Too Close for Comfort*...?

Is Wayne Coyne a Cat Stevens fan?

I was at a friend's house this afternoon, helping assemble a crib and bassinette for their soon-to-be-born baby. While we worked, my friend had Rhapsody playing throughout the house, cranking a playlist of his favorite music.

One of the songs he played was Cat Stevens' "Father and Son," the chorus of which sounded similar to another song I couldn't place. After much brain-wracking, I realized that The Flaming Lips' song "Fight Test" sounded similar -- a little TOO similar, if you know what I mean. Click here to compare and contrast.

* I couldn't resist a chance to reference beloved (by me anyway) 1980s sitcom Too Close for Comfort.

Movie Script Ending: a Death Cab for Cutie retrospective

This week, Rhapsody added a new single from Death Cab for Cutie's forthcoming album, Plans. As greasy-haired hipsters and doe-eyed fans of The OC await the band's first album in two years, I thought it might be interesting to take a stroll through the band's back catalogue to hear the songs that started it all. Click here for a sampler of some of my favorites.

Song of the day: Monster Movie/"4th and Pine"

No sooner do I complain about Monster Movie's first album, Last Night Something Happened, being unavailable on Rhapsody does the album appear. Monster Movie are a UK shoegaze band signed to the Clairecords label. As I've written before, I like their music quite a bit, but this album is my favorite of the stuff they've released. Click here to check out my song of the day, "4th And Pine," as well as a couple of my other picks from the album, including the sad "Waiting" and even more languid "Shortwave." Enjoy.

Song of the day: The Spinto Band/"Late"

Today I'm taking a break from heaping effusive praise on obscure shoegaze bands to heap effusive praise on a no less obscure but incredibly good group, The Spinto Band. I've been exploring their debut album, Nice and Nicely Done, since it came out in June on Bar/None Records. It's got a lot of winners in my book, including "Oh Mandy" (which I've mentioned before) and "Crack the Whip." The latest song to catch my fancy is "Late," a rollicking pop song that builds and builds to some great guitar work two and a half minutes in. Enjoy the music.

Song of the day: Colfax Abbey/"Snowshine"

I feel like lately all I've been posting about is shoegaze music, and today's no different. While searching around for music by Japanese band Sugar Plant, I found a compilation that included a song by underappreciated U.S. shoegaze group Colfax Abbey, a Minneapolis group who recorded some of this country's best and dreamiest music in the mid-1990s. The band's debut album was produced by Keith Cleversly, who has also produced Flaming Lips and Spiritualized, and Ed Ackerson of the band Polara. Click here to check out the song "Snowshine" off of the band's first album, Drop. It's all the group has available in Rhapsody, but it's enough.