What We're Listening To - 9/9

Compiled (with love) by TNG's music contributor, Rocky.

Once again, it's the day before the hump and that means only one thing - a fresh installment of What We're Listening To! This is the spot where every Tuesday your humble TNG staff comes together to show off the music that's got us jamming out on our (apparently) pink Fisher Price headphones. On the menu this week: Vancougar, Black Kids, The Veils, Lykke Li, Jermaine Stewart, Stereolab, Firewater and Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. Enjoy it all below the fold...



Vancougar—Canadian Tuxedo

Who doesn't love a nice Canadian tuxedo? If I ever get gay-married in Canada, I hope at least one of the brides is decked out in full denim, and maybe we'll even play the rockable love song "Obvious" off of this Canadian all-lady band's album Canadian Tuxedo as we take turns walking down the aisle. Get it? I (or my gay-bride) will be in Canada, wearing a Canadian Tuxedo, listening to a Canadian band's album Canadian Tuxedo. All I'm gonna say is check out this four-piece band if you have an affinity for lady-made rock music and/or Canadians. Also, if you're not in DC, check out their tour listing and see if they'll be rolling through your city this fall. - Stephanie

Black Kids—Partie Traumatic

Maybe I'm just behind the times or burned out by listening to too many promo CDs. Neither is a vaild excuse for why I only now finally got around to giving the debut album by Black Kids a listen recently. Yes, finally. I loved their show when I saw them open for Cut Copy. I read Zack's email interview with them. What great pop music! Their track "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You" is arguably their most popular, and for good reason: it's a catchy tune with great dance-synth-pop sensibilities, but it's by no means the only stellar track on the album. "Hit the Heartbrakes" has a great driving chorus including harmonies and Flock-of-Seagull synths, "Listen To Your Body Tonight" provides the band's female vocalist a chance to shine, and "I'm Not Making Eyes At You" is just sweet sweet sweet. Don't miss these guys when the're back in DC headlining the Black Cat on Friday Sept 26. - Michael

The Veils—Nux Vomica

Auckland/London outfit The Veils' 2007 release Nux Vomica is carried by Finn Andrews' overwrought, sometimes snarling vocals. On the cathartic "A Birthday Present", Andrews practically blubbers into a tinkling, twinkling piano that could care less about his hassles. "One Night on Earth" would play while a film montage cuts to the protagonists bedroom windows. "Jesus for the Jugular" shoots straight from the throat and puts the gutter back in guttural. By all means do not listen to "Under the Folding Branches" if you're feeling the least bit melancholy. "Not Yet" has a pioneering feel and a quickening pace that in no way trivializes Andrews' anguished vocals. "Advice for Young Mothers to Be" is brightened by girl-group harmonizing on the backing vocals. I'd say, if you wish Richard Ashcroft sounded less polished, or like the Walkmen, you'll dig The Veils. - Coach

Lykke Li—Youth Novels

Yet another Swedish pop star hits the U.S., and yet again I'm smitten. The fragile 22 year-old first came to my attention earlier this year when she toured with El Perro Del Mar in a surely amazing double bill that did not come through DC. Her singles "Little Bit" and "I'm Good, I'm Gone" are decent jumping off points, but its some of the slower numbers that make it really worth it. It's a CD full of makeout songs that keep their luster even after you've gotten off. - Zack

Jermaine Stewart—Say It Again

It’s the frantic romantic himself, Jermaine Stewart, two years after he scored by insisting that “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off.” In addition to hilarious, barnstorming dance songs like “Don’t Take Dirty to Me” and “Don’t Have Sex with Your Ex”—his momma told him not to—Jermaine’s serving thick slices of up-tempo ‘80s pop/R&B on Say It Again. Stewart had sung backup for slick sophisto-disco band Shalamar, and ex-Shalamar singer Jody Watley duets with him on “My House,” one of the album’s many highlights. “Say It Again,” “Get Lucky,” and “Is It Really Love?” might be his best songs, and this is his best album: hilarious, danceable fun. On a side note, Stewart was a huge queen (in the most complimentary possible sense of that word), but while gay in his private life, he maintained a public veneer of heterosexuality before his death from AIDS complications in 1997. - Philip

Stereolab—Chemical Chords

I was rather lukewarm about the new Stereolab album, mostly because nothing really grabbed me. Chemical Chords is pleasant enough, with sunny melodies, and the baroque meets lounge meets SF soundtracks. Singer Laetitia Sadler's singing is warmer than ever, and she seems more comfortable singing without the late Mary Hansen. The songs are much shorter than epic pieces of the last couple of albums. I had my iPod on shuffle, and I heard "Self Portrait with Electric Brain," and it completely grabbed me. It is easily the best song on the album, a perfect confection of pop songcraft with the retrofuturist whimsy that characterizes the best of the Groop's oeuvre. - Craig

Firewater—The Golden Hour

I saw Firewater a couple months ago at Black Cat. Their latest album is the result of three years of the band's lead singer, Tod A, traveling the world like a vagabond, collecting musical influences. The show was amazing, and the their album, "The Golden Hour," inspired me to buy all their old stuff. This is a truly inspired collection of punk-inspired world music with a strong testimonial bent. On songs like "Paradise," you can almost claim his loneliness as your own. I've previously written about the album here, where you can see a great video about his three year journey. - Ben

Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová—Once (Music from the Motion Picture)

Most of you are probably already familiar with Once (the absolutely brilliant little film about struggling musicians in Dublin, starring The Frames' staggeringly hot frontman Glen Hansard and singer/songwriter Markéta Irglová), but on gray, gloomy days like today, I like my music as snuggley and comfortable as a cherished old sweatshirt and as warm as a box of fresh Krispy Kremes. I guess that's why I've been gravitating towards this old favorite all day. Although I'd argue that one or two tracks border on cheesy (the jaunty synthesizer on "Fallen From the Sky" I could do without), the vast majority are sung with such passion, and yearning, and love that I can't help but melt. Oscar-winner "Falling Slowly," is one of the saddest, most romantic love songs ever written and when Glen Hansard starts to scream on "Say It To Me Now"? Good lord! It's probably the sexiest thing ever set to music. It's like you're actually listening to somebody's heart explode. It's brilliant and even better in person. - Rocky