Pulp: Peel Sessions

I love Pulp.

I love Jarvis Cocker.

I hope you do too!!

Peel Sessions combines songs from all of the seminal Pulp releases, from 2004's highly underrated We Love Life, to the classics, This Is Hardcore, Different Class and His and Hers, all the way back to the early days of It, Freaks and Separations.

Jarvis is the lead singer of Pulp, and gives us his first solo album. It came out in November in the UK, should hit the states in March. Those lucky few going to Coachella will get a glimpse of this modern genious. Yeah, I said it. There is a secret song after a long pause on the final track, which was passed around the web a while back. It is called Cunts Are Still Running The World, and was written exactly one year after the big flop that was Live 8.

1983, Bitches!

I've got little else to say except that She's So Unusual came out in 1983, and if you were around then, you rocked out to it (because it was turbo-ubiquitous - even lil' ol' me in bumbletruck, Minnesota had it on cassette), and then probably engaged in what became two decades of backlash against Cyndi Lauper.

But go back in time, and take a listen with fresh ears. This album rocks out in a way that only a one-shot pop album can. Loaded with singles, and sporting remarkably light early-80s synth production (synthesizers have never sounded so great on a record as here, paired with Cyndi Lauper's strong, bouncy voice), this is a triumph. This release includes three live tracks that don't really add much, but there they are.

Anyway, enjoy the trip down memory lane if you were there. If you weren't, well, here is a hell of a time capsule.

Andrew Bird is Dr. Stringz

It is unfortunate that this is not on Armchair Apocrypha

Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition

A little throwback for all ya playa haters, well, thrown back to 2004.

Murs, a founding member of Living Legends out of California who claims to be "More Coldplay than Ice T", and 9th Wonder, a producer from Little Brother out of North Carolina, formed to make this instant classic. They continued to work together on 2006's excellent Murray's Revenge (on both Kyle and My best of the year lists)

Part of the whole indie or underground rap scene, the album is just plain excellent. The production taps into a little of everything, focusing on R&B, straight beats, and jiggling hooks. Murs lays down sick vocals and rhymes that are straight up ghetto but has all the emotion and relevance that this genre of hip hop is best known for.

A 45 minute film based off of this album was made by Murs and some friends and released late 2005 as a deluxe edition. Have not seen it but would love to. Anyone???

Apostle of Hustle-National Anthem of Nowhere

The new album from Broken Social Scene's Andrew Whiteman.

This is Ap0stle of Hustle's second disc, after 2004's Folkloric Feel.

A great sound similar to BSS, indie folk experimental or whatever the fuck you want to call it.

Another excellent album from our good neighbors to the north, Canada! Reminds me of a good joke...eh!

From their press release:
'National Anthem of Nowhere’ is for everyone who feels that they have no voice or can’t be heard. They hear this title and something stirs inside them. Then they hear this song and they feel that they “know” it. They meet strangers in nowhere places and will never forget those meetings. They wander out into the suburban, in-between zones and there they are welcomed.