MoJo Staff Picks: May 30

Musically, we seem to be fixated on indie-pop, classic jazz motifs, and electric music at Mother Jones this week. Here's what's on our headphones:

Gary: Ontario's Broken Social Scene has a knack for sounding melancholy and happy at the same time, a combination I never get tired of. This is a track from their third, self-titled album from 2005. For some reason I like listening to this whole album when riding public transportation.

Gary: I just found out about Thao Nguyen last night, while snooping around my friends' MysSpace pages. This track is her playing solo, but she's equally (if not more) interesting with her backup band, The Get Down Stay Down. Her music (with song titles like "Big Kid Table") is fun, light, tender, and funny. Similar to Feist, but maybe a bit more raw.

Jesse: "Golden Rust" is the opener to Robert Miles' and Trilok Gurtu's 2004 album Miles_Gurtu. Miles is an independent producer and musician and Gurtu is an Indian jazz percussionist. This is a great album that plays like one long song that I just never tire of. It incorporates classic jazz motifs, enough to pass with the parents, but is innovative and off-kilter so as to satisfy the more picky young, modern music fan.

Jesse: On the top of my short list of electric music comes Prefuse 73, the alias for one of my favorite music producers Guillermo Scott Herren known for his creative beats and IDM—that's Intelligent Dance Music. This song, "Point to B," comes from one of his earlier albums Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives. The entire album pushes boundaries, but I especially enjoy this song for its eclectic vocal mixing. (Hint: Don't let the early noise distract you, the music develops nicely as the song progresses.)

MoJo Staff Picks: May 30