The Tip

23 & 24 (Spring '07)

Super Special Impeachment Double Issue!!!

I'm as shocked as the rest of you. For members of the United States Congress to stand up and enforce the stated will of the electorate—it's as if we're suddenly living in, you know, a representational democracy. And those Articles of Impeachment. Twenty three separate clauses! Crimes against peace. Misrepresenting military intelligence against Iraq. Authorizing illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens. And, my personal favorite: Conspiring to subvert the Geneva Conventions by means of torture.

Can I get a witness?

Even more staggering was the statement made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "The American people now realize that they have elected a loser, a dry drunk who failed at everything he did, a coward and a bully who mistook arrogance for pride, humility for weakness, and poor people for cannon fodder. They've had enough."

Wowza, Nancy. I guess the spine transplant took.

Meanwhile, back at the home office, we're preparing a mix tape worthy of the occasion, something to wake the slumbering conscience, to get the soul jumping. Buckle up, comrades—the road back to national pride is sure to get bumpy...

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• Chuck Brown
• We're About the Business
• (Raw Venture Records, 2007)
• It's been years since I've had my sacrophiliac whacked like this. Chuck is Godfather of Go Go, a wildly syncopated genre intended to bring on pregnancy rather quickly. Imagine G Funk leading a marching band, as remixed by Timbaland.

• Sasha Dobson
• Modern Romance
• (Secret Sun Recordings, 2006)
• Fans of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will recognize the title. Dobson's cover is a slinky revelation. The flaks call her music "a fusion of Brazilian groove, pop, and jazz." But the word fusion always makes me think of Pat Metheny, and then I have to nap. This is sly, effortless music, more ambitious than Norah, but equally addictive.

• The Cliks
• Snakehouse
• (Tommy Boy/Silver Label, 2007)
• The lead singer is named Lucas and dresses in men's suits and sounds like Chrissie Hynde after an especially dismal bender. Actually, scratch that. She has a way better voice than Chrissie. This is snarly, swaggering three-chord rock and roll, perfectly executed, with brooding melodies that stick in the craw like a bad lover.

Guest Tip from the world's sexiest former Hockey Brute, Mr. Steve Morrison:

• The Fratellis
• Costello Music
• (Interscope, 2005)
• If you were ever a fan of the early Eighties punk scene, you need to check The Fratellis out. The trio's back-alley, Glasgow accents and down-and-out lyrics offer an edge that's more Clash than the clever Violent Femmes, although there's a dash of both here. Driving chords and tough-guy poetics.

• Nouvelle Vague
• Nouvelle Vague
• (Peacefrog, 2004)
• What if it were possible to rescue the best of the Eighties New Wave anthems? To recast them in saucy, bossa nova style, sung by French chicks with sexy lips? Could it be that a tune like "This Is Not a Love Song"—once rid of Johnny Rotten's screech—might actually be, like, hot? Mais oui. (Added bonus: the loud moaning in the NV cover of "Too Drunk to F*ck.")/li>

• Wilco
• Sky Blue Sky
• (Nonesuch, 2007)
• Something scary good just happened to Wilco: Jeff Tweedy ate Abbey Road for lunch. The result is a disc to enthrall the rest of us. Gone are the meandering alt-country sound experiments, replaced by lush, yearning songlines, scalding guitar riffs, gorgeous piano fills and, when required, pulsating drum work. Consider me indoctrinated.

Guest Tip from the Good Reverend Alec Wysocker Bubkis:

• Dan Reeder
• Dan Reeder and Sweetheart
• (Oh Boy, 2004 & 2006)
• Dan Reeder builds his own instruments, some of his electronic gear, writes his own songs, plays all the instruments, overdubs all the vocals, and even draws the album covers, so it is only fair that his first album is self-titled. Both "Dan Reeder" and "Sweetheart" make me sigh with their simple, resonant, harmonic beauty. Many of his songs are really songlets—just a chorus, and maybe one verse. They often sound like they were composed on a napkin five minutes before recording, and I mean that in a good way. They are full of humor and wonderfully absurd phrases, like "I drink beer to improve my mind, end all war, improve mankind." Songs like "Food and Pussy" and "Pussy Titty" are raunchy, but in a completely innocent way, if that makes any sense.

