Random Sunday Mix

Dungen - "Gjort Bort Sig" - at least I think that's how you spell it. Pristine Swedish psych-pop. Like sliding into an ice cavern.

The Delays - "Valentine" - best pop song I've heard in a year or so. Makes me wish I was still studying abroad so I could drink 18 pints of Harp and dance to this.

Hard Fi - "Middle Eastern Holiday" - people shit on this band. I don't get why. The lyrics can be dumb. But Christ, I like them better than the Arctic fucking Monkeys.

Belle and Sebastian - "Sukie in the Graveyard" - God bless B&S for deciding to be a bubblegum band instead of a soft-rock band.

LCD Soundsystem - "Tribulations" - for all the lovin' James Murphy gets, this does sound a lot like it belongs on the Trainspotting soundtrack. Which, obviously, is why I like it.

Black Grape - "Reverend Black Grape" - multihued funk, and a drunk, shouting Shaun Ryder. "Put on your Reeboks, man and go play fucking tennis!" If this band ever was straight enough to play a live concert - well, shit, I would go.

The Stone Roses - "Fool's Gold" - More Madchester. Except with Ian Brown's druggy whisper instead of Ryder's manic shout.

Editors - "Munich" - the reverby guitar wail on this song is better than anything since "New Year's Day." The bridge, weirdly, sucks ass.

Interpol - "Obstacle 1" - have there been many albums, ever, with traditional rock dynamics as solid as Turn On the Bright Lights? The coiling-uncoiling-recoiling that happens in this song is extraordinary.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Turn Into" - folks who liked "Art Star" are prone to shitting on Karen O for writing this kind of song. Of course, those folks can always - what's the expression? - go fuck themselves.

Art Brut - "Emily Kane" - this is sort of old now. Eh. Is it incredibly funny or is it tremendously moving? Yeah.

Pavement - "Carrot Rope" - Pavement for They Might Be Giants fans. Cuddly, odd, bouncy. As the last song on their last album, does a pretty good job of foreshadowing SM's solo career.

The Go! Team - "Huddle Formation" - New Order, played through a chewing-gum-encrusted boombox, and recast as the most exhausting aerobics video ever.

Sonic Youth - "Teen Age Riot" - Thurston Moore, meet Brian Wilson. Well - good, then.

Robert Pollard - "Dancing Girls and Dancing Men" - a great song from Crazy Uncle Bob, somewhat lessened by the suspicion that it was probably written in a doctor's waiting room, in the margins of Modern Drunkard magazine.