Today's Hotness: Paper Cranes, Meneguar, Psapp

>> [Photo: The author, as shot by Watson, Cracow, 1997] In the 10 seconds it took us to rise from bed this morning and place ourselves under the shower head, some wiseguy on morning gabber "The Today Show" said the word "eastern;" we don't know if he was saying "Eastern Europe" or "Middle Eastern" or what. But what we do know is that immediately this Paper Cranes jam started playing in our head, and has been there most of the day. Right now we are attempting to exorcise it by listening to the track.

We can't recall where how this MP3 made its way to us, although there is metadata in the file indicating it must have come from AreYouFamiliar.Blogspot.com, which we don't recall ever reading and which hasn't posted an update since 2006. The mystery remains. As best we can tell the band is the same one you can find at this MySpace dojo, although we are not certain. If indeed it is them, The Paper Cranes' current material is decidedly more pop, less rough around the edges and spiky. But certainly worth a listen. But this one below is the jam, at least for frigid winter days, which of course is as far from the weather we have in Boston right now as it could get.

Paper Cranes -- "January In Eastern Europe" -- Demo 2005
[right click and save as]
[buy Paper Cranes records from the band here]

>> Indie punk geniuses Meneguar and freakier/jammier sister act Woods (it's not really a side project, it is really its own thing) have just disclosed some European tour dates that you can view here. None of the dates is in the UK, so we imagine somewhere right about now certain dudes in Johnny Foreigner are cursing their busy touring schedule and likely attendant inability to catch the tour as it wends its way from The Netherlands to the Czech Republic. Remember how awesome Meneguar's sophomore full length Strangers In Our House was? No? Here's a reminder.

Meneguar -- "Paint You" -- Strangers In Our House
[right click and save as]
[buy Meneguar records from Troubleman Unlimited right here]

>> Funny how we just mentioned electrotweesters Psapp the other day during our ramblings about the July Muxtape, and now today comes news that the British duo will be releasing a new record in October. The set, Psapp's third, is called The Camel's Back, and it will be out in the U.K. Oct. 27 and in the States the following week. Domino reissued the band's debut Tiger, My Friend, last November. It has the track "Curuncula" on it, which is divine, and so you should have that record. No word on which label will issue The Camel's Back, but it would not surprise us if it is Domino. Surprised we will not be. So there.

>> Clicky Clicky faves Mobius Band play a free hometown show this Sunday at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The notable trio is slated to appear around 9PM at what is being billed as a Breeders afterparty. So presumably The Breeders are performing thereabouts that afternoon, perhaps at one of those free outdoor swimming pool dealies? Where's our New York correspondent when we need him/her/it. Mobius Band's sophomore set Heaven was issued last year and was one of our favorite records of 2007. Believe it or not, despite the band tirelessly touring Europe and the UK during the last year, Heaven has yet to be released in the UK. This will allegedly happen "soon." Ahh, soon. Anyway, remember this jam?

Mobius Band -- "Hallie" -- Heaven
[right click and save as]
[buy Mobius Band records from Misra here]

>> At least one reader out there likes to tease us about our affinity for the various bands of Ben Parker, including Superman Revenge Squad and the mighty Nosferatu D2. So for him, here is a link to a blog post from Mr. Parker indicating a Nosferatu D2 reunion of sorts is planned for a gig to take place on Parker's birthday. A few more details here.

>> We would have loved to hear Modest Mouse cover almost the entirety of Built To Spill's unparalleled There's Nothing Wrong With Love. Alas.

