I’m a micro-chip off the old block.

I've been getting cozy with some new music lately, the first of which is Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere. Gnarls Barkley being Brian Burton (aka. DJ Dangermouse) and Thomas Calloway (aka. Cee-Lo Green). Heather alerted me to them with the track "Crazy" and their cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy, Gone", which might be the one track on the album I skip; I mean, it sounds almost exactly like the original. The rest of the tracks are pretty solid. "Crazy", though uber catchy and understandably the first single, is very listenable with a refrain shifting from "Does that make me crazy? . . . Possibly" to "I think you're crazy . . . Just like me". "The Boogie Monster" reminds me very much of Outkast/Andre 3000's "Dracula's Wedding". Almost too much so, but perhaps a bit more imaginative, lyrically. Of my favorite tracks on the album "Just a Thought" is up there, Dangermouse pulling out the same kind of stops used for The Grey Album's "Dirt off Your Shoulder" and, though a bit less polished, Cee-Lo's lyrics are a nice, smooth compliment to the harsh, distorted background beat track. I also love the incredibly simple guitar riff invoking something of a Spaghetti-Western stand-off. I absolutely love "Transformer". This reminds me quite a bit of Deltron 3030, which is a round-a-bout connection to Dangermouse's work with the Gorillaz (Deltron has an immediately recognizable voice, most notably for his Gorillaz contributions. My first introduction to Deltron was with his rapping interlude as the ghost-like character in the "Dirty Harry" video). I could also keep yapping about how I really like the last two tracks "Storm Coming" and "The Last Time". Check out Gnarls Barkley's website and their MySpace page. In the upper right corner of their homepage there is a teeny-tiny music player, which plays "Smiley Faces" and "Crazy" in their entirety. The MySpace page offers up two more with the title track "St. Elsewhere" and "Just a Thought". Another artist who I'm only just discovering is Annie. I guess I shouldn't feel bad for not discovering her first album, Anniemal, until two years after its release, but I am surprised I haven't happened upon her before now, what with Röyksopp producing some of the tracks and being on the same label as The Streets and The Polyphonic Spree. Are we kindred spirits, Annie and me? I mean, people have been known to call me Mannimal, so it's no coincidence that her first album, Anniemal, tugs at my weakness-for-(good)-sugar-pop heart strings. Actually, she's described as "Electro" or "Synth-pop". I'll buy it, but I'd throw her right in there with the best of 'em. In fact, I'll go ahead and say it: Annie is Britney Spears with talent, a Kelly Clarkson for the dance floor, thematically maybe even an Avenue D - lite (very, very "lite") and, well, just plain fun. I only hope her sophomore effort is just as dancey and toe-tappy.