The Rob Gordon Shuffle, 4.29.07

Photo by David Greenwald

Also known as the Rob Gordon “Not at Coachella” Shuffle. Oh well. Maybe next year.

The Softies – “Holiday in Rhode Island”: mp3
I finally figured this out on guitar the other day after meaning to for years. For those interested: Amaj7, Fmaj7 in the verses, and then G, C, Fmaj7 (3x) Em, Bbmaj7 in the chorus. Major 7th chords are my favorite chords. The Softies are probably my favorite band. There’s a correlation here.

Tiger Trap – “For Sure”: mp3
Ironically, despite being one of the world’s biggest Rose Melberg fans (see above), I never got into Tiger Trap until this week. As promised, they’re totally fantastic — genius, double-time lo-fi indie-pop with Melberg’s incomparable vocals. Even if I prefer hearing her at a much slow BPM, these songs are pretty hard not to love. “For Sure” is totally her Nirvana tribute, jangle and all.

The Zebras – “Worry A Lot”: mp3
If Pedro the Lion had stopped moping around his 4-track in his early days and decided to start making pop records, they’d probably sound a lot like this. The Zebras play sweet, simple, catchy rock songs, the kind that sign leases and move in to the houses in your head. Album came out last year, though I haven’t seen nary a mention of it on the blogosphere. I must be reading the wrong blogs.

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The Rob Gordon Shuffle is a weekly Sunday rundown of fascinating songs without particular regard to genre or timeliness. It is absolutely not a top five. To read further installments, click below.