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Kate Nash's "Foundations" has one of the best detailed accounts of relationship dysfunction:
"then i'll use that voice what you find annoying,
and say something like,
"intelligent input, darlin', why don't you just have another beer then?"
then you call me a bitch, and everyone we're with will be embarrassed
...and I won't give a shit."
Now, I refuse to believe that I'm the only 21-year-old who enjoys the occasional teen melodrama. If nothing else, it helps us relive our far less dramatic high school glory days, and we can all at least recognize what the likes of the O.C. did for indie music. That being said, I won't specifically mention WHICH particular teen melodrama led me to discover Grace Potter and the Nocturnals' track "Apologies," off the band's latest release, This Is Somewhere - I'll just be thankful for my slightly pathetic guilty pleasures. The song also managed to pass the test of standing out among all of the tears, slapping, and making out (likely during the same scene) - an impressive feat.
Incidentally, and I might be alone in this, the drawn out "craaazy" in the song somehow reminds me of the chorus of "Bette Davis Eyes" - and if that's not a good enough reason to like a song, I don't know what is.
"Apologies" (Grace Potter and the Nocturnals)
I'll admit... my weekend starts a bit early, but it's actually never the wrong time to listen to Vampire Weekend.
Despite the fact that I'm still shocked by the fact that I saw these guys (place 3rd!) at my Engineering Student Council's Battle of the Bands (you can stop laughing, now), it's no surprise to me that VW has blown up all over the place. They're the latest and greatest thing to hit...well, pretty much anything/where. They opened for The Shins, they graced the cover of Spin, and they recently played SNL - with their recent success (and happy-time lyrics), it's kind of easy to forget that they're just a bunch of dorky 20-somethings looking to wear wool sweaters and, most likely, "rock."
While the most impressive feat, for many critics/reviewers, about the band is its ingenuity in incorporating African rhythms to what I've dubbed "Williamsburg alt rock," I think the really impressive feat they accomplish is making the music sound happy. Between Koenig's clean and simple guitar chords/riffs and his sunny falsetto that's sprinkled along the album (listen to "A Punk"), the endorphins evoked alone could get you hooked onto the band that is already being dubbed as the breakthrough of 2008.
It stands to be noted that I waged an internal war with myself over whether or not to link "Oxford Comma," because, while I think it does a good job of showcasing the band's abilities, its subject matter more or less goes against everything I believe in, grammatically. But, while I sit here with my MLA handbook, you enjoy some VW...
"Oxford Comma" (Vampire Weekend)
I used to hate the idea of making a cover for a song that had been released within the past 3 years. If it's well enough known to be covered by a greater-than-or-equal-to-B-list musician, I clearly still remember it and am likely sick of hearing it on my radio and/or iTunes, right? After checking out the all the Radio1 and 'Even Better Than the Real Thing' releases, I discover there is something to be heard there.
One of the best examples I can think of is with 30 Seconds to Mars' cover of Kanye West's "Stronger." Put aside your hatred for Jared Leto's shellacked and sheened asymmetrical hair and the fact that he reminds you of that creepy guy who sits in the corner of the bar and waits for the first girl to fall off her barstool. The band's cover of "The Song of 2007" helps somehow spin all of the annoyingly pompous similes/metaphors that Kanye wouldn't dream of sparing his prized singles into a fairly emotional ballad. There are times, even, when Leto sounds self-loathing and desperate - an impressive feat given the original intent of the lyrics. So, for making a Kanye/Daft Punk collabo sound humbly human (after all?), I'll ignore the involuntary shivers that their lead singer invokes and give props to 30 Seconds to Mars for giving everyone a reason to believe in covers again.
"Stronger" (30 Seconds to Mars)