Coming Soon: Karl Hendricks Trio's Gesture Gets Digital Reissue

If one song can sum up the mid-'90s, or more precisely all the stand-out losercore for riot nerrrrrds committed to magnetic tape therein, a strong argument can be made that Karl Hendricks Trio's cataclysmic, bilious "Foolish Words Of A Woman In Love" is such a song. The tune -- from the Pittsburgh-based act's ace 1995 set A Gesture Of Kindness originally pressed to CD by Fiasco and later by Spirit Of Orr -- features Mr. Hendricks at his most acerbic, lyrically. You may recall we wrote about it before here. Every moment of this song seethes, from the opening line ("I listened to 'Wild Horses' forty-seven times in a row still trying to figure out why you had to go") to the sledgehammering coda ("Did you just change your mind? Or were you lying to me the whole time? Was it someone else you were thinking of or just the foolish words of a woman in love?"). In keeping with the heavy vibe, it sounds like there are 15 guitar tracks on this number, and the entire proceedings threaten to combust at any given moment (which, incidentally, they do during "Your Damned Impertinence," which closes out Gesture in apocalyptic fashion). Jon Solomon's increasingly important Comedy Minus One enterprise -- which recently issued a limited edition Oxford Collapse 12" Hann-Byrd -- digitally issues a remastered version of A Gesture Of Kindness this month. We just checked EMusic (and ITunes, and AmazonMP3) and the set is not available yet (although For A While, It Was Funny is, and we've only ever had that on cassette, so yay for us).

Anyway, "Foolish Words" is but one highlight of the collection; also on board is the devastating "The Scoffer's Reply" and "King Beds And Morning Coffee." The digital release also includes two additional tracks: "Coming In September" and "They May Be Paper," where were released as opposite sides of a single around the same time as Gesture. While A Gesture Of Kindness is really a record that deserves to be owned in a physical format, Mr Solomon once again makes his nation proud by providing the important service of making available to the disaffected masses an important Karl Hendricks recording. We reviewed Mr. Hendricks' most recent set, The World Says, here in May 2007. For now, feast your ears on some "Foolish Words."

Karl Hendricks Trio -- "Foolish Words Of A Woman In Love" -- A Gesture Of Kindness
[right click and save as]
[buy A Gesture Of Kindness from EMusic here soon]

Karl Hendricks Trio: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Muxtape No. 13: Make Those Horses Jump Through Hoops Aflame

First things first: with this 13th :: clicky clicky :: Muxtape, we have decided to now create new mixes monthly instead of weekly. This is partly because we feel like we've been reviewing fewer records because of the process of putting the mix together over coffee on weekends. It is also because come this fall we'll be lucky if we can get a monthly mix up let alone a weekly one. We may or may not have mentioned this, but much like it was last fall, :: clicky clicky :: will be largely dormant in September and October because of a very intense work project that will stretch from mid-September until around Thanksgiving. Unless we find someone we trust to steer the blog during that time, there likely won't be much to look at here (although we're hopeful we'll be able to keep our Twitter feed fairly lively).

Anyway, Muxtape No. 13. We're not sure if there is a theme, but there are a few tracks from the excellent Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation Compact Disc compilation from 1996. It includes a number of hot numbers including Guided By Voices' "Under A Festering Moon" and Seam's "The Prizefighters," both of which you can stream along with the rest of the Muxtape at this link. The playlist and more exposition about the various tracks below.

1. The Feelies -- "It's Only Life" -- Only Life
(We were gripped with a mild case of Feelies reunion-a-mania of late, although not so gripped that we made the trip to New York to see a show. But we took the reunion as an opportunity to re-rip our Feelies discs and revisit them in turn. We turned on to the band when Only Life was released in 1988 based on a review in Spin. An odd place to start with the band, but we were 14 at the time and therefore not really musically aware during the band's earlier (non-)heyday. This is the opening track, and it is fair to say it drew us in immediately. The rest of the record took a bit longer to grow on us, but it became a favorite. We remember re-discovering it during a drive through western Carolina sometime in the last decade.)

2. Palace Brothers -- "Horses" -- Lost Blues And Other Songs
(This track has one of the most unabashedly awesome guitar solos in recorded music. Which is strange, because Will Oldham's music typically never stresses guitar pyrotechnics. But after the p'ar-fully mournful verses the solo is especially transforming. Wait for it, and then turn it up loud. And during the solo the sound of the guitar pick strumming the acoustic playing rhythm starts to sound a little like buried hand-claps. Weird.)

