1. Mobile, "See Right Through Me"
Although this record came out long after The Good North had broken up, turns out I'd been trying to rip them off my entire career. Exactly the type of hard-charging, soaring anthem my own songs sound like in my head...only none of them are nearly as good as this. One of my favorite vocalists of the past five years.

Yesterday, Beck Hansen announced via his official site that he was going to begin working on a series of full-album covers, recorded in a day with little-to-no pre-planning, with the results being posted on his site. The first installment of this series launched today with Beck and friends (including his brother-in-law) taking on The Velvet Underground and Nico

My editor and I recently had a chat about how indie-rock bands and underground rappers approach guerilla marketing in drastically different ways. Mostly, we discussed how hip- hop artists turn the sidewalk outside every venue into Times Square circa 1985, and how their rock- and- roll contemporaries — on the opposite end of the promotion spectrum —fancy themselves too cool to work street corners passing out promos.

Basically I’m saying that I have way more rap discs to write about than I have time (or space). So until the Phoenix brass determines that Bay State boom bap is more important than my other assignments regarding drastic budget cuts and such, I can best prop local heroes in occasional round-ups like this one. Here’s some of the finest Beantown product that’s been pushed on me (literally and virtually) in the past month; and since we stand by our picks, we went through the trouble of providing a smorgasbord of tracks and links for your interactive pleasure.  

Phoenix, "1901" (live at the Paradise)

More to come on Phoenix's blowout at the Paradise last night. Until then, we have a ton of video of these guys, starting with their last song of the night, "1901," which is fast becoming their big hit. After the jump, enjoy another song from the Paradise, and another version of "1901," this one from their visit with the Sandbox at the WFNX studios at One Financial Center recorded just this morning. 

And as a bonus corporate synergy reminder, if you listen to WFNX's Sandbox morning show, you could potentially win tickets to see these guys in NYC (with Passion Pit opening, no less). Details to be found here.

Oh, and by the way, you can vote for "1901" as Best Song in our Best Music Poll right now:

Just in case you doubted us for claiming Grizzly Bear as a Cambridge band, Ed Droste has gone on record as being a fan of our sister station WFNX. Good thing they added "Two Weeks" last week. Now, if only we could get them to play our Best Music Poll Concert this year . . . speaking of which, let this serve as a reminder that Grizzlies are up for BEST NATIONAL INDIE ACT in this year's awards.

Carolyn "Cubby" Berk, the sole permanent member of LOVERS, lived here for only a few years -- between stints in Athens, GA, and a soujourn to Portland, where she recorded her latest record, I Am The West -- but we still think of her as one of ours. Or maybe we're just still in love with the two records she made here, Starlit Sunken Ship and The Gutter and the Garden