S.G.'s wget mix

My friend S.G. uses a program called wget to scrape the Internet for music. Periodically, he burns a bunch of his finds onto a CD and sends it around to friends. At his request, what follows are my knee-jerk reactions to his latest compilation.

Basia Bulat: Before I Knew
Apparently this woman is quite a phenom in Canada, but you wouldn't know it by this song. At a hair over a minute long, her decent but derivative voice accompanied by nothing but a ukulele and hand clapping, it sounds like Tiny Tim meets Sarah McLaughlan. Totally and completely forgettable.

The National: Fake Empire
Decent, piano-heavy, lightly artsy modern pop. The middle piano/drum section is a dead ringer for early U2, but on the whole, reasonably distinctive. The biggest surprise was the lead singer's voice -- it reminded me a lot of the guy from Tindersticks. A quick check on the 'net turned up the fact that apparently Sufjan Stevens played piano on the album from which this song was snarfed.

Cary Brothers: Ride
Just in case you're wondering, this song was not recorded by siblings whose last name is Cary. It was recorded by a guy whose last name is Brothers. This is actually an excellent song, though the Cure influence is pretty blatant. Brothers' voice would normally be way too whiny for my taste, and I would consider a tune like this showing up on anything other than my friends' G&N annual mix to be out of place, but I'm digging it despite myself.

Shannon Wright: Everybody's Got Their Own Part to Play
The blatantly beatlesque opening almost turned me off, and Wright's vocals sound vaguely drunk, but the song is actually pretty decent.

Meg Baird: Do What You Gotta Do
Baird appears to be a local Philly act. Straight, sixties-style acoustic folk, though recorded in 2007. Her voice reminds me of Jacqui McShee of Pentangle. Not really my thing, and the songwriting here is merely ok, but it's also inoffensive and could have been a lot worse.

Elizabeth Cotten: Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie
Talk about out of the left field: Cotten was born in 1895 in the deep South, initially recorded by Folkways in the 1950s, but did not achieve real prominence until the last years of her life in the 1980s. The song is about what you'd expect, but the fingerpicked guitar is classic.

Deer Tick: Diamond Rings
If the guy's voice and singing style didn't sound so much like Mick Jagger, I might be willing to listen a little more carefully.

The Limes: Les Indes Noires
More whiny vocals, this time without good songwriting or a good arrangement.

Dntel: The Distance
This guy is in the Postal Service?!?! I guess he needs to record the bad songs, too.

Lindstrom: A Blast Of Loser
This guy is huge in Norway, apparently. Sounds like generic Euro-electronica to me. Vaguely industrial in spots, which is good. Wins the best song title award hands down.

Ulrich Schnauss: Stars
Now we're talking. Atmospheric, but just poppy enough not to get boring. Very Euro, and vaguely retro without being reactionary. I'll be listening to this one again, no doubt.

Asobi Seksu: Red Sea
Another pleasant surprise. A Japanese band based in New York, these guys (and gals) mix a heavy dose of Elizabeth Frazer and Cocteau Twins with early-90s atmospheric rock. They definitely have the sound, though the detached, heavily reverbed vocals give away their knowledge of unfortunate Asian pop.

Koop: Koop Island Blues
An entirely different kind of retro. A little French chanson, a little lounge, a little modern electronica with sound effects, and a surprisingly good song -- melancholy and wistful. Killer arrangement, too -- accordion, vibes, clarinet and trombone, among other things. All synthesized, no doubt, but it still works like a charm. Definitely my favorite on the entire disc.

Johnny Halliday: Hey Joe
The less is said about Johnny Halliday, the better.

Mark David Ashworth: ???
The song title came up as "Granma2 Begin Begin 2" -- can't really be called that, can it? Anyway, this guy is obscure -- no record contract, one self-released CD and a disgustingly pretentious and self-absorbed web site. The song actually works, though, mostly because of the orchestration -- a small brass choir and a classical guitar. The vocals are a little overwrought and melodramatic, but not too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Beirut: Elephant Gun
If you thought you've heard annoying voices before, wait 'til you hear this guy. And the songwriting does not do him any favors either. At least the vaguely Mexican horns in the arrangement kept me listening a smidge longer.

Charlie Perfume: Charlie's Tune
I admit defeat at trying to find any information whatsoever about this person/people/band. I now know, however, that Charlie was an actual perfume sold by Revlon in the seventies. The song is a generic, emasculated bossa-nova that might have worked in a film soundtrack, but not many other places.