Singles seeking ears

The Reader’s Local Music Playlist currently features over 1100 playable MP3s, with the following mini-reviews representing several of the most recently uploaded tracks.

The Liquorsmiths, “Let It Come”: This new folk-rock trio (which plays House of Blues on February 6) performs with a crisp-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 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 (i.e., more Madcap than Piper), 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.

Dornob, “Zangula”: The Persian avant gardists, extant since 1985, offer this popaspiring 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.

Jackstones, “She Dyed It Red”: Now in their tenth 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.”