Quick Music Jerk: Stream Atoms For Peace's AMOK Right. Now.

Atoms For Peace--the side project of the great Thom Yorke of Radiohead fame--will finally be releasing their debut album, AMOK, Tuesday February 26th.  Nice guy that Mr. Yorke is, he's decided to stream the album in its entirety a week early.  Thus, I've posted it right here in your most favoritest spot for music news/life advice on the web.  Enjoy.

Playlist of the Week: Songs for My Indiana Valentine's Day

Full disclosure: It wasn't actually snowy in Indiana for once.  But this makes a better photo.  And Indiana needs all the aesthetic assistance it can get.

So this is a day late.  Mainly due to work and Delta's annoying habit of providing me with planes whose WIFI service is "unfortunately unavailable on tonight's 3 hour flight even though we know we told you it would be available, but get over it because as Louis CK observes, flight is a MIRACLE and you should stop bitching so much because can you imagine how long it would take you to drive from Detroit to Oklahoma City or what if you lived back in the 'olden' days and had to hitch a wagon?  You'd be dead.  DEAD!  Probably of dysentery or malaria or any other malady you remember from playing Oregon Trail as a kid.  So shut up, read your "book" on your iPad you pathetic yuppie and suck it up.  Be a man, for once in your sad little pampered life.  Jerk", I wasn't able to get this Valentine's-y entry done on the actual proper day.

However, I shall not be deterred.  I'm balls deep in WIFI in this coffee shop and my belly is full of allegedly "gourmet beans" and certainly unwavering conviction.  Happy made-up holiday to all you lovers and non-lovers and self-lovers/loathers out there!  I thought this holiday was ridiculous when I was single and though I'm happily "taken" (a term that always makes me think of a "certain set of skills"), I call some bullshit on this day.  Having said that, the day is what it is and while I feel like I love and am loved pretty damn well the other 364 days of the year, the holiday aspect at least provides a designated platform to pontificate on the nature of love, relationships, the lack thereof, and the predicament we find ourselves in either way.

But I won't do that here.  The rest of the stupid web can euthanize you with all that.  This is a music blog and I do my best to keep my illusions of grandeur to a level I can at least pretend to maintain with a straight face.  I love music.  I love God.  I love people.  I love pizza.  I love scotch.  I love the simple pleasures of David Spade and Batman comics.  And I love that I travel for work and get a chance to miss and be missed.  I love you for making it this far into this post.  And I love that the time for your reward has come.

Here are twelve songs I love, old and new, that "loved" me through a trip I didn't love to Indiana on the day we "celebrate" love which led to me posting this the day after the day we "celebrate" love.  Love.  You.

 iPhone and other smart phone users, click here to play the playlist. 

Spotify playlist below the track list. Not a Spotify member?  No problem. An 8tracks playlist (requiring no membership) is also found below.  

Playlist of the Week: Februtality

Wordplay ain't a boy's game.  Neither is Google image searchin', son.

Apologies to the queen and all others who hold themselves in high esteem for my most recent prolonged absence.  I'm all backed up with music to share and I feel a couple weeks behind and it's a fine line between something something "music thought leader" and late to the party.  But that's how I feel and my therapist says that as long as I'm honest about my feelings, your lack of love or appreciation for me is on you or somesuch.  But I digress.

YES, I'm still gonna call this "Playlist of the Week" despite this sometimes being a bi-weekly or monthly feature.  This particular playlist is already about a week or so old and has gone through a name change.  It WAS going to be called "A Dozen Songs for Non-Joners" where I was going to discuss my new favorite derogatory label which follows in the proud lineage of such stalwart gems as "jabroni" and "jamoke".  More on "joner" later, I swear.  Many of you know them.  Some of you may be them.

A dozen songs that I'm going to war/seeking refuge with this week/weekend and a handy guide to what you'll hear (press 'PLAY' now!):

1.  M.I.A. by Black Lips: Some bands who seem to be getting worse with age such as Black Lips are so adjudged because their youthful work was so damned good.  Here is an example of that raw, tingling vitality.  Live.  In Mexico.

2.  Suit & Tie by Justin Timberlake: Nothing close to his elite-level pop best, but his bar is ridiculously high.  So much so that there's a LOT to like about this song beyond just the good feeling of JT being "back".  I've got high hopes for the rest of the album which is coming out later in 2013 based on the quality evident here.

3.  No Destruction by Foxygen: Devotees to this blog will remember the inclusion of Foxygen on my 2012 year in music list.  Already back with new work that--while not as enjoyably disjointed--is tighter, more focused and still more interesting and evocative than 90% of the indie crap parade out these days.

4.  A signature, iconic 90's rock masterwork.  And still fun all these years later.

5. Maximo Park's under-appreciated knack for composing songs full of soft touches that still find a way to rock hard and have balls is not a quality lost on me.  These guys do longing real well.

6.  Another recently discovered rock outfit.  I love everything about Parquet Courts and their tight and catchy brand of pound-a-long bombastica.  I may have just made up that word.  I like it.

7.  New Order still sound like New Order and that's just fine by me.  We're all winners here.

8.  Goat is my new favorite thing right now.  It's tribal rock psychelia wizardry.  Australia is on a roll these days.

9.  Glass Candy's 80's sheened brand of electro disco is pure joy.  Your head will bob.  Bunches.

10.  Broken Social Scene never fails to sneak up on me at just the right moment--the moment where I'd forgotten about their subtly-layered digital beauty.

11.  The Walkmen snuck this track out as a 7" single in November with little to no fanfare.  A genteel little beauty from their recording sessions for 2012's Heaven.  All the things you like about The Walkmen are here in one song.

12.  The best song about songs I'm aware of.

 iPhone and other smart phone users, click here to play the playlist. 

Spotify playlist below the track list. Not a Spotify member?  No problem. An 8tracks playlist (requiring no membership) is also found below.