Songs You Need to Download Now!

Go to SPIN.com for samples and links to these tunes, vid clips, and more
1

Blood Red Shoes “YOU BRING ME DOWN” Like the White Stripes in reverse—female singer/

guitarist and male drummer—this U.K. duo’s punky throb is Wire-y and stoic, rather than scuzzy and playful.

2

DJ Donna Summer “EATING CROW” Under his nom de disco, lunatic beat-masher Jason Forrest

swallows Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” and spits out a delirious “beer buzz” breakcore hootenanny.

3M _l3onotonix “BODY LANGUAGE” These Israeli garage-metal road dogs are known for caveman riffage (and ighting stuff on fire). But here, they evolve with melodic bursts and keyboard interludes. L’chaim, bros!

4

Izza Kizza “I’M THE IZZA KIZZA” After Shock Value’s overblown banality, Timbaland discovers the male

Missy we’ve always dreamed of—a bonkers Valdosta, Georgia MC who wants “that Unabomber punany.” Holla!

5

No Age “RIPPED KNEES” The way X and Hüsker Dü were once “hardcore,” this DIY duo take double-

time mosh racket and artfully shape it into their own sophisticated swipe at rock classicism.

6
The Last Shadow Puppets “THE AGE OF THE UNDERS TATEMENT” For his new side project,

Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner takes his tales of “sweaty little tragedies” big-screen—strings, psych guitar, the works.

7

The Tough Alliance “FIRST CLASS RIOT” Coming on like madcap mooks in wife-beaters, this

Swedish duo are, in fact, exceedingly suave, synth-pop party fops, chirping, “Don’t you die yet.” Oh, okay.

8

Teyana Taylor “GOOGLE ME” An impossibly gorgeous and talented 17-year-old Harlem singer

mentored by Pharrell, Taylor may or may not be Kelis’ successor, but she’s definitely worth Googling.

9P _d9acific Division “WOMEN PROBLEMS” Unlike most lovesick MCs, this L.A. trio offer more witty narrative etail than blind, spray-the-room rage over producer Swift’s silky flip of Nancy Wilson’s “Face It Girl, It’s Over.”

10

Chikita Violenta “LAYDOWN” Assisted by Broken Social Scene, this Mexico City quintet offer a

version of their benefactors’ lush, hirsute indie rock that’s actually more shimmery and less jammy.

11

Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong “LUCIO S TARTS FIRES” Also an actor, Lean plays coyly

fey composer Thomas Tallis on The Tudors. Here he portrays coyly fey composer Peter Doherty.

12

Kid Cudi “DAY ’N’ NITE” Over a groggy, ominous electro-clap beat by Dot Da Genius, this personable

Cleveland-born MC sing-raps through a stoned, matter-of-fact loneliness that’s only bearable after dark.

13^1d _w3iskJokke “S TAYING IN” Norwegian retro-disco auteur Joachim Dyrdahl dots this track’s squiggly dubscape ith sly quirks galore—digital congas, horn bursts, shakers, galloping horses, and a fairy-tale keyboard flourish.

14
The Honeydrips “(LACK OF) LOVE WILL TEAR US APAR T” A wobbly bit of regret from Swedish

one-man-band Mikael Carlsson, who enlists vocalist Hanna Göranson to coo over a synth-kissed breakbeat.

15

The Knux “CAPPUCCINO” Hit by a double whammy—Hurricane Katrina and Interscope Records—

this New Orleans pair (shades of the Pharcyde) still drop one of the year’s most playfully infectious singles.

“What Would

We Are Scientists

The Death Set

Feist

Wolves Do?”

What would an astronaut

“Negative Thinking”
“I Feel It All”

wolf do if the hot alien

“After Hours”

The raw, spazzed-out energy

She may not be a one-hit

babes who had been

Ever been set up on a blind

date with a dog? No, literally.

of Baltimore’s the Death Set

wonder, but in this Patrick

partying with him and his

comes across strongest when

Daughters–directed video,

pal all night turned out to

Keith Murray’s devious

you see the way the kids

Leslie Feist again proves that

be evil robot taxidermists?

promise that his hot date’s

react to it. Part hipster lip

she is a one-take wonder.

Bite through his bonds

friend is “reeeally cute,

sync, part Baltimore/Brooklyn

Frolicking in galoshes

and escape, that’s what!

you’re gonna love her!” turns

loft-party footage of sweat-

through a dark field strewn

Even so, with scenes of

prophetic when bandmate

soaked dance madness, this

with spark-spewing oil drums,

drunken, underwear-clad

Chris Cain decides to make

Polaroid-framed, primary-

she uses a big stick to conduct

dancing, Twister, and

the best of the situation and

colored romp (the more

a symphony of fireworks

making out, one wonders

have a little fun with the

recent of the track’s two

timed to the rhythms and

whether the moral of this

pooch. When competitive

videos) grabs punk nostalgia

bells of this softly ecstatic

story is “Never trust sexy

tensions run high, Murray

by the shoulders and pulls it

tune. Why does breaking fire

aliens” or “Good times are

gets his comeuppance.

back into the pit.

laws always look so fun?

Les Savy Fav

worth the danger.”