• Theme: ACC Men's Basketball Tournament (1993)
It's probably safe to say that the major sporting event of the year in my hometown of Raleigh, NC is the Atlantic Coast Conference men's college basketball tournament. Through the years the fine folks at Jefferson-Pilot/Raycom Sports have brought us this annual classic with unrelenting skill and acumen. However, in 1993, some unheralded lackey deep in the bowels of the JP/Raycom production department outdid themselves with this seventeen-and-a-half second long masterpiece of musical elation (which, for the record, I nabbed at the absolute last second on it's final playing just prior to that year's climactic matchup between Duke and UNC).

• Sweet Jane, with Affection —2 Nice Girls (1989)
I don't want to give away too much about this disarming arrangement, but suffice to say it's a surprisingly breathtaking performance from a group that seemed at one point the heirs presumptive to the Indigo Girls.

• Anna Tonight, Stormy Clouds —Harlequin Jones
Harlequin Jones was a short-lived band that played the Triangle area of NC in the early '90s. Their sparse arrangements belie a cunning ear for song-writing, on particular display here. My friend Justin Roberts managed to scrounge up this recording from, of all things, the language lab at NCSU.

• In the Blacksmith's Hands —Flairk
Before world music was cool, there was Flairk—gypsy music meets cheesy '80s production, and the results aren't always entirely bad.

• Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra —Paul Kantner
Speaking of cheese, this album goes to levels of stadium rock pretentiousness previously thought unimaginable. Sometimes the question isn't "Are you pretentious?", it's "Are you pretentious enough?"

• Factory Gate —The Opposition
Like '80s music from an alternate universe. I saw these guys open for Thomas Dolby, back in the day. They could have been Cold Wave luminaries, but it just wasn't in their cards.

• Infinity —Bud Luckey (1971)
This is a Sesame Street segment from the '70s, now retired by the Children's Television Workshop. Hopefully someday I'll get the video digitized. It's a song to teach little kids about perspective, of all the cockamamie things. I personally believe this song is single-handedly responsible for molding the way I think about the universe forever...Sesame Street rocks!

• Kiss —Age of Chance
An exuberant, punky Prince cover from down Leeds way.

• Sarabande —Michael Lorimer
Not much to say about this. It's classical guitar, if you're into that kind of thing.

• Moonlight Feels Right —Johnny Cecka
Yep, that '70s classic, with a dark twist, courtesy my brother's friend Johnny.