Entertainment
Lowell Cloud 69
your cheat sheet to the best new songs of the week.
With scattershot percussion, a sneak-attack chorus, and room-rattling low-end, "Cloud 69" is that friend who peer pressures you to take shots with her but then holds your hair while you puke all night. MELISSA GIANNINI
Cher Horowitz may have broadened the vocabulary of pre-teen girls everywhere by introducing Valley girl quips like "as if" and "whatever" when Clueless came out in 1995; but one line--"I was surfing the crimson wave; I had to haul ass to the ladies'"--made the biggest impression on me at the time. "What's a 'crimson wave'?" I asked my mom. (Awkward.) Fast-forward 19 years (oh my God, has it really been that long?!) and here we have Tacocat (named after my two favorite things), a quartet of misfits hailing from Seattle who wrote a song about when Aunt Flo comes to visit, appropriately titled "Crimson Wave." The song mouths off catchy riot grrrl lyrics like, "That time, that time of the month" and "All I want to do is listen to The Cramps on my stereo" (get it?) in a '90s-revival surf jam reminiscent of All Girl Summer Fun Band and Veruca Salt. "I've waited my whole life for this song," someone wrote on the song's Soundcloud page. Me too. JADE TAYLOR
Kelly Sweet - "In the Air Tonight" (Phil Collins cover)
Phil Collins's early-'80s intense moment is given the pitch-black nightclub treatment it never knew it needed in this mesmerizing, Annie Lennox-conjuring cover by synth addict Kelly Sweet. Thankfully, the best electronic drumroll in all of recorded musical history managed to survive this remix. MG
There's something undeniably filmic (or at least Tarantino-esque) about this upbeat yet creepy number by Parisian duo Juniore--it's quite possibly the most subtle mashup of spaghetti Western, surf rock, and '60s French pop ever. MG
Weekend - "Red Planes" ('81 Demo)
For the post-punk fanatic, the masses of late-'70s/early-'80s recordings to wade through can feel a bit overwhelming at times, especially when a previously unheralded gem resurfaces every six months or so. But the vinyl release of 1981 demos by Weekend (featuring Young Marble Giants' Alison Statton) is big news. One of the highlights, "Red Planes," features the same rubber ball beats as YMG's classic "Searching for Mr. Right," as well as soothing strings, which push and pull between anxiety-inducing and meditative for 8:55 glorious minutes. MG
