Two covers and some solid rock: the zip-mix hits week 6.

There's no reason that I put two covers at the beginning of this other than they are damn good. Really, I didn't even sequence it this week - this is the order I added them in iTunes. Makes for a nice hop all over the place.

Download: Feller Abides v6

Mike Doughty - "Casper The Friendly Ghost"

For whatever reason, Doughty decided to do this classic Daniel Johnston track on his latest solo slab, Sad Man Happy Man. It sounds more innocent than the original, but that's probably because every time I hear the original all I can think of is Casper raping Jenny at the end of "Kids." 

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "The Hardest Button to Button (live)"

I don't know what this is all about, but I like it. BRMC never got enough attention for being a solid, feedbacky rock band. That's always the case though. There's some other stuff to download here. Big ups to the White Stripes for writing great songs too.

Horse The Band - "The Failure of All Things"

It started with the video for "Shapeshift." Then I started reading the obnoxious bullshit they write about themselves on the Internet. Now I can't get enough of their ugly faces. This is noise-metal at it's best. They scream, they sing, they've got electronics and they bash the hell out of their instruments. When I play Your Life Choices Catch Up With You while sitting at my desk in the office, people stay away and I get work done. Maybe if I play it in the car I-95 will part like the Red Sea.

Spiral Stairs - "True Love"

This is a band I can listen to on repeat at any point in the day. But then, I would have expected no less from Pavement co-founder Scott Kannberg. That should tell you all you need to know.

Sloan - "Take It Upon Yourself"

I struggled over whether to include this or not. It's another great song from Canada's most melodically consistently toe-tappingly pleasant sometimes Beatles-like rock band. But they're giving it away for free at their Web site in exchange for your email address. Which means if you're not already a fan you'll never hear it... so here it is. They sound a little like Spoon this time out but hot damn is this band always happy and good. 

Beastie Boys - "Peanut Butter and Jelly"

Yesterday I posted two tracks from disc 2 of the Hello Nasty reissue. Today, I figured why not throw one more out there. "Peanut Butter and Jelly" was the b-side on the "Intergalactic" 7-inch. It's a jazzy little Beasties ditty with some talking over it, and is as quality now as it was in 1998. Take that for what whatever you want - I never stopped listening to it.

Screaming Females - "Bells"

There's a lot of good punk happening in New Jersey these days, which is where this three-piece is from. Hard-charging, spitty and full of attitude, this track is from their album Power Move. 

Built to Spill - "Plantin' Seeds"

Never been a huge Built to Spill fan, this album is growing on me though. I may even have enough thoughts on it to write a longer review later in the week. This song in particular is a bit of Tom Petty, if he were a soft-spoken indie introvert who can play guitar, of course. That was my first thought on this song. Not sure if I still believe it, but I'm telling everybody, so I must on some level.

Posted via email from Stephen Feller