Week 21: Palma Violets - Tom the Drum

This is my roommate Thomas.



 It was his birthday yesterday. Coincidentally, the song that I've been most listening to this week is about a guy named Tom. It's one of my favourite songs of the year thus far! It's by a band that seems to be constantly being played at the University of Waterloo Graduate House for some reason...

Here it is in all it's ragged glory.

Palma Violets - Tom the Drum

Week 20: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Musquito

Would I like Karen O simply because she made this jacket?

Possibly.

If, like me, you are much more of Fever To Tell kind of chap (rather than that hip, electronic, dancing It's Blitz! clique) then you were excited at the notion of a new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, but didn't expect to be transported back to the early noughties by any stretch. Well, there's reason for celebration. The title track off of their new album, Musquito, is about as perfect a mix of Fever and Blitz as you could get. It's raw but polished, punk but danceable.

Here, it is (unfortunately, not the album version but a damn good live performance on Jimmy Kimmel). It's the song of the week:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Musquito

Week 19: QOTSA - My God is the Sun

Josh Homme is back. And he's re-enlisted his good buddy Mr. Grohl on tubthumping duty. That's right, after six years without a peep from QOTSA - they are back. And heavy. Sounds like they are cooking up something good, down deep in the desert.

Queens of the Stone Age - My God is the Sun

And on a completely different note, the posh sailors known as Vampire Weekend have also dropped two songs from their forthcoming album. More of the same? Well, pretty much yes. But not such a bad thing when 'the same' is catchy, summer-loving fun.

Vampire Weekend - Diane Young

Week 18: The Rolling Stones - Little Red Rooster

So the Rolling Stones are hitting the road again. They'll be bringing their elderly rock to the big, iconic pyramid at Glastonbury and to my humble backyard at Toronto's ACC. It'll be polished, note-perfect (ish) and a full blown-out extravaganza. They are the ultimate elder statesmen of rock 'n roll, all money and private planes (far cry from the likes of Iggy Pop who continues to be wild despite some interesting advertisement decisions).

So yes. They are old. They've got tunes but no edge. They have been as comfortable as musicians can be for longer than most of us have been alive, but remember when they were the baddest, filthiest blues-band in the world? Neither do I. But I hear it was great. Hard to believe that once upon a time they look liked this:

As a lot us will always (unfortunately) picture them a little more like this:

BUT we are in luck, because although we'll never see them perform like the dirty kings of underground London they were, we still can hear it. This week I bring you one of my all-time favourite Stones tunes from back when they were strictly a blues cover band...

The Rolling Stones - Little Red Rooster