Posts Tagged ‘Alternative’

The Hotrats is a cover band formed by Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey as a side-project from their main band Supergrass.

They cover Roxy Music’s, Love Is the Drug which is one of my all time most favorite-ist songs.  Roxy Music is so slick and sly with their funky ass version of the song.  The Hotrats do a killer job covering it and put a slight euro-trashy spin on it but still keep the right amount of funk and slyness.  Good Love!!!

Hotrats :: Love Is the Drug – Turn Ons

Roxy Music ::  Love Is the Drug (Single)

This is the first of 4 posts with 10 songs each which will make up the “Top 40 Songs of 2009 – According to Coach” at cutbucket.com.  Picking 40 songs out of all of the great music that has come out in 2009 proved to be a tremendous challenge which is a testament to all of the new and wonderful sounds that filled my ears this year.

The thing to remember here is that these selections are my opinion based on many things including “my taste”.  The beauty of music is that we all have our own taste and style of sound we prefer.  2009 was an exceptional year regardless of your taste and my selections are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the great music released this year.  Whatever your taste is, there are far more than 40 songs which can tell the story of music in 2009.  What an amazing musical time we are living in.  The maturity of the internet, while still far from perfect, has allowed so many more artists to find a channel in which to be heard over.  It’s a great time to be a fan of music.

The criteria that I considered were the following -

Number of Listens – How many times did I play each song (based on tracking within iTunes).  Of course, songs that came out later in the year were weighed against the available length of time listen to each song.

Sticky Factor - Did each song have the ability to “stick in my head” so to speak.? Was it recognizable again immediately after the first couple of listens?  Did I find myself humming the tune in my mind days after hearing it?

Overall Production Value – This speaks for itself…

Uniqueness – We don’t want no posers here.

Single Song Value – This was one of the hardest factors in my consideration.  Was the song strong enough to stand on it’s own without being part of an album.  In the day and age of single song downloads this is very important.   When picking the top “Songs” this has to be a factor.  If I were to pick the top “Albums” this would be a completely different mix of artists.

NOTE ::  As it relates to Single Song Value I had a very tough challenge placing the songs from Animal Collective’s release “Merriweather Post Pavilion”.  To truly appreciate the outstanding quality of their album I feel it needs to be judged as just that… AN ALBUM.  It is by far one of the top 3 of the year!!!  What is so special about Merriweather is it’s value as a work of art as a complete album in the day and age of the single song download.  That being said, none of the individual songs jumped into a natural spot within this list.  Therefore, I have included what I believe are the strongest singles from the album and put them at the bottom of the list.  This by no means represents the value of this album, I just didn’t know what else to do.  I highly suggest you listen to the entire album start to finish if you are going to listen to it at all. SORRY FOR THE LONG EXPLANATION.  I FELT IT WAS DUE.

NOW ON TO THE LIST….

31. About Face – Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

32. Tell Me True – Sarah Jarosz, Song Up In Her Head

33. Soldier (Feat. Santigold) – N.E.R.D.

34. Walking On a Dream – Empire of the Sun, Walking On a Dream

35. What You Do to Me (feat. Billy Danze, Jim Jones & Nicole Wray) – Blakroc, Blakroc

36. Ghosts N Stuff – Deadmau5, Ghosts N Stuff – Single

37. Higher Than the Stars – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Higher Than the Stars

38. Things Will Never Be the Same Again – JJ, JJ N° 2

39. Summertime Clothes – Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion

40. Brother Sport – Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion

If you don’t have HBO you need to rethink your TV priorities or at least your Sunday night TV priorities.  OK, I will drop the melodramatic and just tell you this… there is no better TV than HBO on Sunday night hands down.  Between Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Bored to Death, East Bound and Down, True Blood and a handful of others no longer on air such as The Saprano’s, Rome, Tales from the Crypt, The Larry Sanders Show, Sex and the City, 6 Feet Under, Flight of the Concords and Deadwood it is no argument HBO kills it.

Which brings me to Big Love.  Who else but HBO could make the life of a polygamist Mormon family in Utah so engaging.  I guess no one else would even take on the subject come to think of it.

Back to the music part of this post.  The trailer for the new season of Big Love just started hitting he air over the last few weeks.  As much as I love the show, I love the song they chose even better.  Interpol, Untitled from the Turn On The Bright Lights album.  The spot features the Big Love characters falling through the air of a black emptiness as if to represent the fall deeper into the life, lies and love they live on the show.  Untitled works so well with slow motion falling as the guitars pulse into a reverb that seems to fades away into a deep black well.

After seeing the ad I revisited the album and remembered just how good it was.  In the top 100 albums of all time if you ask me.  In my honest opinion, you can thank Interpol for influencing the sounds of Franz Ferdinand and The Killers to name a couple.  I added a couple additional tracks from the album to the post for good measure. Enjoy…

(Headphones recommended for but not needed by any means. The last 2:00 of PDA with good headphones will make your head explode!!!)

Listen: Interpol – Untitled

Listen: Interpol – PDA

Listen: Interpol – Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down

So if I had started this blog about 2 years ago the pages would likely be filled with posts of Kings of Leon (as I am a huge fan of 5 years).  Considering their explosion into mainstream music, it would no longer be appropriate.  As the saying goes…. Discover and Rediscover New, Classic and Underappreciated Music.  So therefore, I am going to share with you a cut that reminds me of the “new” KOL (mixed with a little bit of Scissor Sisters).

