Let's Have Another Big-Ass Song

Nine Inch Nails, "The Hand That Dubs" (DFA version 1) (warning: file is 21 mb) - A few months ago, I found myself confronted with a grip of message board posts attempting to convince the world that the remix of "The Hand That Feeds" is the least impressive/interesting/substantive piece of music ever to emerge from DFA HQ. As you can probably guess, this all sounds like a big load of shit to me; even setting aside my considerable appreciation for all that awesome cowbell racket and glitterball synth tomfoolery, I still say it has merit simply because this is about as poppy as a DFA record can sound without abandoning its roots, and given the impeccably offbeat track record of the DFA team it's worth listening up for that reason alone. Don't forget - Murphy & Goldsworthy came so close to producing something for good lord look at those that they infamously hung out with her for an afternoon; they may not be overtly friendly towards pop, but pop sure as hell wants to get to know them. As a matter of fact, I actually wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that the NIN remix owes a substantial amount to the abandoned Britney sessions; the breathy panting in the background should be the dead giveaway (unless of course "Slave 4 U" happened in a vacuum), but more importantly that roller-disco bounce breaks so strikingly with Britney's typical output without becoming foreboding or unfriendly - which is, of course, the only thing any genuine pop star wants from a high-powered remix team. Perhaps this comes through more clearly on the dub version; I actually probably like the Reznor vocal mix even more (having loudly demanded my friends play it at parties as recently as this weekend), but it's hard to resist the expansive charms that you can only get when every single element of the song gets a turn center stage; it's the kind of song I can imagine LCD Soundsystem working out live as a soundcheck and to get them in the mood to get everyone to have a good time in public. I mean, lord knows that's what it sounds like to me. (Click here to buy "The Hand That Feeds" single from Globalbeats.com)

The Cuban Heels, "Automatic" - By way of contrast, here's a great example of how to suddenly and mercilessly dismantle a sure-fire hit's pop prospects. I actually like the Cuban Heels' single a fair little bit; it's easy to see where all the comparisons between "Mr. Brannam" and "Mr. Blue Sky" come from (although in all respectful honesty, comparing the two is like comparing this post to A Confederacy Of Dunces), and the b-sides, especially this one, are consistently strong just like it. Unfortunately for the Heels, most of their stuff has the sound of a band destined to headline bars - not, I hasten to add, that they're a pub-rock band; Nick Lowe at the apex of his moment of seeing truth probably couldn't add much to their sound. No, they've got the rhythm section of a bar band, the kind of band which gets hired to make the ambience a little more raucous without actually distracting anyone from drinking or shooting the shit. And it's a shame, too; up until the moment the Emotive Guitar Histrionixxx kick in, it's as fine an example of skinny-tie indie rock as I've heard recently, falling straight from the same tree that gave us "Banquet" and "Love Is A Number". That's not to say, of course, that skinny-tie is somehow superior to pub-rock; the only difference is that a bunch of kids got together and decided to defer their embarassment over skinny-tie for two decades or so. It is, however, exactly the kind of sound built from the ground up to give bands like the Cuban Heels an audience, and it'd be a waste for a band with such obvious promise to end up doing Moody Blues standards ten years down the line. (Click here to buy the "Mr. Brannam" single from Amazon.co.uk)

ELSEWHERE

- I yield to nobody in my devotion to the Strokes, but even I have to say that "Juicebox" was kind of pushing it; I still don't think it's a bad song, but I'm not quite done with the stuff I already liked about the Strokes' sound, so I'm likely to be a hard sell when it comes to new stuff. That being said, last week "You Only Live Once" hit the internet and HOLY CHRIST, that right there is a song that makes me think it got taken off my favorite album for next year. Aside from the fact that it proves Nate and Matos to be once again several months ahead of the curve with its obvious and magnificent Blondie-worship, it's also probably the finest guitar-pop single I've heard since "Killamangiro" last year, and the fact that the Strokes can just kind of shrug a song of this quality simply to shut up all the internet geeks talking about how they're over speaks volumes about what's going to send me right to the front of the line for First Impressions of Earth. Make sure you track it down somewhere, although I probably won't be hosting it in an effort to stay under the BMG radar.

- Just a quick note, I start my new job tomorrow, so I probably won't be posting anything again until Wednesday.