SOD: Phosphorescent -- Song for Zula

"Song for Zula" lunges straight for the heart, sinks its soft teeth, and does not stop tearing for a full 6 minutes and ten seconds. And that is only if you can resist playing it on repeat. That's not something I've been capable of lately. It's the second track on Phosphorescent's 2013 album, Muchacho, which comes out on 3/19. Stream the album on NPR First Listen.

I love it when an artist (Matthew Houck is Phosphorescent), takes this much care in his lyrics, clearly writing them first, but shapes them to work so effortlessly in the melody. Song for Zula is a gateway to Muchacho, an album I think will take weeks to fully discover. I'm looking forward to the journey.

Some say love is a burning thing, 
That it makes a fiery ring
Oh but I know love as fading being
Just as fickle as a feather in a string
See, honey, I saw love, you see it came to me
It put its face up to my face so I could see
Yeah, then I saw love disfigure me
Into something I am not recognizing

SOD: Cayucas -- High School Lover

Spring is coming, or so I've heard. This brings the promise of trail running and shorts. It only follows that I've been looking for happy music recently, and lately I've been missing the combination of humor and pop sensibility that was so great in the Clinton-era releases by Beck and Weezer. When I heard "High School Lover" by sleepy seaside town, San Luis Obispo, California band, Cayucas, it immediately put a smile on my face and there was much dancing.

Cayucas will be at SXSW on Thursday, March 14 at 3pm on Radio Day Stage Austin Convention Center.

SOD: Jackson Scott -- The Awful Sound

I keep digging for info on this dude, but brass tacks is that Jackson Scott has a damn fine psych-pop tune in "That Awful Sound". I listened to this track 5x after the first play and kept discovering fresh bits that I liked about it: the practically implied drums, the MBV wash of electric guitar at 1:28, and the warbling pitch at 2:13 like the singer's about to go into a freak out but instead shuts the song down at a mere 2:26 of pop economy. More, Mr. Scott!

SOD: The Modern Lovers -- Roadrunner

The Modern Lovers, Pavement, Guided by Voices. I've only listened to them for the past three years, but I feel like I've known them since I was 14. If I could go back, I'd have discovered them earlier. Maybe I've invented the nostalgia, but I think that listening to bands from another era is about connecting with songs regardless of time.

Roadrunner plants itself in my head on many long runs, road, trail, and races of any kind. The lead singer, Jonathan Richman, sounds like he's walking a slack line, ready to unhinge from ordinary life at any moment, lose his shit, and start freaking out...if it weren't for pop music. He's so obviously in love with pop, rock, and music at large that it becomes his catharsis, his introspection, his dance all at once. The man can ride the slack.

Dang, I've fallen so in love with this song that I can't write about it. Jus' listen?

SOD: James Blake -- Retrograde

Speaking of meteors flying into the earth's atmosphere, enter the video for James Blake's gorgeous new single "Retrograde" off his soon to be released record, "Overgrown". In the video, a blazing light falls to earth  while a lone motorcyclist arrives at a house and discovers people frozen in time inside, as well as a woman giving signs before the meteor hits.

The images work because Blake's darkly somber voice often sounds like someone who floated off alone into space to write songs about his life on earth before plummeting back to pick up where he left off. And the chorus isn't far from those isolation themes: "I'll wait, so show me why you're strong. Ignore everybody else. We're alone now."

Nothing tops the lush keyboard build 3/4 of the way through the track, rises to near explosion, and then sighs away as you can finally let go of that breath you've been holding. 

SOD: Johnny Marr -- Upstarts

Johnny Marr is not a name I expected to see in music headlines in 2013. To be clear, I love The Smiths, and liked Marr's work with Modest Mouse and The Cribs. Yes, I'm a Johnny Marr fan. But he's never released anything as a front man, so I had low expectations for Marr's first solo record, "The Messenger", which is currently streaming free on Rolling Stone.

"The Right Thing Right" opens the record with a Brit-pop banger that's in line with Achtung-era U2 vocals and Oasis' unstoppable pop force. The song is a damn fine opener. The next two songs continue to push angular sonics with catchy hooks, and then comes "Upstarts".

"Upstarts" kicks hard with a signature Marr riff, followed by a brash vocal delivery that Nick Lowe would be proud of, singing "Ohhhh, I feel it comin' round / I heard it sounds the good life I know". The lyrics aren't quite up to the level of production or instrumental performance, but this is a guitar rock album first and foremost, and at that it succeeds. I'm surprised and excited to give "The Messenger" a lot more plays in coming weeks.

SOD: Ty Segall -- Thank God For Sinners

Thank god that garage rock still exists and is still this good. Ty Segall is playing the local Ann Arbor dive bar/music venue, the Blind Pig, on 3/7, and I can't wait to drop into that crowd, throw some elbows around, toss our fists in the air, and jump around until we're senseless while this band churns out loud guitar music.

Segall's music output over the last 5 years is overwhelming. He releases at least two albums a year, so it's hard to know where to start. This song is off Twins (2012), and is probably the best door to his expansive house of music.

The NSFW video gives me the oogy feelings all over and the end is satisfyingly disgusting.

