Hanley’s voice sounds better than ever, by turns both tougher and sweeter than in her Letters to Cleo days. Guitarist/former-LTC-member (and husband) Michael Eisenstein fills Weaponize with the kind of fat, crunchy, tone that used to be the hallmark of Eric “Roscoe” Amble’s production jobs. Weaponized is also packed with catchy tunes, with the “The Wrong Year” probably my initial favorite. Also worth a mention is the expansive “I Guess I Get It,” a slow-burning ballad/rocker that could pass for the best Aimee Mann song since Bachelor No. 2. Even the closing jokey grunge-rap number “Drop a Bomb” is kinda growing on me.

I liked Weaponize so much, I’ve since got a copy of Hanley’s 2005 ep babydoll, and it’s really good, too. I’m left to wonder if I was just in a cruddy mood when I heard Cherry Marmalade.

When something catches my ear that much on last.fm, I follow up to see if I want to hear more (my LaLa wishlist has been growing by leaps and bounds, I’ve spent some of my eMusic downloads, and I’ve even bought some round shiny pieces of plastic).

Zsammy, to my surprise, turns out to be one guy recording, he says, “in various basements throughout Pittsburgh.” He’s posting the songs that comprise Be Let Down on his website as he finishes them.

Listening to Be Here Now reminds me of the promise that the Internet held for independent musicians a dozen years ago or so. The prices of recording equipment (and the ease of using it) were plummeting, and the ‘net promised to level the playing field, to make it as easy for a guy in a Pittsburgh basement to get his music out to the world as for a guy signed to Sony.

I have the usual quibble — I’d love to hear these songs with live (and/or better recorded) drums. But if everybody’s home-recorded album on the Internet were this good, I’d never get anything done.