Instant Playlist - August 18 2011

Her Space Holiday

Active Child
Hanging On (Vagrant)
It’s almost too easy to call this track heavenly, but with its softly percolating harps, angels-we-have-heard-while-high vocal samples, and general cloud-surfing ethere- ality, you might not even notice the pained, lovelorn lyrics.

Left Spine Down
X-Ray (Metropolis)
Vancouver’s favourite—and possibly only—band of circuit-frying cyberpunkers return with a sonic gut-punch of crushing rock guitars and jungle beats that makes us want to set things on fire.

Howling Bells
The Loudest Engine (Cooking Vinyl)
A churning mid-tempo rocker about turning wheels and loud engines, Howling Bells’ latest could be something from Thomas and Friends—well, except for the part about how "she’s everyone’s favourite whore".

Mariachi El Bronx
48 Roses (ATO)
Punk rockers the Bronx break out the Charro outfits, pick up the trumpets and acoustic guitars, and kick ass in the most gorgeous of ways. Crack open the tequila—it’s officially fiesta time.

The Horrible Crowes
I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together (Side One Dummy)
Over a glitch-techno beat and midnight- quiet organ, moonlighting Gaslight Anthem singer Brian Fallon rips out our heartstrings with lines like "Did you say you was lonely/I was right about to call you".

Wu-Tang Clan
Drunk Tongue (eOne Music)
Holy shit—who would have thought that, after all this time, Wu-Tang would still be nothing to fuck with? This RZA-produced track walks that perfect line between spartan cool and scarily menacing.

Zenith Myth
Degeneration Blues (Vibra Cobra)
Normally, instrumental bands are as boring as watching paint dry while reading the bible at your grandmother’s. The dirtier-than-fuck distortion on the guitars and Stonehenge-size synths make this postmetal stunner an exception.

Chris Brown
Ladies Love Me (Jive)
"Ladies Love Me" is essentially "Look at Me Now" remixed by David Banner, with 100 percent less talk about Chris Brown’s dick and 100 percent more Justin Bieber rapping about being both "hetero" and "elegant". No, really!

CoverGirl
Paris Burns (Captured Tracks)
CoverGirl so accurately re-creates the frayed-nerves edginess of postpunk that it sounds like it should be opening for the Cure and Joy Division at the Marquee Club circa 1979—which, of course, was before anyone in the band was born.

The Fresh & Onlys
I Would Not Know the Devil (Sexbeat)
All surf-twanged guitars and reverb-drowned vocals, this is the kind of song you’ll want blasting from your car stereo as you cruise down to the Crossroads to meet a certain goat-legged fellow.

Her Space Holiday
The Hummingbirds (No More Good Ideas)
Marc Bianchi’s tribute to his late grandmother deals directly with her final days but instead of being a maudlin affair, it’s a downright celebratory piece of exuberant chamber pop.