No One Cares If I Live Or Die

Kicker, "Since You Left" - Around the time I started buying singles a few months back, I noticed Piccadilly putting up a compilation EP called More Soul Than Wigan Casino which sold itself as "classic Northern Soul covers played by skinny white indie bands", which is exactly the kind of feast-or-famine marketing that works like a motherfucking champ on dupes like me. Well, I finally got around to picking up a copy, and as you can imagine it's been a FEAST FEAST FEAST FEAST FEAST ever since, mostly because of Kicker's cover of "Since You Left" which by this point would probably come up automatically on iTunes even if I deleted it off my computer. Simply put, I cannot get a single part of this song out of my head; even setting aside the unstoppable awesomeness of the original song, I find myself incredibly won over by the lack of inflection on the part of Kicker - it feels like one of those covers done out of love rather than out of a desire to express yrself by interpreting someone else's work. And boy does it pay off; I've never heard anything else Kicker's ever put out, but if the lead singer sounds half as much like Dusty Springfield as she does here, I'm sold, and let's not even get into that horn section. I seriously feel a little bad for all the other bands on the album, since at this rate I'll probably get around to their songs in, oh, about 2013. (Click here to buy the More Soul Than Wigan Casino EP from Fortuna Pop)

The Ronelles, "Bolt The Doors" - Sadly, this isn't more Northern Soul stompery, and if I'm being honest, it's not even necessarily very "cool" - it's just your old garden-variety indie-pop rock song. And it's quite good; the Ronelles clearly have the kind of ear for a good hook that makes me think they're going to come up with a really great single soon enough (and anyway, it tends to take most bands a few singles before they get their shit together and start churning out classic stuff - they're kinda like NFL quarterbacks in that sense). In the meantime, who gives a fuck if this sounds tailor-made for the Reality Bites soundtrack? I mean, god help us all, but that sound's due for revival anyway - might as well jump in the pool now. (Click here to buy the "Bolt The Doors" single from Rough Trade)