Perhaps this crap will be late no more

We won’t know for sure until it actually happens, but with the close of “Arsenic and Old Lace” last weekend, it’s entirely possible that this might be the last late Friday Random 10. Mind you, I’m not making any promises. I’m simply saying that, at this point, the prognosis doesn’t look quite as bad as it used to.

1. Kidney Thieves – Layers – I spent a few hours one night trying to track down who it was who performed the “NG Resonance” rock songs in Deus Ex: Invisible War, and eventually stumbled upon the Kidney Thieves. They’re kind of like a combination of Evanescence and Nine Inch Nails. This is my favourite of the songs that made an appearance in Invisible War.


2. They Might Be Giants – Critic Intro – Less of a song, and more of a…I don’t know to call it, exactly. But it’s brilliant. “If you hear only one song this year, there’s something terribly wrong with you – Kitty Carlisle, Easy Riders.” How can you go wrong with a piece that includes a quote like that?


3. Ani Difranco – Up up up up up up – Live version of a tune that, in spite of being eminently catchy, just never caught my ear.


4. Alanis Morissette – Flinch – I had a coworker who absolutely refused to listen to Alanis Morissette (occasionally reminding people that our work space was an Alanis-Free-Zone). I never bothered to argue with him, as he was clearly adamant, but I never really figured out what his problem with her was.


5. Evanescence – October – A song from one of their rarities albums. Nothing brilliant, but then Amy Lee’s voice can make just about anything a winner, if you ask me. Which you didn’t. So, uh, I guess you can forget I said anything.


6. ????? – The Freshmen – I don’t know who this is, because the artist is listed as “Billboard Top 100 of 1997.” Stupid people and their bad MP3 tags. Though, I suppose it doesn’t much matter, as it sounds like an average, cookie-cutter, mid-90s radio hit. Which is to say that it’s palatable, but doesn’t do much to excite me as a listener.


7. Pink Floyd – Echoes – Hands down, the best piece from their pre-Dark Side of the Moon discography. I have a strange fascination with epic-length songs, and this is one of the best. “A Saucerful of Secrets” slides in at a close second. Some of the shifts in the song remind me of their later work on “Animals”…


8. Tori Amos – Upside Down – I wish more songs that I knew actually appeared during my Random 10. Is my playlist really that full of music I’ve never listened to?


9. Alexander Brandon – Hong Kong Helipad – From the game “Deus Ex” – it’s amazing how one little song from a video game soundtrack can transport you back to those moments in the game itself.


10. Tragically Hip – New Orleans is Sinking – Live version of a song that now seems eerily prophetic. Not my favourite Hip song, but a good’un nonetheless.


11. Oingo Boingo – Stay – Live version, from their Farewell CD. I’ve got to track down the DVD of that album some day soon, I think. Ten years after the end of Oingo Boingo, I heard Danny Elfman’s voice performing the Oompah-Loompah songs in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” the other night, and it was the strangest, surrealist thing. I had to actually watch the credits just to make sure that I hadn’t hallucinated it.

And that’s it for this week’s Random 10. Tune in next week for the answer to the exciting question: Will it damn well be on time for a change?