I feel great about pimping The Temper Trap and THE ONLY song of theirs I can find (in downloadable form).  Mind you, it was on the soundtrack of the movie 500 Days of Summer so it is arguable weather they have been “Discovered”.  That being said, their single Sweet Disposition has all of the elements of a classic summertime college road trip anthem.  Great build up, perfect amount of head banging bass drum beat and excellent singalong vocals.  I won’t lie, I know absoloutely nothing about The Temper Trap except they have my ears trapped with this cut.  I have listened to it about 10 times over the last week and still love every bit of it.

PS – I just found their entire album, so I also included a bonus cut, Fools.  I think I like it even better than Sweet Disposition (after the 3:00 mark).  I’m an addict, I have problems…. Oh and you can’t get it on iTunes…. Sweet!

Listen: The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition

Listen: The Temper Trap – Fools

Author: Coach

There is literally no time to post all of the good music out there and what makes it most difficult is cutbucket is a blog that aims to have something for everyone.  We try and leave no genre untouched.

This latest effort by Doves seems to be a perfect fit for cutbucket as it will  likely appeal to folks with all sorts of musical tastes.  These cuts I have posted from the Kingdom of Rust album include the title track of the same name.  Kingdom of Rust pulls in country, indie, folk and alternative influences with its twangy guitars, flowing strings, hollowing reverb and diving synths.  Think of it as Coldplay meets Chris Isaak.

Jetstream is a perfect title for the other cut.  It builds up to the exactly halfway point of the song (somewhere around the 2:40 mark) and takes off as if the song was exploding into the sky and then soaring to wherever your imagination goes when you close your eyes.  The reveb and synths will grab you and take you for a ride if you let them.

Listen: Doves – Kingdom of Rust

Listen: Doves – Jetstream

Author: coach

I admit that I am not a HUGE fan of Wilco, but I do respect the hell out of them and love many of their cuts, thus I am a fan. What I do love about them is this; they stay true to Wilco and their fans and pump out strong albums on a consistent basis.

One gem on their great new self titled album is Bull Black Nova. This cut will lull you into a guitar piano pulse that spins beautifully out of control reminiscent of the great 70’s psychedelic sound. Of course I could say the late 2000’s psychedelic sound.  Great cut for the ol’ headphones.

Listen: Wilco – Bull Black Nova

Author: Coach

Pearl Jam performed and recorded a live show at Benaroya Hall in Seattle in 2003 (The Hall where the Seattle Symphony performs).  For the most part, the live CD was never distributed on a wide scale.  Many of the songs they performed that night were somewhat obscure and average as far as live CD’s go.  Of course, if you were there that night, it may have well been the best live show of all time…. I digress.

One song in particular was out of this world.  Most mainstream Pearl Jam fans will recognize and likely will be able to sing along to “Black”.  It is by far one of their most mellow and comfortable cuts of their catalog…. So back to the show.  This live recording is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!  In fact it may be ONE OF THE BEST LIVE SONGS I HAVE EVER HEARD.

At the 4:00 minute mark of this song it turns into pure magic.  The crowd sings the chorus which leads into an amazing guitar solo that mellows into a piano riff that every music fan should know very well.  Close your eyes and listen.  If this song doesn’t give you goosebumps you need to check your pulse.

Listen: Pearl Jam (Live at Benaroya Hall) – Black

Author: Coach

I hope that title made sense.  I have made it known that I am not a big fan of The Killers.  I don’t know if I am just put off by music that is repeated repeatedly on the radio to a point I want to jam toothpicks in my ears or if I am just a “rebel” (I wish I was).  Anyhoo.  White Lies sounds like a raw combination of The Killers and Franz Ferdinand without trying to conform to pop-alternative boundaries.  With lyrics like, “now burn your parents in the fireplace”, a rebel like me can now enjoy The Killers if they were, in fact, killers.

Make sure you check out the last 50 seconds of “Death”.  Awesome 1983 Cars guitar licks.  Enjoy.

Listen: White Lies – To Lose My Life

Listen: White Lies – Taxidermy

Listen: White Lies – Death

Author: Coach

You know when you have heard a song so many times you just forget how good it is… Runaway Train is a perfect example.  I heard this song on the radio the other day and it had been so long since I had heard it, it sounded fresh and new.   I forgot this song won a Grammy… great cut!  By the way, where did Soul Asylum go?  Maybe they got on the Runaway Train?

Listen: Soul Asylum – Runaway Train

–cutbucket–

My wife and I took our son to see the new Ice Age move over the weekend (the worse of the IA trilogy I might add, if you can even call it a trilogy) and there was a trailer for the new “Where the Wild Things Are” movie.  “Where the Wild Things Are” is BY FAR my favorite children’s book of all time.  Every time I read it to my son, I think “someone needs to make this into a movie”.  And by gosh they did, with Spike Jonze directing no doubt… perfect!!!  Can’t wait to see it.

I was busy opening my Red Vines when I hear Arcade Fire and am like “WHAT?”  The whole freaking trailer is to Arcade Fire, Wake Up.  One of their best cuts and probably most widely known.  If you are new to Arcade Fire, this is a great example of the emotional sound they produce.  They are perfect for cloudy mornings, long drives, watching monsoon lightning storms roll in and at full volume with headphones on.  Music with texture, feeling and heart.    Great to be back from the holiday!!!

“Where the Wild Things Are” Trailer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–N9klJXbjQ

Listen: The Arcade Fire – Wake Up

Listen: The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Listen: The Arcade Fire – No Cars Go

–cutbucket–