Where are your friends tonight?

Yes, it's been a while, but cut me some slack! I'm in California for a couple of weeks and Vance needs to start writing. Miss us? Here, take a couple of quick songs in the interim...

So, Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem's second studio album, was kinda hit-or-miss, right? That's not some sophomore slump bullshit, I'm just saying: when your first album is so good, and your production house/record label side-project (or main project, whatever) spits out such consistently incredible music (The DFA even made Britney Spears' scratch lyrics on that unreleased demo sound kinda cool), you've got some impressing to do. I ain't saying I was unimpressed, I'm just saying, WHY AIN'T YOU DANCING! Is it cuz the best song on Sound of Silver is not all that dancey? Suh-NAP!


MP3: LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"

The "All My Friends" single comes in a few different incarnations. The title track itself is a Roxy Music-on-a-rollercoaster chunk of belly-fluttering sweetness, and the longer album-length version is even that much more so, but it's the Franz Ferdinand version (one of two covers on the EP, along with an astonishingly just-OK John Cale version) that stretches our guts just as far as "Age of Consent" does.


MP3: Franz Ferdinand - "All My Friends"

It might even be, dare I say it, better than LCD's original? Don't hate, I'm just saying. Just saying! Go listen to more LCD Soundystem stuff over on their Internets. See y'all soon enough.

Mas Sexi Honors: TV on the Radio

Sure, we could start this off with unreleases and leaks for the kids, but I couldn't in good conscience mount a foray into 2007's musical offerings without acknowledging the absolute hands-down greatest single of 2006. Onward, friends...

MP3: TV on the Radio - "Wolf Like Me"

TV on the Radio are one of those happy flukes of musical nature. While other bands make hungry work of moving past their sophomore slump, these guys are resting on the laurels of their critically-acclaimed masterpiece Return to Cookie Mountain. After 2004's Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes scored the band a Shortlist Music Prize, expectations for their second and eagerly anticipated proper full-length (2002 self-release OK Calculator notwithstanding) were pretty high. Signing to legendary record label 4AD for European distribution also didn't hurt.


Shoot forward to the mislabeled and unmastered Internet leak of Return to Cookie Mountain and the collective gasp of fans, both adoring and hipster-cynical alike, propelling mixed-up tracks onto blogs and message boards, and you've got a pretty good idea of how the laureation begins. I don't know about you, but the first time I heard "Wolf Like Me" (originally ID3-labeled "Playhouses"), I nearly fell out of my seat for all the bopping and jaw-dropping. The album was officially released in July of 2006 (September in the U.S.) to praise worthy of its various "Album of the Year" spots on year-end lists, but it's Return's lycanthropian ode to lust that seals the deal. Not only is "Wolf Like Me" a bona-fide dance-floor packer that Meatball Magic regulars never get sick of thrashing around to, it's also a howling testament to one band's double-fisted ability to rock the fucking house. And how.