this track off the upcoming Cee-Lo solo album, which sounds very much like a Gnarls Barkeley track for sure (note that Cee-Lo is the singer of GB).

Oh, and every goddamn song on Janelle Monae's unbelievably good new album The ArchAndroid.

Consider the song, Oxford Comma. I don't care if they use outdated African pop as their template, they're cool.

First verse, "Know your boyfriend, unlike other guys."

2nd, "Know your butler, unlike other guys"

and "I met the highest lama, his accent sounded fine to me."

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These guys are okay.  They're erudite and all, but I've met worse demons.

I just got a leaked copy of Caribou's latest album, Swim, after drooling over the first single for a while.  Drool with me:

CARIBOU – Odessa from Caribou on Vimeo.

I love how his gentle singing is merged with the harsh clangs and hoots of the song.  This is some great mixing and a really interesting song.  The rest of the album is pretty damn good so far.  Sadly there's no Caribou from the last two albums on Lala to supplement this with, but I loved their last album Andorra too.

You know, nobody claims to dislike Hendrix.  It's just one of those things.  He's got like, the most fantastic brand goodwill ever.  Not that it does him any good.

But I'm actually one of those rare people: I'm a Hendrix Fan.  I love all of his real albums (only 4), I like most of his posthumous work (almost as much), and I even treasure some of his early recordings with Curtis Knight and other soul dudes.  I do NOT treasure all that much his drunken live recordings with the Doors or whatever.

Anyway, I was pretty excited to hear that they'd somehow dug up even MOAR posthumous recordings and were basically releasing a new album called Valleys of Neptune.

I've been able to give it a few listens and I'm pretty damn happy.  It's a lot of re-recorded versions of songs in the more bluesy style he was starting to get into when he died, and a few unheard originals.

So, I thought I'd do a quick Hendrix tribute post and let you listen to some of my favorites, with a focus on the stuff he never got to release in his lifetime.

First of all, off the new album, I really am liking this great instrumental cover of Sunshine of Your Love:

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And a cool song called Mr. Bad Luck:

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Then, moving back to songs released after his death in many different forms, but arguably the best on the one closest to what he wanted, a big album called First Rays of the New Rising Sun.  This song is one of my favorite tunes ever, ever, ever, mostly due to it's magnificent and rueful lyrics.  It's called My Friend.  I recommend you listen to it several times.

A choice cut of the lyrics:

Now a lady with a pearl handled necktie
Tied to the driver's fence
Breathes in my face,
Bourbon and coke possessed words
"Haven't I seen you somewhere in hell,
Or was it just an accident?"
You know how I felt then, and so:

Before I could ask "was it the East or West side?"
My feet they howled in pain
The wheels of a bandwagon cut very deep,
But not as deep in my mind as the rain
And as they pulled away I could see her words
Stagger and fall on my muddy tent
Well I picked them up, brushed them off,
To see what they say,
And you wouldn't believe:
"Come around to my room, with the tooth in the middle,
And bring along the bottle and a president"

And sometimes it's not so easy,
Especially when your only friend,
Talks, sees, looks and feels like you,
And you do just the same as him

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Also, a little more of a minor work, I also love Belly Button Window, arguably a pro-choicey song?!

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Then, I could sit here and lead you down the primrose path of Jimi's genius albums he released on purpose all day… really you can just listen to the whole albums and you're pretty much in good hands, but I'll just make one pick from each album that you may not have heard.

From his last album, a live album recorded with Buddy Miles: there's so many massive songs on this album, but I'm going to do Power to Love.  I knew this kid when he was 5 who loved this song and called it "The Jellyfish Song" because of these lyrics:

It's so groovy to float around, sometimes even
a jellyfish will agree to that.
I said flotation is groovy and easy,
even a jellyfish will agree to that.
Yeah, but old jelly's been floatin' so long
and so slack, lord, ain't no kinda bone in his jelly back.
Floatin' ev'ry day and ev'ry night is a risk, sometimes
the wind ain't right!

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From his crazy last double album with The Experience, I present the crazy, jazzy, Rainy Day, Dream Away, which I love for his little ad-libs that start the song, including some perhaps real joint-hitting noises:

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From Bold As Love, which truly blew my goddamn mind at age 17, I present Jimi's way-cool story of an alien dropping back to earth to tell people how messed up things are in the future:

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And from Jimi's seminal Are You Experienced? which you'd otherwise think was a greatest-hits album, the groovy space-opera with crazy radio noises, Third Stone From the Sun. Let Jimi land his kinky machine a little closer to you, baby:

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Ok, I'm glad we had this time together, Jimi.

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, called Sailing To Byzantium… seriously this song rocks my world:

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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,

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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

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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.

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Air France – Collapsing at your Doorstep

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

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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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