"Walk on the Wild Side" and "Waiting For My Man" by Lou Reed

Song: Walk on the Wild Side
Artist: Lou Reed
Album: Transformer
Also try:  Velvet Underground, Nico, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, Pixies
Commentary: RIP Lou Reed. The Velvet Underground are crucial, so I'm not sure what else to say.

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Song: Waiting For My Man
Artist: Velvet Underground
Album: The Velvet Underground & Nico

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"Feeling Special" by Mykki Blanco

Song: "Feeling Special"
Artist: Mykki Blanco
Album: Betty Rubble: The Initiation EP
Also try:  Kitty (formerly Kitty Pryde),
Commentary: I picked up a few new artists when I read Pitchfork's feature last year about NYC's Queer Rap, but somehow Mykki Blanco didn't sink in. Now after a recommendation from a friend, I'm enjoying Betty Rubble and look forward to Michael next year. This video is fun.

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"Distopian Dream Girl" and "Virginia Reel aroung the Fountain" by Built to Spill

Song: Distopian Dream Girl
Artist: Built to Spill
Album: There's Nothing Wrong with Love
Also try:  Halo Benders
Commentary: A friend introduced me to Built to Spill on a mixtape (okay, CD) with the song "Carry the Zero" in 2003. I quite liked the song, but I didn't fall in love until the promotional mp3 (remember those? what a brief phenomenon) for "Liar" in 2006 made it to my desktop (don't tell Warner Bros. music, they would probably want it back).
Anyway, Built to Spill's weaker songs are better than most other bands' strongest. And it's not because Doug Martsch has a small oeuvre. "Distopian Dream Girl" couldn't quite compete with the popularity of "Car", but the great thing about the BtS catalog is going deeper just uncovers more beauty.

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Song: Virginia Reel around the Fountain (Halo Benders cover)
Artist: Built to Spill
Album: Live
Commentary: It was hard not to do a triple post for Doug Martsch. I try to put some space in between posts by the same artist. So knowing I wouldn't post any Built to Spill or even Halo Benders for a while is hard. (Even though sometimes it seems like Martsch could do better leaving out Calvin Johnson out of the final Halo Benders mixes, they're awesome and all 3 albums are worth many listens.) This song comes from the excellent Live album, which has no weak songs. I'm also refraining from the posting the inerrant Perfect From Now On in its entirety here.

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"Ohio" by Damien Jurado

Song: Ohio
Artist: Damien Jurado
Album: Rehearsals for Departure
Also try:  Jurado's Ghost of David, Richard Buckner, David Bazan, Mark Kozelek, Scout Niblett
Commentary: Damien Jurado is a musician I've been wanting to hear for about a decade now, so when he came to town last month, I was pumped. This song has the emotive instrumentation; the breathy, intimate vocals; and the poignant lyrics that really work well together. If I'm in the right mood, it'll take me pretty close to tears (the Daytrotter, not the album version). Anyway, when he played in a magnificent concert hall for Pygmalion Music Festival, the acoustics and atmosphere really served him well. I was pleased to hear the college dudes behind me say incredulously, "Why didn't they give this guy more than a half hour??"

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Daytrotter version:

Another nice studio version:

Damien Jurado - ohio from bluelinestyle.com on Vimeo.

"Juhannustulilla" by Josefina and Sanfrid Mustonen

Song: Juhannustulilla
Artist: Josefina and Sanfrid Mustonen
Commentary: Google Translate recognizes this as Finnish, but can't translate it. There's something about midsummer fire or something in the song title. Anyhow, there are 2 lovely ditties in this lovely clip from 1913.

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"Nothing is Easy" by Marnie Stern

Song: Nothing is Easy
Artist: Marnie Stern
Album: the excellently-named The Chronicles of Marnia
Also try:  Potty Mouth, the Vivian Girls, Deerhoof, Deerhunter
Commentary: I like the off-kilter rhythms and general carnival feel (reminds of Danielson; add that to the "Also Try" list).

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"Generation" by Liturgy

Song: Generation
Artist: Liturgy
Album: Aesthetica
Commentary: Today's meditation on rhythmic repetition comes to us in the form of relentless riffs. Off of Liturgy's 2011 album, Aesthetica, "Generation" kept my head nodding for over seven minutes.
"The world's best hipster black metal band unsurprisingly crafts a great crossover-friendly black metal album." -Pitchfork

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"Dropla" by Youth Lagoon

Song: Dropla
Artist: Youth Lagoon
Album: Wondrous Bughouse
Also try: 
Commentary: I wasn't that impressed with Youth Lagoon in concert. I liked their 1st album pretty well; found it interesting and listenable. Then their 2nd album was an excellent step forward! Still making good use of that lo-fi sound, but shifting into slightly less catchy and more experimental melodies, Youth Lagoon kills it. Somewhere in a long genre name with many hyphens, I like the Americana- and minimalist- action going on there.

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"The Spins" by Potty Mouth

Song: The Spins
Artist: Potty Mouth
Album: Hell Bent
Also try:  Liz Phair, Speedy Ortiz, White Lung, Royal Headache
Commentary: At Pygmalion Music Festival, the schedule was wrong. The Potty Mouth show that was supposed to start at 10, ended at 10:08. As a result, I only saw 5 minutes of the show (I was 3 minutes late!). It was my favorite song and a half of the whole festival. Damien Jurado (who I love) played in the perfect auditorium for his echoing vocals and Youth Lagoon puts on a rad show, but Potty Mouth sounds even better in person than on their sweet new album, Hell Bent.

