1. Nanci- Toad The Wet Sprocket

• "I can't believe you would bend your words like Uri Geller's spoons" This is one of my all time favorite Toad songs. It's a sweet country rock number with a great hook (and a great bridge to boot). I've been looking for a girl who can bend spoons with her mind for years. The 1st time I saw Glen Phillips (former lead singer of Toad The Wet Sprocket) live was in Jan of 2001 and I almost got to play this song with him. It was at the Iota in Arlington which is my favorite venue in the DC area. Someone requested the song but Glen couldn't remember how to play it so he offered to sing it if someone in the audience could play the guitar part. My arm shot up (the only Toad song I knew how to play) but some dude closer to the stage beat me to it. He did ok whereas I would have torn it up. Speaking of the Iota- be sure to check out Lucky Day (best band in the DC area) there this coming Tuesday night.

2. Funky Piano- EPMD

• "Hear my jam with the funky piano" This Chuck D sample from P.E.'s "Timebomb" serves as the hook for EMPD's tribute to their DJ- DJ Scratch. This song provides the outro for 1990's "Business As Usual". The best thing about this song is the fact that the DJ gets his due. Not only do Erick and Parrish pay respect to DJ Scratch but the song features scratching (imagine that)...an art form that would all but disappear from mainstream hip hop records only a few years later. "Business As Usual" features the debut of Redman and the song "Gold Digger" with LL Cool J. EPMD beat Kayne to the punch by about 15 years but who's counting.

3. Luka (Live On VPRO)- The Lemonheads

• " My name is Luka, I live on the second floor, I live upstairs from you, yes I think you've seen me before" An enjoyable rock remake of the popular Suzanne Vega song. This live version from the Creator album starts with a cover of "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath before it gets to the actual cover. The studio version of this song wound up on the "Lick" compilation. The Lemonheads described "Lick" by saying "we just stitched together whatever we could find, some remakes and some covers...we just did some very clever editing to make it sound like we're a real project...a real band but it's a complete fraud". Not far from the truth.