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Music

Staff Picks and Good Shit for the Week of March 6

Here's what the Noisey editors were really, really, really, really listening to this week.

Above is a video of Nickelback in their disco phase. Isn’t that hilarious? Because Nickelback is bad. They’re a bad band. The people of America took a vote and the result was that the band Nickelback is not good. They’re the one band we can all feel good about ourselves for making fun of. A Nickelback joke is the best way to prove how refined your musical taste is and make like-minded friends. Everyone will appreciate you more as a person and value your contributions to cultural commentary. So go ahead, make that Nickelback wisecrack. Here's what else we were listening to this week…

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Carly Rae Jepsen - "I Really Like You"

This morning, as I was walking into work, I watched a bunch of ice break off the top of one of the many expensive and fancy loft apartment buildings of Williamsburg and land below on some people walking on the sidewalk. They were OK, but, look, enough is enough. Winter is hell. I really, really, really, really, really, really want it to be summer. And then we will all have a really, really, really, really, really, really good time listening to this song. I wrote some more stuff about why it is great

here

, if you still don't trust me on this.

Kyle Kramer, Editor

Kyle on

Noisey

| Kyle on

Twitter


California X - Nights in the Dark

I'll never forget the first time I saw California X, June 2012 at Tommy's Tavern in Greenpoint with White Lung and Nude Beach. The room held around 50 people total and I was primarily going to the venue to catch White Lung, a then rather-unknown band that I was seeing at the urging of my buddy Elsner Nino (who eventually became Merchandise's drummer). While White Lung impressed, the bands that left a mark the most were Nude Beach and California X, neither of which I had any knowledge of going into the evening. California X's power-pop-isms reminded me of favorites like Dinosaur Jr. and Hüsker Dü, not only in songwriting approach, but more importantly in tone; there is a sweetness that lies beneath all of that crunchy punishing distortion. Less that three years later, I am heading to see them headline Saint Vitus right down the street. They deserve that and more, their new LP Nights in the Dark positively rips.

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Fred Pessaro, Editor-in-Chief
Fred on Noisey | Fred on Twitter


Black Clouds - Live in Brooklyn

Kind of a long shot but do any Noisey readers smoke the marijuana? I’ll bet at least a small few of you have taken the deadly 420 drug at some point. For those of you who enjoy “riding the reefer wave,” I’d recommend that you do the following: go see the band Black Clouds, swallow a bunch of your pot pills or whatever, stand in the back and just take it in. They’ve got a light rig that will mess with your tiny burn-brain. Enjoy, you crazy stone-heads. Have fun with your gateway drug.

Dan Ozzi, Editor
Dan on Noisey | Dan on Twitter


Jack Ü feat. Justin Bieber - "Where Are Ü Now"

So, Skrillex and Diplo made a song with Justin Bieber. If you were surprised, then, well, you shouldn't be—Diplo worked with the Biebz back on his Believe album, and since Bieber is 21 years-old, he is basically Skrillex's target audience. "Where Are Ü Now" is much more than a conflation of audience metrics and maximum demographic reach, however—it's the unimpeachable highlight of a record whose main function is to wow the listener as much as humanly possible. It starts off as a standard-issue Bieber lamentation of ghosts of baes past, and then the pan flutes hit. Suddenly, you've got something that's equal parts trap, big room anthem, and a welcome throwback to Diplo's early work, back when he wasn't a kinda-corny EDM brovacateur and instead a genuine force in underground music. "Where Are Ü Now" might be a product of hyper-modernity, but it'd sound perfect tucked in to a Hollertronix set in some sweaty Philly club in 2003.

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Drew Millard, Features Editor
Drew on Twitter | Drew on Noisey


Necros Christos - Necromantique Nun

This is the perfect song to make your headphones rattle whilst you fight off jet lag and immerse yourself in the existential horror that is

@Nihilist_Arbys

. It's the first day of tour, we've had about three hours of sleep, and all I want to do is listen to German death metal and watch the chain restaurants and truck stops go by.

Kim Kelly, Contributing Editor
Kim on Noisey I Kim on Twitter


White Lies - "Unfinished Business"

It's a throwback! I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for White Lies. Back in 2006, when they were Fear of Flying, I conducted their very first interview. They were teenagers who soon reinvented themselves, ditching the perky indie-pop, morphing into a black-clad trio who, in the vein of Interpol, penned gloriously doomy romantic paeans and this is one of them. Although I'm not entirely clear on who hurt who in this song-scenario, the chorus and the way singer Harry enunciates "kiss" kills me.

"Get off your low / Let's dance like we used to…" If only it were always as easy as that, eh?

Kim Taylor Bennett, Style Editor
Kim on Noisey | Kim on Twitter


Fetty Wap - "RGF Island"

If Fetty Wap never made another song in his life, he'd still be a legend off the strength of "Trap Queen", a song that united rap fans of both genders with the loving way Mr. Wap was able to communicate the pain and love associated with dealing drugs, and spending the money that came from doing so. But the artist soon to be known as ".)" did make another song, and it proves that New York's Future (pun intended) is fully equipped to craft hits at the frantic pace the internet demands. The best part of this song is not the melodies or the piano keys that seem to be lifted straight from Bonnie Tyler ballad, but the cover art. It takes a lot of money to be able to use it as two phones, but the confidence required to post a picture that seems to have been run through 400 Instagram filters after you're already signed is nothing short of heroic.

Slava Pastuk, Noisey Canada Editor
Slava Pastuk on Noisey | Slava Pastuk on Twitter