3. Seam -- "The Prizefighters" -- The Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation Compact Disc
(Typically exemplary and quiet seething from Soo Young Park and Seam with a verse that alternately waltzes and inevitably builds. Never quite explodes, but it is still very satisfying. The second guitar in the second verse does something unusual and we don't know what the effect is. This track is so good we're going to post the MP3 as well right here: Seam -- "The Prizefighters" -- Lounge Ax Comp. Right click and save as.)

4. The Magnetic Fields -- "Too Drunk To Dream" -- Distortion
(A drinking anthem from the luckiest guy on the Lower East Side. After having this title written in our little spiral notebook of records to buy (yes, we've got one) for months, we finally remembered to pick it up at Newbury Comics last week after popping in for the Liz Phair reissue. We had high hopes, as one reviewer at the time of Distortion's release made the blasphemous assessment that the set was better than The Jesus And Mary Chain's Psychocandy. Well, it most certainly is not. That said, it is an interesting experiment for Stephin Merrit and there are several tracks that are very good, including this one.)

5. Meneguar -- "Freshman Thoughts" -- Strangers In Our House
(At home the press gets hold of freshman thoughts, they give your sad life away. We realized recently that we'd made little comment about the Meneguar vinyl-only release The In Hour which was released this year. That's primarily because we rarely listen to it. The production is a bit frustrating, and of course we don't have it digitized, so we usually just reach for Strangers, which you will recall was our favorite record of 2007. "Freshman Thoughts" is still ace, and will always be ace. Whoa -- we just got a MySpace bulletin from Meneguar and apparently The In Hour is now available as a CD. Guess we'll have to buy it so we can rock out to it properly.)

6. Paul Westerberg -- "Something Is Me" -- 14 Songs
(We love this song exclusively for the lyric "Something went wrong, my name is Paul." Blitzed genius from the former fronter of The Replacements.)

7. Psapp -- "Tricycle (Live)" -- Morning Becomes Electric Radio Session, June 14, 2006
(Kind of a jarring gear change from the Westerberg cut, but there you go. Galia Durant's voice is so pretty it hurts. This one has a great lyric as well: "I drag my feet and drag us down, you don't want me around..." As the title suggests this is from a radio session which is surprisingly solid considering the band has taken tunes composed electronically and rendered them very nicely with acoustic instruments.)

8. Shannon McArdle -- "Poison My Cup" -- Summer Of The Whore
(We mentioned this track within last week's Muxtape. We love the increasingly dense production here: big toms, big guitar reverb, lurking distorted guitar. And then the airy, buried backing vocals. And then the brief teases of bass guitar. McArdle's vocal is one of her most fetching. Very much looking forward to this record.)

9. Preston School Of Industry -- "The Spaces In Between" -- Goodbye To The Edge City EP
(Quirky space pop from Pavement's Spiral Stairs. This is his best track from any of his bands, in our opinion. Just one hook that spills everywhere with vim and vigor. We wish this song was about 30 minutes long, and maybe had a remix by KLF. That'd be hot.)

10. The Raveonettes -- "Blush" -- Lust, Lust, Lust
(Frightened Rabbit's Imeem guest list contained a Raveonettes track and reminded us of how taken we were with the record earlier this year, when it had almost exclusive ownership of our car CD player. Wall of sound. Distortion. Perhaps this should have been sequenced next to the McArdle track. Oh well.)

11. Guided By Voices -- "Under A Festering Moon" -- The Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation CD
(At first we were enamored of this track during our college radio years because of the sound of an amp -- and its reverb chamber -- being dropped on the ground in the chorus. Which is what we presume makes the repeated crash in this excellent track. But the tune is more than its window dressing. It's a solid Pollard composition. It sounds like cold beer in a can, and then it wanders off like a purposeful drunk at the end.)

