Showing posts with label Happy Accidents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happy Accidents. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Happy Accidents, Volume 2
(The 8-Hour Work Day Edition)

[Happy Accidents is a recurring feature dedicated to the fascinating phenomenom that is an iPod on shuffle.]

When I got to work today, I decided I was going to hit shuffle on my iPod and not skip one song. I find that when you do skip a song, it sucks battery energy like you had actually played the tune; if you skip 20 songs in a row, a big chunk of your power disappears. I wanted to see if my iPod was in it for the long haul, and I wanted to hear some songs I don't usually listen to. Here's the mammoth list...It's amazing how much music you can listen to in one work day (That would be 97 songs).

Spoon: “Back To The Life”
Method Man: “Bring The Pain”
Beastie Boys: “Putting Shame In Your Game”
Arctic Monkeys: “From The Ritz To The Rubble”
A Tribe Called Quest: “Keep It Rollin’” (feat. Large Professor)
Jose Gonzalez: “Crosses”
Fugazi: “Margin Walker”
For a long time, I skipped Fugazi tracks on my iPod because they were mixed so quietly. But I used the iTunes function where you can raise the natural volume of a track. Fugazi sounds vicious through the earbuds now.
Dinosaur Jr: “Freak Scene”
Lady Sovereign: “Random”
…Trail Of Dead: “Totally Natural”
Rocket From The Crypt: “Out Of Control”
The Walkmen: “Emma, Get Me A Lemon”
Blur: “End Of A Century”
Queens Of The Stone Age: “I Wanna Make It Wit Chu” (live)
Dizzee Rascal: “Learn”
Buzzcocks: “Autonomy”
D’Angelo: “Brown Sugar”
The Clash: “The Guns Of Brixton”
Radiohead: “Sulk”
Boogie Down Productions: “Poetry”
The (English) Beat: “Mirror In The Bathroom”
The Police: “A Sermon”
Grizzly Bear: “Knife”
I don't really know what the lyrics to this song are, but it feels very romantic to me, like it'll be played at indie-weddings for years to come.

Ryan Adams: “Is This It”
The Afghan Whigs: “66”
The Raconteurs: “Level”
Queens of the Stone Age: “Ode To Clarissa”
Arctic Monkeys: “Fake Tales of San Francisco”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience: “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)?”
Elvis Costello & The Attractions: “Radio, Radio”
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists: “C.I.A.”
Souls Of Mischief: “93 ‘Til Infinity”
King Khan & The Shrines: “Welfare Bread”
Jimmy Cliff: “Many Rivers To Cross”
Foo Fighters: “Good Grief”
Mos Def: “Do It Now” (feat. Busta Rhymes)
Radiohead: “Karma Police”
Kings Of Leon: “Camaro”
Rage Against The Machine: “Maria”
I place my vote for this as Rage's best song

The Cure: “Let’s Go The Bed”
David Bowie: “Diamond Dogs”
Ghostface Killah: “Last Night”
It's sad I don't really have any friends I can bond with over the glorious hilarity of Ghostface. I have Joel on a program though; he's on the come up.

Radiohead: “Climbing Up The Walls”
At The Drive-In: “Sleepwalk Capsules”
Sublime: “DJ’s”
The Futureheads: “Back To The Sea”
Queens of the Stone Age: “Auto Pilot”
Deftones: “Cherry Waves”
The Cure: “Prayer For Rain”
Interpol: “Roland”
Manu Chao: “Merry Blues”
Ryan Adams: “Shakedown On 9th Street”
Nas: “Thief’s Theme”
This song is so sick, it's no wonder Scorsese used it in The Departed.
Foo Fighters: “Learn To Fly”
The Band: “The Weight”
Cannibal Ox: “Pigeon”
It was weird - the second this song started, I looked out my office window and saw a pigeon flying away.
Foo Fighters: “Exhausted”
Maceo & The Macks: “Cross The Tracks (We Better Go Back)”
Prince & The New Power Generation: “Thieves In The Temple”
It's very hard to talk to a young college-age guy about his debauched vacation in the Caribbean while the New Power Generation is cooing in your ear. And all I could think of was Prince's giant hair, and him riding through foggy alleyways on his motorcycle.
The Clash: “Garageland”
Led Zeppelin: “Bring It On Home” (live)
Kings Of Leon: “Fans”
Deltron 3030: “Things We Can Do”
Does anyone else think that Ludacris sounds just like Del, just with a Southern drawl?
Wu-Tang Clan: “Clan In Da Front”
De La Soul: “Eye Know”
…Trail Of Dead: “Mistakes & Regrets”
Dirty Pretty Things: “You Fucking Love It”
T. Rex: “Bang A Gong (Get It On)”
Beck: “Jack-Ass”
Jeff Buckley: “Vancouver”
This song sounds like old pre-breakthrough R.E.M. played backwards.

