May 1, 2009

The Mixtape 5/1/09: Pop Goes the Mixtape

Take the singer of "Mmmbop," the guy who drummed on "I Want You To Want Me" and "Surrender" plus the dude who wrote "Stacy's Mom" and throw them together with an ex-Smashing Pumpkin guitarist and you have a love-it-or-hate-it crunchy pop experiment that will either soundtrack your spring and summer or drive you completely mad. We here at the Mixtape are all grins with Tinted Windows' self-titled debut. Lead track, "Kind Of a Girl" is the week's highest new entry at 19, just nine spots ahead of another piece of pop perfection - The Flaming Lips cover of Madonna's "Borderline."

Both tracks uphold the pop aesthetic that seems to be, for the most part, missing a mainstream music scene obsessed with by-the-numbers hip-hop shlock and Disney twee-turds. "Kind Of a Girl" doesn't reinvent the wheel, just clean it up so nice and shinythat you can see your reflection singing "oh whoa whoa" right along with Taylor Hanson. The song strives to be a three-minute blast of ear candy ala 70's power pop luminaries Sweet, Cheap Trick and Badfinger and it succeeds by not taking itself too seriously. This semi-super group has one goal only - to put smiles on your faces. Ok, maybe they're in it for the money - greedy bastards - but I'd like to think it's about filling a niche sorely missing in the contemporary music landscape with catchy melodies and choruses that will be stuck on repeat in your head for days to come.

The Lips, on the other hand, are totally reinventing a classic (yes, Madonna is now classic pop) song as they twist guitar and hi-hats around each other in a jammed-out sound collage that amazingly keeps Madonna's original melody intact. Wayne Coyne's falsetto fits their take perfectly, infusing a vulnerability into a song that spends its first minute in a sea of blips and bloops - Coyne's own twisted take on an elongated intro. The song builds nicely as falsetto and synths make room for pulsating bass beats and cymbal crashes before the whole thing devolves into an orgy of noise; a sweet sweet orgy of noise. Why can't all cover songs be this good?

Silversun Pickups keep the top spot for a fifth week with "Panic Switch" as their other top-ten single, "It's Nice to Know You Work Alone" moves up to #7. Ben Harper moves up from 24-15 in his second week on the 'tape while Cursive jumps from 35-24 in their second week. The biggest moves come from the hip-hoppers though. Wale flies up from 30-11 and Clipse crack the top-ten at #9, up from last week's debut at 20.


  1. Panic Switch / Silversun Pickups (5 weeks @ #1) iTunes MySpace
  2. Buddy / Iran iTunes MySpace
  3. Seaside / Kestrels iTunes MySpace
  4. Houses / Great Northern iTunes MySpace
  5. Zero / Yeah Yeah Yeahs iTunes MySpace
  6. Rain On/ Woods iTunes MySpace
  7. It's Nice to Know You Work Alone / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
  8. Now We Can See / The Thermals iTunes MySpace
  9. Kinda Like a Big Deal / Clipse ft. Kanye West iTunes MySpace
  10. Cheerleader / Grizzly Bear iTunes MySpace
  11. Chillin' / Wale ft. Lady Gaga iTunes MySpace
  12. Now I'm a Fool / Eagles of Death Metal iTunes MySpace
  13. Cemetery Songs / The Archibalds iTunes MySpace
  14. Pulling On a Line / Great Lake Swimmers iTunes MySpace
  15. Shimmer and Shine / Ben Harper & the Relentless 7 iTunes MySpace
  16. Night Lights / Golden Bear iTunes MySpace
  17. Statues / Clap Your Hands Say Yeah iTunes MySpace
  18. The Rake's Song / The Decemberists iTunes MySpace
  19. Kind of a Girl / Tinted Windows (NEW) iTunes MySpace
  20. I Was Once a Loyal Lover / Death Cab For Cutie iTunes MySpace
  21. Oblivion / Mastodon iTunes MySpace
  22. Little Bribes / Death Cab For Cutie iTunes MySpace
  23. Ghetto Love / Spinnerette iTunes MySpace
  24. From the Hips / Cursive iTunes MySpace
  25. Who's Asking? / Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band iTunes MySpace
  26. My Maudlin Career / Camera Obscura iTunes MySpace
  27. My Girls / Animal Collective iTunes MySpace
  28. Borderline/ Flaming Lips (NEW) iTunes MySpace
  29. When I Died / The Thermals iTunes MySpace
  30. On My Way / Billy Boy on Poison iTunes MySpace
  31. Pennies / The Cool Kids iTunes MySpace
  32. Just Impolite / Plushgun iTunes MySpace
  33. Perfect Games / The Broken West iTunes MySpace
  34. Mt. / Super Furry Animals iTunes MySpace
  35. The Box / The 1990s iTunes MySpace
  36. Know Your Enemy / Green Day iTunes MySpace
  37. Providence, RI / Nickel Eye iTunes MySpace
  38. Whorses / Tweak Bird iTunes MySpace
  39. French Navy/ Camera Obscura (NEW) iTunes MySpace
  40. The Letter/ The Veils (NEW) iTunes MySpace

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