That's enough of that...! Here's some things I've liked (and kind of liked) recently, you know, in case you thought I'd turned into a total crumudegeon!

Richard X's "Finest Dreams" featuring Kelis is about the most danceable thing I've heard in ages -- it's available at No Frontin' Just Music. There's some other great tracks in that post as well, including gems from Orange Juice and Mission of Burma, Antony & the Johnsons, and the Three Six Mafia. Sparklingly eclectic taste is always a plus in my book. The other greatest song of the past six months or so (give or take a few weeks) is DraculaZombieUSA's "Thomas Window Paine," which is featured this week on Matthew "Fluxblog" Perpetua's Hit Refresh column at the AP's ASAP website.

DJ sets: An especially nice set from Audioporno is available at BigStereo (they're rapidly becoming a favorite daily read...). Also found out and about, an archive of sets from NYC pop y rock en Espanol party Nacotheque. Que magnifico!

There's a new Thermals song up on their MySpace page... I'm not sure it matches the quality of their earlier work, though... New album due out on SubPop in August. However, Jarvis Cocker's new track available on his MySpace page, "Running the World" is, for lack of a better term, a protest song in the Pulp mode -- that is to say, world-weary social commentary through a fisheye lens -- that is to say, classic Jarvis.

If you're having trouble waiting for that release date of July 25, you can stream the new Long Winters album, Putting The Days To Bed behind this link. Great stuff, kids.

And, like, don't tell anyone, but I've kind of been hooked on the last really listenable Radiohead album (yeah, yeah -- go ahead and flame me), OK Computer, mostly because I was hooked on that Mountain Goats cover of "No Surprises" last week. Anyway, the whole album is really holding up quite well, isn't it? Oh, 1997 -- so long, long ago. Before Radiohead was overburdened by its ... Radiohead-ness. "No Surprises" fairly throbs with a pathos that's still quite poignant and effective, don't you think?

Radiohead -- No Surprises

Final verdict: I thought that mash-upper Girl Talk (who once upon a time was a kid who made glitchy, unlistenable mashups) had replaced the esteemed Party Ben in my affections, but after spending some quality time with Night Ripper over the weekend, I found the whole thing to be a pretty disposable affair, and even deleted the files off my hard drive. It's pretty basic cut'n'paste with hip hop -- extremely good good cut'n'paste with hip hop, but there's just not a whole lot of depth there. Though, based on the improvements over the past year, I can only expect that Mr. Gillis can only move onward and upward. Don't worry, PB -- you're still my mashup boyfriend. Not like you were worried or anything, I'm sure...

And finally, Bosque Brown's one-sided vinyl EP Cerro Verde (from Burnt Toast Vinyl) is, in short, amazing and features four acoustic solo numbers from Bosque Brown frontwoman Mara Lee Miller. Here's a nibblet for you.

Bosque Brown -- Tell Her

And, oh -- care for a Hot Chip remix (er, rework, rather) -- of Hot Chip? There's some very neat things going on in there...

Hot Chip -- Boy From School (Hot Chip Rework)

Ok, I'm done. (;