This week's Top 10

These are songs that have been randomly played on my iWhatever-the-fuck-they-call-it today. It's a fair indication of what I listen to walking from Waterworks Rd to campus in the morning - glorious sunshine always, a slight breeze, the city inviting and near like Seattle remains in my dreams - except that usually it involves a load more Jam.

1. Julie Doiron - Snow Falls In November (from Julie Doiron advance tour promo)
Goddamn, I love this song so mightily. It's like M Ward, only not. It's like the Greatest Record Secretly Canadian Ever Put Out. (Is she on SC? She ought to be.)

2. Cranes - Loved (from Loved)
No one ever achieved twee goth like this, before or since.

3. Arrington de Dionyso - Mani Malaikat (from Malaikat dan Singa)
Fuck away! Every time this fellow comes onto my iWhatever (and it's frequently), I ALWAYS do a double-take, always start grooving down to his pungent Pop Group groove, the demented sax, the voluptuous vocals, the squealing and the squalling.

4. Polly Scattergood - Poem Song (from Polly Scattergood demo)
Still can't make up my mind whether I hate or love this indulgent confessional - even after a dozen listens. Guess I must... wait. Anyone else think it's strange the way she turns into Björk when she comes over all emotional?

5. Chin Chin - Revolution (from Stop! Your Crying EP)
First, I thought it was a Shop Assistants A-side. Then, The Stooges! Neither...but just as glorious. This entire EP is boss.

6. Taken By Trees - Sunshine Lady (from Open Field)
Of course, I could have acted judo-hip and claimed that I'd been listening to a track from her second album (which I HAVE), but this delicate, strummed delight is what actually played.

7. The Bureau - Only For Sheep (from The Bureau)
The greatest Dexys Midnight Runners song not performed (or written) by Dexys.

8. The Jam - Happy Together (from The Gift)
At 5am this morning I was listening to early Weller demos, all vulnerable and self-assured.

9. 13th Floor Elevators - Roller Coaster (Live On Sumpin 'Else TV) (from Sign Of The 3 Eyed Men promo sampler)
Oh yeah baby. Come ON!

10. The Trashwomen - Quasimodo (from Live! At Tom Guido's Purple Onion and Other Swinging Places )
Like The 5,6,7,8's - only from San Francisco (and way more untogether), the self-proclaimed "Queens of Tease Rock", formed in 1991.