The 5 Tracks You Need To Know About This Week

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Every week, we are highlighting the rad, the bad and the straight-up sad in music. Check out last week's hip-hop roundup here. --> Download This

“Generals” by The Mynabirds It isn't every retro pop song that can match go-go-boots guitar, hand claps and anti-war protest and make that outfit work, but Laura Burhenn is a girl of style and substance. In "Generals," her Mynabirds sound like they've flown Jackie DeShannon to an OWS rally, as the indie pop auteur takes on the military industrial complex with hookily recast '60s-isms. When she sashays into the half-time chorus, calling on her "revolutionaires" to assemble and even tossing two drop-dead f-bombs in her pop/fatale voice, it’s Chick: 1, Pentagon: 0. Deserves to occupy part of your summer. “Researching the Blues” by Redd Kross The only band ever sued by the Red Cross, the eternal teens return with "Researching the Blues," the title track to the album due in August. It is a nastier than expected stomp, or one about as nasty as you'd expect from a band that's been storing up its gas since they last recorded in 1997. Where young’uns in the genre might come off as self-conscious archivists, Redd Kross have the snotty, snarly disrespect befitting a band that's been rocking the garage since it still had an AMC Pacer in it."No Hope" by The Vaccines You're meant to hate The Vaccines for the same reason you were meant to hate The Strokes: the indefinably smug, affected air of born winners. But that blithe spirit works in "No Hope," with Justin Young tossing out a little Dylan 'tude shot through with Billie Joe Armstrong ennui in a clatter-jangling lament that addresses the young band's rep for self-absorption. It won't shatter any molds for guitar bands, but it's June. Listen and enjoy now, before the music snobs inoculate you. --> See This

“Ekki Múkk” by Sigur Rós --> Skip This

“Cruising California (Bumpin' in My Trunk)" by The Offspring Nothing wrong with getting paid, within reason, although you don't want to descend to the level of a Nicki Minaj and her Venusian Barbie porn. The Offspring out-cheese even her, though, selling out so hard it hurts to even think about the storyboarding of this. Stretching the most elastic possible definition of punk past its breaking point, “Bumpin'” is such a tired tsunami of Cali beach clichés that even the band looks fed up, with Dexter Holland wearily twirling his mic at the end of the vid. Some have tried to claim this as the latest Offspring joke, but “Bumpin’” meets the other definition of "gag." For you, no way. Continue Reading

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