12. Radiohead -- "Last Flowers To The Hospital" -- In Rainbows Disc 2
(Thom Yorke does sad as well as anybody. Probably should have sequenced this next to the Palace track, but there you go.)

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, The Feelies, Ladytron

>> So that third single from Johnny Foreigner's amazing full-length Waited Up Til It Was Light? For "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella?" That we previously told you would be out Sept. 1 on Best Before in the UK? Now it is coming out on Sept. 8. The Birmingham, England-based trio will push the single (and the album) with still more in an endless line of tour dates, this time a short strand from Sept. 21 to Oct. 5 with newly minted labelmates Dananananaykroyd. We don't know what the b-side to the single will contain, perhaps a cut from a radio session? Incidentally, have any of you Johnny Foreigner fans out there been catching those UK radio sessions and turning them into MP3s? If so, please send them along. With the difference in time zones it is just too difficult for us to keep track of. We reviewed Waited Up Til It Was Light right here.

>> NYCTaper has the second set of The Feelies' recent show at Maxwell's. We've only listened to the first two tracks, but it seems like a nice recording, albeit a little quiet. Snatch it here.

>> It is with a heavy heart that we note the passing of the excellent music blog You Shall Know Our Discography, which posted this goodbye June 30. The blog posted many rare and many more excellent songs from superlative '90s records and compilations. Most recently it posted about Jiffy Boy Records' thoroughly excellent Ten Cent Fix compilation CD, which features great tracks from Barnabys, Poole, Grifters, Lilys and many others. A tip of the hat to you, Mr. Discography. Your blog will be missed. Here are two of our favorite tracks from Ten Cent Fix:

Barnabys -- "Gargamel" -- Ten Cent Fix: A Jiffy Boy Records Compilation
Slow Children Playing -- "Thirteen" -- Ten Cent Fix: A Jiffy Boy Records Compilation
[right click and save as]
[search the Internerdz for a copy; we couldn't find one for sale anywhere]

>> If we had money to hire a correspondent to cover shows, and he was interested, we would first ask Keith from The Dead Part Of You. His colorful but blunt assessments are a pleasure to read, and we particularly enjoyed his take on the recent Ladytron show at Boston's Paradise Rock Club. Check it out here.

Free Range Music: Albert Hammond, Jr., Frightened Rabbit, Lithops

>> [PHOTO: Valérie Jodoin-Keaton] Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. in recent years has proven himself a more reliable purveyor of solid indie rock music than The Strokes themselves. This is unfair to the group, of course, which still struggles with meeting the insurmountable expectations set by its stunning 2001 debut. But Mr. Hammond's records sound unencumbered by such concerns and embrace and deploy a broader arsenal of textures and tones, and his forthcoming collection ¿Cómo Te Llama? may be his best yet. Highlights include the straight-ahead rock of "In My Room" and the airy guitar lullabye "Spooky Couch." The latter track rounds out with a kick-heavy drum beat that gives the proceedings the feel of an analogue analog to a B. Fleischmann track, and it is our favorite Hammond track to date. ¿Cómo Te Llama?, Hammond's sophomore effort, will be released Tuesday on RCA/Black Seal, and you can stream the entire set at his MySpace dojo right here. Hammond's solo debut Yours To Keep was released in 2006.

>> Selkirk, Scotland's finest Frightened Rabbit, fresh from rounding out a U.S. tour with final dates in Boston and Brooklyn, has posted a guest playlist to Imeem.com that you can stream right here. Better still is interspersed among the tracks is commentary from band fronter Scott Hutchison and "the rest of Frightened Rabbit, as they're known." The playlist itself is a bit surprising, as it includes selections from acts as wide-ranging as The Band ("Jawbone") and Portishead ("Machine Gun"). And perhaps a little more surprising is when Mr. Hutchison discusses shaving his crotch and going to a Sigur Ros show.

