HOTTEST 100 OF ALL TIME

Greetings, Rose Quartz reader! Do you like music? WAIT. Bad question. Of course you like music, yeah? Better question: do you vomit babies’ tears when you hear Kings Of Leon’s Sex On Fire? ME TOO, OMFG. I just cast my vote in Triple J’s Hottest 100 Of All Time. You should do the same – together, we can affirm how fucking indie we are AND do absolutely nothing to stem the thousands of votes for those darned Followill lads. But at least we won’t be irritating hypocrites when we grumble about the outcome! And who doesn’t love making lists, right?

Download my top 10 songs of all time, RIGHT NOW:

Neutral Milk Hotel – Two Headed Boy
Hot Snakes – Let It Come
Elvis Costello – Waiting For The End Of The World
Gun Club – Sex Beat
Tom Waits – 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought-Six
The Velvet Underground – Candy Says
The Feelies – Fa Cé La
Pixies – Wave Of Mutilation
Dead Kennedys – California Uber Alles
Radiohead – Paranoid Android

Triple J’s an Australian radio station, but why not give it a smash anyway? Neutral Milk Hotel aren’t going to take the top 10 by storm by themselves, folks. Voting closes June 28.

YOU CAN'T CARRY ON LIKE THIS

Obits - Widow Of My Dreams

Obits - Two-Headed Coin

OK, firstly, this wasn’t necessarily in the bag for me. Just because it’s Rick Froberg’s new band and he’s previously been in two of my most favourite bands of all time ever, doesn’t mean they couldn’t suck. John Reis’ Night Marchers did.

Happily, friends, this shit is so fucking RIGHT it’s like John McCain twirling around on the spot forever. One thing that was great about Hot Snakes, apart from everything, was that they were like a litmus test for telling if someone legitimately knew their shit. Same goes for Obits. There is nothing in this music that is trendy in any way. Do not attempt to detect any Tropicalia influence, cavernous reverb, synthesisers or any other hot sound the "blogosphere" (<---WEB 2.0 TERMINOLOGY) is losing its shit over right now. In the same way Froberg & Reis turned down the math-rock post-Drive Like Jehu, I Blame You is more accessible still, with hints of classic R’n’B like The Shangri-Las, plus more expected touchstones, such as Television, Neu! and Michael Yonkers.

Rick Froberg is a straight-talkin’ dude and on Obits’ Sub Pop bio page he says (I guarantee you will see this referenced in every article you read about Obits):

“We’re not into innovation as a band. I think innovation is overrated and an overestimated quality. Anything that’s going to be original is going to happen without your control. Things that make your band sound like you are things you wouldn’t be able to change anyway. We just go ahead and play the stuff we like, and we don’t worry about originality per se, because that takes care of itself.”

Shit yeah. I think I might love you, Rick Froberg. I Blame You is out March 24, but pre-ordering scores you a limited edition Obits lenticular card designed by Rick, so why the heck wouldn’t you?

[Obits MySpace]

[Pre-order I Blame You from Sub Pop]