Thom Stylinski is the mad master genius behind The Whiskers. On the records, he sounds like he's 7' tall, gaunt like an undertaker and with eyes like laser beams, or tractor beams. He's with us today to talk about some music.

Hi! I tried to think of a theme that connects three or four songs in an elegant sum-greater-than-parts way, but that's stupid so here are three songs I was humming at work today.

Jesse Stiles - "Places"

Jesse Stiles totally knows how everything works; it's easy. It can't be any more complicated than some sort of configuration of sticks and wheels and boxes, wires and electricity. Taking advantage of that concept, he makes music with lots of gizmos and contraptions, and then, taking advantage of his groovy brain, sings shit like: "Everywhere I've ever been, it was always bigger than me, because somewhere smaller than I am is the worst place I could be." It's lines like that that turn hums into words.
Jesse does the odd live DJ-dance-guy thing and is the only live DJ-dance-guy that makes me want to dance. His website is http://jts3k.com and his new record is coming out soon and I think it is a picture disc, which is one of my favorite types of discs.

Hot Gurl Party - "Hot Gurl Party Signs Your Yearbook"

Hot Gurl Party totally hate me. There are three members and I have spent time with all of them and they definitely don't like me, personally, as a human, yet I STILL listen to their music, because the beats are frickyfresh and the bass is tubular and the vox are singscreamed with complete indifference to the microphone and its function. This yearbook song here was twice as long when it debuted on stage, and it was glorious, but because HGP hate me, they cut it in half on the album. They have a myspace but they don't write, record, or perform anymore. The three members each have other bands but they only last a few weeks. Their album is really great but the case is covered in glitter and it gets on your hands and clothes and all over all your other CDs and it makes you think, "oh now what the hell."

Burl Ives - "The Donut Song"

Burl Ives is totally mental. This is, I guess, a children's song, which would usually indicate a happy or sad-then-happy story housing simplistic lyrics and themes, but Burl, dude, what the cuss are you talking about? I've had a few conversations about this song and its "watch the donut, not the hole" mantra, attempting to relate it to some deep philosophy or something. All those discussions lead to only one conclusion: He's actually just telling all the kids to literally look at things that ARE things, and to NOT look at things that AREN'T REALLY things.

Let's all hum more songs more often in more places thanks.

[thewhiskers.com]

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(Previous guest-blogs: Silver Jews, artist Ariel Kitch, artist Aaron Sewards, artist Corinne Chaufour, "Jean Baudrillard", artist Danny Zabbal, artist Irina Troitskaya, artist Eleanor Meredith, artist Keith Greiman, artist Matthew Feyld, The Weakerthans, Parenthetical Girls, artist Daria Tessler, Clem Snide, Marcello Carlin, Beirut, Jonathan Lethem, Will Butler (Arcade Fire), Al Kratina, Eugene Mirman, artist Dave Bailey, Agent Simple, artist Keith Andrew Shore, Owen Ashworth (Casiotone for the Painfully Alone), artist Kit Malo with Alden Penner (The Unicorns) 1 2, artist Rachell Sumpter, artist Katy Horan 1 2, David Barclay (The Diskettes), artist Drew Heffron, Carl Wilson, artist Tim Moore, Michael Nau (Page France), Devin Davis, Will Sheff (Okkervil River), Edward Droste (Grizzly Bear), Hello Saferide, Damon Krukowski (Damon & Naomi), Brian Michael Roff, Howard Bilerman (producer: Silver Mt. Zion, Arcade Fire, etc.). There are many more to come.)