Cool Indie Drum Songs Starring The New Pornographers

I am musician (using the term loosely here) and used to listen carefully to the instrumentation of songs, but I have found that lately I just listen to songs as a whole. The idea for this post came during my morning commute when the New Pornographer's "Bleeding Heart Show" popped up during a shuffle sequence. Now I know this song is the star of a University of Phoenix commercial but let's not hold that against it. Kurt Dahle absolutely rocks the drums at the end of the song. Some guy in a Chevy Tahoe gave me a funny look as my arms flailed about during my tribute of air drums. Floored by Dahle's amazing pounding of the 'skins' I pressed on to try and remember more great indie percussion. Immediately my mind went to another New Pornographer's song "Use It" (talk about percussion driving a song) that happens to be on the same album Twin Cinema. Anyways, here are some other songs that the drums and percussion truly drive the song and make me look like a fool on my morning commute.

Please feel free to leave comments and list other such songs where drums are king...

New Pornagraphers - "Bleeding Heart Show"
New Pornagraphers - "Use It"
Sunset Rubdown - "The Taming of the Hands that Cam Back to Life"
Broken Social Scene - "7/4 Shoreline"

Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line

I know this album has been out for a while but I legally procurred it and I have a job so get off my back.

Wikipedia defines a Rhumb Line as:

In navigation, a rhumb line (or loxodrome) is a line crossing all meridians at the same angle, i.e. a path of constant bearing. Unlike a great circle route (for which bearing is not constant), following a rhumb line requires turning the vehicle more and more sharply while approaching the poles. At lower latitudes, however, a loxodrome may be easier to follow than a great circle. The effect of following a rhumb line course on the surface of a globe was first discussed by the Portuguese mathematician Pedro Nunes in the 1530s, with further mathematical development by Thomas Harriot in the 1590s.

Ok, now that I have my junior high opening to the essay (or review for our purposes) we will move on to the substance of the album because I don't know what the $#*@ a Rhumb Line is after reading the definition over and over.

Ra Ra Riot's The Rhumb Line is the kind of album that I never thought I would like. After the first couple listens of the album my initial impression was that these guys were trying to be Vampire Weekend. If you are unfamiliar with my opinion of Vampire Weekend it can basically be summed up as music that is trying too hard. In fact, the first words I came across regarding Ra Ra Riot was in a forum in which some poster wrote, "They (Ra Ra Riot) are like Vampire Weekend but boring." It was with this quote I knew I was going to love these guys and decided to give the album a couple more spins before prematurely retiring it. I'm glad as "boring" to me has equated to sincere and good music. Now I have to admit that when I listen to this album I still picture northeastern preps/hipsters but I like these yanks much better than those previously mentioned. I'm going to go get my turtleneck out of the mothballs and give this album another go... -(7.5/10)

Ra Ra Riot - "Each Year"
Ra Ra Riot - "Too Too Fast"
Ra Ra Riot - "Can You Tell"

High Places - High Places

I haven't listened to the rest of the new High Places' self titled album coming out on September 23rd but this song is fantastic. I'll let it speak for itself...

High Places - From Stardust to Sentience