Friday Random 10 - Online and More edition

I've been doing that MP3 thing lately, downloading various (purportedly legal) MP3s. There's a cool blog from The Boston Phoenix (the local alternative rag) called OTD (On The Download), which highlights various Boston-area bands and their MP3s and streaming songs. I've come across some pretty good stuff, and I thought I'd share it for today, to start off the Random 10:

• Dresden Dolls - "Sing" (Yes, Virginia [2006]) : Coming out next month, this CD will go to the top of my want list, just as their self-titled debut album has. A duo (piano & drums) who play something of a cross between goth rock and 1930s Weirmacht cabaret music, some good stuff there. I particularly like Coin Operated Boy. Amanda Palmer, lead singer, songwriter and piano player, maintains a cool blog at Dresden Dolls Diary.
• Spider - "Don't Be Afraid, I've Just Come To Say Goodbye" (The Way to Bitter Lake [2005]) : In that way of the web, once I started clicking here and there, I came across Spider. Spider is Jane Herships, and this is some good stuff (shoutout to rbally for the pointer). Folkie, with some great lyrics. She's playing locally at a few spots over the next couple of weeks, so I'll have to make some time to see her.

  and should I beware
  your nights and your mares

• *AM Stereo - "Drink Club" (Can't[2006]) : nice pounding jangly rock. There's a few more linked here.
• The Lot Six - "Strange Pains" : another cool indie rock song from OTD.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled ripping. I got my new MP3 the other day from Woot and so I'll give that a try.

• Sully - "Ethyl" (I have much to report [1998]) : essentially their debut album, this Canadian group is very reminiscent of, say, This Mortal Coil or the Cocteau Twins. This CD is another one of those I have no idea why I picked it up, or even when. There must have been a song that I enjoyed enough via WZBC (the Boston College radio station) to make me pick it up, but I have no idea which one. None of them sound distinctive enough, although this is one pretty song. It's funny how my musical tastes have changed over the years; in some ways, they've "regressed". When I was college age (many years ago in a galaxy far far away), I hated the local college radio stations, because I didn't recognize any of the songs. Now, that's the best feature of them, because "big" radio stations play the same old crap, over and over. If it isn't the exact same song, it's one of a dozen tiny variations on it. Boring Boring Boring. Now I listen exclusively to college stations like WZBC, WERS (Emerson College - great reggae show in the afternoon), and WMBR (MIT), although mostly 'ZBC. I used to be a WFNX listener, a bigger alternative radio station from The Boston Phoenix, the alternative weekly here in the Boston area. But they've regressed into mostly headbanging, macho rock crap that I can't take for very long. It's alternative mainstream Boring Boring Boring. I do listen to the "Leftover Lunch" show, which is an oldies radio show for us 80s and 90s indie rock fans.
• Bruce Springsteen - "Cover Me" (Born In The USA [1984]) : once again, the CD cabinet yields up a treasure trove of inconsistencies. One entry, I'm lamenting boring Mainstream Rock, and the very next one I'm espousing the virtues of one of its icons, Born In The USA! But at least it is hardworking, despairing Mainstream Rock, and not some lollipop crap, eh? And he certainly rocked the house when we saw him play at Fenway Pahk a few years ago. In connection with the above entry, he played my college in the late 70s, before he had hit iconic status. My friends there were neatly split into two camps. One was agog that the mighty Springsteen was playing there, while the others thought him already passe. Myself, I never saw the attraction back then, although I can see it now. This CD coughed up seven Top Ten songs, and this one rocks the hardest.
• Beatles - "Help!" (Help! [1965]) : From big to biggest! If I was forced to pick one Beatles song to take with me, I think it would be this one. I'm not sure why exactly, but I find the lyrics and vocals snappy, and the beat irresistible. A later song on this CD, "I've Just Seen a Face", is a very similar song, with quick singing and fast guitars.
• Sam Phillips - "Out of Time" (Indescribable Wow [1988]) : What a wonderful album! Sam Phillips' major label debut (she spent several years as a Christian music star, if you can believe it), this CD has all kinds of great songs. The way I heard it, famed producer T. Bone Burnett went into the record company offices, totally hungover, threw the demo tape down, said "You gotta hear this", and collapsed on the couch. Soon thereafter, Virgin Records signed her and Burnett married her! She's got a great, plaintive voice, with lots of emotion. Interesting sounds going on here; some call it "Beatle-esque", especially late Beatles. I stopped buying her stuff after the second (Cruel Inventions) for no particular reason, besides I just stopped buying CDs in general. But reading more about her later stuff on AllMusic.com makes me want to run out and pick up a couple of her newer CDs.
• Swans - "God Damn The Sun" (The Burning World [1989]) : Perhaps my first 'zbc inspired purchase. I just love this song, with its combination of dark lyrics, overarching guitar and the lead singer's impossibly deep voice. It's a song with a much more upbeat sound than the lyrics would indicate, always a favorite feature of mine:

  When, when we were young
  We had no history
  So nothing to lose
  Meant we could choose
  Choose what we wanted then
  Without any fear
  Or thought of revenge
  But then you grew old
  And I lost my ambition
  So I gained an addiction
  To drink and depression
  (They are mine
  My only true friends
  And I'll keep them with me
  Until the very end)

  One of the few songs I've ever called in as a request even. Several of the other songs on this CD are pretty damn good too, including their cover of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home".
• Depeche Mode - "Stripped" (Black Celebration [1986]) : Perhaps the archetypal arena synth-rock group and one of their top CDs, they are not entirely my style but I love this song. When they press the right buttons for me (like this song and "Personal Jesus"), I can't get enough of it.

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