It's only music, John!

Dengue Fever - “Interigation (Live at WFMU)”

Whoever has already heard Cambodian pop from the 60s has had that strange effect of finding all the familiar elements of garage / surf rock, all the guitar fuzz, echoes and heavy beat, yet being mesmerised by the undecypherable otherness of the singing (undecypherable by Western ears, of course).

Denge Fever are keeping that heritage alive and certainly kicking, an L.A. band fronted by a Cambodian singer.

In this track I hear yet another “world pop” ingredient that I especially love: that sinewy guitar line reminds me of Ethiopian greats such as Mahmoud Ahmed or Mulatu Astatqé.

When a band avoids the empty clichés, while at the same time sampling everything that’s great about international pop, we get the best of all worlds.

Zak Sally – “Why We Hide”

From the tasty Cybersex (!) sampler released by Sub Pop. All tracks are top-notch indie.

The Legends - “Always the Same”

I’ll never stop being amazed by the Labrador label’s output.

Black Dice - “Glazin”

Black Dice - “Kokomo”

Last night was the last concert I went to with a young (post-)punk’s carelessness (baby boy is coming soon soon soon, so nights out are gonna be scarce). And I guess my choice of a Black Dice gig makes sense : I began with punk/noise as a teen, grew up into all kinds of dance/punk/noise/indie, and BD make one of the best (i.e. most cathartic, most engrossing, most abstractly concrète) synthesis of all the sounds I have been feeding on over the last 15 years.

Michna - “Tripple Chrome Dipped”

Music for my (soon-to-be) newborn son, part 3. To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll be playing him this track too early, when he’s either sleeping or crying because he can’t get to sleep or needs to be calmed down because he’s hungry and the milk’s not ready.

Guess I’ll play it when he’s old enough to notice the funny sounds and watch me dance crazy dances to the the stuttering rhythms.

Acid House Kings - “Do What You Wanna Do”

Celebrating the coming of my baby boy, part deux.

Vocal harmonies all around, love and sweetness, AHK have it all. Maybe those late nights trying to get him to sleep won’t be that boring with great music around.

Eels - “Jelly Dancers”

This is now official. My baby boy is to be born (strange to be writing this) on Thursday, May 7th at 9 a.m. (my girlfriend has to have a cesarean, hence the “is to be”).

That’s why I’m starting my own sort of nerdy indie countdown here, posting the kind of music I’ll be playing around him in the next few weeks (if his mother ever lets me!).

Here’s Eels’ cover of a Bruce Haack classic for children. It’s almost as good as Jonathan Richman’s “Egyptian Reggae” (that I’ll sure be playing him, along with all the Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers album).