Friday, June 22, 2012

Six Great Songs For Your Summer Weekend - June 22, 2012 Edition

Greetings Rock 'n' Roll fans,

Another summer weekend, time to dive into six more excellent songs.

As always, Spotify links to all tracks and mentioned albums are provided, but you can also catch all the tracks listed here and in past weeks by linking to, or better yet, subscribing to, my two rotating playlists What I'm Digging Right Now and Forgotten Little Gems.

On the contemporary front, going a little edgier this week.

For those longing for the guitar glory of past decades, we start with New Jersey's Screaming Females, and the blistering opening track It All Means Nothing to their latest release Ugly.  Lead singer Marisa Paternoster's vocals take some getting used to, but if you've found yourself digging through your old Dinosaur Jr. or Sleater-Kinney discs as of late, you'll definitely want to check this band out.  Here's a look.



Next, for those looking for a Kid A-styled fix, No.1 Against The Rush from Liar's latest, WIXIW, for me one of the best releases so far this year.



Then, an absolute gem that's just dropped, Still Young from Allo Darlin's Europe, which may be the most immediately endearing album of 2012.  If you're a fan of Belle & Sebastian's lilting jangle-pop, especially those tracks fronted by Isobel Campbell, you will love Europe.



From super accessible pop to downright nasty rap, with Request Denied from El-P's 2012 release Cancer 4 Cure.  The beats on this album are really something, hearkening back to the experimental menace of El-P's mid-90s band Company Flow.  For those digging on Death Grips The Money Store, Cancer 4 Cure makes for an excellent accompaniment.



And for our last contemporary track, a song I haven't been able to stop playing since attending this year's Coachella festival, the title track to The Sheepdogs Learn & Burn. A wonderful Woodstock flavored jam, it sounds just like one of those harder-rocking Greg Rollie-penned numbers from the early Santana albums.



Finally, for this weeks Forgotten Little Gem, Paul McCartney's Smile Away from his just reissued Ram, a record which was absolutely derided at the time of its release, but which is now often regarded as his best and most playfully adventurous post-Beatles album.



And that's it for this week's installment.

Until next Friday, enjoy!

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