[ random acts of alex ]

Clear The Dance Floor

The other day, with as straight a face as I could muster, I told some of my students that my new favorite band was The Books. I had two of their albums, Lost and Safe and Thought for Food, queued up on the iPod, and I wasn't afraid to play them.

"What do they sound like?'

Oh, I can't wait to show you.

The Books specialize in a music of collages and random rhythms, with a few disembodied voices mixed in just to spice things up a bit. Their songs have titles such as "A Dead Fish Gains the Power of Observation" and "Smells Like Content," and chances are you don't have anything else like them in your music collection. Why? Because mainstream radio and MTV would never come near them with a 10-foot stick o' pop culture.

As one reviewer put it, and I totally agree, you should listen to one of their albums at night with headphones and the light of a flickering TV.

The Books didn't go over too well with my students. But then I played Kelly Clarkson and they were happy again.

If The Books are a little too strange or scary-sounding for you, I'm also listening to much safer choices such as The Editors ("Munich" is a great single, besides being a kick ass city) and a couple of songs off the new Panic! at the Disco album, "The Only Difference Between" and "I Write Sins Not Tragedies."

posted by alex @ 4/24/2006 08:49:00 PM