SOD: Telekinesis -- Ghosts and Creatures

The new Telekinesis album, Dormarion, will come out in a few months (March?), and if this lead single, "Ghosts and Creatures", is any indication of its direction, this album is going to be a welcome shift in sound for Telekinesis. 

Michael Lerner, who is the man behind Telekinesis, has written dozens of tunes that can be described as pure pop goodness on previous releases, but this song is much darker, almost suffocatingly so. The keys at one end sear and the other end rattle and buzz, pulling the song apart and driving its satisfying resolution.

The lyrics float over the top, so you only pick up on some of the striking images: a ship on a lonely sea, something being electrified, another thing being cut down. It's not clear exactly what he's talking about, but the song carries a very strong sense of longing and desperation. Which always makes for a great pop song.

3/19/13 Update. Telekinesis released this brilliant video for the song, wherein Lerner falls in love with a girl stuck inside an old computer.

SOD: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis -- Thrift Shop

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's 2012 record, The Heist, has been on heavy rotation in my ears for the past month, and the horn jam, Thrift Shop, has been blasted early and often. 

And the video is hilarious. It's the first video I've seen in many years that's actually as good as the song. I laugh my ass off every time I see Macklemore in the thrift shop jumping from beat up couch to couch wearing a fluffy long coat.  In slow motion. 

The rap duo is on fire right now. They've been selling out shows for months, both US and in abroad (dang, I missed them at St. Andrews in Detroit). The Heist has sold 200,000+ copies. Damn good sales for today.

I love the horns on this song, and the dopey "what what?" at the opening over tinny casiotone sounds makes the actual beat and horn line drop in heavy and sound crazy. I probably wouldn't listen to a whole record of Thrift Shop type songs, but the record has sober, introspective moments as well, making this song all about the fun.

Fun times:
Your grammy, your aunty, your momma, your mammy
I’ll take those flannel zebra jammies, second-hand, I rock that motherfucker
The built-in onesie with the socks on that motherfucker

SOD: Best Coast -- The Only Place

Happy New Year! It's been a great 2012. This year, I made new running friends, got a promotion at work, finished my first 100 miler, run-explored the trails in Kentucky, Tennessee, Connecticut, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. Some of my best memories were running in Red River Gorge, Pictured Rocks, Great Smoky Mountains, Tecumseh trail, and the Rocky Mountains.

So here's a song about loving where you are and realizing how lucky you are to be right there. For Best Coast that place is California, and they love the waves, the mountains, etc. But the song's not about why CA is awesome and everywhere else sucks. Not to me anyway. It's about being in love with your place, wherever you are.

Produced by pop guru (and underrated), Jon Brion, the title and lead track off Best Coast's 2012 album celebrates everything I love about the band. Tight melodies, hooks that can make crowds smile, and a bouncy rhythm section that is undeniably fun.

"Why would you live anywhere else?" sings Bethany Cosentino.

I have no idea.

SOD: Tame Impala -- Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

I'm crushing so hard on Tame Impala I swear it's not my fault they do this psychedelic 60's throwback production with swinging rhythms and otherworld textures that squeak through my earbuds and take over my brain while singer Kevin Parker sounds, as Jayson Greene says, "like someone trapped John Lennon's vocal take from "A Day in the Life" in a jar and taught it to sing new songs" man that's brilliant and so are Tame Impala is this thing called love?

Lyric Nugget:
I know that you think you sound silly when you call my name
But I hear it inside my head all day
When I realize I'm just holding on to the hope that maybe your feelings don't show

POD: KEXP -- Music That Matters

Looking to break out of your music rut? Tired of the same 10 bands you've been listening to all year? Check out KEXP's consistently awesome podcast of Seattle DJ selected, (mostly) indie bands, many of whom are from the Pacific NW and have been overlooked by the Brooklyn-heavy east coast music outlets. 

That's right, they play bands that might not even have been reviewed or mentioned on Pitchfork yet. My favorite DJ is John Richards, whose selections make me think he goes to a shit ton of local music shows around the country -- and in GB -- and hand selects the best to play alongside the bigger indie rock music of Cloud Nothings, Modest Mouse, Of Montreal, and Japandroids. 

The KEXP website and their youtube channel are other goldmines of live recorded and free video streaming music. 

Download the podcast free on iTunes or here.

Tallest Man on Earth live performance in KEXP studios:

SOD: Richard & Linda Thompson -- Shoot Out The Lights

The story goes like this, man and woman singers fall in love, get married, and record and release six albums over eight years together before divorcing. They are British singer/songwriters Richard and Linda Thompson, and their final record, Shoot Out the Lights, from 1982, is their most successful, but also their darkest.

The title cut opens side two of the LP, a very Springsteen move to put a song so heavy and powerful in that position. I read the song as a man hiding in his apartment after a breakup, metaphorical gun in hand, hurt, scared, and alone, unable to leave his place during the day, but trapped inside the echoes of his own mind at night. Don't miss the searing guitar solo at the end. It shakes me and I don't even like guitar solos.

I've put off listening to this album for years, despite that fact that it's heralded by all my favorite rock critics, including Bob Boilen from NPR, who I agree with on almost everything (except The Who; how can he like them so much?), but now I've gotten to a place where I want to hear a lot more of Richard Thompson.

Key Lyric:

Keep the blind down on the window

Keep the pain on the inside

Just watching the dark

Just watching the dark