I've posted about The Sinister Turns a few times before, but it never hurts to mention one of my favorite under-appreciated bands a little bit more. I managed to catch them last month at a little show in Somerville that was a lot of fun - they have some new songs that maintain the feel of their other stuff but take things in some slightly odd, extremely interesting directions.

(from I Can Has Cheezburger)

The hit counter passed 200,000 today, which when I think about it is really pretty amazing. So I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for stopping by to read what I have to say. And even thanks to the bunches of you that just came to grab an MP3 with no care for what commentary might be attached. Hopefully at least a few of you stuck around for a minute or two, saw something else you liked, and maybe even became a regular.

It really means a lot to me.

So, while I'm in a good mood, how about some covers? Everybody loves a good cover, right?

The only thing I like about Valentine's Day is that it gets people thinking about the people they care about. But in my mind, every day ought to be Valentine's Day. When you have someone that you care about, who makes you feel like the world is a bright and beautiful place, why do we need some artificial holiday to get us to recognize that daily miracle?

It's not like I only listen to love songs one day of the year. I listen to them every day, because love is a universal experience, one that infuses us in every moment. It makes no sense trying to lock it away. It should be all around us - to keep us warm on cool nights, to shield us from the drudgery, and to inspire us against all odds.

So, a few love songs that I enjoy any day, not just on one day in February.

Love So Pure - Puffy Amiyumi

Is that not the scariest thing you've ever seen in your life? I've never been a huge fan of mascots, but I've also never feared that one was going to eat my soul...until now. (h/t Who Ate All the Pies)

Evil - Interpol
Lions and Tigers - Asobi Seksu

(h/t Neatorama)

I almost think I have to subscribe to this, just to have as a conversation piece laying around the house.

SOS - Abba

Once again, it's the time of year when I've got way too much else going on to justify spending much time writing about music. So instead of doing some of the full reviews I keep promising to get around to, I'm going to put those in a holding pattern of indefinite length and try something else. For the next couple weeks, it'll be a new song every day (or at least every day I get around to posting).

But not just "new" in the sense of being current - it will literally be a song that I had never heard until that day. Usually I give myself at least a couple weeks with something to let my opinions settle a bit. But the result is that I spend a *lot* of time trying to come up with a perfect way of describing my reaction.

So Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. Good for him. My favorite quote on the subject, from Talking Points Memo:

"You know, with Al Gore winning the Nobel Prize for his environmental activism, it really makes the Nader voters look prescient, doesn't it?"

For serious.

Tessie - The Dropkick Murphys
Dirty Water - The Standells

This is totally awesome. Over 200 people, participating in an Improv Everywhere project freeze in the same instant in the middle of Grand Central Station. Check out a post detailing the whole thing (h/t: Boing Boing).

In some ways it almost feels like the mirror image of something I posted on last year: world-famous violinist Joshua Bell plying his trade for an hour as a street musician in DC and the reactions (or lack thereof) of the passerbys. There, hundreds of people simply rushed past some of the finest music they're ever likely to hear...

Okay, it's been all long posts for a while here. Time to switch things up with a few days of quick hits.

Umbrella Folds - The Ruling Class

I picked up this one from a post at Hits In The Car a few days ago. And I have to completely agree with his assessment of it as sounding like a long-lost Stone Roses track. And hey, there's nothing wrong with wearing your influences so clearly on your sleeve when they're this good, right? It's just heavenly.

Check out The Ruling Class at Shelflife Records.

I've got no time for the next few days to post, so I thought it would be a good idea to kick in the way-back machine and (re)mention an old favorite that most of you have probably never heard. The band is Super Deluxe, they were briefly big in the Northwest in the mid-90s, and for the brief period they were around they were possibly my favorite band on the planet.

1. I voted for Obama today. I'm going to be out of the state on primary day (January 8, this time around), so I stopped by the Town Clerk's office and filled in my absentee ballot. The primary system without a doubt gives unearned and unfair power to a few predominantly white and homogeneous states, so it is definitely in need of some reform. That said, there's something pretty amazing about casting a ballot where you have good reason to believe it will have a major significance.

I've never been a huge fan of The Notwist, but I've certainly enjoyed some of their stuff. So the prospect of something new from them certainly piqued my interest.

Good Lies - The Notwist

And I have to say, it doesn't disappoint. At the risk of coming off like a complete Philistine, let me just say that this track is a decent representation of what I'm always hoping for every time I put on a new Radiohead record. It's got the same sleek, electronic, guitar-driven feel - like an endlessly flickering electrical circuit on the fritz - and the same mixture of despondency and starry-eyed wonder in the vocals. Except that the difference is...well...I actually enjoy listening to this song.

I enjoy melodies, what can I tell you?

I'd like to continue a trend I started last month of posting on great songs that are so good that they overwhelm my ingrained concern about over-produced pop-punk. Today's band is called The Starting Line.

Island

This song is serious Warped Tour fare, but in the very best way. Infectious, a bit of bombast, and a guitar line that would make the toughest Jimmy Eat World fan (yeah, yeah, a contradiction in terms...) swoon.

It's the sort of song to make you wonder whether all those other stuff they did before might not have had a little more substance than you ever thought. I mean, if they can write a song like this, surely there must have been something more significant going on with their earlier emo-to-a-fault tracks, right?

Overseas - Sonic Flyer

Oasis meets shoegaze and nine months later, out comes Sonic Flyer. This song features an absolutely killer intro - there are few moments in all of music finer than at 35 seconds when the vocals first come in - and while it drags on a bit at almost 8 minutes, this is a solid endeavor.

