More MP3s Please: local song reviews

The Reader Local Music Playlist [www.sandiegoreader.com/songs/] currently features 1160 playable MP3s, including these recently streamed tracks.

Dornob, “Zangula”: The Persian avant gardists, extant since 1985, jump right into the deep end of the Enigma pool with this pop-aspiring slice of many-stringed world raga. The mesh of traditional and electronic instrumentation can be jarring to unfamiliar ears, but the tune’s basic jam-band infrastructure makes for an engaging five minutes. The Dornob Collective appears Saturday, December 26 at Tango Del Rey in Pacific Beach.

Liquorsmiths, “Let It Come”: This folk rock trio performs with a crispy winter clarity that conjures up the best and most thoughtful collegiate rock of, say, Simon and Garfunkel or John Mayer, as Drew Thams (Peripherals) croons of being “Held up in a room and I’m sipping down booze, hoping the bottoms of bottles contain better news.”

Stefan Christov, “Dark Lights”: The Oceanside pianist/guitarist (who also records electronic music as DeepSpaace) misleads a bit with the acoustic guitar intro, given how quickly the tune becomes drenched with increasingly Hawkwindish layers of heavy psychedelia, with lyrical mantras repeated over and over until evolving into a sort of sonic somnambulance.

Alan Lewis Silva, “Be Your Man”: Another slow-starter, Silva keeps this chordy number simple with a mildly electronic drone akin to latterday Syd Barrett (ie more Madcap than Piper) or spaceman Steve Hillage (sans Gong), with occasionally atonal vocals fed through a wall of echo effects. Though minimalist, it made me curious enough to check out other recently uploaded tracks by the Grantville native.

Diane Marie and Randy Lane, “Good Stuff”: Lane, who cut his teeth busking the Gaslamp while “residentially challenged,” teamed up with graphic artist Marie around 2011, and this breezy number displays the same sort of lighthearted Timbuk 3 vibe of earlier cuts like “Stupid FN Song,” as Marie sings of meeting – and fawning over – a musical “hero” who inspired her.

Jackstones, “She Dyed It Red”: Now in their eleventh year, the boomer-era dads making up this country rock quartet seem to be having boozy fun as they spin the tale of a once put-upon lady friend gone supersexy MILF, thanks to her new look and an old dress that, dyed red, “seems a little higher, fits a little tighter, she wears it with no regret.”