>> You know the big deal that was made about that fellow from DFA creating an exercise mix for Nike? Well, if we had our druthers we'd have farmed the job out to Jan St. Werner based on the strength of his skewed dancefloor/cardio machine banger "Rosa In A Light Speed Vessel." You know Mr. St. Werner's name because he is one half of veteran electronic music pacesetters Mouse On Mars, and you likely recall the duo collaborated with The Fall's Mark E. Smith for the brilliant Von Sudenfed project last year. "Rosa In A Light Speed Vessel," which is a product of St. Werner's Lithops project, smears a lot of slithery abstraction over top of a propulsive beat, giving you a lot to listen to on the treadmill if you feel like listening, and at the very least providing a crushing 4/4 to buoy you along the way. The track is from the set Mound Magnet pt. 2 - Elevations Above Sea Level, which was released in late May on Killer Pimp.

Lithops -- "Rosa In A Light Speed Vessel" -- Mound Magnet pt. 2 - Elevations Above Sea Level
[right click and save as]
[buy the set from Killer Pimp right here]

>> While winnowing out -- or attempting to, anyway -- our inbox this morning we came across music from My Milky Way Arms, a shoegaze trio based in Houston. The act, about which there is fairly little useful biographical information, is currently touring the east coast of the United States to promote a self-titled EP. We streamed the thing this morning [link below] and found its five songs to be very engaging, melodic, swirly and distorted. There is most certainly some (orchestral period) Flaming Lips influence at work, as well as nods in the direction of vintage Mercury Rev and Slowdive. It is the big surprise of the weekend. Check out some MP3s below, and hit the band's MySpace domicile to see if they are coming to your town; The Milky Way Arms play Richmond, Virginia tonight.

The Milky Way Arms -- "Magneto (Aahhh!)" -- The Milky Way Arms EP
The Milky Way Arms -- "Unbearable Lightness Of Being" -- The Milky Way Arms EP
The Milky Way Arms -- "Sunshine" -- The Milky Way Arms EP
[right click and save as]
[buy The Milky Way Arms EP from Milky Syndication here]
[stream the entire EP here]

That Was The Show That Was: Frightened Rabbit w/ Oxford Collapse

We aren't naïve enough to believe that last night's magical performance by Frightened Rabbit was more than a single point along an ascending arc. Far from a frog-kissing story, the band has put in the hours and the miles: the Selkirk, Scotland-situated quartet has performed in Boston four times in the last nine months; shifted a respectable number of units of its sophomore set (The Midnight Organ Fight is expected to soon scan into five figures); secured a top 30 showing on college radio charts and a few plays on television to boot; sold out recently the Black Cat Backstage on a Monday night.

All that said, we couldn't help wondering where the hell all the people who thronged the act's headlining set last night at TT The Bear's came from. They sang along. They made surprisingly thoughtful song requests. They loved the band as much as we love the band, a rare occurrence. Somewhere along their recent circuit around North America Frightened Rabbit have become giants. And the more we ponder on it, the more we see signs that the act is on the cusp of breaking in a very big way. It was a bittersweet realization that last night was likely the last time we'll ever see Frightened Rabbit play a club of the size of TT's.

Prior to showtime we had an email from a publicist for the band who noted Frightened Rabbit has gotten better every time he's seen them. And being as jaded, surly and generally contrary as we are, we dismissed the comment as marketing bullrorfle. But after being blown away last night, we have to admit it is true. Where the Hutchison brothers, Billy Kennedy and Andy Monaghan previously scored big points with remarkably impassioned performances, last night there was a lot more going on. Even more exciting than finally seeing the jittery key-pounder "The Twist" and the electrifying "Go Go Girls" performed live (the latter cut was performed with supporting act Oxford Collapse's drummer Dan Fetherston pulled onstage with a floor tom) was an enhanced and palpable musical chemistry among the four players. It manifests itself as ease and confidence, and it precipitated the most nuanced performance from Frightened Rabbit of the three we've seen.

