Friday Playlist: Monday Edition - Spring!

Ah, Spring.  82-degree highs, pollen counts so high your head feels like it's going to burst open, and a gnawing sense of dread at what meteorological horrors are no doubt slouching towards us right now, waiting until the first day of Summer to unfurl their hot, leathery wings and bathe us all in a fiery hell of humidity.  April really is the cruelest month, except for all of Summer and probably most of October until the next freak Halloween-eve snowstorm.

Sounds like a great day to escape this man-made climate-based disaster by enjoying my new Friday Monday Playlist. Enjoy!

1. Imperial Teen - The Hibernates
   The new Imperial Teen album "Feel The Sound" is an ear candy-laden pop excursion, full of tight songwriting and undeniable beats.  Go ahead, deny them.  I dare you.  See?  Best thing Roddy Bottum's been involved with since "Angel Dust."
2. Damien Jurado - Life Away From The Garden
   Sad troubadour and only-guitarist-I've-ever-seen-to-perform-one-of-his-guitar-solos-a-cappella-while-clapping Damien Jurado has released a beautiful, lush, trippy album that manages to both depart from and yet wonderfully deepen his signature sound.  So check it out.
3. M83 - Midnight City
   OK, maybe last year's "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" didn't need to be 2 full discs, but Pitchfork gave it a 9.1, so what do I know?  It's got pretty much everything you'd want in an M83 album: retro synths, catchy hooks, and a weird little girl narrating some story about frogs or something.
4. Miike Snow - Vase
   Most people who know me know I've been going on and on about Miike Snow to anyone who'll listen for years now.  And finally the rest of the world has wised up.  Their new album "Happy To You" isn't a radical departure from their previous album, and that's just fine.  More ear candy, please. Oh, and be sure to check out their set from Coachella this past weekend, it's the bomb.
5. The Water - DeSelby
   My friend Mat produced this Baltimore-based instrumental indie band at his very own Mobtown Studios, because he's awesome.  This track from 2012's "Scandals and Animals" is a slow builder, but give it time and you will definitely be rewarded.
6. Cloud Nothings - Fall In
   Cloud Nothings' latest album "Attack on Memory" veers between intense pop and angry post-punk, but it's never stale or boring.  And the dude knows how to yell but make it sound cool, so there's that.
7. Free Energy - Bang Pop
   I heard about these guys because they were on the lineup at this year's SXSW, and if you like inoffensive pop/rock albums produced by former LCD Soundsystem frontmen, you'll love "Stuck on Nothing."
8. Alice Russell - Crazy
   Another artist I learned about thanks to SXSW, Alice Russell to me is everything that Adele seems to be to everyone else, except not overblown and overproduced and full of crap.  Her cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy just blows me away.  She also recently put out an album with Quantic which is pretty great.
9. Dr. Dog - Over Here, Over There
   I've been a Dr. Dog fan for years, so I was really excited to get to see them play at Stubbs this year at SXSW.  The show was great, and their new material sounded really good.  Their new album could have really benefited from an editor, but that's nitpicking at a band who really seems to be having a good time making good music.
10. Miike Snow - Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)
    Yes, I am addicted to Miike Snow.  Deal with it.

What did you think?  What are you listening to during these beautiful days of Spring?  Tell me in the comments.

Back To My (Heavy Metal) Roots

FAWM is in full effect (that's February Album Writing Month, for the uninitiated), and I have been hard at work....on a million other things going on in my life this month.  As such, my musical output has been at a vastly reduced level from where I would like it to be.

However, my vast network of musical collaborators have had much more focused months, and I've been lucky enough to receive several invitations to write lyrics & melodies and sing vocal tracks on other people's songs.  Thank you, collaborators!

Even more fortunately, the majority of these songs have been in the greatest musical genre known to man:  Heavy Metal.  I was a huge metalhead starting in around 8th grade and continuing pretty much through the end of high school, with occasional bouts in my adult life (you can't ever really shake the metal bug once it bites you with its gleaming steel mandibles, etc.).  I count myself as a very lucky man to have such talented friends and collaborators that I'm able to make the dreams of my 15-year-old self come true, namely, by singing lead vocals on 2 bitching metal tracks.

Presented here for your enjoyment:

Formal Commitment To Satan
Music, Production, Concept: John "Das Binky" Argentiero
Lyrics, Vocals:  Jordan Hirsch
Lyrics posted at FAWM.org

To quote John:  "This is a song about selling your soul to the devil, but it really gets into the details."

Your Disease
Music, Production, Growling: Peter "Sapient" Watkinson
Lyrics, Vocals:  Jordan Hirsch
Lyrics posted at FAWM.org

This is a song that gets written when the songwriter and everyone he knows has been battling a nasty cold for weeks.


Truly, I am blessed by Satan (who else?) to have musical collaborators who can shred so hard.
Rock on.

An Album Worth Buying

Do people still pay money for music?  I know the prevailing opinion these days is that they don't, but I'd like to make a case for bucking that trend.  And that case is:  my amazingly talented friend John has made an album.  And you should buy it, not only to support a great independent artist, but also because I sing 3 tracks on it!

John and I have been musical collaborators for almost 20 years now, and I couldn't be prouder to get to sing 3 of his wonderful songs.  This album is truly a labor of love, and I'm proud to be a part of it.  You can hear my tracks below (I also sing backup vocals on some other songs on the album, and I play keys on "My Country," to which I also contributed some lyrics).  If you like what you hear, please support John and go buy the album.  You'll be glad you did.
 

MTV, Here I Come

I've posted here before about my good friend and musical collaborator John "Das Binky" Argentiero.  Well, John's releasing his first album later this month, and he was kind enough to invite me to sing lead vocals on three of the tracks (and backup on a couple others).  The first "single" he's "releasing" (not entirely sure those terms still apply in this modern age, but still) is called "My Country Tis Of Me", and I think it's a pretty good one.  John wrote it for FAWM 2010 and I contributed a small portion of the lyrics.  I also play keyboard on this one and sing all the vocals.  John's on guitar, bass, drum machine, and nearly everything else (the talented Nancy Rost is on accordion), plus he recorded the whole thing at home.  I think that's pretty impressive.

Anyway, he asked me to participate in the video for this new hit single, and you can see the results below.  It's an homage to the Great American Couch Potato (including sweatpants!).  And yes, that is my real universal remote making a cameo in the video.  Enjoy, and be sure to check out the Das Binky site and buy the album when it drops on January 26!  (You can sign up on the web site to get an email reminder.  Do it, musicians love email signups.)

Still More Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck

SK Holiday Open House by flickr user vastateparksstaff

"Christmas music."  "Holiday tunes."  "Mind-numbing winter-themed muzak pabulum."  Call it what you will, our ears are subjected to a lot of crap every winter.  Well, Wired For Music is here to help, with yet another edition of our patented "Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck" playlist.

This year's playlist has some songs that a lot of you will probably already know, but I've had enough people ask me about them in the past that I finally decided to put them on.  Hopefully there'll be some surprises on here too for more "advanced" listeners, whatever that means.  And it even features one song I swore I would never, ever include (it grew on me).

Enjoy, and be sure to check out the playlists from previous years!

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