Sampling the thought-streams of DC musicians past and present.

Tabi Bonney:

–You know how I know I’m a professional rapper now? Cuz I just be randomly grabbing my nuts wherever I am: the dollar store, church, pool etc

–I think that the ppl who named “nutella” were either high or extreme comedians. Ain’t no way I will ever try that.

–Don’t look away girl just cuz I’m driving my fathers insulation van. LOL

Foul Swoops:

–finally looked at pitchfork’s top 500 songs of the 2000’s. not a single song from my top two albums this decade. what a bummer.

–too bad the black crowes ruined “hard to handle” because otis really kills on the original.

Craig Wedren

–Beauty book, Hotel De Dream: falling drops of vertebrae=gorgeous neck, cut-glass veil=only kidding yrslf, everyone else knows.

–HUNG ep 8 realgood, my score n cover of Queen’s Play The Game been waiting to do that since Camp Modin 1982

Edie Sedgwick:

–Manson all riled up. Won’t stop trying to tattoo a swastika on to my forehead. Gotta convince him to do the Rolling Stones lips instead…

–Oasis – the “Family Feud” of Beatles cover bands.

–“Funny People” – kind of the lime flavor in the Judd Apatow Life Saver roll.

Asobi Seksu: “Transparence”
For a while there Asobi Seksu was one of the last purveyors of noisy, sexy, dream pop and if you were looking for a shoegaze fix, they were the band to go to. Then My Bloody Valentine reunited and the Brooklyn-based duo had to find a new schtick. This alternate version of “Transparence,” originally from the band’s third full-length Hush, finds them swinging a little closer to The Cranberries, who–for Asobi Seksu’s sake–will hopefully stay on hiatus a little while longer.

Tyondai Braxton: “Platinum Rows”
Tyondai Braxton’s solo work used to involve beat-boxing, groaning, and a ton of guitar pedals. Judging by “Platinum Rows,” from the Battles guitarists upcoming solo record Central Market, the idea has evolved a little bit. Now there’s an orchestra and a chorus of kazoos. Solo albums are supposed to be small, introspective affairs, that tide you over until the main band finally cracks out another record. But at ten-minutes “Platinum Rows” is pretty epic. The other guys in Battles ought to watch their backs.

Grooms: “Dreamsucker”
Sonic Youth has been around so long at this point that now, if you’re ripping off their early years, it’s kind of like starting a classic rock band. Brooklyn’s Grooms have done their homework, though. “Dreamsucker” nails the Sister-vibe right down to the scrappy guitar breaks and signature Steve Shelley beats.

Boo Rossini: “Dat Come Back”
Apparently this Jeezy protege has been hanging out in the wings for a little while. Since the earlier part of this decade, at least. Maybe he should stay there, too. This track–which finds him comparing female genitalia to soap, drugs, and Aquafina–makes Rossini sound like a bit of a low-life. And if that’s not enough, he’s also a cheapskate. “I ain’t gonna pay your rent, but I might split it,” he raps.

Weezer: “(If You Are Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To”
If ever there was a rock star who needed to get back in touch with his lowly teenage self, it’s Rivers Cuomo. Weezer’s best moments were driven by nostalgia for D&D, heavy metal, and awkward romance–all things the singer has been unable/unwilling to access during the band’s last three records. “(If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” from the Weezer’s as-yet-untitled seventh record, is auspiciously geeky, though. There are power pop riffs, at least one mention of a Slayer t-shirt and that’s enough to fuel the faint hope that Cuomo’s nerd-mojo has been reignited.

Radiohead: “These Are My Twisted Words”
So, the blogs were wrong. Who would have thought? Instead of a new Radiohead EPall we get are some nasty words and an official release of “These Are My Twisted Words,” a song that the band leaked last week onto a fan-operated message board. Hey, that’s better than nothing. And it’s not like “Twisted Words” is some sort of tossed off b-side, either. This is Radiohead at its jammiest, with hypnotic guitar arpeggios morphing together for over five minutes as if Johnny Marr were paying homage to Meddle-era Pink Floyd.

Wavves: “Cool Jumper”
San Diego-based scuzz-pop prodigy Nathan Williams has had his name floating all over the blogosphere recently, largely due to a drug-fueled mid-concert meltdown. There’s a better, more productive way, to maintain that hype level, though: release good music. “Cool Jumper” finds Williams doing just that. The chords/grit/drums formula that drives Wavves songs is cleverly expanded using Hella drummer Zach Hill to drop in jarring off time fills over Williams’ bubblegum “ooohs” and “ahhs.”

