I haven’t been around much today because I’m working on a long piece that you all will see Monday-ish, but the Random Ten kind of happens randomly and automatically, so it’s music time!  And then it’s the weekend!  This week we’re starting with two bands.  I got to see Wye Oak live the other night, and though the lead singer was sick, everybody banded together and made it work and I can’t wait to see them when they’re in their best form.  Their song “I Hope You Die” is one of my very favorite songs I’ve heard in the past year.  So we’ll start with that, and also the amazing Big Star song “Life Is White.”  If you don’t know Big Star, please understand that they wrote some of the greatest pop songs ever written, and that half the people you listen to now got their inspiration from people who got their inspiration from Big Star.  They’re that good.  So Wye Oak, Big Star, hit shuffle on the iTunes machine, see where we are ten songs later, and see ya.  More videos after the jump.

1. Lalaland – “Over Again”
2. Jane Siberry – “Narrow Bridge/Millenium”
3. Le Loup – “Le Loup (Fear Not)”
4. Nina Nastasia – “Superstar”
5. Josh Groban – “Love Only Knows”
6. Santigold – “L.E.S Artistes”
7. Cry Cry Cry – “The Ballad Of Mary Magdalen”
8. Wilson Phillips – “Next To You (Someday I’ll Be)”
9. Bizet: Carmen Suite, #1 – “Intermezzo” [English Festival Orchestra]
10. Tori Amos – “Pink and Glitter”

Wow, we’ve got Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the Montagues and the Capulets all playing roles in this.  Not sure what that means, but those are some fierce archetypes.  ”The Ballad of Mary Magdalen” is one of my very favorite songs of all time.  Here goes:
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The song I’m starting the shuffle with is “Sore” by Annuals, simply because it’s truly one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard in months.  The only tangential relationship it has with anything that’s gone on this week is that I moved this week, and I am Still Sore.  So, here, introduce yourself to an amazing band while I try to get rid of this pain in my aching, elderly back. If you listen to the words and watch the video and tear up a little bit, then you are normal.

More songs/videos after the jump.

1. Thom Yorke – “Atoms for Peace”
2. The Drifters – “Save the Last Dance for Me”
3. Fever Ray – “Now’s the Only Time I Know”
4. Band of Horses – “Blue Beard”
5. The Sundays – “Here’s Where The Story Ends”
6. Jamie Lidell – “Compass”
7. Sarah McLachlan – “Time”
8. New Kids on the Block – “Hangin’ Tough” (Shut up.)
9. Wilson Phillips – “Reason to Believe” (Continue to shut up.)
10. Tori Amos – “Flying Dutchman”

A less honest blogger would have pretended #’s 8 and 9 weren’t there and skipped them, but no, that is not how I am.

Seriously though, one of my favorite things to do, when the weather is nice and I have somebody in the car with me (when I am cruising with my bros in my Trans Am), is to crank “Hangin’ Tough” as high as it will go at stoplights. If the people in the car next to you laugh and start dancing and singing along, you know that they have a sense of humor about life, and that they are fun people. If they start exchanging condescending looks with each other and saying, “Oh muh guh, Jennifer,” then they are obviously unworthy.

Okay, videos:

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