Weekly Music Recommendation: La Femme

Perfect pop confection from Biarritz, France. Unapologetic upbeat synthesizer music seemingly right out of the one-hit-wonderful, golden ‘80s, but with dark, dizzying, unexpected turns that keep you on your toes while you dance away solo like a total freakazoid.

Music Saves: Frances Eby's Morrissey Covers

Marriage is about compromise. Lucky for me, my wife is just about perfect, so this part comes easy. But there is a but - a huge, big but. She's not exactly fond of Morrissey. And as anyone who loves Morrissey can attest, or even those who have witnessed us Morrissey diehards at his concerts, this is no good. To us few, fond of the Moz, his awesomeness isn't a matter of opinion. It's not up for discussion. Moz's awesomeness is an empirical fact, supported by just about every song in his repertoire going back to when he was with The Smiths. All of this is to say: my lovely wife, sweet love of my life, wonderful mother of our children, is simply flat out wrong. Over the years, I've been spectacularly unsuccessful in getting her to hear it my way. So sadly, Morrissey only comes on through my headphones or when I'm driving solo or with just the kids. They're early converts, by the way, my sweat, beautiful, little, well- musically calibrated offspring. That said, we had somewhat of a breakthrough a few years ago. You see, both of us - having attended and met at the University of South Carolina - are fond of Hootie and the Blowfish (please, now is not the time to judge). Turns out, Hootie nails a cover of The Smith's "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want." Please take a second to appreciate the irony in the song title. And, bless her little South Carolina-educated heart, my wife loves the cover. So here's where the compromise part comes in: She's okay with Morrissey songs, as long as he's not the one singing them. Fair enough. I can work with that. So this past weekend, I went on a hunt for Morrissey covers. Downloaded a few on iTunes. But I couldn't find a good cover of one of my favorite Moz songs, "My Love Life," until I found Frances Eby on YouTube. Not only did I love her many Morrissey covers, but I loved that she completely surprised me. Truth be told, I was simply not expecting her to be this damn good. Enjoy.

Weekly Music Recommendation: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Punk is sorta like pizza: even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty damn good. These Bay Area goofballs are proof you can punkify just about anything: Willie Nelson, Simon and Garfunkel, and (gulp) R. Kelly. That said, it takes a special kind "choots-pah" (thank you, Bachmann… it's the gift that keeps on giving long after CHA-nooka) and musical acrobatics to make it tasty.

Music Saves: Vilató on the Timbales

The magic starts around time 2:15, when Maestro Orestes Vilató - a monster on the timbales - takes his solo. I had the fortune of interviewing Vilató for an article reflecting on the 40th anniversary of Ray Barretto's "Acid" - one of Fania's first releases. In the article, I tried to make the case that Barretto was among the first, if not the first, to blend salsa with rock 'n' roll. "Acid" was released in 1968 - a year before Carlos Santana released "Santana" with "Oye Como Va," which usually gets credit for melding the two genres. Vilató, whose fancy timbale work is all over "Acid," ended up becoming my "missing link." Unbeknownst to me until our interview, he had played with Santana for a few years, and according to him, "Acid" was a huge influence on Santana. In fact, Vilató gave me this "golden nugget," as he called it: Santana totally lifted the opening trumpet break in "El Nuevo Barretto" and inserted at about time 1:34 of "Oye Como Va." Of course, Santana plays the break on the guitar instead of trumpets. Fantastic!

Music Saves

Post by Rosa Díez.

Weekly Music Recommendation: Those Darlins

From Nashville. Formed after meeting at Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp. Their artillery includes a baritone ukulele and clogging. Their sound: reverby shoegaze meets boom-chika-boom rockabilly. What else do you need to know?