Back to the top

Song of the Day

The Shaggs Off-Broadway

The Shaggs are considered either the worst band of all-time or the greatest.

Three sisters from New Hampshire were forced by their father to form a band. The Wiggin girls recorded one studio album, Philosophy of The World, in 1969.

They couldn’t play and they couldn’t sing.

Adored by the likes of Kurt Cobain and Frank Zappa, the great rock writer Lester Bangs pronounced that the Shaggs were better than the Beatles. (Read his Village Voice review here.)

And now Shaggs: Philosophy of The World is an off-Broadway musical. (Read the New York Times review here.)

Listen to the title track from this landmark album. You be the judge.

[jwplayer mediaid=”4614″]

Cults

Cults is a duo from New York, not to be confused with the band The Cult.

Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin released a 3-song EP last year and their debut album, also called Cults, comes out tomorrow.

“Go Outside”, from both the EP and the new album, is a free from Amazon. “Abducted” was free from the band’s mailing list.

“Go Outside”
[jwplayer mediaid=”4552″]

“Abducted”
[jwplayer mediaid=”4553″]

Wild Beasts

Wild Beasts is an English quartet featuring the stunning falsetto of Hayden Thorpe.

“Albatross” is the first single from their recently released third album Smother.

This song and fourteen others, including music from the likes of Art Brut, Meat Puppets, and Dengue Fever, are free from the June issue of Spin.

[jwplayer mediaid=”4124″]

The Vaccines

The Vaccines debut album What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? Is now available in this country.

One listen to this British quartet and their debt to the Ramones is evident.

As Joey Ramone would have told me: “They’re one of us”.

“Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra) kicks off the album at a perfect 1 minute, 24 seconds. Punk rock at its finest.

[jwplayer mediaid=”4036″]

The Joy Formidable

The Joy Formidable album The Big Roar is an impassioned debut.

Ritzy Bryan-vocals, guitar, Rhydian Dafydd-bass, and Matt Thomas-drums make up this formidable Welsh trio.

We first featured their music here with their most unique Christmas song “My Beerdrunk Soul Is Sadder Than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees”.

We spotlight them again with “Whirring”, their formidable single.

[jwplayer mediaid=”4003″]

Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire will release a deluxe version of The Suburbs this summer.

Included will be a 30 minute film by Spike Jonze entitled Scenes From the Suburbs, an 80 page booklet with photos and lyrics and two unreleased tracks: “Culture War” and “Speaking in Tongues”.

“Speaking in Tongues” features backing vocals by David Byrne. A tongue in cheek homage no doubt to the Talking Heads album of the same title.

Friendly Fires

Friendly Fires, England’s dance band with an edge, just released their second album, Pala.

Their first album, eponymously titled, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2009.

Pala is a fictional utopian island in Aldous Huxley’s novel Island.

The discovery of the “Blue Cassette” and the stirrings of a long lost voice is from the new album.

[jwplayer mediaid=”3983″]

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are one of those British bands with attitude. But the band does live up to the hype.

Their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, released in 2006, became the fastest selling debut album in UK history and featured the singles “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” and “When the Sun Goes Down”.

Suck It and See, the fourth Arctic Monkeys album is due in June.

The powerful “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved You’re Chair” is the first single.

[jwplayer mediaid=”3955″]

Kate Bush

Director’s Cut, the new album from Kate Bush, consists of eleven reworked tracks from her previous albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, originally released in 1989 and 1993 respectively.

A formidable and unique presence in the UK since the late 70’s, she now has her own record label, Fish People, and control over her earlier recordings.

Kate only toured once, and briefly at that, in 1979 and most of us have only witnessed her performance via video. I was fortunate though to privately lunch with her around the time of The Sensual World. A most charming and delicate encounter.

Here she re-imagines the song “Deeper Understanding” from The Sensual World. The new chorus is the computerized voice of her son Albert. (The long-form video directed by Kate, but not starring her, can be seen in the above YouTube button.)

[jwplayer mediaid=”3898″]

This is the original version:

[jwplayer mediaid=”3935″]

Okkervil River

The Oedipus Project is up and running with a new media player. No longer will we be hassled with SoundCloud’s legal issues and arcane practices.

So let’s turn our attention to Austin, Texas.

Okkervil River released their sixth album, I Am Very Far, last week.

It’s been three years since their last album, The Stand Ins, when Okkervil River took a brief sojourn as the backup band for Roky Erickson, the 13th Floor Elevators’ legendary frontman.

I Am Very Far is the first Okkervil River album that leader Will Sheff has produced.

“Wake and Be Fine” is a free download from the band’s website.

[jwplayer mediaid=”3885″]

Load More
© Copyright Oedipus 2021 | Sponsor The Oedipus Project | Designed by DI-WHY