Thursday's Track Reviews

The Good:
Fucked Up - "Twice Born"; This track should be the new standard bearer for whatever is left of the hardcore scene. The throaty, empassioned growl of Pink Eye is so intense on this song that I can practically feel the effects in my own throat. There is no way I could ever even try to capture the power of these vocals and I doubt this will ever show up at karaoke, but it is a kicking track that should be noticed.
Grade: B

Ingrid Michaelson - "Be OK"; You gotta respect an artist that works her way up like Ingrid Michaelson has and then starts to give back. With "Be OK", the title track from her forthcoming album, Ingird has decided to donate all the proceeds to Stand Up to Cancer, and the song will be broadcast as part of the huge event on Friday. If that weren't good enough the song itself is another shinning example of pristine, overly catchy pop music. This will probably wind up in a comercial or on Grey's Anatomy in the very near future!
Grade: B+

Starfucker - "German Love"; I don't know if I'm just confused by the utter repetition and catchiness of this song or if the song is actually good, but for now I will lean toward the latter while I ponder the possibility of the former. Take a listen and see what you think, this band could be huge or they could suck. Which will it be? I'm thinking huge.
Grade: B

The Present - "World I See"; As the producer behind Panda Bear and Animal Collective, you have no doubt enjoyed the work of Rusty Santos, but now it is time forRusty to step out from behind the board and into the limelight with his new creating as The Present. On the title track from his debut album Santos proves that he has the ability to cop the style of the folks he produces with a track that is sprawling and seemingly improvisational. It's a cool track without a doubt, but not quite at the level of Panda Bear or Animal Collective.
Grade: B+

The Streets - "The Escapist"; The survival of The Streets is dependent upon his ability to turn a phrase and lay down a rhyme better then anyone else, and once again Mike Skinner is proving his ability to do just that. The beat on this tune isn't anything spectacular, but it does allow the lyrics to shine through as the true star of the song. If you expected anything less from The Streets then you were sorely mistaken.
Grade: B

Jay Reatard - "Trapped Here"; Jay Reatard conitinues his year of singles with another release which will lead to the release of his collection of singles some time in the near future. For now we have another album with three solid tracks headlined by this one right here. If you've liked the others you'll like this and you may love the B-sides.
Grade: A-

Track of the Week:
Times New Viking - "Call and Respond"; Times New Viking is definitely pushing their towards being crowned band of the year in my book. Not only have they released on of my favorite albums of the year, but they recently announced another EP to be released before the ball drops! Yeah, I'm excited but I'm even more excited after hearing this first track off of it. It kicks ass! Once again the Ohians are making themselves all noisy and lo-fi, but we all know that there are some super sweet pop songs buried beanth all that feedback and fuzz! This is another fantastic tune from probably the best band of the year.
Grade: A

Old School Track of the Week:
Nirvana - "The Man Who Sold the World"; I heard this at a BBQ on Monday and it's been stuck in my head since. It's amazing that this fairly obscure David Bowie track remains such a memorable piece of an amazing collection of songs. MTV Unplugged was a good show, but it was never as great as it was when Nirvana did it.
Grade: A+

The Bad:
Hospital Grade - "Empty Ambulance Grade"; This a not pretty, overly long, emo tune that I just can't bear to listen to again in order to give it a proper breakdown. Please, don't force me to listen to this stuff any more guys.
Grade: D+

Tokyo Police Club - "Juno (Ra Ra Riot/Andrew Maury Remix)"; Over the time we have spent together as blogger and blog reader I have made my aversion to remixes abundantly clear, yet for some reason hundreds of them arrive in my inbox each month. Sigh, I thought this one might be different since it features a pair of my favorite acts, but alas no it has no cohesiveness whatsoever and should be discarded in favor of the original 100 times out of 100.
Grade: D-

Oh Captain My Captain - "On My Mind"; Sounds like a shitty My Chemical Romance with a terrible band name taken from a pretty great Robin Williams movie.
Grade: C-

Video of the Week:

Fiasco - "Oh, You Horny Monster"; Okay, so maybe this isn't the greatest video in the history of the world, but listen to the freakin' music that goes with it! This is some crazy, hard hitting, insane shit, and it is the music of a trio of teenaged dudes that obviously just wanna rock! So forgive them if they don't wanna sit through hours of filming when there are riffs to played and tunes to written, they have more important things to do then picking a director! Instead they have a collage of images that are creepy, though not to creepy and fit well with the overall sound of the music. Nice forray into the world of video making dudes. I like it.
Grade: B