There were new and newly enhanced arrangements on display as well; what has been done with the heart-stopper "My Backwards Walk" is particularly gripping. And perhaps most impressive of all, with the addition of Mr. Monaghan, the live arrangements now come close to re-creating even the more intricate compositions on The Midnight Organ Fight. Of course some things remained familiar. The band closed the show with its incendiary medley of "The Greys" and "Square 9." And drummer Grant Hutchison still threatened to dismember his drum kit at times (particularly during the spectacular rave-up that closes the latter tune), although his playing seems to have become more shaded as far as dynamics are concerned.

It is easier to tell you what the band did not play, rather than what they did. To our recollection there was no performance of "Set You Free," "It's Christmas So Let's Stop," "Keep Yourself Warm," "Floating In The Forth," "Snake" or any of what we refer to as the interstitial compositions (although for a moment we really thought they were going to do "Extrasupervery."). What was played was largely transcendent. "Music Now" really thumped, as did "Old Old Fashioned." After Scott performed "Poke" as a solo encore, the plug was pulled on the show -- even as the other three chaps were taking the stage for who knows what sort of finale. We were hoping for a rendition of the aforementioned b-side "Set You Free," but we suppose we'll never know. We're keeping our fingers crossed for one more tour from the band before the year is out; we're greedy like that.

It is worth noting that Sub Pop signees Oxford Collapse performed an excellent set that is worthy of its own review, especially considering the great cameo Scott Hutchison made for a track whose name we don't know (we plan to scour the Half.com for the OC back catalog after we get this posted). However, time being short, we'll simply weigh in with our approval and pass along that the Brooklyn trio expects to be back in Boston in August supporting its very good set BITS, which will be issued Aug. 5 and already gets a thumbs up from us. We're hoping to cover that show, at which point we can discuss the many finer points of Oxford Collapse. We're posting the BITS preview track "The Birthday Wars," which got a hot workout last night, below. Anyway, our particularly mediocre pictures from the show -- including some of Oxford Collapse's set -- are online right here. Here's your recommended daily allowance of MP3 files:

Frightened Rabbit -- "The Modern Leper" -- The Midnight Organ Fight
[right click and save as]
[buy The Midnight Organ Fight from Fat Cat right here]

Oxford Collapse -- "The Birthday Wars" -- BITS
[right click and save as]
[pre-order BITS from Sub Pop right here]

Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Selected Prior Frightened Rabbit coverage:

FR Live at the Middle East, March 2008
Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight
FR Live at Great Scott, November 2007

Muxtape No. 12: Things I Need To Do Before The Batteries Die

Welcome to the weekly Muxtape, or at least the various scattered thoughts centering thereon. Seems like the theme this week is remarkable lyrics. Kind of a general idea, nothing like trying to prove a point about Dosh and Gastr Del Sol as we endeavored to do last week. You can listen to all the tracks here. Read on for our musings.

1. The Mendoza Line -- "Road To Insolvency" -- Fortune
(We're surprised by two things: 1) that Shannon McArdle will have a solo record out before former Mendoza Line and life-partner-in-crime Timothy Bracy and 2) that the songs at Ms. McArdle's MySpace cabin are so appealing. If we haven't come right out and said it before, we'll say it now: we always preferred Bracy's tunes to McArdle's in the Mendoza Line canon. Such as this song "Road To Insolvency." The guy can write amazing lyrics, his singing voice is rumpled to the extent of being wholly ace. But this new McArdle stuff is really very good. We saw Large-Hearted Boy hosting an MP3 from the set today, hopefully have time to do a post about it later this week. Ah, what the hell, we already wrote about the tune last week, so here it is: Shannon McArdle -- "Poison In My Cup" -- Summer Of The Whore; right click on the hyperlink and save as.)

2. The Replacements -- "Staples In Her Stomach (Outtake)" -- Stink [Expanded]
(This is the "bonus" track we were most interested in hearing from the recent Mats reissues, as it had been hyped more than once in the books we've read concerning the erstwhile Minneapolis band. And while it is slightly one-dimensional, it doesn't disappoint. It's was appended to the expanded version of Stink, but seems to be more of a piece with Sorry Ma. Another great lyric.)

