THE SPIN MIX

Songs You Need to Download Now!

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

1 Cheap Time “PEOPLE TALK” Led by Jeffrey Novak’s bratty sneer and pealing guitar, this Nashville trio (which once featured Be Your Own Pet’s Jemina and Nathan) rock with the nyah-nyah finger wag God intended.

^{2 Janelle Monáe} “^{VIOLET STARS HAPPY HUNTING}” ^{(LIVE AT CRIMINAL RECORDS) Backed by} a bald guy wearing a white piano tie (?!), OutKast affiliate Monáe rips this new-wave, cyber-soul anthem.

3S _s3inkane “AUTOBAHN” Ohio (via the Sudan) multi-instrumentalist Ahmed Gallab dreamed up this transfixing well of headphone-worthy percussion, woozy guitar, twittering flute, jazzy ambience, and boyish indie-rock plaints.

^{4 Violens} “^{VIOLENT SENSATION DESCENDS}” ^{Since these New Yorkers’ former band, Lansing-Dreiden,} was too inscrutable by half, this immaculately organ-wheezing ’60s-pop nugget is a Zombies-level revelation.

^{5 Busdriver} “^{ELLEN DISINGENUOUS}” ^{A one-off single with a crazily skittering electronic pulse and the} L.A. MC’s usual conceptual tongue-trippin’. Key quip: “It’s so strenuous to make her neo-feminism palatable.”

^{6 Charles Hamilton} “^{WHERE’S MY FUCKING GENESIS}” ^{This verbally sprung Harlem MC signed} with Interscope, but for now, he’s still just a kid babbling online about his video-game console.

^{7 Oasis} “^{I WANNA LIVE IN A DREAM IN M Y RECORD MACHINE}” ^{Timeless Noel Gallagher ballad, with} the priceless plea “I want a piece of the world and everyone inside my mouth.”

^{8 Raekwon, feat. Ghostface Killah} “^JIHAD” ^{On-impact classic from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II.} Rae’s science + Ghost’s vulgarity + sly bass line = “Get you a 40 and a pacifier, nigga.”

9F _K9lorence and the Machine “KISS WITH A FIST” A 21-year-old Londoner who sounds exactly like ate Nash, if Kate Nash gulped a gallon of whiskey and set fire to her ex’s futon.

10

Usher “LOVE IN THIS CLUB (MS TRKRF T REMIX)” It’s hard to take Usher or MSTRKRFT seriously as a musical entity, but why would you want to? Just dig the electro sophistry and “Layla” piano jack.

^{11 Mavado} “^{WE NEED BARACK}” ^{The dancehall yardie’s gruff flow inspired Jay-Z to cover his} “^{On the} Rock,” and here he flips it back, shouting out MC Change We Can Believe In.

12

Syclops “WHERE’S JASON’S K” This supposedly Finnish trio, with the production assistance of house maestro Maurice Fulton, convene a staggering, advanced-class exercise in electro dynamics.

131^T

“_F3itus Andronicus “TITUS ANDRONICUS” A heart-pumping philosophy seminar that commences with uck everything” and concludes at “Your life is over!” Best New Jersey indie-rock anthem this side of Ted Leo.

14

Jex Thoth “WHEN THE RAVEN CALLS” Freak-folk ingenue (ex–Wooden Wand) turns ambient-sludge temptress on a cover of underground icon Bobb Trimble’s reckoning for the diseased ’70s.

15

DJ Shadow “SAN FRANCISCO” A Nokia promo, this Bay Area evocation—using sounds recorded on a cell phone—is no mere gimmick. Mixing foghorns, birds, trolley bells, and lotsa drums, it’s a legit masterpiece.

Time Machine
“The Groove That Just
Won’t Stop”
The perfect Saturday jump-
off isn’t just cute girlfriends
in suspenders dancing on
booths in a club, then going
out for late-night diner food.
It’s posing goofily through
all of the above in a stop-
motion montage punctuated
by colorfully rump-shakin’
’70s cartoons. And all great
nights out should have Time
Machine’s beats and good-
time flow as a soundtrack.

Black Lips
“Bad Kids”
This unofficial video by a
British Black Lips fan sets
a track from 2007’s Good
Bad Not Evil to footage of
youngsters rioting, while a
bouncing frowny-face tracks
the lyrics across the bottom
of the screen. Though the
images should be shocking,
the Lips’ delinquent anthem
turns kids flipping cars and
throwing stones at cops
into an absurdly funny ritual.
Ah, youth.

Annuals “ Sore” When both community and family demand loyalty, what’s a dad to do: die honorably or keep himself alive for his wife and child? Using endearingly dated computer animation, this clip features a Mayan warrior on his way to an ill-fated raid. But a miraculous temple explosion solves his dilemma, giving the bewildered survivor a chance to scramble home and rule the (now depleted) tribe his way.

Le Le
“ Breakfast”
With the help of a pitch
adjuster, Euro electro trio
Le Le imitate the growly
dirty talk of an oversexed
playa eyeing a chick so
tasty she’s “looking like
breakfus.” Artist Piet Parra
animates the song’s explicit
cheekiness with a menu of
salaciously dancing zaftig
female forms being
spooned out of cereal
bowls and slurped out of
straws, and having their
breasts tweaked to the
beat. It might be offensive
if it wasn’t so funny.