Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Random Shuffle Mania
















Inspired by John Salmon over at the Mystic Chords blog, I have decided to offer my version of his iPod shuffle, although in my case it's more like the MP3 shuffle, as my player is an iRiver direct encoding sumbitch, but it's only 1 GB, holding about 310-320 total songs, so space is obviously at a premium and therefore a song has to really deliver to make it and, more importantly, must constantly prove itself to keep its spot in the rotation. For your musical edification, here's the first 10 tunes that pop up randomly, giving you just a taste of the tunes that accompany me on my daily rounds. The Onion also does something similar called Random Rules, whereby they get people even more famous than me to reveal which songs come up on their very own iPods when they hit random. The results are often revealing if not fascinating, but they usually only highlight the first 5-6 songs and then riff a little about them. For instance, who knew that Weird Al Yankovic would have The Beatles, The Rutles, Hole, Nirvana, Alanis Morrissette and Frank Zappa, but then again that sounds about right. In my own case, we're not trying to demonstrate how hip, cool or cutting edge my musical tastes are--that's a given that's already been long established here at WardensWorld (or not)--but merely to give you a rare behind the scenes glimpse into what makes me tick musically. Let's roll...

1 Love Struck Baby - Stevie Ray Vaughan
One of SRV's shorter, more poppy tunes, my second favorite song of his after Pride & Joy. The man died in 1990 at age 35, yet except for Jimi Hendrix, no one has or is likely to surpass his sheer mastery of the electric guitar.

2 Ball & Biscuit - White Stripes
This song contains one of the longer solo breaks from the Jack White ouvre. The guy can play the fuck out of the guitar, and it's not his fault that we find ourselves suddenly inundated by demented blues-drenched imitators like the Von Bondies. Which is not such a bad thing anyway, as any pop music movement that takes attention away from hideous hip-hop horrible-ness is OK in my book. There, I said it.

3 Monkey Man - The Specials
Borrowed the first Specials CD from Johnny Starr and just put the whole masterpiece of an album onto my iRiver. Impossible to overstate how great this record still sounds, so I won't even try, except to say that all this record did was kick off a ska revival that featured incredible bands like the Selecter, Madness, English Beat, Bodysnatchers. Plus the band set an example of black-white harmony (dubbing their record label Two-Tone) at a time of strained race relations in England. That's not a bad little legacy. I never caught the Specials live in their prime, I remember getting turned away from a sold-out show at Hurrah's, but did see a reunited incarnation of the band in '94 at Irving Plaza, and I will tell you that every single person in the audience sang every word to every song, and you could see the pleasantly shocked looks on the band member's faces as the sheer joy of the music was reflected back at them. Unforgettable!

4 Teenage Lobotomy - Ramones
I always felt that teenage lobotomies were among the worst kinds of lobotomies.

5 Nantucket Sleighride - Mountain
Mountain specialized in intricate, melodic heavy metal music, and this song is a good example from the band that's still best known for FM radio staple Mississippi Queen.

6 Buffalo Soldier - Bob Marley
Not one of my absolute Marley favorites, but one of about 20 Marley gems to make the cut. The song, from the album Legend, is about the African-Americans who served in the U.S. Army after the Civil War. Borrowed from (and returned to) Bobby Brain. In fact, all of the music on my MP3 is stuff I borrowed from other people or took out of the library, so as not to play out my own CD collection. Yeah, I got this whole "life" thing down to a science.

7 Darts Of Pleasure - Franz Ferdinand
One of the many "nouveau wave" bands like Arctic Monkeys, the Strokes and Interpol that are busy replicating the twitchy, nervous catchiness of original new wave punk bands from the late 1970s, such as the Feelies, Speedies and Joy Division. This album at first sounds derivative but grows on you steadily, and I always turn up the volume just a little more when a FF song pops up. What greater praise can you give?

8 When You're A Jet - West Side Story
Don't usually do show tunes, but almost every song on this cast album from the Broadway play brings a smile to my face, or at least to the relevant parts of my mouth. The record also includes gems like America, Cool and Gee Officer Krupke, although Jet is the only one still on my player.

9 Sway - Rolling Stones
I didn't plan on putting so many Stones tunes on my MP3 (about 25 total I would guess); it just evolved that way. This song is from 1971's Sticky Fingers, and its opening lines are still killer:
"Did you ever wake up to find
A day that broke up your mind
Destroyed your notion of circular time."


10 I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys
Found this CD at my local Astoria library. They remind me of a punkier, more uptempo Oasis, and this song would be great to dance to if in fact I still hit the dance floor. I don't see that happening any time soon, so covertly bopping my head to this song's herky-jerky rhythms is probably as close as I'll get to showing off the moves that once made me such a legend at long-gone venues like Heat, Hurrah's and the Peppermint Lounge. And that's a shame on so many levels.

That was fun, man. Feel free to contribute your own random shuffles or just favorite portable music. I'm talkin' to you: Johnny Star, JimiTheGreek, Tony Trent, Urb, Gatt, GonzoVin ... you know who you are. Get involved!

See also:

Indie Vids



12 comments:

Gonzovin said...

For Fucks sake why do you own the west side story cast album on your ghetto-pod My suggestion is take your ghetto-pod , flush it down the toilet then get in a time machine and go back to when your music was relevant. RAMONE!!! This music should come with a T-cell count

(to angry for a first posting???)

