The Vegetable Report’s Song of the Year

Amidst a chorus of Nina Simone-like vocal loops, Memphis style horns and African drumbeats, Merrill Garbus brings down the motherfucking house. That’s the best way I can think to describe “Bizness,” the standout track from tUnE-yArDs’ W H O K I L L and hands-down the best track of 2011. On top of being an exhilarating shot of musical adrenaline, “Bizness” feels important. Experimental pop occasionally lacks an edge; even some of this year’s best releases don’t have enough energy to move the crowd. But “Bizness” should put doubters on notice that you don’t need a high profile hip-hop star or an electro-beat to catch fire in four and a half minutes. Like Garbus, the mastermind behind tUnE-yArDs, you just have to be creative and have a helluva-lot-a soul.

To boot, this track is an utterly potent example of indie’s grand potential as a mega-genre. tUnE-yArDs eats up deep jazz vocals, a brass section straight out of the 1970s, and African rhythms fit for Fela Kuti. What do they spit out? Indie rock, of course. As corporate record labels become increasingly obsolete, the “indie” moniker is less specific and more powerful. Music aficionados of every strand can get behind something like “Bizness” because it incorporates so many of the wonderful strands from our musical past while being unthinkably creative and adventurous. At its best, that’s what indie music could be. “Bizness” is evidence that, at least some of the time, it is.

- Jesse Javna, The Vegetable Report