Whole Lotta Love - Pickin' On Zeppelin

Martin Haerle became obsessed with American country music during his childhood in Germany during World War II, eventually moving out to Nashville by the time he was twenty and climbing the ranks of the legendary Starday Records. His passion for traditional American music led him to founding CMH Records in 1975 with 'Dueling Banjos' composer Arthur Smith. Over the years they signed a superstar list of bluegrass artists, accumulating numerous Grammy nods and roots music critical acclaim.

Sadly Haerle passed away in 1990, passing the company into the capable hands of his son David. One of David's first actions as President was the creation of the 'Pickin' On' series of albums which take popular recordings and rework them in a bluegrass style performed by the excellent roster of session artists and musicians CMH has accrued over the years. The series has covered a wide range of bands over the years from Aerothsmith to Coldplay to the Beatles, and in the case of today's Best Song Ever- Led Zeppelin.

The roots style grips naturally with the blues based thunder of Zep. Yowling fiddles and squealing slide step in for the howls of Robert Plant, washboards and muted mandolins chop out the ballistic Bonham beats, and a whole slew of acoustic guitars, banjos and dobros build up the propulsive leads and rhythms crafted by Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

Under the control of CMH's pickers and pluckers riff-ready roarers like 'Black Dog' become woozy-bloozy slow burners, 'Whole Lotta Love' beats down with the dry heat of the Alabama sun, and 'Rock and Roll' turns into an excellent Dukes of Hazzard chase song. The songs simultaneously gain new life in the style transition, while having their traditional bones emphasized and strengthened.

Pie IX - Suuns

Picking one song from Montreal based Suuns debut album Zeroes QC is an incredibly difficult task. The album is coated with black rubber liquid sounds which bubble and burst against the grain of MASSIVE guitar riffs while spare clockwork drums klick and clack the time. 

At times it feels like they've taken a well known song or style and turned it inside out. From the Zep ready riffs of opener Armed for Peace to the burbling synths of Arena, there's an endless supply of potential Best Song Evers.

But it wouldn't be That Song Blog if we didn't go with the mildly unnerving difficult song. So! Pie IX.

The bass of Pie IX feels like it's oozing through the walls of a club as you stand in a back alley, listening to wet drum footsteps clack ever closer till they're right on top of you. Guitar wires twist and twine your tension higher and higher while alien baby talk coos from the shadows. There's something disarmingly cool and overwhelmingly rotten about the entire experience.

The aural equivalent of being molested by aliens.

Big River - The Secret Sisters ft. Jack White

The Secret Sisters are about to slug Johnny Cash in the mouth while blowing kisses.

Real life sisters Laura and Lydia Rogers cut this cover of Cash's Big River at Jack White's Third Man Studios, with White pulling double duty as producer and guitarist. 

The track is absolutely torrential. You can feel a dam slowly cracking with each whack of a snare before the water roars forth in the form of dueling guitar solos that gently give way to the Rogers winking harmonies.

Your left with the distinct impression the Sisters would love you up before drowning you deep down on the banks below. And you'll love every minute of it.

Banks of the Sacramento - Salty Dick

Jerry Bryant is a folk music performer/archivist with a particular interest in maritime songs. He's released a number of traditional folk albums, and is particularly well known for his song 'The Ballad of Harbo Samuelsen' which has been covered by numerous performers.

In 2004 he released an album under the pseudonym Salty Dick titled 'Salty Dick's Uncensored Sailor Songs.' For the album Bryant pulled together the bawdiest, rudest and sex havin-est sailor songs he could find and laid them down with aplomb and gravitas.

So enjoy the rolling sea worthy harmonies of the 'Banks of the Sacramento,' a song that espouses valuable life lessons about STDs, whores and wiping your ass with grass. Ah those noble seafaring men.

Can You Feel It - Ken Ishii presents Metropolitan Harmonic Formulas

Music For Daydreams takes the pulse of an urban landscape and blends it with house beats and jazz licks. It's music which exists in multiple decades at once. You'll be gliding along to smooth jazz piano as it begins to modulate quicker and quicker before bursting through the ceiling of the club to the sound of digital angels who begin a shuffling snare line through the skyscrapers. 

Ken Ishii is a Japanese techno DJ who's been crafting house gems since the early nineties. This release comes under the umbrella of his latest musical endeavour: Metropolitan Harmonic Formulas, a crossover of electronica with a wider array of genres and styles. The beats have gotten softer, but they're carried along by a subway like urgency.

The album is fantastic, comprised of original compositions and reworked house classics, such as the track we've pulled out for today: 'Can You Feel It.'

With its gently blended sounds of a city waking up rolling across pingponging choirs partying with smooth saxophones, 'Can You Feel It' is in many ways the ultimate expression of the albums intent: Daytime techno that exudes sunrises while pushing you out the door into the bustle of your own metropolis, even when you're just listening at home.

Palimpsest - Yasunao Tone & Florian Hecker

Today we are going to stretch the term song to its breaking point. I would highly recommend headphones for this one- both for the experience and also to protect the sanity of those around you.

Yasunao Tone is a Japanese artist chiefly known for creating digital sound collages by damaging CDs and capturing the fractured sound as it's desperately attempted to be read by older CD players. Much like noise artist Christian Marclay, he physically engages with (read destroys) the machines we use to experience music and crafts new soundscapes in the process.

