Kwaping! Music

Cold War Kids is one of those bands that you hear a lot about, but don’t know their songs. At least, that was the case for me, up until recently. My wife and I caught them as an opening act for Death Cab For Cutie (along with the excellent up-and-coming band Ra Ra Riot) and they blew us away. The best I can describe their music is a male Alicia Keys on the piano and a kick-butt indie rock band backing him up. Oh, and they REALLY like maracas.

They have a popular song out right now called “Hang Me Up To Dry“, but I’ve chosen the first song off their new album Robbers & Cowards for this Song of the Day. That song is called “We Used to Vacation” and it’s a great representative of the rest of the album.

You can take my word for it, or listen to the full song for free over at Last.fm. Enjoy!

In honor of Mother’s Day, I thought I’d make my wife’s current favorite song the Song of the Day. “Love Letter To Japan” by The Bird And The Bee is four minutes of sugar-pop fun. It has a great video too. If you’re looking for some upbeat, lightweight listening, this should do the job.

Dan Deacon has produced a nice little song in Of The Mountains. It’s a little bit Carol Of The Bells and a little bit techno. At over seven minutes, you really get your money’s worth out of this one!

Today’s song of the day is “Broken [Explicit]” by Late Of The Pier. This song has one of the best intros I’ve ever heard. The rest of the song is pretty good as well, but it’s pretty different from the rockin jam at the start. This song often gets lodged in my head, which isn’t a bad thing.

As my friends over at Prefix wrote, “There probably hasn’t been a more fitting song title in recent memory than White Rabbits‘ ‘Percussion Gun,’ which sounds exactly like its name suggests.” I’ve been in a bit of a tribal-beat phase lately, and this song has been on my mind a lot. You gotta love a band that has, among others, a pianist and two drummers.

Check out the video for a full preview of the song. It’s pretty well done.

One of my most recent purchases is Lisztomania by Phoenix. This song has quickly become my latest obsession. It’s extremely catchy and appeals to a broad audience – both my toddler son and wife love it. One of the things that’s particularly amazing to me is that Phoenix is from France. They write English lyrics better than most native speakers! I can’t wait to see these guys live someday. Their new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is scheduled for release on May 26, 2009. I’m very much looking forward to it!

Here’s a link to the video so you can hear the full song. I don’t think the video is that great, but the song is good enough to overcome that.