Rare On Air: Live music, fresh recorded

One good reason (out of a possible two -- take it from a native) to live in Los Angeles is waking up to the radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic on public-radio station KCRW. Each weekday, famous and just-emerging musicians hunker down in the basement studio of KCRW's Santa Monica station to chat with host Chris Douridas and perform songs on the air -- at 9 a.m., mind you, when one is practically guaranteed a revealing earful.

Rare on Air, Volume 3 (Mammoth) is the third installment in an annual compilation of never-released, live, in-studio takes from the show, and they are without exception memorable performances. There's no particular rhyme or reason to this grouping of artists, who span the style spectrum from Patti Smith to Stereolab to James Taylor. KCRW musical director Douridas, who is also an A&R exec at Dreamworks/SKG, has an uncanny ear for great musical moments; he hand-picked his favorites for this collection.

Cowboy Junkies start things off, making a typically ethereal drone out of Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper." Guitarist Michael Timmons's undulating, blues-thrash feedback is fire to sister Margo's dry-ice vocals -- both artists have improved immeasurably since they originally recorded the song for 1986's Whites off Earth Now!! (Latent/RCA). Patti Smith actually apologized on air after singing "Dancing Barefoot" (her first live release) because she felt her voice wasn't in form, after which the station was inundated with reassuring calls and faxes. Yeah, she sounds ragged and raw, but that never hurt a Patti Smith song. On the contrary.

Newcomers Remy Zero are fronted by two brothers who wrote the alterna-rock ballad "Twister" about their estranged father, who died before they could reconcile with him. Dreamy and impassioned, Remy Zero are definitely a band to watch. Everyone's watching Fiona Apple, a magnificently dark and soulful 19-year-old who does passion and angst with uncanny worldliness and European sophistication. She reluctantly agreed to perform a piano-voice version of "Never Is a Promise" on the air without her band. Bring a box of Kleenex.

Booth and the Bad Angel is a collaboration between Tim Booth, lead singer of James, and Angelo Badalamenti, who scores David Lynch movies. The not-surprising result: a twisted, romantic, synthesized trancescape called "Fall in Love with Me." Shift up for Ben Folds Five, who channel Todd Rundgren with infectious pop melodies and skewed chord changes in "Alice Childress." And get this: on "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" you can actually hear Bob Pollard's vocals -- which so shocked and disturbed indie-rock heroes Guided by Voices that the band almost didn't agree to release the track.

The badge of courage goes to Stereolab for trying out a new song," Spinal Column," on half a million listeners. It's a trademark lab ramble through the brambles of alternative lounge music, ubiquitous Farfisa organ, and moog synth grounded by two actual guitars, bass, and drums. Tindersticks performed nine songs during their morning slot; the mellow, free-form art-rock tune "She's Gone" made it to the disc. Luna carved their own mod-rock niche with the tribal-metal groove of "23 Minutes in Brussels." And the endlessly innovative Me'Shell NdegéOcello further investigates genre bending with the jazz-rock-rap incantation "Ecclesiastes: Free My Heart."

The album winds down with a trio of laid-back gems. The Wallflowers' "Angel on My Bike" with a stripped-down voice-guitar-piano rendering finds the heart of the song more surely than their own album version. Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba throws a brilliant curve with a pensive jazz reading of John Lennon's "Imagine" recorded on Lennon's birthday. And James Taylor, perhaps the oddest man out in this group, closes the show with the uplifting "Secret o' Life," which Douridas included in tribute to longtime Taylor pianist Don Grolnick, who passed away last year. It's a touching closing to a surprisingly coherent trip.

-- Joan Anderman