I was trying to build a summer theme for this edition of Heavy Rotation, but nothing seemed to hold these five tracks together. Not even my usual gossamer strands of bullshit.
So… without further ado: five completely unrelated tracks, held together by the simple fact that they all are guaranteed to kick some audio ass.
Brighton Port Authority – Toe Jam.mp3
Fatboy Slim’s latest project, an all-star jam session of a band, featuring the likes of David Byrne, Dizzee Rascal, Iggy Pop, Ashley Beedle and Simon Thornton. This particular track features the first two on the list, in a very summery and bouncy tune dealing with life in general (women, booze, no particular plans…)
Bonus video:
MGMT – Kids (Soulwax Mix).mp3
Brooklyn’s MGMT’s song of low-key environmental awareness (…control yourself/take only what you need from it) has the hell remixed out of it by Belgian knob twiddlers, Soulwax. Starts out rather light on its feet, before a propulsive beat and some filter fuckery takes it into tough-as-nails territory. There’s a relative return to sanity towards the middle as Soulwax drops it down to just the vocals for a momentary breather. And then the beating commences, this time with more digital cowbell.
Bonus video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad-tgbtbCEM&feature=fvst
(Embedding disabled by His Satanic Majesty’s Request. Also, not the remixed version, but the original)
Sloan – I Am the Cancer.mp3
From Sloan’s debut album Smeared. Their first album showed some pretty heavy Ride/MBV/Blur influences, but it’s still my favorite. All fuzzy guitar and shoegazer vocals. The kind of thing I dig the most. They have since matured and went on to make several albums which have been compared favorably to the Beatles and other sixties psychedelia/folksters. Whatever. This is them at their tormented, rocking best.
Better answer
I am the cancer
Removed from you
The Big Pink – Velvet.mp3
Another summery tune, but in a much different vein. This is more of the “heading back from a late night at the lake” sort of tune, evoking a high-speed drive through a winding forest road, guided only by your highbeams and what’s left of your buzz. The feeling that you stayed up too late and drank/drugged too much. Just a gorgeous windblown track, propelled along nicely by airy vocals and a killer riff (by none other than a former guitarist for Alec Empire, of all people).
Bonus:
The War on Drugs – Taking the Farm.mp3
Another lightweight, hippy-ish track about city v. country living. The lyrics are a bit elliptical but the shuffling Madchester beat recalls the glory days of the Stone Roses, Soup Dragons and, of course, the Farm. Guaranteed to stick in your head and, quite possibly, move your ass.
-CLT
