The Wooden Finger Five: February 2013

1.      Monoliths – Lotus Plaza

Lotus Plaza is the side project from the sideman - Lockett Pundt - of Deerhunter. Pundt sang one of the best Deerhunter songs in ‘Desire Lines’, and this song is kind of like a mini-version of that one. After about a minute and a half of lyrics, the song wanders off and Pundt just keeps repeating ‘One of these days, I’ll come around’, albeit with varying degrees of intensity, til it ends. It’s great though, and one of my favourite tracks of the past 12 months.

2.      Tongue Tied – Grouplove

I got back into this song over the past month, but the problem is that I’m far too old for it. If a teenager jumps around joyfully to it (like on the iPhone ad) it’s fine, but if I did so I’d look like a baby boomer trying to mosh to Nirvana. I’m jealous of the Twitter generation for getting this song.

3.      One Way Trigger – The Strokes

The Strokes’ free comeback single isn’t to everyone’s taste, however at least it sounds like a single, unlike a lot of the tunes on their last couple of albums. Julian Casablancas singing falsetto makes this more than just a Strokes-by-numbers track.

4.      Jubilee Street – Nick Cave

Nick Cave returns with this excellent song – Warren Ellis’ violin really stands out on this one. Along with ‘We No Who U R’, it promises good things for Cave’s upcoming album.

 

5.      Peace and Quiet – Waxahatchee

I have this theory: that musicians first fall in love with the music that’s playing on their parent’s car radio when they are three years old, and then spend their entire careers trying to recapture that feeling. That would certainly explain this song, which sounds like it was transported from 1993. More specifically, it’s like the Breeders crossed with ‘Crave’ by Nuno Bettencourt.