It’s burning up on the east coast, so this week’s new music update is heading down to where they combat the heat with sweet tea and good songwriting.

The Tejas Brothers bill themselves as Country/Rock/Blues, but they’ve got an accordion that speaks to my polka soul. Going for adds this week is “Boogie Woogie Mamacita.” Let this and a couple cervesas be the backdrop to your summer!

If you’re interested in listening to a guaranteed hit, try Gretchen Wilson’s new single, “The Earrings Song”. Unfortunately, she hasn’t found a new melody since her debut album, but this will please the fans to no end anyway.

Charla Corn is putting together an album by democracy: on her website, fans can “buy into” the album, rate demos, and help choose which songs make the cut. Here’s a video of the making of her single “Break My Heart Tonight”.

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for new releases to hit the racks! (Except at Walmart, they’ll get to it when they get to it.)

Depeche Mode releases their 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe.

Sounds of the Universe

If you like dark humor, bluegrass and country “murder ballads”, you might already know about The Handsome Family. Their new release is Honey Moon. You can hear “When You Whispered” at AV Club.

Cambridge, MA band Chester French releases Love The Future today. They’ve got a solid alt-pop sound that can be both fun and interesting.

Love the Future

Going for adds this week on Top40 radio is Cage the Elephant, with “No Rest For The Wicked”. This hard-touring band from Kentucky evokes the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with this bass-heavy (seriously, listen with good speakers) single.

Aint No Rest For The Wicked – Cage The Elephant

In the “Blast from the Past” category, 60s Italian/country crooner Al Martino has released “Trying to Find My Way” to AC Radio. You can listen to a (very short) preview at CDBaby, and it’s supposed to be on iTunes soon as well.

Finally, released to College radio this week is Booker T’s “Potato Hole”, off the album of the same name (order by 4/21 and get an autographed copy). Booker is backed by the Drive-By Truckers and Neil Young. I couldn’t find a preview anywhere, but Amazon had an interesting video.

Minneapolis-based electro/industrial/gothic band Thought Thieves have a distinct sound that wouldn’t be out of place on Top 40 radio, with lyrics that are worth a listen for grown-ups. Vocalist Mike Johnson’s declaratory style is reminiscent of the B-52s’ Fred Schneider; John Brekken (guitar and keyboards), Ariane Kokes (keyboards), Ryan Deacon (drums) and Jason Fleming (bass) lay out driving, danceable (or mosh-able) beats. Click the link above to listen to their forthcoming EP; iTunes link will be added when it’s available.

Previously, I had reviewed Taylor Hicks’ album The Distance, but did not have the Walmart bonus track, “Hide Nor Hair”. I finally got it, so here are my thoughts.

This song represents exactly what the Soul Patrol wants to hear: a cover of a Ray Charles song, although most of the fans are sure to prefer the live, less-enunciated version, complete with dancing and twitching. (I say that fondly; I would prefer that version, too.) It’s a simple arrangement of organs, drums, funky bass and, right up front as on the rest of the album, Hicks’ vocals. In the middle, he throws in a guitar that straddles country twang and Dick Dale-esque surf rock. I would not be averse to the live version exploring a surf beat for a few minutes. (Hint, hint.)

For those who might wonder, I haven’t played The Distance in its entirety since finishing my review, but the songs do come up frequently on my iTunes randomizer. I keep thinking “Once Upon A Lover” is The Mavericks when it comes up, at least until the vocals kick in. Other than that, many of the songs are slowly growing on me, but I can’t take them all at once. Nothing wrong with that, though!

The San Francisco Symphony and PBS (among others) have created a fun, educational website called Keeping Score. You can learn about music through interactive, multimedia presentations of Beethoven’s Eroica symphony, Stravinsky’s riot-inspiring Rite of Spring, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, and the musical biography of American composer Aaron Copland. As a student of music, I can assure you that my classes would have been much more interesting and fun if these resources had been available!

If you like Toby Lightman, you may enjoy “Butterflies” by Saving Jane, released to AC radio a couple weeks ago. This non-album single is a cheerful pop love song from a very diverse band. Top 40 listeners may already be familiar with their 2006 single “Girl Next Door”, which reached #20 that year; country fans may recall Julie Roberts’ recording of the same year.

Butterflies – Saving Jane

I drove to Atlantic City this past weekend to see David Cook perform from his self-titled album at The Music Box at The Borgata. As an avid American Idol viewer, I already consider myself a fan of the Season 7 winner. I arrived a few minutes late and quickly went over to his merchandise table to grab a t-shirt. When I went inside the Box, I heard his opener, indie rock singer and songwriter Ryan Star, already a few minutes into his set list. I’m not too familiar with Ryan having never watched Rock Star: Supernova. My first impression of him was that he was surprisingly pretty good. I enjoyed the rest of his set especially “Breathe” and “11:59”. I decided to purchase his album Songs from the Eye of an Elephant on the way out and met him in the lobby after the show, where a long line had formed because he was signing his CD.

