About This Site
Each month I select 20 songs (10 songs twice a month) that I am either hooked on or am curious about. Most of the music I select are rock, hip-hop, R&B and pop songs.
My song selection comes from 20-30 CDs I get from various sources each month, as well as recommendations from iTunes and Amazon. I also check out the charts in US, UK and Japan.
Sasquatch festival is back again this year. Compared to previous years, the lineup celebrates more indie music. I won’t be attending this year, as I wasn’t that impressed with the lineup, but for those who are going, maybe this guide can help you a bit.
Sunday, May 30th lineup is headlined by UK trip-hop act, Massive Attack. I honestly don’t know much about their music, so I can’t comment much, but my vote for “must-see” act for Sunday would have to be Tegan And Sara. They also performed at Sasquatch two years ago and put on a very fun show. And if you get a chance, how can you miss out on the Flavor Flav and Chuck D of Public Enemy?
 | Caribou - OdessaCaribou is Daniel Snaith’s stage name. He is a Canadian, and has PhD in mathematics, and he also produces cool electronica music. I had never heard of him or his music before until his single, “Odessa” was featured as free mp3 download from iTunes. I like the vibe of his songs. |
 | Public Enemy - Black Is BackIn the past five years or so, Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav, has gained more popularity from his “Flavor of Love” episodes (at least in the US), but let’s not forget that he belongs to pioneering hip-hop group, Public Enemy along with Chuck D. They have been joining some of the best festivals in the world, and proving that they can still indeed perform. |
 | Kid Cudi - Pursuit Of Happiness (Nightmare) /ft. MGMT & RatatatKid Cudi has been enjoying a decent career, after he signed onto Kanye West’s GOOD Music label. His debut album, Man on the Moon sold over 100,000 in its first week of release, and his album received great reviews from the critics. I liked that he worked with Ratatat on a couple of songs, and had MGMT featured on this track. |
 | Tegan And Sara - The CureAs far as the Sunday’s lineup is concerned, my favorite would have to be Canadian sister duo, Tegan And Sara. They were at Sasquatch two years ago in 2008. They are a lot of fun to watch live, as they are both good at talking to the audience and keep everyone entertained. |
 | LCD Soundsystem - Drunk GirlsLCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy gets a lot of press coverage in music magazines for his producing and record label credit. Murphy is American, but his dance-electronic oriented music is more accepted to the UK audience. LCD Soundsystem’s third album, “This is Happening” was released in mid May with the lead-off single, “Drunk Girls.” |
 | Pavement - FrontwardsMany alt-rock bands claim that Pavement was a huge influence on them. As a top 40 radio listener, I had never really heard of their music, except for the 1994 hit, “Cut Your Hair.” They disbanded in late 90s, but this spring, they decided to re-group, and they can be seen touring around. |
 | Massive Attack - Paradise CircusBritish trip-hop act Massive Attack has been around since the early 90s. They’ve released several top 10 hits in UK, but in the US, none of their songs, so far, has reached top 100. The closest hit in the US was their 1998 effort, “Teardrop.” Despite the lack of top 40 hits, they have massive support (no pun intended), and they will be headlining Sunday’s lineup. |
Sasquatch festival is back again this year. Compared to previous years, the lineup celebrates more indie music. I won’t be attending this year, as I wasn’t that impressed with the lineup, but for those who are going, maybe this guide can help you a bit.
Monday, May 31st lineup is headlined by Ween, who seems to have a lot of cult following. Of all three days, this is probably my least favorite lineup, except for MGMT and She & Him.
