Hey, hey gentlepeople! I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but look out your window! IT’S SNOWING!!! (Or at least it was when I wrote this…) Hooray! Personally, I loathe the winter. The cold makes me all sleepy and misanthropic, but I do love the first big snowstorm of the year. I’m so excited to go out and take pictures, and frolic with my friends, and make a SnOwbama! Cannot wait! Of course, tomorrow when it all freezes over, Mother Nature can bite my bird, but let’s not think about that right now. Let’s think about frolicking and SnOwbamas and wonderful music, for the snow has not kept your humble TNG staff from its appointed rounds! Like we do every Tuesday, we have compiled a little list for you of the music we’ve been listening to over the course of this past week and enjoying very much, thank you. Hopefully, when we’re through with you, you’ll feel the same. On the menu this week we’ve got: Camera Obscura, Guns N’ Roses, Bon Iver, Escape Club, Charlotte Sometimes, Passion Pit, Dark Captain Light Captain, and Panic At the Disco.

It all awaits you after the jump. And tomorrow? What else? The mixtape! Stay tuned…

Camera Obscura—”I Need All The Friends I Can Get”

The jangling guitar & hazy-honey voice of Tracyanne Campbell are kind of like an after-dinner mint: the perfect balance of sweet and refreshing. Traditional twee-pop, Camera Obscura is often compared (and lumped) with Belle & Sebastian, but the band’s dulcet lyrics are just shy of the innocent bubblegum pop of its fellow Glasgow group. I think it’s the humbling reality found in this song, hinting at a clairvoyant veracity, that gets me no matter how many times I listen to it. – Maggie

Guns N’ Roses—”Patience”

I really want to say something about the new GNR album, Chinese Democracy, which I listened to today, but I really didn’t hear a song that l liked very much, so I became impatient and just listened to some of their classics instead. I like the end of “Patience” when he stops singing softly and gets all scratchy and Axl-Rosey. – Ben

Bon Iver—”Blood Bank”

I heard this song, the first of four off of Bon Iver’s Blood Bank EP, which was just released on the 20th, on the radio at work on Friday and couldn’t get it out of my head. When I got home, I found it online and have been playing it pretty much non-stop all weekend long. Like all of Justin Vernon’s work, this song is haunting and beautiful and totally winter-appropriate (“then the snow started falling/we were stuck out in your car/you were rubbing both my hands/chewing on a candy bar”). I have yet to check out the rest of the EP, but “Blood Bank” is some quality, melancholy winter listening. – Jolly

Escape Club—Dollars and Sex

When I reviewed Escape Club’s first album, Wild, Wild West in WWLT, I said that I liked it so much that I was going to track down their follow-up, Dollars and Sex. So I did, and it’s good—although not as good as Wild, Wild West—but it has what may be the greatest disturbed ‘80s love song of all time. I think “The Edge of Your Bed” edges out The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” (“Every move you make / Every step you take / I’ll be watching you”) and Chicago’s “Niagara Falls” (“At the moment of truth, whoever you’re loving, you will be thinking of me”) to take first place. How can you top an obvious stalker watching his beloved’s window from the sidewalk and declaring “All I need is a night with you / Do all the things that I want to do / All I need is some water and bread / Then I can stay all night / On the edge of your bed”? The answer: you can’t. Escape Club wins the award for “Creepiest Love Song of the ‘80s.” – Philip

Charlotte Sometimes—Waves & the Both of Us

For me, the most appealing acts are the ones that seem to do whatever the fuck they want. Charlotte Sometimes, at 21 years old, accomplishes this in her debut. The first single is a pop punk take on Cypress Hill’s “How I Could Just Kill A Man,” which was the first indication for me. And how can you beat a song titled “Sweet Valium High” that leads in with a twisted variation of “Pomp and Circumstance”? Feminine power lyrics are literally music to my ears, and these do not disappoint: “Do you want it? / ‘Cause when you fuck me / You are loving me and I am owning you.” Did I mention she does it all dressed as a ’50s housewife? – Corey

Passion Pit—Chunk of Change EP

I am generally predisposed to disliking a CD that started out as an aural valentine to it’s writers girlfriend, but this one won me over. You would also think I would avoid a disc whose first track contains the refrain “Can’t you see me CRYING…. Tears like DIAMONDS” but that got to me too. And if I told you a band sounded like Hot Chip without the smirk and Postal Service without the Emo, I’d usually go running for the hills. Yet I’ve had this one on repeat for two weeks and I already have tickets to see them at the Black Cat on Feb. 3rd. Go figure. – Zack

Dark Captain Light Captain—Miracle Kicker

This band’s name speaks volumes for what the music sounds like: Dark in key, light in timbre. This record takes the listener through a field of daisies at dusk. Breathy male vocals with great harmonies and gently picked guitars are laid over a background of piano, soft drums and wavering sound effects to great effect. Stand-out tracks include “Jealous Enemies” and “Speak.” This record is definitely something you could play while riding in the car with your mom. But who knows: my mom found Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Session offensive – Michael

Panic At the Disco—Pretty. Odd.

So I’ve had Panic At the Disco filed under “Pop-Emo Bullshit That the Kids Listen To” for some time now. I hate Emo. The whining makes my soul cringe (Fall Out Boy) and, by and large, the lyrics have this tendency to make me want to hurt small animals. (Why, yes that is squirrel blood on your hands, Dashboard Confessional.) But I guess I turned a corner this past weekend. You see, I’ve been living a secret double life in my living room as a kick-ass Rock Band drummer for the past few months and last Friday, my roommate and I were on tour and we had to play “Nine in the Afternoon,” the big single off this particular album. Well, it’s very easy on the drums (and I was playing on medium; don’t hate), so, for the first time, I actually listened to the song, and, after a while, it was like, “Aw, remember college? And hallucinogens? Those are cute lyrics. Oh, and listen to that lovely, soaring string section. And the horns! So bright and jolly!” And that’s when I realized I liked Panic At the Disco. A lot. So I downloaded the whole album and it’s honestly really lovely and not whiny and great for getting rid of those winter blues. It aspires to be kind of an Emo version of Sgt. Pepper which… is cute, but no. Lofty ambitions aside, however, it is a very fun, very unexpected pop record. I hate it when the tweens are right. – Rocky

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