TAKES! you to the ceiling

Yellow Stripe Nine, "One Look (It's Love!)" - As if comparisons to the Talking Heads and ABC weren't practically enough to shove Yellow Stripe Nine right up into the front row of my indie pop-music consciousness, I had to go and find out that they rocked the kind of piano that comes through loud and clear even in a low-quality clip. "One Look", their second single, is very much, well, a second single, but it's also a monstrous load of jangly, boisterous fun, the kind of song where you kick yourself for neglecting to transfer it to the iPod before work. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for pretty much every stereotype that this song falls under (songs that use Rock Piano, songs that desperately want to be "Our House" for a new millenium, etc), but when the bass suddenly punches in on the chorus I start to suspect that that's selling it a bit short. (Click here to buy the "One Look (It's Love!)" single from Rough Trade)

Animal Collective feat. Vashti Bunyan, "Prospect Hummer" - Seeing as how Animal Collective have a fine little album coming out on Tuesday, I figured now might be the time to post something from the EP they put out earlier this year in collaboration with 60's folkie Vashti Bunyan. I'm a little sheepish with regards to how little I actually have to say about the EP - apparently the collaboration between AC and Bunyan is an intriguing one to people actually familiar with Bunyan's prior career, but I'd be a liar if I said my motivations for picking the EP up in the first place went beyond the thorough ass-beating Sung Tongs had recently laid on me; I probably would have bought Animal Collective Read The Phone Book at that point. Still, I've had it for a couple of months and it's still a worthy little slab of plastic, especially considering my increasing appetite for soundscape-y music. This, the title track, is easily my favorite track of the four, although it did take my brain a little time to wrap around the dissonance between the slow murmering build and that "WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH" bit (easily the Sung Tongsiest moment on the entire EP, I might add). Of course, some might say that that's Animal Collective's raison d'etre, but hey. (Click here to order the Prospect Hummer EP from Amazon.com)