Deadshirt

Introducing Deadshirt.net’s new weekly feature Deadshirt Is Listening… Bringing you a rundown our staff’s and guest contributors’ favorite new tracks released in the past week after they’ve had the weekend to blast them in their cars, in a club, or alone in their rooms. So, without further ado…

Sam Paxton is pining over:

“The Moon Song”
Karen O & Ezra Koenig
Her (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Indie/Folk

Karen O’s Academy Award-nominated song from Her got an update this week when the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman dropped a new version of the track just in time for Valentines Day. “The Moon Song,” framed in the film as a twee ukulele duet between Scarlett Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix, was re-recorded with Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. O’s demure, half-whispered vocals mesh perfectly with Koenig’s, who’s more restrained here than you’ve probably ever heard him. It’s a lovely, romantic affair, with both singer’s voices gently lilting over acoustic guitar and plinking piano.

Dominic Griffin is body rocking to:

“Drunk In Love (Remix) (Featuring Kanye West & JAY Z)”
Beyoncé
Hip Hop/R&B

“You won’t ever need another lover / Cuz you’re a MILF and I’m a motherfucker.” Kanye hasn’t hijacked a Beyoncé single this flagrantly since he hopped on the “Ego” remix with an entire verse about his penis. As if the First Couple of popular music’s D’Usse soaked ode to inebriated fornication wasn’t TMI enough, Yeezus crashes the party to spit some Boner Jams bars over a modified instrumental from G.O.O.D. Music cohort Mike Dean, ostensibly to show his big brother how to REALLY stunt with your lady. Beyoncé may be the Queen of the Universe, but Kim Kardashian is the apple of Kanye’s eye, and as goofy and vulgar as his rhymes are here, there’s a sincerity to them that is intoxicating, an interesting contrast to the relative calculation of the Carter-Knowles dynasty.

“No More (Featuring Jeremih)”
Shlohmo
No More EP
R&B

Speaking of boning, I think I’ve found the perfect soundtrack to having a vodka fueled quickie in an ill-equipped Sochi restroom. Criminally underrated R&B crooner Jeremih’s world first blended with beatmaker Shlohmo’s when the latter remixed the former’s amazing slow jam “Fuck U All The Time.” Last year, they collaborated on a one off single, “Bo Peep (Do U Right.” Here, they’ve reunited for the first single from an EP together. Jeremih’s pliable vocal ability has always been particularly well suited to experimentation, so Shlohmo’s specific brand of sexually charged dissonance creates a powerful sense of sweaty intimacy, of urgency, of borderline nauseating necessity. There’s something unsettling and filthy about this song, but something infectious holds it together.

Julian Ames is groovin’ to:

“Do I Wanna Know?” (Arctic Monkeys cover)
Chvrches
Synthpop

Anyone who follows our music reviews knows of my love affair with the Scottish group Chvrches. For about a year, I’ve been extolling the trio to any and all who are willing to listen. After the release of their debut album, the band has been on sort of a victory lap – or, I guess, the standard tour support and press circuit,  all the while they’ve managed to give us some more music in the form of some surprising covers. After delivering solid covers of Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope” for a Billboard tribute, and Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” for the Vampire Academy soundtrack, this week Chvrches appeared on Australia’s Triple J radio station and did a masterful reworking of Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know?” Using their characteristic icy synths and arpeggios, the group transformed one of 2013’s hottest guitar licks into something a bit cooler. At the end of the video, the band briefly describes their process for reworking songs, it’s definitely worth checking out.

“Delorean Dynamite”
Todd Terje
It’s Album Time
Nu Disco

There are few things as quintessentially 80’s as the DeLorean – so it’s only fitting that this track, which takes us on a sonic journey back in time, would use the iconic car’s name. As I’ve recently been discovering, taking sounds that we may think we remember from the 80’s and turning them into dancefloor jams is the bread and butter of the Nu Disco genre. And on “Delorean Dynamite,” Terje takes a lot of those sounds and creates a flawless 80’s pastiche. On this song he throws in everything from the arpeggios and click in the beginning, to the synth melodic line and the chorus-y guitars that come in towards the middle, adding them in one by one, eventually creating a pretty massive track. “Delorean Dynamite” is a lot of fun and great for playing on a dancefloor or driving around a city at night admiring the neon skyline. If you like what you hear, you can pick up Todd Terje’s album, It’s Album Time, when it drops on April 8.

Dylan Roth is disappearing into:

“Gasoline Bride”
Nicole Atkins
Slow Phaser
Rock/Pop

New Jersey-based singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins has always defied a strict genre classification – she’s moody and orchestral one album, bouncy and poppy the next, then more trippy and rock n’ roll – but the one thing all of her music has in common is that it’s bold and cinematic. She’s got her own name for what she does – “pop noir.” While she’s capable of a lot of different sounds and moods, Nicole Atkins is at her best when she makes you feel like you’re floating underwater. Listen to “Gasoline Bride,” off her new album Slow Phaser, and then go blow-dry your hair.

That’s what we’ve been listening to, how about you? Tell us what new music you’ve come across down in the comments section or on our Facebook page!