 | Dr. Dog - Shadow PeopleI’ve come across Dr. Dog’s name several times, mostly at music festivals, but I had never really paid much attention to them. When I heard this song, “Shadow People” for the first time, it reminded me of The Flaming Lips’ “She Don’t Use Jelly” (listening to it again makes me think, wow, this was Flaming Lips?). Last month Dr. Dog released their new album, Shame, Shame (their seventh). |
 | Drive By Truckers - Birthday BoyHailing from Athens, Georgia (where R.E.M. is from – and they sound a bit like them, too), they have been playing together since the mid-90s. In March, they released their eighth album, titled The Big To Do. This song, “Birthday Boy” was available for a free MP3 download from Amazon MP3. |
 | The New Pornographers - Crash YearsVancouver, Canada’s super indie group, The New Pornographers are back with a new album. Despite Neko Case’s successful solo career and the rumor that she may not return, she returns as the band, and they sound good on the new album titled Together. I had a chance to listen to the whole album on NPR, a week before the release. |
 | She & Him - ThievesShe & Him consists of actress Zooey Deschanel (“Elf”, “Yes Man”) and singer/songwriter, M. Ward. Their first album together turned out to be such an indie hit that they decided to release another album this year, simply titled, Volume Two. Thanks to the success of the first album, Volume Two peaked at #6. The whole album has a very Californian vibe to it, especially this track, “Thieves”. |
 | Band Of Horses - LaredoFormerly from Seattle, and currently in North Carolina, Band of Horses comes back to their native state of Washington to rock out on Monday evening of Sasquatch 2010. This month they are releasing their third album, Infinite Arms from Columbia Records (after being with Sub Pop). |
 | MGMT - CongratulationsMGMT claims that they purposely created an unconventional album for their sophomore effort. Yes, their first single, “Flash Delierium” was indeed unconventional and weird (although it ranked on that Japanese ranking), I do like their second single, “Congratulations” much better. It’s mellow and cool. |
 | Ween - Your PartyA friend of mine has been really into Ween and I’ve heard a lot of their songs. For groups like that, I always wonder where they get new fans? Their songs don’t get played on the radio, and they don’t seem to heavily promote their albums. I guess good music travels. They will be closing out the Sasquatch festival 2010. |
Codeine Velvet Club is a side project of Jon Lawler (of The Fratellis, known as Jon Fratelli). Jon has recruited Lou Hickey to join in, and they released their first album at end of 2009 in UK. Even though I’m a fan of The Fratellis, I didn’t know about this band, until I got an email from The Fratellis official mailing list just a couple of weeks ago, where I got to download this song for free. It’s a decent song, but lacks the fun factor that The Fratellis is so good at creating.
When I first heard this song, I thought, “what a rip off of Rage Against the Machine” until I realized that it was in fact Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist Tom Morello playing the guitar for hip-hop group, Cypress Hill. I haven’t heard anything by them for six years, and I was quite excited to hear their work and wanted to hear more. For their latest album, they recruited other stars such as Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, Pitbull, Marc Anthony and Everlast.
Despite the fact that a lot of DJ Khaled’s songs sound the same with either T-Pain or Akon singing the hook in auto-tune voice and really really dramatic beats, I have to admit that his songs pump you up whether you are about to enter a big game, or just jogging around for a block.
Welcome back Courtney Love, or at least, a lot of people are saying that for her latest album. Although Love is the only remaining member from their 90s heyday lineup, she decided to release the album as “Hole” instead of “Courtney Love” (her last solo effort wasn’t successful). I don’t know the whole story, but several of the songs on the album were apparently written by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins while they dated. But now that they have broken up, Corgan is trying to stop Love from releasing the album. That’s what I read months ago, but now that the album is actually released, I’m guessing Corgan must’ve settled (or there is going to be more lawsuits). Whatever the backstory is, the album sounds rocking.
When I first heard MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” when it was given away as a free download on iTunes, I immediately fell in love with the band and saw them live twice in the same year. I had been looking forward to the latest album, like everyone else, but the reviews have always said something along the line of, “fan of the first album maybe disappointed.” And the first single was “Flash Delirium” which has flute and kiddie style singing. Yes it is weird. I’ve only heard snippets of their album so far, but the whole album seem to sound weirder. Some people would probably appreciate that, and I think it’s cool that they are tackling and breaking another barrier, but at the same time, I’ll miss being able to sing along to their songs in my car.
I wasn’t aware that Monica was releasing a new album, until I found that AmazonMP3 was giving away this song for free (for limited time). I had seen an ad for her reality TV show, but was happy to see that she had a new recording. This latest album, Still Standing is her second highest charting album to date (best was 2003’s After the Storm). “One in a Lifetime” is not a single (yet), but I thought it was catchy and preferred over her other two singles.
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I am really digging this UK folk rock band, Mumford & Sons. I was really excited to hear that they had covered Vampire Weekend’s “Cousins” on BBC’s Radio1 Live Lounge (I love that show). The original song is unique enough, but with Mumford’s twist, it is even more unique, and makes me love the song even more. Check them out performing live on
this video clip.
I like Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. They have been known as the group that has brought back the 60s soul/funk sound which has become common sound, especially in UK top 40. They manage to combine the new sound with the older style successfully. For their latest record, it sounds like it is actually from the 60s. I still enjoy it, but I thought maybe it was too real to the decade.
In the last couple of years, there have been several “promising” white rappers to surface the music magazines such as Pittsburgh Slim and Asher Roth, though both of them have been stuck at one radio-hit. Add Maine based Spose to the list. His SNL style rap of poking fun at himself (“I talk to myself on the Facebook wall”) has hit many American’s heart, and his now a top 40 hit. It is catchy, and he managed to get a record contract with this single but half a year from now when he does release an album, could he prove himself again?
Just when I thought that none of Usher’s latest singles were going to break top 10 this time around, a track produced and featuring will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas proved me wrong. The song starts out slow, but goes into soccer fan type of chanting. I’ve heard few singles from his latest album, Raymond v. Raymond, but I’m still not convinced that his latest album is going to be as good as The Confessions from 2004.
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