MARCH MADNESS

I spent a good chunk of my Thursday driving around my old haunting grounds of Ann Arbor. The windows were down, the sun and temp were up (60 degrees!; happy day, happy day!). All the while, I was blasting some of my favorite songs from the month of March, trying them out, inflicting them upon the oblivious 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds slouching along the campus streets.

Seems like just yesterday that I was one of them. But that was 16, 17, and 18 years ago. How intensely depressing....

On the plus side, the music sounded pretty damn good to me. Hope it'll sound that way to you, too.

Left-click [here] to grab the tracks.

TRACKLIST:

1) Ladytron/Destroy Everything You Touch
2) Hard-Fi/Gotta Reason
3) The Sounds/Painted By Numbers
4) Clearlake/Getting Light Outside
5) Los Super Elegantes/Panadero
6) Archie Bronson Outfit/Cherry Lips
7) The Dresden Dolls/Necessary Evil
8) The Raconteurs/Steady, as She Goes
9) The New Amsterdams/Hover Near Fame
10) The Delays/Cavalry
11) Timo Raisanen/Fear No Darkness, Promised Child
12) Marit Larsen/Only a Fool
13) Gustav & the Seasick Sailors/Charlie Fay
14) Sing-Sing/Lover
15) Morrissey/You Have Killed Me
16) Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Turn Into
17) Margot & the Nuclear So and So's/Quiet as a Mouse
18) Love is All/Spinning and Scratching
19) I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness/The Ghost
20) Mates of State/Nature and the Wreck

MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO'S

The economically-monikered eight-piece Margot & the Nuclear So and So's re-released their 2005 LP, The Dust of Retreat, yesterday - and I like it; I like it very much. All Music Guide seems to as well, even comparing it to Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Heady stuff, to be sure, but is it deserved? Well, that - as always - will be for you to decide...

[MP3] "Vampires in Blue Dresses"

[MP3] "Quiet as a Mouse"

[MP3] "Dress Me Like a Clown"

THE STILLS

I liked the "sound" of the Stills' debut LP, Logic Will Break Your Heart, even if only a few of the "songs" proved fully-formed and distinctive. The Montreal band will release their second CD, Without Feathers, on May 9th. People are already remarking on the change in the group's sound, as evidenced by opening track "In the Beginning." As it happens, I didn't care for that song, and I don't much care for the rest of the album, either. Yes, that's one more 2006 disappointment for me, but who's counting? (*I* am. Dammit.)

Now here are, more or less by default, my two favorites from Without Feathers...

[MP3] "Baby Blues"

[MP3] "Halo the Harpoon"

THE VINES

I wasn't exactly a big-time passenger on the Vines bandwagon when they first broke through in 2002 (though I did prefer their debut album to that of the Strokes'). Well, time flies, and these once-rough-and-tumble Aussies are back with their third LP, Vision Valley (April 4th). In general, this is a quite a departure for the band. The production style is positively "polished," which may be a turn-off to old and new fans alike. Should an old dog learn new tricks? Should a leopard change its spots? Does anybody still give a shit about the Vines?

[MP3] "Don't Listen to the Radio"

[MP3] "Take Me Back"

ELF POWER

Elf Power is pretty much up to its armpits when it comes to mythic ties. First, the band hails from the celebrated indie mecca of Athens, Georgia. Second, it was born and raised within the famous Elephant 6 Collective. They will release their eighth album, Back to the Web, on April 25th. Lead singer Andrew Rieger says that he had been listening to a lot of "Middle-Eastern folk and "gypsy music" while recording the CD, and that the final result is "dark" and "orchestrated" folk-rock. Sounds good to me. As do these...

[MP3] "An Old Familiar Scene"

[MP3] "The Spider and the Fly"

THE DRESDEN DOLLS

The Dresden Dolls are a male/female duo from Boston who traffic in cabaret pop-punk. Their second record, Yes, Virginia, will be released on April 18th. Though normally I might find this type of music a bit too "messy" for my tastes, there's something undeniably beguiling about it - even as it always seems to be careening toward tunelessness. Yet, time and again, they manage to pull it back from the brink. Just call it "infectiously vexing." Or "vexingly infectious." Or whatever the hell else you want to call it. Just give it a listen...

[MP3] "My Alcoholic Friends"

[MP3] "Backstabber"

IRVING

Irving, a San Francisco five-piece, will release their sophomore full-length, Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers, April 4th. The song "Jen, Nothing Matters to Me" has already been making the Internet rounds [get it from Fluxblog (here)]. Here are a couple more tracks from the new album that I'd recommend...

[MP3] "I'll Write the Song, You Sing for Me"

[MP3] "She's Not Shy"