CORN times TWO

The organ synth sound at the opening has an anthemic feel and the rest of the song is fairly understated. I like that the singer's voice sounds like is mouth is in a perpetual frown, it really stands out from other singers. There are perky pop songs that cover the same sentiment, but this one takes a more thoughtful approach.

A bassline of a New Order song and a guitar hook from a Modest Mouse song all in one. This track gets busier and busier as it picks up momentum until it all drops away at the end to leave you back where you started. "You look a bit like coffee | And you taste a bit like tea"

Sinister, driving track from the 90s. The 'verse' (it's instrumental) is made up of a flute and a rubbery synth all locking up with the bassline. Eventually everything loosens up and the different instruments get to start branching off to explore their own nasty hooks.

This track cannot fail. Its new wave emotoinlessness and poetry-slam creativity bridge disparate sensibilities recalling Kraftwerk and Gil Scott-Heron for me. How can you not chant along with the chorus? "Can you hear those people behind me | Looking at your feelings inside me | Listen to the distance between us | NO, mind your own business"

The cottonmouth tone of Mara Lee Miller's voice lies somewhere between Blossom Dearie and PJ Harvey. I never placed her Texas accent, but once I looked it up, It all made sense. "Went walking down the aisle with my sister | Mother, father til death do us part | Now been gone, been gone from home | To the city"

The kickoff Hammond B3 sounds like you're in for a Supertramp song but that is not the case at all. This track is not quite as dark sounding as I've come to expect from them. It's really quite nice. "I'll play the devil | You can be the light"

I love all the falling bottle sounds in the background mixed in at the same level as the backup singers or the banjo. Perhaps in this sound is the key to their professed happiness. "I'm feeling happy today to be living | And I know that this feeling will soon go away | But I'm feeling happy today"

My friend Guy tipped me off to the website of the old Boston band Mente which contains pretty much their whole catalog in MP3 form for anyone patient enough to download it track by track. The lead singer was John Murphy and this song was co-written by his then-wife Kim Deal. "We're Mente and we don't use drugs | 'Cause we plan to stick around"

Dueling powertool guitar sounds over a dub sounding drum kit set. The singer wails like one of the Number One Cup guys. I dig the way all the different parts fit together without any one necessarily being identifiable as 'verse' or 'chorus'. "You've got a feeling | I've got a feeling too"

I really like the guitar sound on this one, and it's really given the main focus in the mix. It's a fun ska-ish track about one of my favorite colors. At least it might be. The lyrics might not be about anything at all. "You won't go where I go | You don't know like I know | And then it all turned orange"

I bought this CD off of the lead singer of Sky White Tiger at some peripheral CMJ event this year. He had just come from a show at a different venue and he still had an E.T./Iron Man heart light rigged up inside his white blazer that he activated a few times during our conversation.

This song starts out with such a poppy verse part that got me all set up for a big ultra-pop chorus payoff. What ends up getting delivered though, is a series of more minor-sounding bridges and mini-choruses that make me appreciate the verse all the more once it comes back around. Huzzah.

Synth horns sound pretty ridiculous, but this song puts them right out in front with a bunch of other goofy sound effects. There are 3 or 4 takes of the same drunk guy singing, shouting and making shit up on the spot all at once. This all over manic backing track. It works, though. Verbatim from a quick search for lyrics: "Your new barg is dead | There is a town there | And now, come toghether"

Totally ridiculous and brilliant, this song is no more than an homage to the actor Frank Sutton who played Gunnery Sergeant Vincent Carter opposite Jim Nabors' charcter Gomer Pyle in the TV series of the same name. Culturally maginalized now, maybe it was a little more relevant when this song was recorded in 1987. Repeated over and over is Sgt. Carter's tag line. "Frank Sutton | I can't hear you"

A simple medium-fi pop song with the charm of Crayon or Beat Happening, but with better musicianship than both those bands. Not that better musicianship equals better music, but I'm just pointing it out. Sounds like vintage surf-era instruments, and it all clocks in at 94 seconds. Heads up.

Rushing in at just a second under the two minute mark, this is a solid pop song with tons of atmosphere. The frantic guitar lead is inspired, even during the verse part where it turns into rhythm and chords, they're cranking out 32nd notes or some shit. Amazing. There should be a list of songs that feature the sound of a the reverb spring in an amp getting knocked around and this one would be on there.

A fun pop song that's not quite as calculated as a Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians track but it's more chaotic and driving. It's more of a band cutting loose as a unit than an arrangement of players. "I head your captivating tales | Of high adventure in the golden age | I even heard that you died!"

There's an air of innocence on the edge of becoming jaded in this track that reminds me a lot of the Great Lake Swimmers and there's even a little Weezer in there too. The way they sing the title in the chorus sounds like 'Organ Girl' and it makes me wonder if she isn't already playing in the band.