The Song a Day Experiment

Spinnerette - “Ghetto Love”
Album: Spinnerette (2009)
Label: Anthem Records

Spinnerette is a alt/indie rock project headlined by Australian singer Brody Dalle. She channels Joan Jett and the 70’s/80’s punk girls, but her music definitely has a modern spin. She seems to still be pretty under the radar, but she has already made some notable tour stops and collaborated with some notable people. The band has worked with Queens of the Stone Age, Jack Irons (of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam), and Tony Bevilacqua, and continues to tour. I saw them at a CMJ show in New York City and was really impressed. The rawness of their studio recordings translates even better live, and with such a powerful punk/indie image, the entire band makes a pretty big scene onstage.

Also check out: “Geeking,” “Valium Knights,” “Cupid,” “Baptized By Fire”

Led Zeppelin - “The Battle of Evermore”
Album: Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
Label: Atlantic

The Dirty Urchins - “Rolling with Virgil”
Album: Late as Usual
Label: unsigned 


If you wander around New York City long enough, it’s inevitable that you’re going to see these guys (and girl!) playing it up. They’re the self proclaimed hottest busking band in the city, and I first saw them in Central Park around E. 69th St. last fall. Funny enough, I’ve seen them several times since then, once in Brooklyn, and several other times in the park, and they haven’t failed to impress me yet. They play original music with deep roots in folk, country, and blues, and have an album currently out on iTunes. I admire them for their DIY attitude. Here’s hoping they’ll get some major recognition.


Also check out: “Touch the Sky,” “That Flame,” “The City is King” 

Andrew Bird - “Fake Palindromes”
Album:  Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005)
Label: Righteous Babe


Andrew Bird is singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with a wide range of musical inspiration. He is a violinist by training, and he is obviously influenced by various outcroppings of folk, both American and European. His sound also encompasses blues, jazz, and is mostly based in alternative and indie rock. His quirky lyrics are at once entertaining and enlightening, and his often simplistic melodies backed by lush instrumentation are the perfect match for his lyrics. He often experiments with the balance of different kinds of sounds (the pluck between a guitar and a violin string, for example), mixed with both acoustic and electric aspects. He’s a little bit of everything, all wrapped into one eccentric package.


Also check out: “Effigy,” “The Giant of Illinois,” Scythian Empires,” “Action Adventure” 

Muse - “Exogenesis Symphony”
Album: The Resistance (2009)
Label: Atco, Mushroom, Helium 3


I’m a huge Muse fan, but I have to say that I’m not the biggest fan of The Resistance. It feels too much like Muse trying to sound like other bands, not like Muse. They seemed to be channeling Queen a lot on this album (which in itself is not a bad thing!), but I think they lost a lot of their sound in the process. The track where I think they’re sounding the most like themselves in this one, their “Exogenesis Symphony,” which is all kinds of cool.

This is rock opera at its finest. There are the soaring vocals over a lush arpeggiated orchestra in part one, killer guitar solos, a pseudo piano concerto in part two that narrows down into something more like a pop ballad, and a crashing finale. I’m not usually one for rock opera, but this is just awesome. I almost want to hear what it would sound like with a larger orchestra and a range of singers. 

Stevie Nicks - “Beauty and the Beast”
Album: The Wild Heart (1983)
Label: Modern Records


This song was originally inspired by Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film Beauty and the Beast. Stevie has said that the song is about bandmate Mick Fleetwood, with whom she had an affair during the making of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. Scored for strings and piano with voice, it’s not your typical Stevie track, but it is typical Stevie writing, which is, in my opinion, some of the best songwriting of 20th century.

The Wild Heart is also an interesting album. Stevie was quite involved musically with Tom Petty at the time, and he had a lot of input into the album (in fact, there is a demo recording out there of a discussion between the two songwriters about “Beauty and the Beast” before Stevie plays it on the piano). Jimmy Iovine produced along with Gordon Perry and Petty. This album was really the heart of Stevie’s solo career, recorded at a time when she was splitting herself between Fleetwood Mac and her own career. Many of the tracks reflect this in their lyrics, and it’s a very interesting era of her career.