After a twenty minute break so David’s band could set up, the lights went out and the sold-out crowd rose to their feet waiting for a glimpse of the main event. David was on stage with his guitar and he opened with “Heroes”. David was wearing a black and white patterned short sleeve button up shirt with black pants and boots. He had on an orange bracelet, and it doesn’t seem like he is traveling with a hairstylist as his hair looked like he just got out of bed. Next he sang a song he co-wrote called “We’re Only Honest When We’re Sleeping”, with these lyrics:

You’re a broken thing
Your cracks are showing through
Your best attempts
At making nice with the world
So keep on dreaming
Cause someday soon the things that keep you up late
Will fade away
Or so I’ve heard

I really like the lyrics for this song and as he co-wrote 10 out of the 12 tracks on his latest album, I am very impressed with his song-writing ability. Now is clearly his time, but it is a little hard to fathom why we hadn’t heard his name before this reality show. He went on to sing four songs not on his new album, including the Collective Soul cover “The World I Know.” He paused to let the crowd know that the next song was very close to his heart, and he started to sing “Permanent”, which he co-wrote about his brother Adam who is currently battling brain cancer. It was now incredibly quiet as the crowd focused on him and the words seemed to pour right from his soul.

He picked up the mood a little and sang “Declaration,” his newly released single “Come Back to Me” and his first single off the album called, “Light On”. He asked the crowd to help him with the words to “Light On” because sometimes he forgets. He got a few sympathy laughs and everyone seemed happy to oblige. He asked if anyone in the audience had been at the Friday night show and it seemed by the cheers that at least half of them had been. There were glow sticks galore in the crowd and he had a brief conversation with a nine year old girl in the front row who was smiling from ear to ear after he signed her CD. Someone threw a dog collar onto the stage and he went over and picked it up. He explained to people that were seeing him live for the first time that he now has a collection of collars and he really has no explanation for why this started happening. He thanked everyone and said Goodbye and threw out some guitar picks, but everyone seemed to know he wouldn’t be gone for long.

He came out again after a very brief absence and sang “Barbasol.” His band was just incredible and they seem to have great chemistry. Before the next song, “Hot for Teacher” a Van Halen cover song, he introduced them all and they waved to the crowd. He finished for real this time with “Daily Anthem”, which he mentioned was written before his Idol experience. If I had to sum up the whole night in one word it would probably be “effortless.” He came on that stage and just did was seems so natural to him. His album has gone platinum already and if you decide to go and pick it up, you will be glad you did. I plan on going to see him again this summer when he takes part in Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA in August.

Amadou & Miriam have been making music together since 1976. Their latest release, “Welcome to Mali”, dropped today. Their sound is a mix of Afro-folk melodies and rhythms and pop beats. Lyrics are a mix of English and French, but you don’t need to understand the words to enjoy the music! See amadou-mariam.com for more information (French only).

I have long enjoyed my copy of The Fireman’s 1998 release Rushes, which is relaxingly ambient and a bit sexy, so when I discovered last December that they had a new release, I put it on my Christmas list. Santa obliged me, and I found Electric Arguments under the tree.

To my surprise and pleasure, vocals are to the forefront on Electric Arguments. To be specific, they are mostly Paul McCartney’s vocals; he has worked with UK musician Youth as The Fireman since 1993. The tracks are also in a more traditional “song” format than in previous releases. As a longtime McCartney fan, I get the distinct feeling that he is now using The Fireman to release songs he doesn’t feel confident releasing under his own name (even though everyone who listens to The Fireman knows it’s him), as they might not fit what longtime pop-Paul fans like. They are, overall, experimental as compared to his recent solo releases; however, as far as quality, Electric Arguments is at minimum on par with Chaos And Creation In The Backyard and completely blows away Memory Almost Full.

The first single, “Sing the Changes”, is easily my favorite track. The somewhat exotic intro gives way to what I can best describe as a “pop chant”. There is almost no melodic movement, the lyrics are repeated ad nauseam, but it is catchy and I always find myself bopping along to the beat. The video is at right. “Sun Is Shining” is more dynamic but still gives me the same happy feeling. There is a lot of uplifting on this album.

The Fireman have used a bit of harmonica in this release as well, not an instrument that I can recall McCartney using previously (maybe on “Run Devil Run”, a retro rock album). It lends a bluesy tone to “Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight” and “Highway”. Where “Nothing Too Much” is a more ambient jam, “Highway” is a blues-rock number that reminds me of several popular early-80s blues bands. The exploration of American niche genres continues with “Light From Your Lighthouse”, a jugband hymn that could easily be re-arranged into a modern worship song.

For those who do love a little dance and/or ambient, skip to the end of the album. “Is This Love”, “Lovers In A Dream”, “Universal Here, Everlasting Now”, and “Don’t Stop Running” are quite enjoyable and make an excellent backdrop for a run around the neighborhood (totaling over 26 minutes, they’re perfect for my short laps). “Don’t Stop Running” actually contains a “hidden” track after a lengthy pause; the last two minutes consist of a bit of spacey synthesized fun.

Overall, there isn’t a track on Electric Arguments that I don’t like. This isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you’re up for a bit of trip (the acid kind) it’s definitely worth checking out.