Penny

You're my perfect little...penny

Is 2013 the year that garage rock officially "comes back," or was that 2012? Whenever the date, Hanni El Khatib is a welcome genre contributor. This spring sees him releasing his sophomore album, Head In The Dirt, produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach (insert approving head nod here). While the album's first single was a raucous, messy affair - shaped by a charging drumline and growling guitars - the second single Penny is a sunny, organ-drenched love song.

Penny shines on its own, but label-mates Classixx took it and did more than polish it up - they turned it into an entirely different creature altogether. A bright, even cute, rock tune is transformed to a deep disco slow burner under their touch. A total 180, but wildly successful. Stream the original below, download the remix, and be sure to look for Head In The Dirt on Innovative Leisure later this spring.

Penny (Classixx Remix) - Hanni El Khatib

Fade Away (C2C Remix)

Joe Bonomo

Recently I've been feeling a bit disenchanted with electronic-based music. Then I realized that I'd forgotten about the French. Those sly bastards are still so on top of the game, its almost as though their a genre unto themselves: incomparable to the rest of the "production" world. One of the best examples of this is Vitalic (née Pascal Arbez), who I have unrelentingly held as the second-greatest French producer (after Daft Punk, naturally) since I first caught wind of him back in the noughties. Listen to any piece in his catalog and you'll catch the perfect bass lines and tight drums that, while providing a solid backbone to each piece, never teeter towards overindulgent.

Vitalic's latest album, Rave Age was released in November. The EP for his second single, Fade Away, will be up for purchase by the end of the month. In the meantime, stream the C2C (another French act and LL favorite) remix of the single below.

Bonus: The greatest remix of the greatest song from Vitalic's last album.
This is seriously indispensable.
Poison Lips (Captain Flash Remix) - Vitalic

One Way Trigger

I don't want to be in there without your love no more

Am I the only one who really, really loves the new Strokes album?
If that's the case, oh well, because I'm not taking anything back. The new Strokes album is a breath of fresh air in a catalog that was getting stale. While its by no means perfect - its lacking in cohesion and a lot of the hooks fall short - it sees the Strokes flexing their range and deviating from formulas established in their previous two albums. It sounds younger than its predecessors, more willing to take risks; ironic from an aging band who's look and sound seemed carefully calculated from the start.

Listen to the first single One Way Trigger, in which Casablancas' relentless falsetto shapes the best Strokes song in years, and then be sure to buy Comedown Machine, out today.

One Way Trigger - The Strokes

Bad Habit

I'm a bad habit, one you cannot break.

Two weeks ago, we returned to Texas for the annual music pilgrimage that is SXSW. Sparing the gory details, (if you want them you can check the twitter back catalog) let's just say that you missed a good - albeit aggressive - time.

Absolutely in no way related to the events that transpired in Austin are Foals. Foals are an English quintet formed in 2005, and no doubt they've already been around the festival block. Rather than head to good ol' Texas, the boys prepped for their upcoming North American tour - which will be kicking off with a pretty-high-up-on-the-lineup-poster spot at Coachella. This tour comes on the heels of their just-released third album, Holy Fire.

While the song Bad Habit hasn't been released as a single, its my favorite song of right now. With a kind of cinematic drama, it speaks to a phenomenon to which we all fall prey. I know I'm currently nursing a couple bad habits I can't seem to break…not that I'm trying.

Bad Habit - Foals