It’s friday again, so it’s time for a random ten. So out comes my iPod, and the results are:
1. **Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, “Latitude”**: mediocre tune off of the latest Flecktones album. This album was a 3-CD set. Unfortunately, it really should have been a single CD; they just didn’t bother to separate the good stuff from the not-so-good stuff. Very disappointing – they’re an amazing group of guys (well, except for Jeff…), and this just isn’t up to the quality they should be able to produce.
2. **Marillion, “Man of a Thousand Faces”**: a really fantastic Marillion tune. It ends with a very Yes-like layering buildup.
3. **Tony Trischka Band, “Sky is Sleeping”**: a track off of the TTBs first album. Tony doesn’t disappoint: brilliant playing, great chemistry between the band members. Features some truly amazing back-and-forth between banjo and sax.
4. **Sonic Youth, “Helen Lundeberg”**: something from Sonic Youth’s latest. I love this album.
5. **Peter Hammill, “Our Oyster”**: live Hammill, wonderful, strange, dark, depressing. It’s a tune about Tianamen Square.
6. **Flower Kings, “Fast Lane”**: typical FK – aka amazing neo-progrock.
7. **Broadside Electric, “Sheath and Knife”**: a modern rendition of a very gruesome old medieval ballad about incest.
8. **Stuart Duncan, “Thai Clips”**: a nice little bluegrass tune by one of the best bluegrass fiddlers around. Don’t ask why it’s called “Thai Clips”, nothing about it sounds remotely Thai.
9. **Dirty Three, “Ember”**: how many times do I need to rave about how much I love the Dirty Three?
10. **Lunasa, “Spoil the Dance”**: nice flute-heavy traditional Irish by Lunasa. For once, it’s not played so insanely fast. I’d guess around 130bpm, rather than the usual 170 to 180 of Lunasa. Lunasa’s a great band, and I love all their recordings; but Irish music like this is supposed to be *dance* music; you can’t dance at 180bpm.

1. The Stills, “In the Beginning”. I accidentally downloaded this from Salon this morning. I know absolutely nothing about the band.
2. Planet X, “Digital Vertigo”. PlanetX is quite a strange group. All instrumental, something like a cross between bebop and heavy metal. Great group, highly recommended.
3. Darol Anger and the Republic of Strings, “Ouditarus Rez”. Darol is one of my favorite musicians. He’s a violinist who at different times has played everything from classical to jazz to bluegrass to rock; he’s performed with everyone from Emmylou Harris to Bela Fleck to Joshua Bell. The Republic of Strings is one of his recent ventures; and they do a range of styles from old-time fiddle tunes, to full-of-fire country fiddling, to jazz vocal tunes.
4. Flook, “Larry Get Out of the Bin / Elzic’s Farewell”. Flook is the greatest instrumental Irish band in the known universe. 4 people, all accousting: probably the worlds best tinwhistle player, an great alto flute(!)/accordion player, one of the greatest bodhran player’s I’ve ever heard, and a really amazing rythym guitarist. Do not miss an opportunity to hear these guys live; even if you think you don’t like Irish music, go hear them, they’ll change your mind.
5. Oregon, “Prelude”. Oregon is trio playing interesting bop jazz. Sometimes atonal, sometimes downright ugly, sometimes amazing. Led by an Oboe/English horn player who used to do a lot of touring with Bela Fleck before Bela hooked up with Jeff Coughin. (Who is a truly horrible player in my opinion; I don’t know what Bela sees in Jeff; the guy’s loud, repetitive, loud, dull, loud, non-creative, loud, gimmicky, and loud.)
6. Suzanne Vega, “Straight Lines”. Great tune off of my favorite Suzanne Vega album. I really like her very sparse old stuff.
7. Solas, “The Wiggly Jigs”. More trad Irish.
8. Porcupine Tree, “Prodigal”. PT is one of my favorite neo-progressive bands. They’ve got a really great sound, blending almost bizzarely smooth vocals with dense distorted guitar.
9. Dream Theater, “Stream of Consciousness”. Dream Theater is neo-progressive heavy metal. Great if you like that kind of thing, which I definitely do.
10. Lunasa, “The Cullyback Hop”. And one more trad Irish band. Lunasa is a very traditional instrumental Irish band. Very up-tempo, a bit too much so at times, but full of amazing energy, traditional instrumentation, and a very trad style. Melody lead is generally flute and Uillean bagpipes, with guitar and bass backing. It’s damned hard to sit through a Lunasa album without wanting to get up and dance. The ultimate Irish concert experience would be a double billing of Flook and Lunasa.