Belatedly Liking Stuff: "Yeah Yeah Yeah" by New Politics

I never quite know when new music comes out. For example, I heard the above song on our local alternative rock radio station, WBRU, late last night when I was coming home from the newspaper. It is by New Politics, and it is called "Yeah Yeah Yeah", which strikes me as a bit of a silly idea given the immensely popular band of the same name. (By the way, Karen O? I'd hit it.)

Suffice to say, if I'm writing about the band, you can guess that I'm a fan. "Yeah Yeah Yeah" has a sort of raw, loud energy that reminds me some of the bands I liked as a kid and teenager. You know, kind of like The Strokes or early Everclear, before they realized they could make $80 billion doing stuff like "Father of Mine".

Poking around the Internet, it seems like the single was just released in May, and they don't have a full album out yet. I typically worry that when I talk about a band I've recently started liking, it can be way after the fact that they actually started becoming popular. For example, Vampire Weekend has multiple albums out, but I wrote about them in February 2010 oblivious to this fact.

Therefore, let me recommend New Politics before they become super-duper popular. Heck, that video only has about 13,000 views on YouTube, which is several million short of what it should have. It's the pretty standard "low budget" video, with just the band singing in a room, but it works for the gritty rawness of the song. Check it out, fools! (And p.s., treat your mother right.)

Belatedly Liking Stuff: Buster Poindexter (NSFW lyrics)

Yes, really - I'm now listening to a bit of Buster Poindexter.

I can't even claim cool points by insisting that I'm getting into his stuff performed under his actual name, David Johansen, the front-man of the super influential "punk before it was punk" New York Dolls. Although the band never really sold a lot of records, they were later heralded for ushering in what would become punk music in many circles.

No, I'm straight up listening to Buster Poindexter, the snarky and smooth jazz singer persona that Johansen adopted after a couple of his solo albums didn't perform so well.

In particular, the YouTube link above is "Heart of Gold", which I stumbled upon while watching an old Saturday Night Live this weekend. In the late 1980s, Poindexter served as a singer for their house band, and he apparently did songs on live broadcasts to fill time. In an otherwise nondescript episode that featured the immortal Bronson Pinchot (Serge from Beverly Hills Cop) hosting, and some cute guest appearances by supermodel Paulina Poriskova, Poindexter steals the show with a performance of "Heart of Gold." How good was it? Well, in the original broadcast, it ended the show - typically a slot given to crappy or risque sketches. In the repeats, it was edited to shortly after Weekend Update, in front of the second performance by some guy named Paul Young.

Poindexter is just weird as heck, like a tongue-in-cheek version of Richard Cheese. While Dick does obviously humorous versions of songs, Poindexter's feel sincerely artistic and GOOD, even while I feel like he is smirking as he sings. Johansen performed and composed them when he was in his late 30s and early 40s, and from listening to his tracks, I almost get the feeling he is mocking the listener with shit like "Hot Hot Hot" and "Hit The Road Jack." Both are unbelievably bad and cheesy now, the type of song only someone younger than 13 can possibly like, or something that relatives would dance drunkenly to at weddings. Yet for months in the 1980s, they dominated the charts, and I imagine Johansen laughed like a bastard on his way to the bank. Heck, even Rolling Stone got a bit swept up in the feeling, judging from their review.

The second-best example of the cheesiness, since I refuse to link to "Hot Hot Hot":

Belatedly Liking Stuff: "Take A Picture" by Filter

Just a quickie for tonight, since I had to cover something this morning and most likely will be busy for a couple hours tonight at a town council meeting...

Over time, my tastes in Filter songs has evolved. Back in the day, my favorite song was "Hey Man Nice Shot," which is angry and growling and very 1990s grunge / alternative. One of my oldest memories is watching that horrible Tales From The Crypt movie Demon Knight when I was at a sleepover with friends in sixth or seventh grade. While we loved the movie because there was a naked lady in it, the opening song was also "Hey Man Nice Shot."

In college though, my favorite song was "Jurassitol", which if you can imagine is an even heavier and more driving than "Hey Man Nice Shot." I would listen to it a lot on the way to playing basketball, since there is an extended portion just with the guy screaming. It was good for getting the blood pumping, you know, along with other favorites like Buckcherry, Yellowcard (played very loud), Stabbing Westward, and Incubus covering Big Pun.

Now though, my favorite Filter song is "Take A Picture" and it doesn't really sound like Filter at all. Similar to Green Day going a bit softer for "Time Of Our Life" (I'm not calling it by its actual name; eff you Green Day), "Take A Picture" is uncharacteristically soft for Filter. Sure, he screams a bit at the end, but it works well in the context of the song.

Belatedly Liking Stuff: All-American Rejects

This probably earns me no cool points, like last week's post about Vampire Weekend did, but I really like The All-American Rejects. The video (above) for "Gives You Hell" isn't anything special, but every time the song comes on, I subconsciously tap my foot and hum along. Their other songs - "Swing Swing" and "Dirty Little Secret" - are also very listenable to me.

Since Blink 182 is no longer really around as much, The All-American Rejects sort of fill that "cheesy pop punk" void that has been in my heart for a while. Another "bad" band that I really like for similar reasons - Yellowcard. "Ocean Avenue" is one of my 10 most listened to songs, according to iTunes. Sigh - there goes my cool card.

Belatedly Liking Stuff: Vampire Weekend

Yeah, that's right - Yet another header for a "regular" feature on this here blog. Don't worry, this will be a quick post, since I'm positive that everyone has heard of Vampire Weekend, except me, by this point.

But hey, just in case you haven't... They're a snazzy indie rock band from New York City, according to their Wikipedia page. The newest single from the band, "Cousins", is linked above, and I must say that I'm a bit smitten with the video. I love how ridiculously literal yet bombastic it is.

Apparently, they have a bit of a trend going with literal videos, since their other big hit - "A-Punk" - also features them just playing their instruments. Unless you're a 1980s hair band, I've always felt that this was a simple and easy way to get your face out there to music fans. Hey, it worked for "Buddy Holly" by Weezer, so why not others? (p.s. Weezer with the Muppets is also great.)