3. Nosferatu D2 -- "Broken Tamagotchi" -- Nosferatu D2
(When Ben Parker yowls "the telephone is ringing!" in this track the hair on the back of our neck stands up. No one does literate and terribly exercised like Mr. Parker, whose acclaim falls far short of his immense talent. The title to this Muxtape is taken from this searing tune.)

4. Modest Mouse -- "Whenever I Breathe Out You Breathe In (Live)" -- Bootleg, May 19, Some Year
(Originally on the band's first single backed with "Broke," and while the Modest Mouse catalogue has many, many great songs, we tell anyone who will listen that they've never surpassed the excellence -- or at least the annihilating emotional impact -- of the first single. This live version is a nice take on the recording, and it was posted to some music blog a billion years ago when music blogs were shorter and lived closer to the water.)

5. The Swimmers -- "Pocket Full Of Gold (Live)" -- The Hideout, Chicago, 2008
(So we figured we'd post up another live track. We really like The Swimmers record that was finally released this year. The Philly-based quartet was giving away -- for a while anyway -- MP3s of their show last spring at The Hideout in Chicago. "Heaven" was the "big" track from the record, but we are equally as enamored with this rocker. We enjoy those plinky tones at the beginning, and the drumming on this recording sounds particularly forceful, in a good way.)

6. The Trolleyvox -- "Stomping Grounds" -- Luzerne
(And then we figured we'd keep it Philly style. This is from the T-vox's double set released last year. It's a quiet acoustic and violin-appointed thing, a ruminating vocal. This track is about a million miles away from the vitriol packaged above in the Nosferatu D2 track, and truthfully this seems more like an autumnal jam, but it's so purty we'll just leave it here.)

7. Wimp Factor 14 -- "Rebuilding Europe" -- Some 'zine comp
(We've always preferred the Eggs cover from that band's amazing Exploder! release. But even so, we were always intrigued to find and hear the original, and then it finally was posted to BCO or some such outpost of musical musicery, and we were pleased. This track features one of the best opening lines of the '90s: "I don't want to be part of your Marshall Plan...")

8. Unwound -- "Lady Elect" -- Repetition
(This record came out at the end of our college days and even now seems to sum up that period of time well. But even outside of our own context, Unwound seemed to harness the disaffected zeitgeist of the early and mid-'90s, post-grunge indie northwest. It would seem that when Mr. Cobain died, this trio, who we once saw destroy the Khyber in Philly many moons ago, stepped in to carry the mantle of the broken and disturbed. Love the subtle vibraphone -- we think that's what it is -- at the end of this track.)

9. The Sea And Cake -- "Civilise" -- The Fawn
(We referenced our strong feelings for The Sea And Cake's The Fawn Sunday, so we thought we'd throw in a track here from that excellent album. A nice gentle chorus, and wonderful pattering snare drum in the verse under spare piano and guitar. A very handsome package, and a track that could just have easily been on the more guitar-oriented set The Biz, rather than the somewhat electronically tilted The Fawn.)

10. Yo La Tengo -- "Beach Party Tonight" -- Summer Sun
(We were just at the beach. It was nice. Almost as nice as this top shelf Yo La Tengo dreamer. In a perfect world this song would lull us to sleep every night.)

11. Lifter Puller -- "Nassau Coliseum" -- Soft Rock
(We came to this pre-Hold Steady band way late, we admit. This track is amazing, as amazing as anything Mr. Finn has put his name on since. The relentless listing of cities and towns at the end leads up to a bawdy but stirring finish.)

12. The Promise Ring -- "Best Looking Boys" -- Boys And Girls
(So this sort of acts as a chaser of sorts to Mr. Finn's x-rated proclamation above, as here we have one of Davey Von Bohlen's innocent pop confections. It's no "Red And Blue Jeans," but few songs approach the greatness of that amazing track. So here we send you off with a pop song. Have a nice day.)