Today theme: songs with cute titles.
Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls – Pelle Carlberg
Crying All the Way to the Pawnshop – Pelle Carlberg (link fixed)
Pelle Carlberg is another artist on Labrador, demonstrating once again that know Scandinavian guitar-pop better than just about anyone. These songs are exactly as good as you would expect from the titles. My only complaint is that I disagree with the premise of the first; clever girls are the best. I included the second both because it’s a very good song but also because Hunter has been obsessing lately about the dueling phrases “laugh all the way to the bank” and “cry all the way to the bank.” So I just thought I would introduce some more confusion for him.
Both these songs are from his excellent new record In a Nutshell (eMusic). It’s going to be released stateside on July 3 from Twentyseven Records, and I’m told that anyone who preorders it will receive a handmade CDR single with some live covers of Edson’s “14 18 20” Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and MIKA’s “Grace Kelly.” And check out some videos of his recent tour.
Me, Violin and Dancing Bear – Page France
This is the song that finally got me hooked on Page France. I’ve had people recommend them to me for quite a while, given my interest in quirky medium-fi twee-pop (with horns) but they never quite clicked. Then I heard this one and now I’ve joined the bandwagon. This one is also vaguely topical since I was just reading my friend Jonah’s travel diary (he’s hiking the Appalachian Trail) where he talks about running into some bears. And he has a mandolin with him, which isn’t exactly a violin, but it’s a lot closer to one than, say, a Patagonian Toothfish.
This is from their new record, out last month, called …And the Family Telephone (eMusic).
Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts – Less Than Jake
The brief ska/punk fusion of the 90s produced a lot of terrible bands, but there was some great stuff in there, too. Probably the best of the lot was Less Than Jake. They’re still around and their recent stuff has been decent, but they had a run of three albums (Losing Streak, Hello Rockview, Borders and Boundaries) that were truly fantastic. I still hadn’t restored their stuff after the Great Computer Theft of Aught-Seven, but I finally got around to it today and have been reminded of just how good they were.