NOVEMBER - 60 Songs in 30 Days

It's my pledge for the month of November: I will bring you 60 songs in 30 days. That's a guarantee. If I don't, you can have your money back. Since I'm already into Day 2 of the month, I'm dishing out 5 songs today. The same will go for the rest of the month. If I miss 3 days of posting, I'll have to make up for it by posting 6 songs at once. If I nap through the entire month, I'll have to post 55 more songs by the 30th.

I really only have one favor to ask in return. I'm just setting up the Drastic Plastic Ebay store, where my store will be peddling all kinds of punk rock/classic rock t-shirts in the next month or two. I would really love for this thing to be successful, both for the store and so it makes me look good to my boss. If you have any time in the coming weeks, please venture over to our Ebay store and check out our shirts (and a couple of CDs, DVDs, toys, etc.). Right now there's a lot of Ramones, along with some others (Bad Brains, Cro-Mags, Velvet Underground, etc.). By next week, there should be around 100 shirts available, a lot of which you can't even get in our store. If you know anyone who needs a good rock tee for Christmas, please consider us.

Now, on to your free music:

"Dramamine" by SUN KIL MOON: If you haven't seen me post about them here before, SUN KIL MOON is the new band for Red House Painters frontman Mark
Kozelek, who ran into all kinds of record label trouble with the Painters back in the late 1990s, when they had signed to an arm of Island records before the label folded and kept one of his band's albums -- and his contract -- on hold for 4 years.

While his band was in limbo, he continued to record solo projects. At one point, Kozelek came out with an album of AC/DC covers, completely reimagined and almost unrecognizeable in comparison with the original versions. He did a great job with that in Red House Painters as well, doing retooled covers from Simon & Garfunkel, KISSs Ace Frehley, Paul McCartney, The Cars, Yes and more.

As he headed in a slightly different direction, he changed the band name and Sun Kil Moon was born. That band's newest album, "Tiny Cities," is another album of covers. This time around, Kozelek uses the words and music of Issac Brock/Modest Mouse. Some of the melodies are still there, some of them are completely changed, and some just seem familiar when they might not be. "Dramamine" is probably the song on "TINY CITIES" that sounds the most like the original.

"Pancho Villa" by SUN KIL MOON: This track is from the first Sun Kil Moon album, "GHOSTS OF THE GREAT HIGHWAY." This is probably my favorite song on that record. Those lifting strings near the end -- right before that flamenco-style guitar solo -- always put me in a good mood.

"All Mixed Up" by RED HOUSE PAINTERS: Here's another example of Kozelek's cover skillz. This one is a Cars song, and if you've ever heard the original, you'd know what a departure this is from that songs blippy, off kilter weirdness. This song was used in a Gap Christmas ad years ago.

"If You Want Blood" by MARK KOZELEK: If the 2 other covers in today's post haven't proven it already, this track should prove my point that the guy can remold any song and give it a whole new meaning. This song is from Kozelek's album of AC/DC covers, called "WHAT'S NEXT TO THE MOON." Here, take a listen to the old Bon Scott AC/DC original version and compare the two.


FOR MORE ON TONIGHT'S POST:
- Check out more info on the band at their official site. There are a ton of links to articles in the Press section on RHP, SKM and Kozelek.
- Pitchfork gave "Ghosts of the Great Highway" an 8.6. Read about it here.
- Kozelek has appeared in three movies, including the upcoming Steve Martin movie, "Shopgirl." Here's his profile at IMDB.com.