Each week the Music Feeds team picks a favourite song from the week that was, wraps it in a bunch of words, and presents it you. It’s Music Feeds Faves.
Spoon – TV Set (The Cramps Cover)
When we first started this column – can you call it a column even if it doesn’t exactly adhere to column-like dimensions? I digress – I kept my picks strictly to new songs, released in the past 7 days. So me, circa last week, wouldn’t have even entertained the idea of showcasing a cover of a song that’s more than 30 years old. “It’s cheating,” old me would have thought. “Take your job seriously.”
But since our creative maestro Mitch, threw ANY SEMBLANCE OF STRUCTURE AND ORDER out the proverbial window last week, today friends we have license to live dangerously. Screw the rules. Be authentic. [ED: You’re fired].
Real talk: I’ve only associated good feelings with Britt Daniel’s voice since a super handsome guy let me wear his sleeves (literally removed from his jacket) at a Divine Fits show a few years ago – so I’m predisposed to liking this Spoon cover of The Cramps’ TV Set . But I’m recommending it anyway, even for those of you with sad, cold forearms.
It’s a bit more polished and less manic than the 1980 garage punk/rockabilly original, but it’s got that same driving intensity that’ll make you involuntarily shake your bones (as if you’re having some kind of divine fit), while Daniel somehow manages to imbue some soul into singing about decapitating people and shoving their heads into a TV screen. Plus, it’s the best musical interpretation of a hiccup I’ve heard in a while.
The whole thing has been done in the name of the upcoming reboot of the ’80s horror franchise, Poltergeist, if that’s your thing. / Nastassia Baroni, Editor
Holly Herndon – An Exit
Tennessee-born Holly Herndon makes AIDM — that’s Artificially Intelligent Dance Music, which wasn’t a thing until I just made it up. Her electronic concoctions seem to have minds of their own, and they form a bridge between her experiences of Berlin clubs and experimental music’s academic circles.
This week, Herndon released her stunning second album, Platform, and while highlights like Interference and Chorus were already in the wild, album cut An Exit is a super-impressive creation which we’ve only just wrapped our ears around.
An Exit (below), which features fellow producer Amnesia Scanner, is a track which shrinks and swells like a healthy lung. Herndon’s trademark vocal manipulations are there, along with thudding rhythms and clouds of synth which jump into the foreground without warning.
Stream the track in full via Spotify, below, or catch it over on Herndon’s Bandcamp page. / Tom Williams, Staff Writer
Ella Thompson – Drift
So recently I moved into a creaky wooden terrace. It is sweet, but every time I move through the house I feel like I am being flocked by a screaming murder of hitchcockian crows. It is a struggle, especially for someone with my weight and length of limb. Last night I tried to tiptoe noiselessly up the wry and narrow staircase to my room. The first three seconds of successful silence were broken by the dull thud of my right kneecap as I slipped forward. All I remember is me, a tangle of human bits and shopping bags, sliding slow-motion into the unlighted abyss of downstairs.
So I have decided to end my life of earth-bound walking. I will learn how to levitate. I will drift soundless like a mute ghost. Ella Thompson’s dense dark pop anthem, Drift, has brought me closest to gravityless ecstasy. A scratchy garage-guitar soundscape, the naked clatter of drums and a crystalline valkyrie-voice. It is all here, together, in this messy whorl of rhythm and melody. It soars into moments thick with noise and energy, and then sinks back into soft minimalism. Basically, it makes me fly.
This is all good news for me because Ella Thompson’s debut album, Janus, comes out today. Make sure you give it a few (by which I mean many) listens. You might find yourself hovering midway between Mars and Earth. / Luke Bodley, Presenter
Kilter – Want 2 Ft. Porsches
Originally I was going to simply post this juicy juice new track from Sydney producer Kilter featuring newcomers Porsche with that gif from Bridesmaids where Kristin Wiig drinks that pink lemonade whilst driving and it’s so damn fresh because that’s exactly how I feel about it.
And then nothing changed so I’m still just gonna do that. / Mitch Feltscheer, Creative Content Director
Lamb of God – Still Echoes
Want to get punched in the balls? Right square in the balls? Then listen to Lamb Of God’s new track, Still Echoes. With a deceptive title that would look more at home on the latest Enya LP than LOG’s forthcomer, Randy Blythe & co’s new one would just as likely send Enya screaming in terror for the hills, to take up residence as a grizzled mountain hermit who flings bear dung at woodland intruders forevermore.
Inspired by Blythe’s time behind bars in a Czech prison, the brutal track will straight tear your ears off, if you’re not careful. / Emmy Mack, Staff Writer
