There’s nothing like good new music to get me happy and out of the doldrums.

Grandaddy – Now It’s On. The first single from their forthcoming CD “Sumday.” I saw them open for Coldplay in Chicago in June of 2001 and was pleasantly surprised by their style…kind of sound effect-infused, vaguely gimmicky alt-rock if that makes any sense. They don’t sound like Pink Floyd per se, but I imagine Jason Lytle (who writes all their stuff) must be a big fan. This song has just a very basic guitar riff that everything’s built to around…plus some cool little Atari sound effects thrown in that in a strange way add a lot. If you like this song, also try “He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot” off The Sophtware Slump. “Bust the lock off the front door / Once you’re outside you won’t want to hide anymore / Light the light on the front porch / Once it’s on you never want to turn it off anymore...”

Kent – Kärleken Väntor, Pärlor. Two more songs off their newest CD, Vapen och Ammunition, which I will probably shell out the import-inflated price tag of 22 bucks for pretty soon. I would put this band in the same category as Garbage—not that they sound a lot alike, but I generally like most all of Garbage’s songs, and I would say that I really like 75% of the Kent songs I’ve heard so far (pretty unreal percentage for someone like me). We’ll see if they translate this album into English as they did with Isola (1998) and Hagnesta Hill (2000), but I really don’t differentiate much between the English/Swedish versions: Swedish sounds nicer, but the English I can sing along to. Great band.

Radiohead – There There. So I was driving in the car with Schrades and this song came on the radio and did absolutely nothing for him, and I can see if the first couple minutes of the song aren’t too invigorating, but the last two minutes are really amazing to me. Interesting live performance because they start out with Ed (rhythm guitar) and Jonny (lead guitar) playing drums along with Phil (the regular drummer). Then at 3:15 Jonny switches to electric guitar and it gets going. At 3:55 there’s a great drum flourish and it gets even better. Some cool lyrics, I like “We are accidents waiting to happen” a little more than "Just ‘cause you feel it, doesn’t mean it’s there.”

Collective Soul – Needs. This is actually from Dosage, so it’s a couple albums old, but I sort of rediscovered it last week. Collective Soul sometimes goes overboard with their string arrangements and smarmy balladeering, but here it actually works.

Caesar’s Palace – Jerk It Out. Imagine if Smashmouth’s tour bus was demolished by a train (an unlikely but good thing), and the band was reincarnated as a real band (unlikelier still). I think they would write this song, and you would like it. I just hope by
”jerk it out” they don’t mean “whip it out.” Best part (2:05-2:32): "Cause it’s easy, once you know how it’s done / You can’t stop now, it’s already begun / You feel it runnin’ through your bones…and you jerk it out." Damn, they probably should have just called it “Whip It Out.”

All-American Rejects – Swing Swing. OK, I would normally hate any band that probably idolizes Blink 182, but there’s something about this song. I’ll probably delete it in a few months.