I’ll Show You My Songs If You Show Me Yours

You all know the story, right?  The spaceship captain and his crew meet up on a remote planet and meet up with the creatively-named “Witch Queen”, where the captain unlocks the beauty within the witch through music.  Sound familiar?  It’s a short synopsis of the George-Lucas-produced, Francis-Ford-Coppola-directed Michael Jackson vehicle Captain EO, which ran in exclusively in Disney theme parks in the late 1980′s and through the 1990′s.

Today marks the day that Captain EO first wowed audiences thirteen years ago.  What does that have to do with today’s post?  Absolutely nothing, I just needed an interesting way to start out the post and anything MJ-related seems to be pure blogging gold nowadays.  Hope that those of you finding this post via your daily “Captain EO” Google search stick around for the festivities.

Today, the plan is to share with you some of my favorite songs that have floated to the top of the shuffle setting on my IPod this week.  We do a lot of writing about albums round these parts, but the single has made a comeback over the past couple of years, so today we’re just going to explore some great new and not-so-new songs.

“Porno Starlet vs. Rodeo Clown”, Califone

I introduced myself to Chicago experimental rock band Califone a couple of weeks ago, starting with their 2001 album Roomsound.  The title of this track caught my eye, but the track itself turned out to be just terrific.  A chugging acoustic guitar and hand percussion lull you in until the random flutes hit in the middle of the song.  About the time you get used to the flutes, the song’s over.  Wham, bam, thank you ma’am.  If you’re a Grizzly Bear or Fleet Foxes fan, this song’s for you.

“Strictly Game”, Harlem Shakes

If you listen to the Harlem Shakes for very long, you’ll realize that this is just a fun band, and this song is just a blast.  Percussion drives the bus in this tune, with some a recurring guitar and bass theme that help propel this tale of a downtrodden man’s hope that “This will be a better year.”  Critics will hate by saying “Strictly Game” is a Vampire Weekend rip-off, but this track is way looser than what you’d hear from VW.  Fans of The Strokes or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or even Vampire Weekend, take note.

“Barcelona”, The Builders and the Butchers

Portland’s The Builders and the Butchers brings us one of the best folk/punk hybrid songs of the year.  Lead singer Ryan Sollee’s voice is slightly creepy, and the healthy dose of mandolin and trumpets adds to the sense that something’s just not quite right.  But how can you go wrong with lyrics like “When the sun goes down on southern Barcelona, every child will turn to stone.”  Being scared never sounded so much fun.  These guys remind me of an American version of the classic Pogues.

“Lakeside”, BLK JKS

South Africa’s BLK JKS (pronounced Blackjacks) just released their debut LP After Robots and I absolutely love it.  ”Lakeside” is one of my favorite songs from the new album.  It also showed up on the BLK JKS Mystery EP earlier in the year, but there are some subtle differences in sound between the two releases.  The JKS have a sound that is hard to define–there are elements of Afropop, jazz, funk and soul in all of their songs–but their music is always interesting.  Check out the song shifts in both tempo and mood from verse to chorus, moving from a synth-heavy Peter Gabriel-like verse to an acoustic guitar-driven chorus straight out of South Africa.  Then they throw in a mean electric guitar at the end of the song just for good measure.

If any of these songs sound interesting to you, surf on over the Brown Tweed Last.fm page, where you can listen to each of our featured songs for free.  Hopefully you’ll find something there that you’ll like.  We’d also like to hear from you.  What are some of your favorite songs right now? Let us know in the comments section here or on the Brown Tweed Society Facebook page.  And don’t be ashamed to profess your love for Captain EO’s “Another Part of Me”, I promise we won’t laugh….much.  Later!