Don't Tell a Soul, Vol. 27: Wear your headphones, and I'll whisper you the code

I had so much fun keeping my mouth (relatively) shut last time, I think I'm gonna ride that "R.I.Y.L." wave until HBO brings "Carnivale" back.

Hint: It's going to be a long, long, long time....

1. James - "Avalanche"
R.I.Y.L. Primal Scream (when they're rockin').

2. Superdrag - "She Says"
R.I.Y.L. the Fab Four*, Sloan's "Never Hear the End of It."

3. Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter - "Tell the Boys"
R.I.Y.L. Wilco's country sides, women who (probably) smoke, the "Brokeback Mountain" soundtrack.

4. Frank Black - "(Do What You Want) Gyaneshwar"
R.I.Y.L. Black Francis better than Frank Black, weird** music that teeters between throwing smooth pebbles at rock 'n' roll's window and hinting at what a modern, acoustic-based Pixies release might sound like.

5. Stars - "Ageless Beauty"
R.I.Y.L. the lights, and you like 'em pretty bright.

6. John Vanderslice - "Time Travel is Lonely"
R.I.Y.L. Beulah, a slightly less experimental "Kid A," the Barsuk sound.

7. Wilco - "Theologians" (live, "Sky Blue Sky" bonus disc vers.)
(Since I featured so many "Sky Blue Sky" tracks on my awesome mix tapes before it was released, I thought I'd celebrate its legal street date by including this stellar live version of my favorite Wilco track; which is only available on the bonus disc that accompanies purchases of the album at fine independent retailers nationwide. Hint: the Fetus has it!)

8. American Music Club - "Royal Cafe"
R.I.Y.L. "The Who by Numbers," jubilant tracks best expressed by music videos of the band playing on a raft that's floating down a river (?).

9. Self - "Microchip Girl"
R.I.Y.L. really, really, really ridiculously overpriced albums. (Ha ha ha, and I found it at Pawn America!)

10. Travis - "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?"
R.I.Y.L. feeling like a sad, sappy sucker.

11. Coldplay - "The Hardest Part"
R.I.Y.L. feeling like a sad, sappy sucker but lacking access to any one of Travis' fine products.

12. Nick Heyward - "Stars in Her Eyes"
R.I.Y.L. knowing stupid facts like "While Matthew R. Perrine was being conceived in the early '80s, Nick Heyward was busy giving birth to the stupidest band name of all time: Haircut 100." Well, either that or Radiohead's "The Bends."

Your call.

(No hard feelings, Nick, your solo career saved you from ... well, remember that one particularly nasty scene in "Pulp Fiction." That's probably what you deserve if you had anything to do with naming a rock group "Haircut 100"....)

13. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Hey Tonight" (live at the closing of the Fillmore West, July 4, 1971)
R.I.Y.L. American bands that were as consistent (or more so) than the Beatles -- yet are considered one-fifth as talented.

Oh, and shams, bloody shams.

14. The Cardigans - "My Favourite Game"
R.I.Y.L. pretending the Cardigans are only a quasi-pop group.

15. The Dambuilders - "Kill Haole Day"
R.I.Y.L. umm ... wait a second, did you know that Kill Haole Day is actually "an annual ritual in Hawaiian public schools in which any haoles, or Caucasians, that dare to come to school are beat up by non-haole locals." (Thanks, Everything2.com!)

Wow, did not know that when I selected this song for this (awesome) mix tape....

16. Jimi Hendrix - "Message to Love"
R.I.Y.L. going against the grain. Let's face it: "Voodoo Soup" isn't nearly as bad as Hendrix purists would lead you to believe.

17. Tom Tom Club - "As the Disco Ball Turns"
R.I.Y.L. the B-52's, but know saying, "It's OK, it's actually the Tom Tom Club" will score you more points with that cute Disc-Go-Round clerk.

18. Dylan Hicks - "Waterbed"
R.I.Y.L. Valet. Pure and simple.

19. Fields - "Isabel"
R.I.Y.L. My Bloody Valentine, but wish Kevin Shields absorbed pop music into his sound "just a wee bit more."

20. Craig Wedren - "Do You Harm"
R.I.Y.L. Shudder to Think (if only because Wedren is that group's singer), the Afghan Whigs' most successful singles.

21. Cary Brothers - "The Last One"
R.I.Y.L. Big Country, Arcade Fire (when they lean on '80s college radio a little too much for your mom's liking).

*I actually do mean the Beatles here. "The Fab Four" isn't some pretentious indie rock group's "clever" name or anything!
**If you know anything about Black Francis/Frank Black, you know this is a good thing.