R Kelly “Playas Only”
The song makes me want to hang out with a different crowd, you dig? Say goodbye sallow, earnest indie rockers, hello Kristal, 24″ rims and Players clubs.
Destroyer “Rubies”
A nine-minute opus from the forthcoming genius known as Destroyer. Dan Bejar packs more punch in every verse than most bands can squeeze out in a record. “typical me, typical me, i gave my cargo to the sea, gave the water what it always wanted to be.”
Rufus Wainright “In A Graveyard”
This song is the most stripped down on his great album “poses,” it’s just piano and voice with no overdubs. Pay special attention to the top range of his voice, it is pure and spectacular.
Belle & Sebastian “Piazza, New York Catcher”
A pretty and sad song about San Francisco, California, the city where I live. “i love you i’ve a drowning grip on your adoring face…”
Ghost Face “Run”
So he finally got his banana nutriment, but the cops are close behind. A hilarious and touching song about when (most always) and how (very fast) to run from the cops.
Radiohead “We Suck Young Blood”
Can a radiohead record be criminally overlooked? yes, ‘Hail To The Thief’ is a towering masterpiece and seemed to float under the radar for most. this song is dark!! holy shit, it tears me up to hear those dirgy handclaps and broad piano strokes as yorke indicts the western world.
D. Shostakovich “Fugue”
From piano quintet a twelve-minute tonal argument, where sustained strings and probing piano shadow box until the impossibly melancholy is lifted into sweetness and light.
The Kinks “All Of My Friends Were There”
A strange and hallucinatory story about stage fright and musical acceptance. Ppure and original. From the monumental “Village Green.”
Wes Montgomery “Besame Mucho”
Have you heard this guy play guitar? It enough to live on, to keep you musically nourished for years. Wes is backed by Hammond B3 and drums.
David Bowie “Art Decade”
From the striking and important side 2 of “Low,” his first of the Berlin Trio. Eno and Bowie raise the sonic importance and possibilities of synthesizers to symphonic levels.
John Vanderslice’s new ablbum ‘Pixel Revolt’ is out now on Barsuk Records.