Jim Guthrie - "Who Needs What". Toronto's Jim Guthrie may be best known as a member of Royal City, but he's a successful musician in his own right. He's got several albums under his belt - from dusty baroque pop to PlayStation-produced indie rock, - and his newest one came out earlier this winter. (Note: none of his albums have been entirely amazing.) "Who Nees What," however, is Guthrie's very best song, taken from the good-but-not-as-ambitious-as-the-title-implies A Thousand Songs. It's pretty simple stuff - stringy guitar, man muttering gently, - but it shines in the way it does little things well. The chorus hook doesn't push for attention, and yet it's quietly excellent, catchy as heck. I love how Guthrie shoves a bunch of words into one awkward lyrical stretch: it's not just eager, it's embarassed and funny and self-aware. Guthrie's loathe to be the mopey-guy-with-a-guitar - "Shit yeah, I can dance!" he yells, just before an electric guitar hazy-blares out, drums bumble noisily in.

The Zoobombs - "Mo' Funky [pt 1]". There was a time in the late 90s when the Zoombombs seemed to be everywhere: they signed to Emperor Norton, they toured with the Flaming Lips and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Now, though - poof pop zip nada - gone. If they've dropped out of the collective unconscious I'm going to do my best to drag them back: 1999's Let It Bomb is a staple of my party set-lists, and "Mo' Funky [pt 1]" regularly appears on my mix cds. When talking about bands from Japan, it's difficult not to compare them to each other, but in the case of the Zoobombs, such analogies aren't very fruitful (uh... Pizzicato Five meets Melt Banana?). They're dance-punks, basically, but bongos and organs take the place of DFA's synths and squelches. The Rolling Stones in a Tokyo disco. "Mo' Funky" showcases a mellow funky rhythm that drifts headlong into a manic Japanese free-for-all, made all the more absurd when they shout English lyrics as if they have marbles in their mouths. Not only does it make me want to boogie; it makes me want to be one of those people who boogies regularly.

I've been monitoring the boom of new mp3 blogs linked at fluxblog, tofuhut and elsewhere, but I've been pretty preoccupied, and haven't had the time to hit up each one. If any of the new mp3 blogs strike you as particularly great, or if you own one and want to pimp it, please do draw it to my attention in the comments. After all, we're the next big thing.