Ever felt like this? Wow, a post-modernized Phil Spector-esque pop ballad about blowing a good romance. That precious moment when one realizes one has been a perfect fool, immortalized in song. Take heart, Dumbettes, you got a GR8 song out of it. Marvelous lyrics, and superb production, too. Two dumbs up!

The Dumbettes
“Dumb Head” (mp3)
from “Dumb Head / There’s Someone at the Window – Single”
(SL Records)
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My new summer anthem has arrived. Stuffed full of sexy, irreverent lyrics, tumbling gleefully over a driving beat, “Our Summer” from Dragonette’s “Our Summer Volcano” is perfectly titled and realized from start to finish. I love those bells. And honestly, it’s how this summer has been going for this Superfan. It just gets better better. This is pop music, contemporary up to the nanosecond. Top down, system up, baby =)

Dragonette
“Our Summer” (mp3)
from “Our Summer Volcano”
(Dragonette Inc)

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I post a lot of great music here, and I love all of it, a lot. But every once in a while I hear a song, and I just have to get up on a soapbox and wave my arms and yell HEY, YOU HAVE TO HEAR THIS!  This is the best new love song I have heard in a long while. The lyrics are outstanding. Very contemporary, yet also archetypal and timeless. I know nothing about this artist, and I’m even gonna like, read the bio before posting this. I can do that later. This is just brilliant.

Ryan Bourne
“Love and Death” (mp3)
from “Supermodern World of Beauty”
(Saved by Radio)

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The explosion of the “jam band” genre was precipitated by the eventual end of the Grateful Dead’s seemingly perpetual, decades long tour. The myriad musical variations on the theme from Phish, Widespread Panic and, um, hordes of others were largely based in rock and prog rock. The Quick & Easy Boys, it seems, base their sound more on the latin rock fusion of Santana and War, along with hefty doses of Hendrix, Zappa and P-Funk. And in the classic style of a power trio, they put out such a HUGE sound you wonder how they can do it with just three guys. As their fans like to say, “Yeah Bud!”

The Quick & Easy Boys
“7 Ways” (mp3)
from “Red Light Rabbit”
(Per Capita Records)

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I think one of my least favorite descriptive terms for music is “retro” – I mean could you be more vague and non committal? So as a rule I rarely describe anything as “retro,” but, you know the thing about rules is they are made to be broken, so here we go. In an act of sustained and dedicated TOTALLY RETRO worship of 60′s garage pop, northern soul and other yummy styles of that precious musical era, The Midwest Beat is a wonderful band on a retro mission. Here’s one from them I posted earlier called “Get It Started” is a gr8 rave up, and this single “Color Radio” shows these Madison, Wisconsin disciples of 60′s pop luv in a more philosophical mood. Recorded on analog tape and released on vinyl 45′s, of course. Collect ‘em all!

The Midwest Beat
“Color Radio” (mp3)
from “At the Gates”
(Dusty Medical Records)

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What does a Sea Of Bees sound like? Why, like this, Dorothy. A very buzzing, furry, winged self-organizing symphony of pollinating honeybugs. Sea Of Bees is actually one Julie Ann Bee, a (deep breath) multi-talented singer-songwriter-player-arranger-producer who writes and performs purty much every track on her lush and lovely recordings. Me likes it a lot. Now what happens when a Sea Of Bees gets into the Marmalade? Listen and find out, dears. Gr8 stuff.

Sea of Bees
“Marmalade” (mp3)
from “Songs for the Ravens”
(Crossbill Records)

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In a true Internets moment, I have become an instant fan of Modern Skirts. What a wonderful and joyful sound. And how unusual. I love their sweet child like voices. I love the old school storytelling approach. I love the looseness and the naturalness. I even love the way their voices fall out of tune here and there. It’s sweet. It’s real. It’s nice. It’s NOT AUTO-TUNED! and gawd, that in itself makes me happy in this age of saccharine-frosted ersatz musik. Yes. In short, I love this.

Modern Skirts
“Rebecca St. Claire” (mp3)
from “Happy 81 EP”
(athensmusic.net)

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Spectrals make a lovely arrangement of pop furniture from Pet Sounds and Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound and such, to set the scene for “7th Date.” Here we consider just what this 7th date means, and what to say and do! Is it always so clear? But no, Alice. Delicious single, a keeper, DL it and don’t rush your decisions, honey bunnies.

Spectrals
“7th Date” (mp3)
from “7th Date”
(Slumberland Records)
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This beautiful track by The Static Age stopped me in my tracks this morning. A gr8 song lyrically, “Count The Dead” is delivered on a music bed that reminds favorably of early U2, Killing Joke and Cure material. It’s a very affecting piece which you could loosely say is about humanity’s tendency to war, but what makes the song powerful is that it observes rather than explains, asks rather than answers. Marvelous work.

The Static Age
“Count The Dead” (mp3)
from “Blank Screens”
(ReIgnition Recordings)

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