Spoon: “Waiting For The Kid To Come Out”
R.E.M.: “Radio Free Europe”
Rocket From The Crypt: “Venom Venom”
LCD Soundsystem: “North American Scum”
Guided By Voices: “I Am Scientist”
In keeping with the title of this feature, and the serendipity it implies, this song offered a bit of cosmic alignment today. I just got it; all these years reading about the ramshackle grandeur of Bee Thousand. And today, this song revealed its true self to me, like rays of sunlight through the clouds.

Guillemots: “Trains To Brazil”
David Bowie: “Look Back In Anger”
The Kinks: “Tired Of Waiting For You”
The Shins: “New Slang”
Hot Snakes: “XOX”
Bob Dylan: “Visions Of Johanna”
The Verve: “Catching The Butterfly”
Tangiers: “Here Come The Pieces”
Justin Timberlake: “My Love” (DFA Mix)
The Rolling Stones: “I Got The Blues”
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists: “The One Who Got Us Out”
Cassie: “Me & U”
What?? I like it. I don't care what you think. The track is sublime; it sounds like it was based on sounds from PBS' Nova.
The Black Crowes: “Jealous Again”
Mos Def: “Beef”
The Exploding Hearts: “Rumours In Town”
Queens Of The Stone Age: “Supa Scoopa & Mighty Scoop” (live)
The Kinks: “Starstruck”
Chavez: “Our Boys Will Shine Tonight”
My Bloody Valentine: “Come In Alone”
Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri & Brad Wilk: “All The Same”
No one knows this song. It's from the soundtrack to The Dangerous Life of Altar Boys. It's one of Josh Homme's most melodic, mainstream-sounding rock songs. A nice big anthem. Definitely seek it out.

Outkast: “So Fresh, So Clean”
Jay-Z: “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”
The Damned: “Fan Club”
The Black Keys: “Your Touch”
The White Stripes: “Rag & Bone”
Meg is so cute.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Happy Accidents

Resurrecting the battle cry of the late great TV painting teacher, Bob Ross, I give you the first installment of what will/should be a regular element of this here technihome of mine (and ours...mi casa and all that; I didn't take Spanish in high school). I tend to always listen to my iPod on shuffle, and so I'm going to post particularly excellent strings of random songs intersecting real life in great ways. Sometimes it results in those priceless moments when a place and time become permanently associated with a song. This intersection is "Manic Depression"; this on-ramp is "Sure Shot" by the Beastie Boys. Etc and so on.

The Nitrous Mix, or how I learned to love the dentist

Intro song: Pretenders' "The Wait" (the single version from the No Thanks! box)

I hadn't been to the dentist in years, and my mouth has suffered accordingly. My girlfriend was nice enough to hip me to her longtime mouth doctor. He gave me nitrous; I've never had nitrous before. Ooooh this is a nice feeling...
-Beck's "Sissyneck"
His assistant says to take deep breaths and I'll feel the effects. Thank you, J-Lo wannabe with too much fake tan. How can someone find pink Gucci sunglasses that can double as dental goggles?? My feet feel like their lifting off, like 20 helium balloons are tied to my ankles...
-The Beatles' "Paperback Writer"
My nose is across the room. This the best high since the first time I took a hugh bong rip. The dentist tells me to put my head back and open wide, and I get two shots of novacane to the jaw. He asks how I'm feeling. I tell him I feel like a Picasso painting.
-Sonic Youth's "Teen Age Riot"
This is now the best high I've ever had. My arms are like jelly, my scalp is living its own life in the Hamptons. This song is officially the best dentist song ever; when played loud enough, it totally drowns out the drill. Steve Shelley is pounding me into the ground. I can taste the grooves of Lee Renaldo's guitar strings; it's like putting a penny in your mouth. Awesome...I think I skipped a Led Zeppelin song...
-Eric B. & Rakim's "I Know You Got Soul"
I'm exploring the embryonic world of this leather recliner, the orangey haze of nitrous...I guess it's orange cuz of the light coming through my eyelids. I can count the little bloodways branching throughout my visual window treatments. There are 7,439 of them. I think. I think I just got a third shot of novacane...
-Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Y Control"
Oh, what's that? Oh the dentist is tapping me. How am I supposed to turn down my iPod if my hands are across the hall in the supply closet? WHAT DO YOU WANT? Open wider, he says. I mumble if he wants me to open wider to just tap my numb chin, cuz I totally don't want to turn the music down again. Jeez...The conversation must've been longer than I remember because "Intergalactic" plays, and I miss it...
-Common's "The 6th Sense"
The dentist yanks at my wisdom tooth. I barely feel it. He could tear my head off, and I'd probably yawn...
-Notorious B.I.G.'s "Gimme The Loot"
I'm coming out of it, and all I remember is Biggie insisting I stick & move, stick & move. But apparently I don't have to explain shit because I've been robbing motherfuckers since the slave ships. Something like that.