One of the cool things about running this blog is having independent artists send me new music. I make a note of the good stuff and try to work it into posts I’m writing. But there are usually good songs that just don’t fit into a theme I’m doing for some reason and after awhile they start to stack up. So here’s a selection of songs I’ve been sent recently that have nothing in common other than they’re relatively new.

Natubella “NIB” (Black Sabbath)
Most disco-tronic covers don’t sound much like the original. Natubella does a great job of making this song dancefloor-friendly while keeping the wallop of the Black Sabbath classic. That’s important to me because the original was a major part of the soundtrack of my high school years.

Gina & Tony “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” (Nancy Sinatra)
For some odd reason Gina & Tony decided to turn everybody’s second-favorite Nancy Sinatra song into a nine-part suite. It hangs together well but is kinda long to post here. This is a radio edit that gives a good flavor of what the larger work sounds like.

Lumpy “Red Rubber Ball” (The Cyrcle)
I’ve always liked the original version of this song because of the tension between the chipper music and the caustic, bitter lyrics. Lumpy reimagines it as a mutant waltz with mariachi horns. There’s regret and hope, with less bitterness. Well done, Lumpy.

Darrin James Band “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” (Bob Dylan)
I like Darrin James‘ whole new album The Lovely Ugly Truth. It surveys American roots music without sounding trite or derivative. This is a very nice soulful reading of a Bob Dylan song that I’m not sick of hearing.

Donna Beasley “Love My Way” (Psychedelic Furs)
This song never really did much for me, what with the monotonous buzzing of those synthesizers and of the singer’s voice. “Languorous” isn’t a word I often use to describe the music of the Psychedelic Furs, but Donna Beasley infuses the song with an exquisite sense of languor.