Brendan Benson - Metarie

He's not super well known out here in Australia, but plenty of people will know him as the other song who joins Jack White to make up the creative minds of The Raconteurs (The Saboteurs).

He's a fellow singer song writer from Detroit just like Jack White, and has four solo albums to his name.

I discovered Brendan on his second album, Lapalco, which this song is taken from.

I had no idea there was an alternative version until I started writing this post. The album I have features the alternative, and I have to say it's certainly my favourite. It's a beautiful tune, so give it a listen and let me know what you think.

For clarity I've included the original below also.

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Foster The People - Helena Beat

I've been smashing the three track ep by Foster The People for quite some time now, so I was very happy to get my hands on their brand new album last week.

Torches is a cracking album and Helena Beat is the opening track. When you open up with something things much fun and this good, you know you're in for a treat. 

10 songs of awesome from the start to the finish. This is a great tune to get you pumped up and feeling the groove, we cranked this in the office this afternoon and it made my day.

The haven't launched the official film clip in Australia yet, so for the time being, I give you dog boarding featuring Helena Beat. Enjoy.

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Lykke Li - Get Some

I can't get enough of Lykke Li at the moment.

She's stunning, her clips are awesome and her album Wounded Rhymes is on super-high rotation on my iPod of late.

I love the big drums in this song,

This song has a real tribal vibe going on with the clapping, chanting, backing vocals and that big drum beat. I could imagine villagers dancing around the fire making sacrifices to this one.

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Stonefield - Through The Clover

As previously mentioned, the other night I got to watch four talented sisters rock out and impress a truck-load of people while doing so.

Aged 21, 19, 17 and 13, the girls from country Victoria are off to impress the masses with their live show in front of 100,000 people at Glastonbury.

Stonefield were part of Triple J's Unearthed High competition in 2010, which they then went onto win and were added to high rotation on the station.

If you get the chance to see them live, do so! It's awesome.

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Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love

Tonight I watched four sisters from Victoria rock out and blow the mind of everyone in the room.

The sisters are aged 21, 19, 17 and 13. They're called Stonefield and they're awesome!

They know how to sing, play and rock. The 13-year-old is probably the coolest bass player I've ever seen.

To top it off they're heading overseas to play Glastonbury! Yep, Glastonbury.

They finished off their set with this song, and yep, minds were blown.

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Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

I have no idea what ever happened to Harvey Danger and I've been resisting the urge to google them and find out about their demise, or even sadder if they're still going.

I only knew one song of theirs, and that's all I need. It's probably one of my favourite one hit wonders from my youth.

It was the year 1997, I was 16, and I loved this song.

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Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

Sufjan Stevens has one of those voices that's simply amazing and gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Those goosebumps really kick in when I listen to the lyrics of this song.

It's a beautiful sounding song with a very scary topic which tells the story of one of America's most horrific prolific serial killers.

Over six years Gacy Jr raped and murdered 33 young men, 26 of which were found buried in the crawl space under his house, three others were buried elsewhere on his property while four more were discarded in a river. Gacy was a well respected community member who did lots of charity work and dressed as a clown.

DON'T TRUST CLOWNS!

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The Stranglers - Golden Brown

There's always been a bit of controversy about the song and it's lyrics. The band have always denied that the song is actually about heroin use and drug trading.

When asked the band would regularly state that each individual will hear different things in the lyrics. Another theory is that the lyrics refer to front man Hugh Corwell's Mediterranean girlfriend, who had golden brown skin.

The song was released way back in 1981 and was one of The Stranglers greatest hits.

So what's your take on Golden Brown, is it about heroin or a girl?

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Metronomy - The Look

So you think you're pretty cool? Think you know good music? Think you got the look?

Well I'm sorry to tell you, but you don't!

Metronomy have stolen all your cool and packed it onto their new album The English Riviera.

I'm absolutely loving their new album and this song, The Look, is one of my new favourites of the year.

They're stylish, they're look cool, and sound damn fine at the same time. Get involved, give it a listen, and let me know how much you now love your new favourite song of 2011!

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Ben Folds - Bitches Ain't Shit

On Friday night I went and saw Ben Folds live at the State Theatre, and he was great to watch live.

He's such an entertainer and loves talking to the audience about the songs and giving a bit of back story, which makes for such a good show.

One of the awesome things that Ben Folds has done over the last few years is pick a song (generally from a very different genre of music) and do a cover version.

On this tour he performed a Ke$ha song - I knew that girl was 'nasty' but hearing her lyrics performed by Ben Folds really hit home how much of a skanky lady she is (google the lyrics to Sleazy). Haha, but he made it sound so lovely and nice.

One of my favourite Ben Folds' covers is a Dr Dre tune! I saw him perform it live at Glastonbury back in 2008, and the crowd went nuts. Oh yeah, there's a bit of naughty language on this one, so consider yourself warned.

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Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise

I had a whole stack of great songs ready to go up on the blog, but while I sat here last night trying to write in a boozy haze, this amazing 30min Beastie Boys short film came on.

I'd been meaning to watch this for a while now and had heard great things, so I was thankful to catch it on the box.

It features the Beastie Boys latest film clip Make Some Noise (clip below), which is great, but the real awesome is in the full short film! The main characters are Seth Rogan, Elijah Wood and Danny McBride playing the young Beasties.

On top of that it's cameos galore with appearances by Jack Black, Orlando Bloom, Steve Buscemi, Ted Danson, Kirsten Dunst, Will Ferrell, Rashida Jones, Jason Schwartzman, Chloe Sevigny, Mary Steenburgen and yes, even Susan Sarandon.

Check them both out below!

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Here's the 5min Make Some Noise clip.


When you get a spare 30min, watch the full Fight For Your Right revisited short film which had the whole Sundance Film Festival poppin' and lockin'!

The Animals - House Of The Rising Sun

I absolutely love this song, it was one of the first songs I ever learnt to sing the lyrics in they're entirety, thanks to an awesome primary school teacher who would play guitar and have the whole class sing along to tunes by The Animals, The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

In fact I can't ever remember him teaching us anything besides soccer,singing songs, and doing the occasional spelling bee. Either way, he was one of my greatest teachers!

Back to the song... Eric Burdon's bluesy voice is kick-arse, and the steely gaze he gives throughout the entire clip lets you know (even though he's wearing a suit) he could kick your arse if you step out of line.

They're a bunch of smooth looking bad-asses!

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Ween - Your Party

This tune goes out to two amazingly beautiful friends who I love ever so much.

On the weekend I watched them get married. It was an emotional ceremony, intimate, with so much love for everyone there.

Richie and Rach, you're simply stunning and Katie and I are so pleased that we could be there to share your special day.

We had the best time at your party, the wife and I thank you very much!

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