THE ANTI-HIT LIST
AN ALTERNATIVE TOP 10
10. FRIGHTENED RABBIT “Surrender”
You know the one thing in the world that could improve this hardy Cheap Trick perennial (bit.ly/mcC3YA)? A really thick Scottish accent. That and a two-piece lineup of acoustic guitar and drums. Actually, make that drum, since there’s only one of them. Anything more would just draw attention away from the burr. (avc.lu/Yuijuc)
9. NORTH ARM “Quietly Lightly”
If you crossed the Postal Service’s pulsing “Such Great Heights” (bit.ly/ jbq35A) with Iron and Wine’s backporch cover of it (youtu.be/ XX5Dan0VE7w), the result might sound something like this. The work of one Roderick Smith, who sings, paints and practises law in Newcastle, Australia, it sounds both sweeping and intimate, due in no small part to the breathy, echodrenched vocals, which make everything sound like a mystery. (From the
Thought Lines EP, whothehell.net/ archives/19415)
8. JADEA KELLY “Wild West Rain”
Even though her music has more in common with, say, Justin Rutledge (bit.ly/17gZuAo) and Whitehorse (bit.ly/109RjmA), this Toronto-based singer-songwriter is better known in some quarters for her work with Whitby prog-metal band Protest the Hero on their 2005 concept album
Kezia. It’s hard to imagine what that band’s constituency would make of this third-album preview, which is ruminative and nuanced and, we suspect, emotionally naked enough to alter the mood of a room. (From
Clover, out May 21, bit.ly/12CBd6J)
7. MAVIS STAPLES w. DONNY GERRARD “Can You Get To That”
A few facts: i) The original was a change-of-pace gospel track by George Clinton’s Funkadelic (you- tu.be/8rrOdcnFbAY). ii) The musical backing features Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and his 17-year-old drummer son, Spencer. iii) The male half of this duet was the voice on one of the most enduring Canadian singles of the past 40 years, Skylark’s “Wildflower” (bit.ly/16qFhM). iv) As well as this works, it downplays Staples’ voice enough that she sounds a bit like a guest on her own recording. (From
One True Vine, out June 25, bit.ly/17ng3eV)
6. YELLOWTEETH “Temporary Father”
Five songs, 10 minutes, and the music still sounds epic. This Sackville, N.B., four-piece was, if you believe their bio (bit.ly/YLPsBU), born out of the frustration of a small-town summer, which might explain why they often sound as though they’re trying to burst out of their own skin. Imagine a noisier version of early Green Day (bit.ly/fP4ZeX), or maybe a less noisy version of Japan’s Boredoms (bit.ly/onPX0), with a shorter attention span. (From Gets in Car, yellowteeth.bandcamp.com)
5. DAFT PUNK “Get Lucky (Michael Jackson edit)”
The parenthetical subtitle stems, apparently, from idle curiosity: What would one of the year’s most hotly anticipated singles sound like if it were pitch-shifted up a notch? Answer: like Michael Jackson was peppering the track with “hoos,” “woos” and “he-hees.” Warning: One listen to this, and you might not be able to go back to the original (bit.ly/ XK2hit). (bit.ly/15yi4p6)
A-TRAK & TOMMY TRASH “Tuna Melt”
Every couple of years, it seems, someone sets aside days upon days of his or her life to arrange a mindbogglingly elaborate set of dominoes that fall in spectacular fashion to the accompaniment of a song that has nothing to do with things being knocked over. The ingenuity of this entry by Montreal turntablist Alain Macklovitch, Aussie electro
4. REVERSING FALLS “Sh---y Birthday”
Their bio references Sloan (bit.ly/ lCgQol) and Matthew Good (bit.ly/4zgEXv), but neither captures what this Montreal three-piece gets up to on their debut full-length in general and this track in particular. More mordant than the former and less ambitious than the latter, it takes a seemingly throwaway complaint — a lousy birthday present — and turns it into something that sounds ominous. You’ll laugh, you’ll shudder. (From Reversing Falls, reversingfalls.bandcamp.com)
3. JANELLE MONAE f. ERYKAH BADU “Q.U.E.E.N.”
Hard to believe it’s been three years since Monae broke through with the bouncing-off-the-walls “Tightrope” (bit.ly/9q3V6S). This preview of an in-progress album makes it clear she has no intention of coasting on past successes. Marked by a relaxed tempo, swaggering vocals (from both principals) and ‘80s-flavoured synth bursts, this owes more than a little to Prince. Somewhere past the halfway point, however, it veers into jazz, “What’s Going On”-era Marvin Gaye, and string-drenched Philly soul. Talk about a tightrope. (From The Electric
Lady, www.jmonae.com/queen)
2. LONDON GRAMMAR “Wasting My Young Years”
This London trio could follow one of star Thomas Olsen, and Brooklynborn director Ryan Staake is that it doesn’t unfold at the same frenetic pace. Some sections move slowly, some take place underwater, others end with objects exploding into air before the Rube Goldberg-esque (rubegoldberg.com) punchline (which, to be honest, feels like a bit of a cheat). The behind-the-scenes video (bit.ly/15Feudq) of the 10-day shoot gives you a sense of the preparation that went into 3:47 of pure glee. (bit.ly/15qS5An) two strategies: expand their musical palette or perfect the colour they’re good at using. Since this single sounds much like the previous two (soundcloud.com/londongrammar) only better, our money is on the latter. Lush, haunting and graced with the kind of soaring vocals that tend to evoke flattering, if off-base, comparisons to Adele, this is the best thing they’ve ever done. Here’s hoping it’s not the best thing they’ll ever do. (From Wasting My Young Years, out June 16,bit.ly/ZrMfKF)
1. JASON ROCK CITY “Fight for Your Right to Party”/ ”Gold Digger”
This seems like one of the dumber ideas we’ve heard lately: take a bunch of classic hip-hop tracks and render them as acoustic singer-songwriter fare. Why, then, can’t we stop listening? It may be because the perpetrators, Jason Applin and Debbie Brown, have experimental-folk bona fides, so when they apply glockenspiel and whistling to the Beastie Boys’ frat-boy anthem, it feels less like a stupid party trick and more like, well, a clever party trick. Then again, the harmonica oompah treatment they come up with for Kanye’s “Gold Digger” makes their cover of “Party” seem faithful by comparison. (From Gold Digger & Other Hip-Hop Joints of Distinction, out May 17, bit.ly/17QssIs and youtu.be/vvCyiqEHRPs).
jsakamoto@thestar.ca