Let's get it out of the way - that's a gross title. With that said, it's sort of stunning how similar the extreme noise bursts from John Zorn's 1990 album Naked City are to those made by The Locust, Daughters, and the like a decade later. Zorn arrived at this specific sound not through hardcore or metal, but through avant-garde jazz and experimental art rock. The distorted punk riffs on "Igneous" come from generally subdued guitarist Bill Frisell, the vocals from The Boredoms' Yamatsuka Eye. Drummer Joey Baron has played with Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie. The backstory is interesting, the track is punishing. Zorn's alto saxophone squeal at thirteen seconds and the subsequent smash hit harder than any mosh breakdown or dubstep bass drop. It's an acid fueled nightmare set in a Dick Tracy comic. Worry not, for it will all be over soon.
2. The White Stripes - "Little Room"
Jack White is a modern day guitar hero, but his fuzzed-up phrases are absent from "Little Room." The egg of a song from White Blood Cells (still the band's best record, sorry Elephant fans) is all about Meg White's searing cavewoman beat and Jack's oddball vocal technique. Most impressively, Jack uses a thematic blues device that depends on repetition, moves the unnamed character from a cramped little room to a too-big room and back, with time to spare for two verses of onomatopoeias. Even for a band this minimal, "Little Room" is a skeleton of a song. Perhaps that's all that's left after the intensive fat-cutting that made the White Stripes so effective.
1. Animal Collective - "College"
The first half of "College" is gorgeous, all summer harmonies and forest ambience. The song's only lyric: the parentally unapproved "You don't have to go to college" is sublime when it sounds like it's being sung by a barbershop quartet of four Brian Wilsons. Sung Tongs is Animal Collective's first great record, but "College" is the only track that is completely friendly. 'Tis odd how comforting it feels when Animal Collective gives you permission to drop out of school; it sounds like a hand on your twenty-year-old conflicted shoulder. "College" is the best song under a minute because it has a defined arc, an overture and a climax. But most importantly, it uses its brief existence to bring joy in a way that transcends intellectual analysis. For lack of better jargon, it just feels right.