Today's Best Song Ever, Palimpsest, is a collaboration between Tone and electronic music composer Florian Hecker. In order to create the piece, Tone converted the symbols of the Man'yoshu (the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry) into data encoded onto CDs and recorded the sound of that data being interpreted by a CD player. Basically. The important thing is it sounds pretty nuts. These are the schizophrenic ramblings of electricity recorded for your listening pleasure.

As with much sound art/noise music, the piece isn't a song so much as an experience. By the end of its twenty eight and a half minutes my head had turned completely horizontal. My brain was bombarded with images of metal floss being yanked between my ears, an electric beehive, fleas dying at hyper speed, and the distinct impression my teeth were falling out. It's like walking through an arcade with highly selective tinnitus.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's pleasant listening, but it's endlessly fascinating. You'll hear a violin for a moment before it turns into a digital toilet flush which rapidly disintegrates into the shattering of an invisible wine glass. How many other songs can lay claim to something like THAT?

Songs of the Robocalypse Vol. 3 - Phantom of the Floppera

So this is a bit ancient in Internet terms, but that doesn't mean we can just ignore all the signs of the coming Robacalypse. Today we present Phantom of the Floppera: Tocatta and Fugue performed entirely on Floppy Disk Drives.

Using what creator George Whiteside has dubbed a 'Diskette Organ,' the machinery takes advantage of the groans and whines of the mechanisms used to spin the innards of a floppy disk in order to create beautifully terrifying music.

George has created a whole webpage devoted to explaining the mechanics behind the machine, presumably so we know how to defeat it when it rebels.

Chiptune Chuesday: What Child Is This - Rush Coil

It's Chiptune Chuesday! And it's April! Know what that means? THAT'S RIGHT! CHRISTMAS MUSIC!

Look I know it's out of season, but this song has been stuck in my head since last December so maybe this'll finally exorcise it. Chip artist Rush Coil put out the album 8-Bit Christmas a few years back, and it's awesome- a bleep and burble burst through your favourite Christmas carols.

What Child Is This is a carol written in the mid 1800s by William Chatterton Dix, a hymn born of out of a near death experience later set to the traditional tune Greensleeves.

The song feels like a slow motion pistol duel on a misty morn in the English countryside crackling from the confines of a NES cart. And it can be yours! Right now! Along side eleven others! For three bucks! That's like £1.50 in real money! Go geddit here: http://rushcoil.bandcamp.com/album/8-bit-christmas

Cramming For College - Pornosonic

You're about to let Dick Dagger into your ears. I hope you're sitting comfortably.

The origin of Pornosonic: A band of non-discloure agreement shackled musicians write music for some of THE BEST porn films of the last thirty years. A cache of lost recordings is recently discovered by Ron Jeremy, who immediately releases them onto an unsuspecting public. Some even say Pornosonic was created by Ron Jeremy in 1971 after a chance meeting with an LA session musician named Don Argott.

This is where the story begins to get a little fuzzy. Y'see, Don Argott was born in 1972. He's a documentary filmmaker first and foremost who plays in a number of bands on the side- including a project called Pornosonic whose music was featured in the film Old School.

Dig a little further and you find the second Pornosonic album- Cream Streets: Music From the Unreleased Motion Picture starring Dick Dagger. Except... The film never existed as far as anyone can tell- and neither did Dick Dagger!

So. Fake porn music for fake porn. Why should you care? Because- against a whole slew of odds- it's excellent. Eargasms my friend.

The music struts and spins on twelve inch platforms across pavements that bounce and boogie to each pounding beat of a fuzz bass sexing WOCKACHOCKA guitars barely contained by massive (Clavinet) organs. Just hit play on today's Best Song Ever- Cramming For College and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The musical references and sign posts are all over the map- from Stevie Wonder-fried blaxploitation to wah-wah tinged diva ballads (see the incredible Spider Pussy Slight Return). It's a wonder the band pulled off the music without it becoming a pure novelty act. The intercut skits from Ron Jeremy push it further into the land of tongue-in-cheek, but not dangerously so.

If the music had been a little less catchy- more like the equivalent of porn elevator music- this could have been one of the most groan inducing records on the planet. Thank christ that Don Argott and his friends are skilled musicians with an obvious love and understanding of the music they've decided to craft.

So let's go out and enjoy the sweet melodies and romance to be found in new classics like Sex Starved Secretaries, Laying Pipe and (of course) Her Magic Carpet.

I'm Han Solo - Kinect Star Wars

As you may know if you're a long suffering That Song Blog devotee, I have a love of parody and novelty songs. An old school form of flattery- you knew your song had made it when someone took the piss out of it. I also love Star Wars and have a giant man crush on Han Solo (I mean who doesn't?).

So then we have this:

And my head explodes.

I think my favourite move has to be the shoulder brush, but it's all amazing. It's a parody of Ridin' Solo by Jason Derulo (only one million times better) as featured in the video game Kinect: Star Wars.

Also, does Lando seem like the more natural dancer to anyone else? Han's incredible but I sincerely doubt the dude has rhythm. But Lando! Lando could dance you straight into his boudoir for some late night gas mining. *geek swoon*