Spector: "Never Fade Away" [Wolfgang Voight Remix]

Not familiar with these Spector cats - their debut album Enjoy It While It Lasts comes out Monday - but I dig what Kompakt honco Wolfgang Voight has done with their single, "Never Fade Away". Through the bouncy techno beat you can make out a new wave-y melody, and from the promo photo above these dudes look like a cross between Rick Astley and INXS. You know what? That could work.

CID RIM: "Draw"

Someone digs them some "In the Air Tonight" air drums... check out the snap on that live percussion. Sounds like God slapping a wet baby on the ass. CID RIM is from the land of Schwarzenneger and, according to XLR8R, he released an album on LuckyMe last week, but damned if I can find any mention of it. Either way, that's obviously the artwork above so if you're willing to do a little more digging I'm sure something will come up.

Tom Waits: "Hell Broke Luce"

Ever wonder what Lulu would have been like if either Lou or Metallica had anything left in the tank? "Hell Broke Luce" presents a more interesting concept: what if Tom Waits replaced Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds, if only for one song? Waits is the anti-Reed, still full of piss and vinegar, never full of himself.

Homeboy Sandman: "Watchu Want From Me?"

Thing that's got Homeboy Sandman tagged as one of my top 3 rappers out there right now is that he's got a gift for wrapping a formidable, tongue twisting flow into catchy as hell beats and choruses. There aren't many singles the guy releases that don't deserve a place on this blog, and since it's been a minute since I've given him his due check out this first leak off of his upcoming Stones Throw debut First of a Living Breed.

[UPDATE 10/24/12: added music video]:

Makoto: "Summer Nights"

This Makoto cat has it in him to be the Japanese Nicolas Jaar, not in terms of a copycat sound but just bringing an enormous amount of technical expertise and sense of space to his work. The whole breezy, chill out summer thing has been done to death but I'm making one more exception for "Summer Nights" because homeboy knows how to program beats.

The Another Generation EP is out August 13 on Apollo.

Witchcraft: "It's Not Because of You"

If "It's Not Because of You" is any indication, Witchcraft have gone light years beyond their early Sabbath / Sir Lord Baltimore worship and are now right in the thick of Queens of the Stone Age / Jack White solo turf. A bluesy yet melancholy strut underpins the jam friendly riffing, Magnus Pelander's soulful vocals eschewing heavy metal conventions altogether for something more egalitarian, more rock.

Legend is out September 25 on Nuclear Blast. In the meantime head over to Metal Injection for my roundup  of Metal Blade's recent reissue campaign.

Passion Pit: "Constant Conversations"

Ever since Quiet is the New Loud indie bands have been tripping over themselves to sound both more ethereal and rarefied than the next guy. Gossamer, y'all, really? That's what Passion Pit are going for with their new album of the same name, but instead of wispy lack of substance we're treated to some genuine, hook-laden pop songcraft. PP were never really the second coming of My Bloody Valentine anyway. Still... that album cover could afford to be a little less Mexican Summer, no?

[UPDATE 11/7/12: added Chrome Canyon remix]:

Talib Kweli: "Push Thru" [feat. Curren$y and Kendrick Lamar]

Just goes to show how quickly the churn is in mainstream hip hop when Talib Kweli is the old guard on his own track. Here he gathers upstarts Curren$y and Kendrick Lamar for one of those classic old soul, world weary feel (kinda) good tunes that Kweli is known for. This is the first of presumably many leaks leading up to Kweli's Prisoner of Conscious [sic] out at an indeterminate date later this year.

Liars: "Brats"

Is it just me or does this sound like something Damon Albarn would have his hand in? Not so much in the music itself - which is Gorillaz-like but only vaguely so - but the vocal cadence has Albarn down pretty pat. Anyway, the video for "Brats" comes off like a first year CAD student dropped a bunch of acid before setting to work on the project he had due for his semester final.

Captain Murphy: "The Ritual"

What an odd way to begin a song. "The Ritual" begins with an extended intro that's basically a straight, unfiltered sample of some old 60's psych pop tune, then shifts entirely into a 70's flute-driven funk backing. Don't even get me started on the strange, tribal movie samples that end the tune.