Song of the Day
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Song of the Day: “Bored In The USA”
Father John Misty is the stage moniker of Joshua Tillman, the erstwhile drummer for indie sensations, Fleet Foxes. The laugh tracks on Father John Misty’s slyly catchy ballad, “Bored In The USA,” begin to appear about halfway through the song.…
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Song of the Day: “John My Beloved”
After the heartbreakingly gentle song, “John My Beloved,” ends, Sufjan Stevens takes a single audible breath. The breath, like many of Stevens’s choices on his revelatory new album, Carrie & Lowell, beckons the listener in by virtue of its strangeness. The…
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Song of the Day: “Soul Deep”
Soul staple Clarence Carter is most famous for his 1968 ballad, “Slip Away,” in which he urges his love to keep their relationship quiet. However, his baritone is anything but quiet on his powerful cover of “Soul Deep,” a song originally…
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Song of the Day: “Grief”
The rapper and elusive lyricist Earl Sweatshirt projects a certain underdog quality. His debut album, Earl, came out in 2010, when he was 16. It garnered him widespread attention, which only multiplied when word spread that his mother had packed him…
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Song of the Day: “‘Cause I’m a Man”
The diversely talented Perth, Australia-based recording artist Kevin Parker is known more widely by his stage name, Tame Impala. Often described as a psychedelic musician for the 21st century, Parker forges albums with traces of electronic and lo-fi, as well as influences from…
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Song of the Day: “Try Me”
The resilient R&B singer Esther Mae Jones adopted the stage name of Little Esther Philips at the age of 14, allegedly taking it from a gas station sign in Los Angeles. She had a rough-and-tumble career, a tumultuous relationship with the…
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Song of the Day: “Shoo Fly Marches On”
The distinctive drum beat behind The Meters’ funky classic “Hey Pocky A-Way” did not originate there. In fact, their influential drummer, Joseph “Ziggy” Modeliste, first came up with the beat when he recorded “Shoo Fly Marches On” for Dr. John’s…
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Song of the Day: “Hey Pocky A-Way”
The loose and infectious melody of “Hey Pocky A-Way” has been covered and re-recorded many times since its first release in 1974 by New Orleans funk heavyweights The Meters. The highly recognizable chorus–which reputedly stems from early Native American dialects…
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Song of the Day: “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo”
Road trip songs occupy a plush seat in the American canon—right underneath the fuzzy dice. They are often harbingers of summer, and “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” is no exception. This prototypical Tribe Called Quest track from their first album features…
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Song of the Day: “Electricity (Drugs)”
The Talking Heads were among a crop of epochal, genre-bending artists that emerged from New York City in the mid-70s. The music scene centered around the famous punk club CBGB, where David Byrne and company opened for The Ramones in 1975.…
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Song of the Day: “Kimberly”
Multi-talented artist and writer Patti Smith has influenced groups disparate as Sonic Youth, R.E.M., and Madonna. Her seminal 1975 album Horses helped to spur the early punk movement in New York City. Smith was an important member of the scene which spawned punk heroes…
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Song of the Day: “Mickey Mouse Boarding House”
Mardi Gras may have been last week, but the good times keep on rolling. New Orleans-based soul artist Walter “Wolfman” Washington knows a thing or two about good times—in his good-humored single “Mickey Mouse Boarding House,” the silky R&B crooner complains…