Monday Music Roundup

While not as insanely hilarious as ThingsMyBoyfriendSays.com, this site fills that same voyeuristic niche of eavesdropping into the (unintentionally funny) things people say with no regard for who is listening. OverheardinNewYork.com solicits contributions from New Yorkers with good ears, and the result is a site that I regularly lose track of time on:


Hobo: Go shorty, it's your birthday...
Drunk black woman, joining in: Yeah! Go, go!
Hobo: Shorty, it's your shorty...
Drunk black woman: You singing it wrong. It's, 'We gonna party like it's your birthday.'
Passerby gives hobo two dollars.
Drunk black woman: You need to give me half of that, I helped you out with the words.

--Overheard on E train


14-year-old girl: I had like eight shots of vodka, and I didn't get drunk or anything. I just couldn't feel my face.

--Overheard in Forest Hills


Tight jeans #1: It's like the only way to be a punk these days is to be a Republican.
Tight jeans #2: I know.

--Overheard on 2nd Ave, between 7th & 8th St


Dude, I'm so punk rock. Finally. Here's some handpicked freshness for the new week:

Feel Like Taking You Home Now
Brendan Benson
A new tune off Brendan's MySpace, this one definitely has a darker, more driving edge than some of his past sunny alternative pop. Perhaps all that time with Jack White is taking its toll. I do like this song, especially once the drum builds and it turns into a gloomy rocker. It's from his untitled forthcoming solo album, and in the meantime Brendan's also on the new Stooges record singing back up on a song called "Free and Freaky." For some other new song samples from Brendan, thanks to So Much Silence for pointing me here.


Weapon of Choice
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
San Francisco's Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's third album Howl was a catchy, loose, bluesy-Americana treat in 2005. This sonic sample from their new album Baby 81 (due May 1) is definitely fuzzier and anthemic, although it also still has the tambourine that I love. It's a trend I'm noticing more lately, a gravitation away from the young and bluesy sloppiness and into the more produced, larger sound. It will be interesting to see what the album as a whole is like. There's one more sample song, 666 Conducer, streaming on their site and BRMC recently announced a tour with The Killers.


The Now
Mouthful of Bees
Having a mouthful of bees is pretty much my worst nightmare. Maybe an earful of bees. Whereas I can handle spiders completely without cringing, and once fearlessly killed a scorpion in El Salvador (okay, I had, because he was in my hostel room and no way we were sleeping together), something about bees literally gives me the cold shivers and a primal panic in my gut.

All that to say that I like this song despite the band name -- kind of a David Byrne fronting a surf-music-trio vibe. Extremely fresh. Mouthful of Bees is from Minneapolis, and this song is from their 2007 album The End, out now on Afternoon Records.


Maybe We Should Fall In Love
Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers
Here's the first official mp3 released from the Roger Clyne camp for his new album No More Beautiful World, due out March 20. This one has an acoustic Mexican-seashore feel that's a little more relaxed, similar to the reworkings of songs on the Four Unlike Before EP last year. It's fun; it doesn't grab me as unyieldingly as some of the cuts off Americano! but I still like it. Clyne is, of course, relentlessly touring as usual -- starting in the homelands of AZ and CO, then up and down the West Coast in April, and from there . . . everywhere. An excellent show.


Brianstorm
Arctic Monkeys
And finally we have a (non-radio-rip) mp3 of the new tune from Arctic Monkeys off their forthcoming album Favourite Worst Nightmare. It appears to be about someone named Brian who gets top marks for not trying and is apparently both smooth and wet, but other than that I can't translate much. It is, however, relentless from the opening notes and catchy as all get out. I'd expect nothing less from these fresh-faced NME wunderkinds. The much ballyhooed followup to their 2006 album Whatever People Say I Am . . . is due out April 24th on Domino Records, and they just announced a North American tour which, unfortunately, skips the Rocky Mountains completely. Boo to that, but yay to this song. If it doesn't make you dance a bit this Monday morning, then you clearly need some more coffee.