So You "Love" Me

I've been getting a lot into The Magnetic Fields' i album and this is one of my favorite songs from it. This version is possibly even better thanks to the amped up synth. I must confess, I'm not a big fan of their latest album Distortion; it's too loud for me and lacks the simplicity of the older albums. Still, The Magnetic Fields have released enough material to make me a happy camper for a long time, so there's no use complaining. Here's "I Don't Believe You." Quirky and fun, as always. You better bet I'm posting "Washington, DC" in a few days because, in fact, it is paradise to me.

St. Vincent covers

St. Vincent is no slouch in cover songs. From The Beatles' "Dig A Pony" in London's Black Cab Sessions and to "Yeah! Oh Yeah!" by the Magnetic Fields, she rarely disappoints. I spotted this on You Ain't No Picasso, but decided to re-post here since I enjoyed it so much. "Yeah! Oh Yeah!" is one of Stephen Merritt's 69 Love Songs and until now, has been one I have overlooked. Here's a cover of it from St. Vincent and John Vanderslice from a show at the Echo in LA.


And to renew your love of "Dig A Pony," here's St. Vincent playing fuzzy electric guitar in the back of a cab. I never quite appreciated the guitar work until I saw St. Vincent play it... and until I played it terribly in my room after being inspired by her performance. Enjoy.

Home Sweet Home

Just because we're all back here . . . a passel of Washingtonian mp3s for you fine people, in order from most to least obviously relevant:

1. "Washington, D.C." by the Magnetic Fields - This is a love song. Believe it. Get behind it.
Buy the album 69 Love Songs here.

2. "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" by the Postal Service - TMC sleeps together.
Buy the album Give Up here.

3. "Anacostia" by Son Volt - This song is really really pretty. And a little bit folky. Strangely, these are exactly the same two things that first come to mind when TMC thinks about Anacostia, the place.
Buy the album Okemah and the Melody of Riot here.

4. "Ooh Ahh" by Grits - Okay, we're going to be straight with you. This one just refers to "the capital city" . . . and we just hope its us, and not, say, Montpelier . . . because its so crazy good. But wait. Theres more. This is probably the c-raziest TMC post ever; Grits is an All Christian All The Time group. Or something. We could have linked you to a chrisitan music site to buy this, but that was almost too much . . . and yet this is the most infectious hip-hop song we've found in the past 6 months . . .
Buy the album 7 here.

Stay tuned: DCtastic trivia (possibly) coming soon to a post near you . . .

TV on the Radio . . . No, Seriously.

The ladies of TMC may not have sweet sweet hair, or status as mildly pretentious indie heroes, but looking at the March 30th playlist it seems like we may have had more of a theme than we originally thought . . . between "Wolf Like Me;" the Happy Days theme song; Cake's version of "Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps" (which in another incarnation is the theme for the British/better version of Coupling); and the Beach Boys - who memorably appeared on Full House - the breakout show for their one-time drummer John Stamos, we were very Aaron Spelling.

TV is rife with the awkward and the uncomfortable . . . Carson Daly trying to be amusing, Tom Cruise giving interviews, obscene near-death sequences on Grey's Anatomy, Rosie O'Donnell feuding with Donald Trump . . . and much of the rest of the world, Connie Chung "singing" . . . sometimes even so much so that it jumps the shark. Perhaps not so off track for TMC after all . . .

Edit: Now for a bit more commercialized fun . . . several current advertisements have really fantastic background tracks . . . if you're tempted by their commercial clips, find the full versions here:

"Half Acre" by Hem shows up in a Liberty Mutual commercial.
Buy the album Rabbit Songs by Hem here.

"I Think I Need a New Heart" by the Magnetic Fields is in a Caesar (we think) dog food commercial.
Buy the album 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields here.

Edit #2: Older, but perhaps sweetest of all, as the commercial itself is enough to make you wish heaven were nothing but bouncy balls, is a Sony Bravia Ad featuring a cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzalez.
Buy the album Veneer by Jose Gonazalez here.