Denier said...

Is the level of vitriol necessary? I explained to you why if you were paying attention. Just because something is old makes it irrelevant? What a moronic thing to say. I guess great music has a shelf life. And I will never apologize for the Ramones, one of the single most influential bands in the history of the fucking genre! What is your problem, hoss?

Gonzovin said...

I enjoy getting you angry. I feed off of it . Lets face it as much as you love the ramones they are a musical footnote and will never be as good as green day or blink 182

(if that doesnt get to you i dont know what will)

HA !

Denier said...

you're right, i took the bait. i guess we should all be listening to u2 and bruce stringbean all day 24/7. i forgot what a negative confrontational prick you can be. now go home and get your fucking shinebox. blink 182. talk about footnotes. they're what i call a WPLJ band, along with good charlotte and goo-goo dolls. better than rap, but pretty average and unoriginal. green day is way above that class.

Johnny Starr said...

West Side Story? And you wonder why you get gay car ads from google?
Here is my 10 random itunes shuffle
1 Wrong Number The Cure
2 Rainy Day Women 12 and 35 Dylan
3 Madonna meets the sex pistols mash up
4 get over you the undertones
5 I'll Stand by you The Pretenders
6 Let the train whistlel blow Johnny Cash
7 You are so Beautiful Joe Cocker
8 Brain Damage Pink Floyd
9 Blitzkrieig bop Ramones
10 Hate and war the clash

One note Paul Simeneon From the Clash will be performing with his new band at the Apple Store on Prince St Monday March 11 at 2pm

Denier said...

you're right, john! And the more I write the word gay the more times the ad will appear! Good list, tho, but what's that pistols.madonna mashup about? Also, did you burn those CDs for me. As soon as you do, I'll burn those 3 you asked me to burn. What are you doing later today, because I think we're going out for a drink with Tony in Astoria tonight. Let me know...

jimithegreek said...

Add on some Maria Calla's arias n you'll get plethora of gay stuff!!
Here's my 10 random tunes + 1
Everyday People- Arrested Development
Dead Presidents - Willie Dixon
Blue Money - Van Morrison
Blind - Talking Heads
The Good,Bad & Ugly - Ennio Morricone
Rock Me Right - Susan Tedeschi
Angels - Prom Kings
Glory Be - RL Burnside
Playas Ball - Outkast
Aint No Love - Sam Moore
Rappers Delight - Sugar Gang

Gonzovin said...

The art of sarcasm is lost on you. You need to lighten up an bit and stop taking things so seriously. That being said if you ever bad mouth bruce again I will get in my old pick up truck drive from the docks where I load crates ever day , drop off my girl Candy at her daddy’s house pick up my friends I’ve know since high school devise a plan and then really let you have it . Also is any one else offended by the Chevy “My Country” song It make me angry every time I hear it.

Denier said...

that song should be banned for at least one year. john melloncamp and his midwest mythologizing is beyond annoying, it's risen to the level of criminal. we get it, the heartland, farming, small town values... what's your point? enough already, I agree...

jim, i gotta borrow the good bad and ugly soundtrack if that's where you got it from. and that mexico trip is still a go on this end. that gives me more time to update my pass-a-porta. jim, i never knew you were so heavy on the rap. pretty good mix.

hey vin, or should I say vincent, you do a lot of talking, but we still haven't seen a list from you. what's a matter, you scared? i'm sure it will have one or two songs that don't absolutely suck, maybe a social d song, and then about 7 or 8 that'll embarrass the hell outta you.

jimithegreek said...

I FOUND THIS ENNIO MORRICONE SOUNDTRACK A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO. NOT ONLY DOES IT HAVE THE GOOD B + U, BUT ALSO " ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST & THE MAN WITH THE HARMONICA! BETTER GET GOING WITH THE PASSAPORTE, I SENT MINE OUT LAST WEEK IN JAN, STILL NOT HERE!
I GOTT EVERYTING IN ME IPOD MON!!

Trixter said...

Still into the Lama's - Thats cool - I guess? ;)

#10 Wish you were Here - Pink Floyd
takes me back to the days hangin out at Pops

#9 California Sun - Ramones - Multiple trips out to CA

#8 Laid - James - Because I like the lyrics

#7 Blue - Lucinda williams - She moves me!

#6 Brick - Ben Folds Five

#5 Hateful - The Clash - teenage angst

#4 Love will tear us apart - Fall out Boy - A dedication to Joy Division

#3 So Lonely - the Police - A classic from Days at the New Nile Restaurant on Warren St.

#2 I'm a Cult Hero - Cult Hero....dedicated to Barry, because if wasn't for him I would'nt like half this list - My Punk Mentor

#1 Respectable - the Rolling Stones - it reminds me of time spent in the white 98 olds with great friends

Denier said...

Great list, Trixter, but not surprising. I remember sitting in the old skamobile one day near my parents house on 74th street and hearing john cooper clarke's INNOCENTS on wnyu for the 1st time. Good times. Remember cranking your Ziggy Stardust cassette and hitting the 59th street bridge for another zoo. I could go on and on but you get the idea if not the full effect! Speaking of llamas, do you remember the llama that looked like Sammy Davis Jr. at the weird little zoo near the Delaware Water Gap? You know, the one with no cover!