Best Song Ever of the Week: Grizzly Bear

Psychedelindie band Grizzly Bear release their new album Veckatimest tomorrow.

I can't see how they'll top the first single, "Two Weeks" [mp3], but it will at least be worth a listen thanks to this charmed piece of pop.

They even debuted the song on Letterman months ago. I guess they knew it was good straight off.

Here's the brand new video for it:
Two Weeks


Definitely ranks up their with the hit off their last album, "The Knife". Girl Talk's remix of that song is also stellar.

Best Song Ever of the Week

This one's an oldie, but a greatie. "Enola Gay" [click for MP3] from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - better known as OMD.

I was recently re-introduced to this song via the animated docunmentary, Waltz with Bashir:

The rest of the score to this movie is similarly awesome, along with mesmerizing original music, there a song by PiL and a re-working of Cake's "I Bombed Korea", as "I Bombed Beirut."

Now if you want to figure out the English translation for the dialogue in this scene, then go see the movie already.

Best Song Ever of the Week

Here it is, pop gunning's first mp3 of the new year!

Unfittingly, it's a humble cover of last year's best hit song. Pale Young Gentlemen do MIA's "Paper Planes" [click song title for MP3].

If your ears agree, you can hear this Madison Wisconsin band's new tuneful album Black Forest (Tra La La) on their website.

Best Song Ever of the Week: Double Shot!

Welcome to the Special Year-End Preview version of "Best Song Ever of the Week".

Here are 2 tracks that might show up on Pop Gunning's best of lists:



The Gaslight Anthem - Old White Lincoln [right click link for MP3]
Maybe it's the bouncey Cure-ish bassline ("Just Like Heaven"), but this song caught me quick and hard with its irrepressible chorus and Springsteen via Killers world-weariness.
From the album The '59 Sound.

Chairlift - Evident Untensil [right click link for MP3]
Features some of the most awesomely hilarious lyrics I've heard in a while, and at the same time boasts a Brooklyn meets Miami (see Jan Hammer) sound.
From the album Does You Inspire You?

Best Song Ever of the Week: Alton Ellis

Sadly, the "Godfather of Rocksteady" passed on recently. Alton Ellis, 70, died of cancer on October 10, 2008.

His soul was legendary - the tough cryer from Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica.

This song does some justice to his legacy. Listen to it: If I Could Rule This World, from the album Mr. Soul of Jamaica (later repackaged as Cry Tough).

As a side note, check out artist Keith Warren Greiman visual interpretation of the song "Cry Tough" by Ellis.

Listen here. Look here. Via Said the Gramophone.

Best Song Ever of the Week: Why?

WHY? - The Hollows [click for MP3] from the album Alopecia. Kaleidoscopic folk rap for nerds and music nerds alike.

This song just kills it. Perfect fall listening. Right up there with the best work of TV on the Radio and Menomena.

"Oh no, those Gypsies probably got knives."

Best Song Ever of the Week: Roky Erickson's Ghosts

Okay, so we all know Rock n' Roll is based on the Blues, and as the incomparable Son House has taught us, the Blues is all about love. Still, aren't you sick of rock songs all about lost love and girl troubles?

If so, then see Roky Erickson's 1981 album The Evil One. Here we find the former 13th Floor Elevators frontman in full-out psychedelic blues rock mode, but instead of lamenting ex-girlfriends he wraps his tunes around tales of Zombies, Vampires, Demons and Two Headed Dogs. Or at least thats what he seems to be singing about.

Here's one of the many standout tracks from the album: If You Have Ghosts [right click for mp3].

I never put much faith in Roky's solo stuff equalling the genius of the Elevators, but thanks to the impressing documentary You're Gonna Miss Me, I've now seen the darkness. The movie's kind of like a less enigmatic and less joyful Grey Gardens, but somehow more depressing. Definitely worth seeing.

Song of the Week: Sigur Ros

Although it wasn't released to much fanfare, I want to make it known that the new Sigur Rós album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust ("With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly"), is wonderful.

Their last album Takk was a bit underwhelming, and () was a bit exhausting, but this new record brings them back to the brilliance of Ágætis byrjun.

Listen to Track 2 off the album and I'm sure you'll be convinced: "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur" (mp3)

Song of the Week

Le Tigre - Deceptacon [mp3]

This song just kills. Like New Order's Age of Consent minus the grey clouds and 10x the pink lemonade.




Recently featured in the film Reprise, which is incidentally one of the coolest and most inspiring films I've seen in a while.

Originally released on Le Tigre's 1999 self-titled debut, the song almost plays to its entirety in the movie when a character uses it to accomplish a very necessary party hijack.

Also, check out the trailer to Reprise, Joachim Trier's first film.

Song of the Week

This week I present you with an oldie, but a greatie.

Recently my thieving little fingers clicked their way to Paul McCartney and Wings' "Band on the Run" album. It's something I've always wanted to check out, and it didn't disappoint. Take a listen to the final track of the album, which sounds like it belongs on the Boogie Nights soundtrack - yes, it's that good.

Paul McCartney & Wings: "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five"

Read more...


On a sidenote, Song of the Week almost didn't happen this week because my uploading page was disabled due to an infringement of copyright laws. The issue stemmed from the fact that I posted an mp3 from the Kooks on Pop Gunning back in March (and the 3 and a half people who listened to it really threatened their album sales). So the site disabled me, but I figured out a way to bounce back. So in conclusion, don't ever buy any music from the Kooks. Probably not a healthy counter move, but they kind of stink, so it's easy. Let's hope I never have a copyright beef with a good band.

Song of the Week (/Year)

The incomparable M.I.A blesses us with Paper Planes (right click for MP3).

There's various remixes, but this is the original track from Kala.

A warning to those close to me... this song will be on repeat all summer. And it will make all of us cooler.


Check out the video, which is ace. Also, the song is featured in the trailer for the new Seth Rogen/James Franco/Judd Apatow/David Gordon Green picture, Pineapple Express.

Song of the Week

Treating you to a Special 2for1 Edition of "Song of the Week" is Mclusky.

The now defunct three-piece from Wales are as hilarious as they are pulverizing. Here's a taste from their final proper LP, The Difference Between Me and You is That I'm Not On Fire.


"Forget About Him I'm Mint" (right click for MP3)
"1956 and All That" (right click for MP3)

They're short little ditties, but the economy is part of the genius (so is the Star Wars reference).

Song of the Week - Yeasayer, "2080"

From their album All Hour Cymbals, "2080" (right click song title for mp3) is a perfect antidote for the winter blues. It's bright, symphonic, and frenzied - like MagicEye 3D holographic art. In short, it's a "rhapsody"...

rhapsody |ˈrapsədē| noun 1 an effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feeling : rhapsodies of praise. • Music: a free instrumental composition in one extended movement, typically one that is emotional or exuberant in character. 2 (in ancient Greece) an epic poem, or part of it, of a suitable length for recitation at one time. ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (sense 2) : via Latin from Greek rhapsōidia, from rhaptein ‘to stitch’ + ōidē ‘song, ode.’

Yeasayer will be opening for another shitty band, Man Man, in Toronto at Lee's Palace on April 14 and in San Francisco at Great American Music Hall on April 23. Check their myspace for more dates.