The Flaming Lips: “See The Leaves”
For the last 10 years The Flaming Lips have been rock’s leading purveyors of PMA, cutting one inspirational anthem after another. But “See The Leaves,” from the band’s upcoming record Embryonic, strikes a darker tone. In fact, between the song’s stumbling groove and bleak outro, there’s nary a confetti blasting/fist-pump-appropriate moment to be found here. “Without hope/ without love/ she sees herself from below and above,” sings front man Wayne Coyne. The Flaming Lips do paranoia pretty well, though, and “See The Leaves” is no exception. It’s hard to say what triggered the epic come-down, but it might not be a bad thing.

Thom Yorke: “All For The Best (Marc Mulcahy Cover)”
The original version of this song was pretty stripped down to begin with, but Yorke’s cover–drawn from a benefit/tribute album dedicated to Mulcahy–is, unsurprisingly, even darker and emptier. With little but the bare shuddering of an emaciated drum machine and his own layered voice Yorke converts Mulcahy’s affable alt-rock into cold and desolate, yet undeniably hooky, IDM.

Dungen: “Samtidigt”
Swedish psych-rock band Dungen offers up a 15-minute of “Samtidigt,” a song that appeared on its recent album, 4, clocking in at about one fifth that length. So what’s happening during that missing 12-minutes? Shredding, mostly. Not just on guitar, though, there’s also some Herbie Mann-style flute-magic thrown in for good measure.

Fuck Buttons: “Surf Solar”
Yeah, they still have the worst band name ever, but the Fuck Buttons’ new song–edited here from it’s full 10-minute form–is enough of a forward creative push to make that foul-mouthed moniker worth tossing around a few more times. The Bristol-based noise duo turns abstract squalor into rave while 808s pound and pulse in the background.

Zomby: “One Foot Ahead of the Other”
UK producer Zomby continues plying his brand of dubstep/’90s hardcore revival. If you aren’t entirely sure what that means, though, it’s enough to say that “One Foot Ahead of the Other” sounds like clubbier version of the Metroid soundtrack. Follow his tight and shuffling rhythms straight to Mother Brain.

Neon Indian: “Should Have Taken Acid With You”
Houston, Texas/Brooklyn, New York’s Neon Indian waxes nostalgic about a missed opportunity to experience romance whilst getting experienced. The music–Daft Punk-style dance pop rendered with bargain bin synthesizers–suggests that he eventually found another opportunity to drop out. But that doesn’t make this moody gem any less affecting.

Kid Cudi: “You Can Call Me Moon Man”
“You Can Call Me Moon Man,” Kanye protege Kid Cudi reveals that he’s not from the Midwest, as previously believed, but from the heavens. Specifically, the Moon. And what’s it like on the moon? Dark, apparently. Cudi spends most of “You Can Call Me Moon Man” dropping sobering boasts along the lines of “Shit is so damn sick/ No antibiotic could ever fucking stop it/ If you copped it, please O.D.” Other lines–”I make immortal songs for the mortals to cruise with,”– imply Cudi might be getting high on hot air.

Gang Gang Dance: “Live @ Southpaw, April 2008”
Just in case you forgot they were out there, Gang Gang Dance recently slipped a full live set into a podcast by Social Registry (the band’s US label). Because the concert was taped all the way back in ‘08 and is largely made up of tunes from the group’s last record, Saint Dymphna, so none of this is new, exactly. Then again, the way that the songs “First Communion” and “House Jam” are mashed up here with slurry jams, you might not recognize them right away, anyway.

Six Organs of Admittance: “The Ballad of Charley Harper”
In his paintings, Cincinnati-based artist Charley Harper sought to simplify nature–to create an ordered representation of a complex reality. There’s a good chance that Six Organs of Admittance’s “The Ballad of Charley Harper,” with its slowly cycling melodies, is an homage to that sensibility. Ben Chasny uses simple components–an acoustic guitar, some distortion, a single lyric–to suggest some larger and more elusive mystic truth.

Atlas Sound/Panda Bear: “Walkabout”
If you were among those who downloaded the half-finished version of Atlas Sound’s (aka Bradford Cox) new record, Logos, after he accidentally leaked it a several months ago, well, shame on you. Luckily, Cox went back and changed a few things. Apparently “Walkabout,” a collaboration with Animal Collective’s Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), didn’t even exist back then. From its burbling sampled beat (taken from The Dovers’ “What Am I Going to Do“) to its drowsy electronic interludes, it’s pretty sweet.

