The Beach Boys - Caroline No

I just spent the last few days trying to craft a cover of the often overlooked Caroline No from Pet Sounds. It was an abject failure. Pet Sounds was released forty-five years ago and it still manages to sound remarkably contemporary. In fact, the first time I heard both Grizzly Bear and a few songs from Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective, I thought that I was listening to some lost Beach Boys b-side. Needless to say, The Beach Boys' influence on music still "reverberates" (couldn't resist) to this day, and in a very conspicuous way.

Imogen Heap- Hide and Seek

Today I was listening to a song off of Kanye West's album 808's and Heartbreak. Unlike popular opinion, I think that album is incredible. It's one of those albums that completely changes your view on an artist. Anyway, listening to that album I thought to myself "Where was the first time I heard autotune used in a song?". This is that song. This is one of the most incredible pieces of music I have ever heard. It's complex in its simplicity. Its a great tune and everybody should hear it.

Bon Iver- Halocene (Live on Jimmy Fallon)

Justin Vernon had one of most meteoric rises I've ever seen in music. His solo project, Bon Iver's debut album, "For Emma, Forever Ago" was on numerous "Best Of" lists before it even hit shelves for people to purchase. He was a celebrity overnight (no Twista puns intended). After the critical acclaim For Emma got, people wondered if Vernon could match his debut album with his most recent release, "Bon Iver, Bon Iver", in my opinion, it is just as good, if not better than For Emma. I've had the album for about 2 weeks now and still listen to at least half of it every day. This right now is my favorite track off of the album and one of the best late night performances I've ever seen (It better have been for me to put up with even 5 seconds of Fallon). The way he feels the music he's playing is incredible... like it's an extension of himself. This man is a musical genius and deserves all the success he gets.

Ratatat- Loud Pipes

This song has been gracing my headphones all day. Ratatat is an electronic-rock group that is so good they don't need words... which is why this post is going to be short and sweet. Listen, love, listen some more. Enjoy.

Passion Pit- Little Secrets

I have to give ESPN's Scott Van Pelt some credit, on a regular basis him and his boy (aka co-host) Ryen Russilo play some quality music on their radio show and more often than not, it's the sweet electric sounds of Passion Pit. This track from their debut studio album "Manners" has the perfect loud banging intro which is perfect for transitions, but it's lead singer Michael Angelakos' vocals that make this track hard to forget. The catchy chorus of "...Let this be our little secret/no one needs to know were feeling/higher and higher and higher..." can stick with you throughout the day, and on a gloomy one like today was, it can be a small wrinkle of pleasure in an otherwise gray abyss of clouds and possible rain. And we all have our little secrets anyway.

Wavves- Post Acid

Nathan Williams is most well known for his epic freakout at the Primavera Sound Festival that led to Wavves having to cancel their tour that year due to Nathan's problems with drug and alcohol addiction. The unfortunate thing about that is that took away from the surprisingly addicting lo-fi pop-rock that they were putting out. This song is off of their second album, King of the Beach, and was blasting in my car on the way to the beach as I saw the sun for the first time in days. Great tune, great weather, great waves... great mood.

Twin Sister - Lady Daydream

This song contains a line that goes, "Even though I'm losing, doesn't make me a loser." I wonder if they were listening to Coldplay's "Lost" when they wrote this song. Anyway, this Brooklyn-based band is pretty cool because their sound appears to be influenced just as much by '80's synth-pop and new-wave as it is by other contemporary indie acts (Joanna Newsom comes to mind).

Death Cab for Cutie- Transatlanticism

Yet another gloomy, rainy day. This weather has put me in a mood that is pretty similar. This song is from, in my opinion, Death Cab's best album of the same name. Great song that fits the current weather. If you've never heard of them before, enjoy.

Big Boi

Last year, Big Boi of Outkast released his first solo album, Sir Lucious Left Foot The Son Of Chico Dusty. Leading up to its release, the album generated a lot of hype and eventually went on to become a critical success and found itself on many Best-Of lists of 2010. This album's strength lies in Big Boi's ability to seamlessly combine and bend genres. He manages to combine Funk, R&B, soul, southern hip hop and a few others without it ever seeming too busy or forced. Each song is produced by a different artist (surprisingly, Lil Jon's contribution is especially good--he should consider producing full time) so I imagine this has a lot to do with the album's diverse musical landscape (soundscape?). My favorite song from the album was "Fo Yo Sorrows." It was produced by Organized Noize and features Too Short, Sam Chris and fucking George Clinton. Clinton's influence on hip-hop can never be understated and I guess Big Boi realized that the most efficient way to pay tribute to someone is by featuring him on (arguably) the best song on your first solo album. I'd go on and talk about how it captures the tone of the rest of the album...but you can see for yourself.

Vampire Weekend- I Think UR A Contra

Rainy day and this song just fits the current feeling of the day. Everyone knows Vampire Weekend by now thanks to popular songs like A-Punk and Oxford Comma, but the latest album really shows the range of stuff that this band can pull off. So here you go... my tune for the day.

Wolf Parade- Ghost Pressure

Hey, first post so excuse how plain the site looks... looking into getting someone to make something nicer for it. I'm going to have some people post on here with their own songs from time to time so you aren't hearing just one person's tastes. In the meantime, here's what I was listening to all morning. Most of the time when people think of music from Montreal the first thought that pops into their head is Arcade Fire. Wolf Parade is another great band from Montreal that became pretty popular with their single Pobody's Nerfect. The band was originally put on the map with their song Modern World off of their first album Apologies To The Queen Mary, but this song is off of their second album Expo 86. Hope you guys like.