Also check out: “Bella Donna,” “Stand Back,” “I Will Run To You,” “Candlebright”

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo”
Album: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo
Label: Abstract Dragon, Vagrant, Co-Op 


Named after Marlon Brando’s motorcycle gang in the 1953 film The Wild One,  BRMC is a alternative band based out of San Francisco. They’re known for their mixture of genre, fusing them into their own personal sound. They are at once denizens of the garage rock world, but they also inhabit the blues and folk worlds, infusing their music with strong bass and drum lines and killer guitar riffs. 

BRMC rocks pretty hard. They’ve been known to break floors in venues (see: Leeds Town Hall), but they really are all about the music. They are inspired by bands like The Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground, but their rough sound, with sliding guitar and raw vocal performances, is what really classifies them as their own band.


Also check out: “Berlin,” “Done All Wrong,” “Weapon of Choice,” “666 Conducer,” “Ain’t No Easy Way” 

Rufus Wainwright - “The One You Love”
Album: Want Two (2004)
Label: Geffen


Wainwright is most definitely on my top 5 artists of all time list. What first attracted me to him wasn’t actually his music but the art that was associated with it. I saw the album illustrations for his album Want One and instantly felt a connection, and it turned out that I felt just as connected with his music as I was with his style.

Rufus is all about the fusion of what we might call “pop” versus “high” culture. Born into a musically aristocratic family (his father is folk singer/songwriter/guitarist Loudon Wainwright III and his mother was singer/songwriter Kate McGarrigle), he was raised on a mix of music, most notably folk and opera. His own music reflects this, with rich composition melted down into the form of pop songs. He recently wrote an opera, Prima Donna, which is currently in performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (I’ll be seeing it in a few days). My absolute favorite thing about Rufus is his fascination between the relationship of pop and classical, and how he constructs his music and his lyrics to mirror this.


Also check out: “Cigarette and Chocolate Milk,” “Going to a Town,” “The Art Teacher,” “The Consort,” “April Fools”

A Perfect Circle - “Sleeping Beauty”
Album: Mer de Noms (2000)
Label: Virgin Records 

A band that has gone through many lineups, A Perfect Circle manages to maintain its sound extremely well. The band is instantly recognizable because of singer Maynard James Keenan (of Tool) and the stylistic composition of guitarist Billy Howerdel. With smooth, keening vocals and a powerful backing sound, they are the definition of alt. rock at its finest. 


Also check out: “Judith,” “3 Libras,” “The Outsider,” “Imagine” 

Gillian Welch - “The Way It Goes”
Album: The Harrow and the Harvest (2011)
Label: Acony


Gillian Welch is a mix of country and folk (and you could narrow that down to bluegrass and Americana), and somehow her music sounds new even though it’s rooted in the old. She writes and performs with guitarist David Rawlings. They are both known for the rawness of their live performances, but both have also produced albums, most notably the Oscar-winning soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, on which Welch also performed. 

Welch’s music is dark, and often she takes on voices of people other than herself. She tackles themes such as familial social issues, drug abuse, and death, to name a few. Her music echoes her words, with dark chords and progressions and keening country vocals. She also has a very clear brand, of the artsy folk songstress, that feels and is extremely authentic. 


Also check out: “Scarlet Town,” “Hard Times,” “ Dark Turn of the Mind,” “Six White Horses”

Nine Inch Nails - “Right Where it Belongs”
Album: With Teeth (2005)
Label: Nothing, Interscope

I adore this song for many, many reasons. For one, it presents Trent Reznor’s range of sound as a vocalist. His voice is so dynamic and unique, and I’ve always thought that this track displays that a lot better than his more “commercial” tracks (whatever that means for Reznor). I love the simplicity of it, the repeated bass pattern of synths and piano, with only the vocal line on top of it. The music mirrors the words, which are deep and poetic and just a little bit mind numbing. My absolute favorite part of the song is when the distortion is peeled away and a crowd roars in the background. It’s that timeless ode to fame, the question of identity, of who you are when you present yourself to a crowd. Are you who they perceive, or who you perceive? Or have you always seen yourself and the surrounding world as something it’s not? The music in this song speaks just as loudly as the words, but it’s the words that really echo here. It’s an excellent example of Reznor’s artistry.


