Favorites 11/30

It's been awhile, forgive us.

Gang Starr - Words I Manifest / Action Bronson - Get Off My P.P.

 The bass line from A Night in Tunisia was born for rap samples. A+ for thinking ahead, Diz.

Metz - Rats

Back in 2009, Nirvana released Live at Reading, an album which found the band at its finest, their sound just plain gnarly. And in 2011, some teenagers from Copenhagen calling themselves Iceage debuted with New Brigade, an album as smart as it is mean.  And this year, the album that speaks to my particular flavor of heavy is Metz' eponymous first release on Sub Pop. On "Rats," Toronto's finest bend their instruments to their necks' breaking point as the guitar feels like reanimated Cobain.

Marine Girls - Honey

In 1981, two girls from the sleepy UK county of Hertfordshire - Tracey Thorn (Everything But the Girl) and Gina Hartman - unintentionally predicted the direction of early aught indie pop. With little ditties on love, the beach, and being lazy, Marine Girls could swap spit with the best of contemporary bands riffing on that summertime all-the-time sound. Slap a mean back beat on there and boom: Wild Nothing.

Wild Nothing - Summer Holiday

Step one to writing your very own dreamy indie pop tune: Backbeat. Dig that snare in on the two and the four, throw in some 60's surf fills and you're more than halfway there.