There's plenty more great songs to hear at their myspace, where you can get info about their Sun in My Pocket EP

Jarhand - Immaculate Machine
Dear Confessor - Immaculate Machine

I wrote yesterday about the new record from the New Pornographers, commenting that "if it was some band I had never heard of, I would probably praise it as a fine new entry in the genre of 'New Pornographers-esque' indie rock."

I usually cringe a little bit when people talk about 60s-inspired pop. Even though I love a lot of the music that actually created that genre, I find I have very little patience for the throwbacks. So I was a bit skeptical of The 1900s until I heard "When I Say Go" and all my doubts drifted away. I'm a complete sucker for this sort of rolling piano/bass beat and the way the chorus rises up and the piano follows along just blows me away.

White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes

I love a song where you can tell exactly what it sounds like just from the title. This effort from Seattle's Fleet Foxes is just such a song. It's a gorgeous, warm, and bluesy tune that calls to mind My Morning Jacket at their most joyful. It's an ode to a white blanket of snow, as a pane against which all the merry colors of winter can vibrantly stand. It has that wonderful sense of a round - a wide open sound that still manages to stay enclosed in a gentle arc.

This song is off their upcoming debut album, set for release on June 2 from Sub Pop, but they've got an EP out right now to tide you over.

White China - Fever Marlene

More quick hits. This time it's a very quick little track, less than two minutes, beautiful and sparse. It's got a wispy, sentimental feel - like a quiet summer evening spent on a porch, reminiscing about past loves.

Fever Marlene are also great because, as far as I can tell, they have all their music available for free online. Check out the rest of the album here.

This Vision have - out of nowhere, apparenlty - produced some of the finest synthpop I've heard in a very, very long time. I downloaded a couple tracks last month thanks to a tip from Hits In The Car but never got around to listening until tonight. And oh my, what I have been missing!

I Could Be There For You - Eisley

A demonstration that even on a record with high production levels and a bit of a pop sheen there’s still plenty of room for a talented band to surprise you. It's shadowy, vaguely ominous - a reminder that light may shimmer on the surface of a lake, but underneath the water is a long, deep darkness.

But for all that, the chorus is absolutely gorgeous, and they hit their perfect pitch with a bridge that bursts and swirls like fireworks in a still night sky. Now, I’m not trying to say Eisley is quite at their level, but this song, at least, would feel right at home on your Delgados record of choice.

Anime Eyes - The Awkward Stage

There is something unsettling, yet strangely appealing about anime eyes, isn't there? The Awkward Stage sure agree, and provide all the trumpets, bells, whistles, and verse-chorus-verse magic to prove it.

Their sophomore record is out next week. It's called Slimming Mirrors, Flattering Lights, and it's got a little smattering of pretty much any sound you might like. A little bit of punk, glittery pop, a singer-songwriter attitude, and a country groove. This is the kind of pop that doesn't leave you feeling guilty.

Folder - Plastic Operator

Plastic Operator appear to be some sort of European electro-pop group. I had never heard of them, but an enterprising reader was kind enough to send me this great track. Then I checked the Hype Machine and apparently they're relatively well-known, at least as far as the blogs go. Who knew?

A Small Good Thing - Into Flight

This track is one of the nicer pieces of ambient rock I've heard in quite a while. You've got all the usual elements: quiet intro, swirling guitars, a wordless chorus, and layers upon layers of churning sound. And, most importantly, it bucks the trend of a lot of music that touches in these genres in that these guys sound like they are having fun. Too often shoegaze acts take the name a bit more literally than they ought to, resulting in music that leaves you feeling listless where it tries to make you soar.

Not here. This is a smiling face lifted to the stars, a voice ringing out through the wide expanse, guitars that each strive to out-do the others. And more concretely, it turns out to be exactly what its name promises: a small good thing that reminds you of the joy in being alive.

The Mending of the Gown - Sunset Rubdown

How in the world did I miss this one until now?

I guess that since I wasn't particularly impressed with the last Sunset Rubdown record, I just didn't pay much attention to the new one. Which means I'm only now getting around to actually listening. But man, this is almost as good (if not better) than anything from Wolf Parade.

It leaps effortlessly across genres, with a little prog-guitar, some nice little piano bits, and lyrics that constantly threaten to trip over themselves as Krug pushes hard to get every encrypted thought out. Lord help me if I have any clue what it's about, but it's so chock full of delightful lyrical turns that I want to listen over and over to try and decipher them all.

I will always have a soft spot for quality bands from Seattle, and Throw Me the Statue are no exception.

They make music that is a whole lot of fun: combining the best of the 80s (poppy synths) with the gentle crooning of Northwest-heroes Pedro the Lion, and topping it off with a splash of the loose-limbed clatter of a whole host of bands running back to The Kinks.

I really ought to have posted about today's band a few months ago, when it was still a dance between the hot end-of-summer days and the cool autumn evenings. As it stands, the chill of late November and the dirty remnants of the year's first snow hardly seem a fair accompaniment to one of the freshest records of the year.

Today I wanted to bring up yet another band with a solid 2007 release who play some solid punk-infused pop with just enough of a hardcore edge to keep you on your toes. The band is called The Flatliners and the record is called The Great Awake. It's about what you'd expect from a solid Fat Wreck Chords release - it may not set the world on fire, but it will give you some catchy punk tunes.

Brooklyn Girl, You're Going to Be My Bride - Barton Carroll

This track from singer-songwriter Barton Carroll is exactly the kind of free-flowing folk rock that really gets me going. It's energetic, loose, and exceptionally clever without being too cute, with the line "I know she's drowning in boys and a lot of hipster noise" only the most obvious example.