Spoon's Britt Daniel and Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner are both true coffee achievers: high-energy dudes who tend to write tightly wound songs. So it's no shock that their side band is a genuine synthesis. Daniel's sharp guitar and Boeckner's drone-y keyboard come together on jittery jags that gain urgency by feeling knocked out – from the breakneck Kraftwerk of "The Salton Sea" to the Wire trance spackle of "Neopolitans." On the Boys Next Door cover, "Shivers," Daniel sings about trying not to have a breakdown, against paint-peeling noise – it's a song about coming unglued, from some guys who really ought to spend more time together.

Listen to "My Love is Real":

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.