Kurt Vile: “Overnight Religion”
Philadelphia songwriter and mega-producer Daniel Lanois are privy to the same secret: If you take the music of the baby-boomers and run it through a ton of effects, it sounds cool again. Hey, don’t laugh, it worked for Bob Dylan on Oh, Mercy. And it works for Kurt Vile, too. A little bit of reverb and delay goes a long way here, turning the strummy “Overnight Religion,” into something spacey and meditative. And probably at only a fraction of what Peter Gabriel had to pay, too.

Beastie Boys f. Nas: “Too Many Rappers”
Yeah, the Beastie Boys are old, but at least they aren’t pretending otherwise. “Oh my god/ just look at me/ grandpa been rapping since ‘83,” raps Mike D Ad-Rock on this new track, apparently debuted at this year’s Bonnaroo festival. But where the Beastie Boys used to be bratty, here they’re just sounding cranky–about contemporary rappers, holograms, and Wolf Blitzer. Ad-Rock, again, lays out the group’s beef in articulate and unambiguous language. “All you crap rappers/ you’re rapping like crap.

Free Energy: “Free Energy”
A big curve ball from DFA, the label who, up until this point at least, mainly concentrated on producing and releasing post-punk and retro-disco records. From the sound this song, though, Free Energy’s influences predate all that club junk by at least ten years. The finger prints of Thin Lizzy, Big Star, and Shoes–bands that have never been closer than a thousand yards to a remix–are all over this. There is, however, still some cowbell going on.

Julian Plenti: “Only If You Run”
It’s not much of a surprise that Julian Plenti, the solo project of Interpol’s Paul Banks, sounds a lot like Interpol. “Only if You Run” has the same clean and spacey guitars, the same reverb drenched outro-vocals, and the same sounds-cool-enough gobbledygook lyrics that Banks’ other band has been working for ten years now. Banks makes a few welcome tweaks, though, adding drum machines and some abstract noises. And hey, Interpol’s mildly-irritating bass player–who wears a gun holster and looks kind of like Shamu–isn’t on here, so that’s something, too.

Mission of Burma: “1,2,3, Partyy”
At this point the Mission of Burma reunion has gone on longer (by about three years) and been more productive than the band’s original run during the early ’80s. And it’s just going to keep going, apparently. “1,2,3, Partyy,” from the group’s upcoming third post-reunion record The Sound, The Speed, The Light, is just as sloppy, thrashy, and powerful as ever.

Ducktails: “Parasailing”
Thirty years ago, if you wanted to have somebody massage your third eye with new-age synthesizer music, you had to either buy a record or go sit down in somebody’s spaceship-esque basement studio. The necessary gear–hulking keyboards, oscillators, and filters–wasn’t exactly travel-size. But New Jersey’s Ducktails–with his more manageable network of footpedals and tiny synthesizers– can, if so inclined, bring the meditative all-night-flight to your town.

Robin Pecknold: “Two Headed Boy” (Neutral Milk Hotel Cover)
Fleet Foxes singer/heartthrob Robin Pecknold recently performed this song–originally by Neutral Milk Hotel–at a benefit for Seattle’s Vera Project, and it’s likely that the bootleg recording has already caused a few fatal music-blogger brain-aneurysms. But at least they aren’t excited over nothing. Pecknold comfortably slots his silky voice into the song’s surreal sensibilities and really kills it. Well, he kills it for a while, at least. Then he starts to forget the words.

Wale: “Pretty Girls”
Wale reps DC, his hometown, hard in this song, which is rumored to be drawn from his upcoming debut full-length Attention:Deficit. “Come to DC and I can make you a believer,” he raps over a slow and funky hook. But Wale’s forgetting that DC, well NW at least, has long been characterized as “Hollywood for ugly people.” So there’s a good chance his chant-along chorus, “Ugly girls be quiet/Pretty girls clap like this,” will leave local audiences largely un-stoked.

Girls: “Hellhole Ratrace”
Band name aside, Girls isn’t offering up a whole lot that has to do with the female sex. Every spare measure of “Hellhole Ratrace,” is chock full of men. Wistful men. Melancholy men. Men feeling the great heartbreak. But, yeah, men all the same. “I don’t want to cry my whole life through/ I want to do some laughing, too,” mopes singer Christopher Owens. Strong men also cry, but this song, which stretches to almost 7 minutes, is positively bloated with tears.

Jonsi & Alex: “Boy 1904”
Sigur Ros front man Jonsi Brigisson and his partner Alex Somers have more streamlined approach to provoking elegiac thoughts. With it’s low drones, boys choir-style vocals, and field recording snippets, “Boy 1904,” from the duo’s upcoming ambient album Riceboy Sleeps, makes almost any activity performed during the songs duration feel sublime and cathartic. All that’s missing is a rain-streaked window to gaze out of.

