T is for Tegan

(time to catch up on my meme here...)

A track from Sing-Sing's first album that came out in 2002. A project created by ex-Lush guitarist/lyricist Emma Anderson, it only lasted for just shy of ten years (disbanding in 2008) and released just two albums and a handful of singles. One of my favorite tracks of that summer, it featured on two of my compilations and was definitely on heavy rotation.

U is for Underwhelmed

Ah, Sloan! One of my favorite Canadian bands, these guys are still around and writing brilliant tunes, they're well worth checking out. This little ditty was their US debut single from their Smeared album, which got a lot of airplay on WECB at Emerson when I was the music director at the time.

V is for Voyage 34

Porcupine Tree is one of my Top 10 favorite bands. They're a fascinating group that's not quite prog, not quite hard rock, not quite alternative, but they're absolutely brilliant. Singer/songwriter Steven Wilson is a great and understated guitarist who rarely uses his ax to show off; more to the point, he uses it to paint an aural landscape.

This is one of their early singles from 1992, edited with its b-side (part 2) and its follow-up remix single (parts 3 and 4). Sure, the drug-themed narration (it's from a 60's documentary about LSD) and the opening guitar lick is indicative of Pink Floyd (one expects to hear "Another Brick in the Wall Part 1" at some point), but it's more than that. You've got Richard Barbieri's ethereal keyboard washes, Colin Edwin's sublime bass lines, and Chris Maitland's artistic drumming. By eight minutes in the track shifts direction and becomes a driving rock track, playing off the narration's mention of an LSD trip gone bad. By the time the track winds down again, so does the narrator's subject, coming down from his high and reclaiming his control.