Instant Playlist - May 14 2009

Jenny Owen Youngs

Beastie Boys
Lee Majors Come Again (Capitol)
The boys are at their punkest on this trashy, recently unearthed Check Your Head–era rarity that sounds the way a ’90s Lollapalooza mosh pit felt: hot, sweaty, and deliciously chaotic.

Mos Def
Casa Bey (Downtown)
Laying a seriously old-school flow and hippie-dippy lyrics over a pornosonic jazz-funk groove, the man born Dante Terrell Smith offers a taste of his no doubt appropriately titled new disc, The Ecstatic.

Tortoise
High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In (Thrill Jockey)
After a few minutes of burbling and buzzing synthesizers, off-kilter drum skitters, and general meandering, Tortoise locks into a one-chord motorik groove and pummels it until it splinters into jagged digital shards.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
Can’t Hear My Eyes (Mexican Summer)
From the tinkling electric piano and pastel-toned synth washes to the David-Sanborn-in-space saxophone breaks, this one has “AM radio gold” stamped all over it.

James Yuill
No Surprise (Nettwerk)
Sad-boy singer-songwriter meets bedroom laptop-tronica, and we can’t decide whether to dance or draw the curtains and assume the fetal position.

Dirty Projectors & David Byrne
Ambulance Man
Another jaw-dropping collaboration between the experimental Brooklynites and the legendary Talking Heads frontman—this time a tender lullaby that finds lead Projector Dave Longstreth’s chaotic kitten-yelps snuggling up to Byrne’s warm warble.

Think About Life
Havin’ My Baby (Alien8 Recordings)
Mixing fit-for-a-Prince funkiness with vocals inspired by Michael Jackson back in the wonder years, Think About Life gives Paul Anka one more reason to wonder who the fuck would be stupid enough to bring a baby into this world.

Dreadnoughts
Ivanhoe (Stomp)
As soon as the staff at one of Vancouver’s most-loved dive bars gets wind of this hooligan-friendly Celtic-punk raver, it’s a given that the Dreadnoughts will never have to pay for their cheap draft again.

Tara Jane O’Neil
A New Binding (K)
Long for the days when Cat Power was crazy instead of the poster girl for Memphis retro-soul? “A New Binding” isn’t as tortured as Moon Pix, but its haunting take on DIY indie-rock will suffice until Chan Marshall’s next breakdown.

Green Go
Brains for Breakfast (Pheromone Recordings)
No, it’s not a Misfits rarity, but instead a charmingly off-key rush of organ-drenched dance-pop, replete with references to snacking on grey matter and learning to fly the friendly skies with supersonic jet packs.

Jenny Owen Youngs
Clean Break (Nettwerk)
Where most breakup songs pile on 16 bags of artificially sweetened MOR sugar, Jenny Owen Youngs is refreshingly all about neon-country guitars, sepia-toned vocals, and lines like “Just sterilize the scalpel and let’s get this over with.”