There are two songs on the new Jeff the Brotherhood album with the word “hypnotic” in the title. It’s truth in advertising: This drums-guitar duo of Tennessee brothers know how to zone out – from the two-chord scuzz-Ramones blitz of “Staring At the Wall” to Weezerian sludge-pop like “Dark Energy” to “Hypnotic Winter,” where drummer Jamin Orrall’s Kraut-rock pulse undergirds singer-guitarist Jake’s driving trance-strum. Hypnotic Nights is a little more stoner-y than last year’s speed-crazed We Are the Champions, and it’s got a good-natured sense of slacker irony; covering Black Sabbath’s grand piano ballad “Changes” so it sounds like it was recorded in a haunted house perfectly splits the difference between homage and satire.

Related
• Photos: Random Notes

“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.