Also check out: “The Hand that Feeds,” “Only,” “Capital G,” “Closer,” “Head Like a Hole”

The Civil Wars - 20 Years
Album: Barton Hollow (2011)
Label: Sensibility


 The Civil Wars are Joy Williams and John Paul White, both singer/songwriters who bring a modern feel to traditional country/folk/rock. What I love about these two is their ability to take something old and make it sound new, attracting both older fans and younger ones in the process. During a Grammy’s this year that was obviously trying to mix old with new, they straddled that border when they opened for Taylor Swift. They’re hip (and sellable) enough to be on the Grammy’s, but they’re also artistic and “indie” enough to attract the devoted followers who pride themselves on their love of quality music. This is only the beginning of The Civil Wars’ career, and I’m looking forward to hear what they do next.


Also check out: “Barton Hollow,” “Poison & Wine,” “Forget Me Not”

Bird York - “Go With It”
Album: Wicked Little Lie (2006)
Label: EMI Records

 

Bird York (or Kathleen York) is a singer, actress, and screenwriter. I first saw her on The West Wing, where she played White House communications director Toby Ziegler’s (Richard Schiff) ex-wife Andrea Wyatt. I had no idea she had a music career at the time, and later heard her song “In the Deep” through multiple online blogs. I checked her out, and found I was very into her music. It’s quite different, and I have a hard time classifying it as anything other than alternative. York has a beautiful, unique voice and quite the range of sound, from the lush, whispered vocals on “In the Deep” to a rougher, edgier sound on “What Are You Running After.” This song, “Go With It,” is a blend of those sounds. Beyond her voice, York is an excellent writer and poet. If you find you like her music, also follow her on facebook, where she often posts snippets of poetry and philosophy. 

Also check out: “In the Deep,” “Have No Fear,” What Are You Running After,” “Strange Chemistry” 

Band of Skulls - “Bomb”
Album: Baby Darling Dollface Honey (2009)
Label: Electric Blues Recordings/ Pias Recordings


 The very essence of the garage band, Band of Skulls is an English trio featuring Matt Hayward, Russell Marsden, and Emma Richardson. They’re alt. meets indie meets garage rock with a bit of blues thrown in, a blend of The White Stripes, The Black Keys, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (of course with their own distinct style thrown in). I discovered them through the iTunes Discovery Download when their song “I Know What I Am” was featured in 2009, and have since seen them perform in New York City. They rock just as hard live as they do on their album.

A great feature of this band is its diversity in sound. It’s easy to categorize their first album as a purely alt. rock record, but with creative songwriting and male vs. female vocals, every song has a character all its own. I love the drive these guys (and girl!) have. 


Also check out: Light of the Morning, Dull Gold Heart, Patterns, I Know What I Am 

Martha Wainwright - “You Cheated Me”
Album: I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (2008)
Label: MapleMusic, Zoe Records 

I was first introduced to Martha Wainwright’s music after hearing her open for her brother Rufus several years ago at a concert in Philadelphia. We are of course talking about the Wainwright clan of Loudon the III and Kate/Anna McGarrigle fame. I had known her previously only for her backing tracks on Rufus’ work, and was admittedly unimpressed not with her voice but how she chose to use it. Hearing her relatively quirky vocal stylings live and on her own recordings opened me up, however, and I’ve since been very invested in following her career.

Martha’s the quintessential indie singer/songwriter. With complex lyrics backed by good old acoustic folk guitar, her music is food for the ears and for the mind. A talented songwriter, she is also skilled at the art of the cover. Growing up in such a musical family, she was raised singing other people’s music, and has since appeared in the Leonard Cohen movie I’m Your Man covering “Tower of Song” and “The Traitor” and recorded an album of Edith Piaf covers (Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, a Paris: Martha Wainwright’s Piaf Record). She has also recorded with Snow Patrol (“Set Fire to the Third Bar”) and has appeared with Hole and Annie Lennox. She is an excellent collaborator, but I hope we see more of her solo material in the future. 

Also check out: “Factory,” “Bleeding All Over You,” “When the Day is Short,” “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole,” “Whither Must I Wander”