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"Reflektor" by the Arcade Fire

Song: Reflektor
Artist: Arcade Fire
Album: Reflektor
Also try:  Do you not know who Arcade Fire is? Okay, maybe try Vampire Weekend or something if you like this.
Commentary: New Arcade Fire. Fun. Seems like they have some fresh sounds too, which is exciting. Also, seems long. It's exciting that it sounds new (new electronic tinge?) and still awesome and still Arcade Fire.

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"Warm in the Winter" by Glass Candy

Song: Warm in the Winter
Artist: Glass Candy
Album: After the Dark 2
Also try:  After the Dark and After the Dark 2 are both excellent
Commentary: You don't even have to like electronic music all that much to like the After the Dark compilations, this song is a rollicking starter for the 2nd. The spoken word over the track may be too much for some people, but I think it goes well here and doesn't detract.

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"All I Know" by Big Sean

Song: All I Know (ft Wiz Khalifa)
Artist: Big Sean
Album: Detroit
Commentary: I should call this blog Cole's Earworms or something, because I just learned that word and mostly I post songs as they get stuck in my head. "All I Know" uses an excellent sample from Bloc Party's "Banquet", which I'm sure helped the catchiness. It also follows the whole mixtape's catchy raps (I'm afraid I don't even know the language one uses to talk about rap music...), especially as in "Woke Up", "I'm Gonna Be", and "Life Should Go On". Smooth.

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"Casper" by Daniel Johnston

Song: Casper
Artist: Daniel Johnston
Album: Yip/Jump Music
Also try:  the rest of the Kids soundtrack, Songs in the Key of Z
Commentary: The other Casper song (besides the friendly ghost) that Daniel Johnston contributed to Kids is this one, "Casper." It's a 1995 movie about what everyone was afraid of happening to "youth" in the city. Adding to a dope soundtrack, Daniel Johnston sings this little ditty about one of the main characters. With lyrics like "Casper lives in a world without promise" and "feeling like a bowl of spaghetti", Daniel Johnston paints his own picture of youthful angst and ennui.

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"Bouchraka Ya Kalbi" by Mohamed Effendi El-Achek

Song: Bouchraka Ya Kalbi (which can be translated as "Be Happy, My Heart")
Artist: Mohamed Effendi El-Achek
Also try:  the Syrian people
Commentary: I'm not trying to make a big political statement about Syria by posting a song from Syria. Or maybe I am... I do like Teju Cole's answer to the question "What's the right answer to Syria?" and he said, "I don’t know man. ... Somehow, we must keep the humanity of the people in Syria before us. Anything thing we do or do not do, or say or do not say, should be about them, not about us. We must live perpetually in hope of a negotiated settlement."

Note: I'm also not tryna romanticize some pristine, untroubled Syrian past by posting a song recorded in 1908.

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"Retrograde" by James Blake

Song: Retrograde
Artist: James Blake
Album: Overgrown
Commentary: Next time I'm hit with something I might say "SUDDENLY I'M HIT", like James Blake...
James Blake has released two excellent albums and you should probably listen to them both in their entirety. Make sure you have speakers that give you some good bass, especially for "Retrograde" here.

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"Open" by Rhye

Song: Open
Artist: Rhye
Album: Woman
Also try:  Miguel, Frank Ocean, Janelle Monae
Commentary: I got Rhye's Woman in the spring with a few other albums and Woman didn't immediately stand out. A few more listens, though, had Michael Milosh crooning album opener "Open" in my head. The whole album's worth some listens too. Nice instrumentation, killer hook.

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"Loose Lips" by Kimya Dawson

Song: Loose Lips
Artist: Kimya Dawson
Album: Remember that I Love You
Also try: 
Commentary: Twice this summer I made connections with people about anti-folk songs I listened to in high school. I don't think I'd ever said the word "anti-folk" or discussed the genre with anyone. Part of me believed it only existed ephemerally in a network of websites frequented by teenagers in the early aughts. And since I'm in 20th grade now, and no longer 9th, I was amused to hear an 8th grader singing Kimya Dawson's 2004 non-hit, "Loose Lips" a month ago. She was insufficiently impressed with my hip knowledge of hip music, but I know I'm "with it". What?!? "Loose Lips" was in Juno? I LISTENED TO ANSTY PANTS BEFORE JUNO! Man, forget Juno.

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"Thy Chosen Bride" by Daniel Higgs

Song: Thy Chosen Bride
Artist: Daniel Higgs (frontman of Lungfish)
Album: Ancestral Songs
Also try:  Lungfish, Danielson, DM Stith, David Eugene Edwards
Commentary: Sort of raga-style banjo noodling and make sure you wait for the vocals. I don't know what draws me to the devout mystic fervor of the likes of David Eugene Edwards, Danielson, and Daniel Higgs, but I find it pretty enthralling.

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"Heartbreaks + Setbacks" by Thundercat

Song: Heartbreaks + Setbacks
Artist: Thundercat
Album: Apocalypse
Also try:  Miguel, Frank Ocean
Commentary: It was the co-production by Flying Lotus that drew me, but it was the slightly off-kilter electro-beat that kept me. Catchy, but definitely fits my criterion of being interesting/different enough to be worth a listen.

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"Catfish" by Waxahatchee

Song: Catfish
Artist: Waxahatchee
Album: American Weekend
Also try:  Liz Phair, Mirah, Microphones, Perfume Genius, Scout Niblett
Commentary: I hate posting the first song from an album, because it looks like I'm not even trying. But this song is an excellent intro to an excellent album. I've been sneaking away from my job all summer to find a quiet place to absorb Waxahatchee's genius. The new album, Cerulean Salt, is pretty groovy too, but I'm a sucker for that lo-fi aesthetic, if you haven't noticed yet.