Air: “Do The Joy”
Air isn’t big on substance, obviously, and “Do the Joy,” from its upcoming record Love 2 is appropriately ethereal. There are gossamer synths, fuzzy guitars, and the a voice that quietly murmurs, “Do the joy” over and over again, yet refrains from specifying exactly how ones does it. Conceptually, it’s a minor step down from, say, “Surfing on a Rocket.”

Beck: “I’m Waiting For My Man”
The Velvet Underground’s original version of this song made scoring drugs sound exotic and cool. Beck’s cover, on the other hand, is probably a little closer to reality. The second offering from the singer’s Record Club website, where the singer will be covering The Velvet Underground & Nico in its entirety, is dense, sloppy, and out of tune. This is not the sound of hipsters slumming in urban bohemia but a long stroll to the drum circle with your bare-foot Dead-head neighbor. A different activity, for sure, but not one lacking in charms of its own.

She & Him: “Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, who perform together as She & Him, take a swipe at the most frequently covered of all Smiths songs for the soundtrack to Deschanel’s new movie (500) Days of Summer. As those covers go, this is a pretty traditional rendering, with heaps of reverb and a gazillion overdubbed acoustic guitars. But Deschanel delivers the vocal with the requisite amount of melancholy and the cover holds its own just fine alongside The Deftones version.

Wu Tang Clan ft. Raekwon, Sean Price, and Cormega: “Radian Jewels”
It certainly sounds like Wu-Tang–synths strings, minimalist beats, Raekwon–but apparently “Radiant Jewels” and Chamber Music, the Rza produced record it comes from, is not a new Wu-Tang Clan record. Instead, according to a particularly confusing press release, it’s just a record featuring new music made with participation from every member of the group and a live backing band that emulates the classic Wu-Tang sound. So maybe it’s better than a “real” Wu-Tang record? Go figure.

Gareth Williams: “Anger of Fire”
Gareth Williams’ role in This Heat, the experimental/post-punk band in which he performed during the early ’80s, seemed somewhat subversive. While his band mates, drummer Charles Hayward and guitarist Charles Bullen, were traditionally skilled musicians, Williams approached things from a more naive and unschooled perspective. He mashed on a bizarrely tuned keyboard, played back tape collages, and fueled the group’s more abstract and unpredictable moments. But “Anger of Fire,” written years after Williams had departed from This Heat, is surprisingly tuneful. Built on two acoustic guitar chords and a reggae-inspired rhythm, it suggest that Williams, who passed away in ‘01, certainly had more in his head than noise.

Clipse (ft. Pharrell): “I’m Good”
Clipse has finally leaked a track from it’s long-in-the-works follow up to Hell Hath No Fury and, surprisingly, it’s a love song. But before you get down on the dour coke-rap duo for going gushy, keep in mind that that the object of Clipse’s adoration on “I’m Good” is Clipse. Pusha T and Malice get all up on themselves, praising their taste in cars (”Hell yeah the rims match!”), their accessories (”Ice cubes on my chest, look at my blackberry freakin’ me on the texts”), and letting themselves know that they’re quite a catch (”Fly as I could ever be/ a level of success that you could never see.”) You have to hand it to them, though. When it comes to some Clipse-on-Clipse action, they’re not afraid to come on strong.

Ganglians: “Lost Words”
Remember that scene in Animal House where John Belushi rips the guitar out of a hippie’s hands and smashes it to bits against the wall? “Lost Words,” by Sacramento’s Ganglians, might insight a similar style of blind rage, at least for the hot tempered. Gilded in reedy falsettos and cascading waves of autumnal guitar, this is, ostensibly, a song about going to the grocery store.

Black Meteoric Star: “Death Tunnel”
A name can go a long way in techno. Were this song composed under a more upbeat moniker and given a title with a little more sunshine, it could easily be misconstrued as party music. But this is “Death Tunel,” by Black Meteoric star, and as such, the track’s pulsing sequenced synths suggest something more sinister. This is music for vintage-sci-fi dystopia and the darkest old-school Nintendo games.

Gang Gang Dance: “First Communion (TV on The Radio Remix)”
Less of a remix than a grudge-match between Manhattan and Brooklyn’s two most widely discussed art-rock bands. But there are no winners or losers here, just judiciously programmed 909s. TV on The Radio hurls itself into one of the better songs from Gang Gang Dance’s Saint Dymphna, stripping off some of the original’s lush synthesizers and locking down the tempo to a steady, if jittery, pulse. It’s hard to call it an improvement, but it’s hardly a throwaway.