• Band Marino
• The Sea and the Beast
• (Street Parade Records, 2007)
• You've got to admire these kiddles. Most of them are barely old enough to drink, and they come from Orlando, but they've self-released a striking debut full of atmospheric pop hoedowns, heavy on banjo and strings. The disc sounds vaguely like the Decembrists, minus those annoying sea shanties. "Every Time I Make a Girl Cry I Know I've Done My Job" is a terrible name for a hit single, but it will obliterate you.

• Good God – A Gospel Funk Hymnal
• Various Artists
• (Numero)
• Lord knows we've got enough scumbags out there laying claim to the mantle of heaven. This is the sort of album designed to restore your faith. Trevor Dandy's "Is There Any Love?" should be played at every White House function from now until Judgment Day.

Guest Tip from bona-fide snake-shooting recording engineer Jessica Thompson:

• Lily Allen
• Alright, Still
• (Regal Records, 2006)
• Non-musical reasons for liking Lily Allen: 1) She tells us via her blog that she quit touring because "mummy and daddy are very rich." 2) In the video for her single "Smile," she hires thugs to scratch her DJ ex-boyfriend's records. 3) She gives bloggers a chance to use the word "mockney." Musical reasons: Her songs are loose, catchy and unselfconsciously trite at times, and they remind me what an uptight goody-two-shoes I've become in the ten years since I was her age.

• CeU
• CeU
• (Six Degrees Records)
• (From the album I Am a Bird, Secretly Canadian, 2005)
• In a few weeks, CeU will be the featured artist at Starbucks, meaning she will sell a gazillion albums. Weirdly, she deserves it. Her music is the perfect antidote to the overcaffeinated Yuppie Nation: a lilting mélange of samba, jazz, and hip hop. Easy listening that doesn't insult your intelligence. Road rage be gone!

Guest Tip from Sopranos PhD and music junkie Evan "The Big Mouse" Rosen:

• Smog
• A River Ain't Too Much To Love (2005) & Supper (2003)
• (Drag City Records)
• Smog is the nom de guerre of Bill Callahan, who's been darkening the doorways of low-fi folk rock for the better part of fifteen years. Through several releases in the Nineties, Callahan developed a rep for atonal angst-ridden navel-gazing. This has probably turned some folks off from sampling his more recent wares. That's too bad, because this is terrific stuff. Callahan's distinctive baritone still gets minimal backing, but these songs are beautifully melodic and full of black humor and expansive images. Definitely more likely to make you contemplate the beauty and fragility of life than your navel.

• Jonah Smith
• Jonah Smith
• (Relix Records, 2006)
• The guy plays a beguiling mixture of roots and pop and blue-eyed soul. Meaning he's a white boy. Which is fine. Just keep pouring on that syrupy Rhodes. Tunage for late in the party, when the slow dancing gives way to slow frottage.

Special I-Pizzle Singles Section...

• "Goodbye"
• The Postmarks
• (From the album by Nelab)
• This is the song placed in a time capsule by that kid attempting capture the essence of dreamy Sixties Pop. One part Beatles, one part Bacharach. You'll listen to it ten times straight, five on your stereo and five in your head.

• "Orange Sky"
• Alexi Murdoch
• (From the album Time Without Consequence)
• A long, hypnotic dreamsong in the tradition of Van Morrison, by way of David Gray. You'll want to do the guy by minute four. I certainly did.

• "Hey Eugene"
• The Pink Martinis
• (From the album Hey Eugene)
• The album itself is one of those noble multi-ethnic journeys, full of Latin flourishes and cribbed Russian. This song is the only thing remotely close to a pop single. It sounds like Natalie Merchant on bliss drugs.