Let's Play The Shuffle Game.

[caley]

I love The Killers. They so clearly wish they were Duran Duran it's endearing, but with more guitar. Big hooks and sing-a-long choruses, just a touch of indie sensibility, but still unabashed pop rock.

They also REALLY wanna be Springsteen.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

House Cleaning Edition~~~

 

MF DOOM - Kookies
DOOM is how I got back into rap after high school. Back in grade school and middle school I used to watch BET and see all sorts of craziness (I still very vividly remember the first time I saw Goodie Mob) that the rest of my friend group just never saw. All of my friends in high school hated rap, and I had discovered prog and thought, like many fucking idiot kids do at that age, that all that matters was musicianship and you can't have musicianship without instruments. Then I met DOOM who was making all of these goddamn verb mazes and I got back in touch and have been since.

 

Junk Culture - Weird Teenage Vibes
I saw Junk Culture open for Girl Talk in... 2011 or 2012. I can't remember for sure. Buckwild show. Junk Culture was very very weird, and because I was a young jackass I heckled him a little after the show. Then I listened to his records and realized "oh, i'm a jackass" and apologized over twitter. The EP this is from, Summer Friends, is a really fantastic collection of songs and if I remember right you can get it for free from Girl Talk's label, Illegal Art.

 

Janis Joplin - Summertime
i mean

 

Death From Above 1979 - Black History Month
The scummiest gnarliest shitheaddiest rock band of my generation. This is as close as the first iteration got to introspection or cultural commentary, and even then it's kind of cokey and incomprehensible. But you don't listen to DFA79 for cultural insight, you listen because the bass sounds like that and because the drumming is fire.

 

Shabazz Palaces - A Mess, The Booth Soaks In Palacian Musk
Goddamnit, I love this song. Goddamnit, I love Shabazz Palaces. West coast rap got fucking crazy in my life time and I love it to death. Shabazz, producing Sun Ra stylized epic suites- their last album was literally organized by different rooms in an imaginary building- are about as far out as it gets out here right now. This song is as close to radio ready as they've ever got, and it's maybe a bit of a bummer that it didn't make it out like that. Ishmael Butler's flow is silk, and the beat is classically gorgeous.

 

Brian Eno & David Byrne - Very, Very Hungry
It is still hard to believe this album is from the 70s sometimes. It sounds modern. It sounds like at least ten different opening bands I've tried to be nice to. ah well. If you haven't listened to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by now, I figure you probably aren't going to. It is my shit, either way.

 

Swans - Anything For You
well that was a fun transition
No one writes about work like Michael Gira. This is probably a good thing. I don't really have much else to say aside from "this isn't from my favorite early Swans record (that'd be Cop) but it's pretty good"

 

Altar of Plagues - Burnt Year
This is a black? (my mind has filed it as black metal, I don't rightly remember) metal album I listened to like three times, and decided I liked it, and moved it to my music library, and haven't listened to it since. I'm not really in the mood to listen to it again. I will say that lined up right after Swans, it highlights how ineffective growling is at creating discomfort or intimidation. It's good the first few times, but after a certain point it just... it becomes a genre trope, and once it's a genre trope it's a recognizable, safe thing. yet another reason The Body is my favorite metal band and why I have so little patience for other metal bands. Anyways the drumming on this is really great, it feels like it's physically coming apart instead of mechanized like a lot of metal drummers.

 

Man Man - Piranhas Club
no i lied, THIS was a fun transition
Man Man is one of the most fun concerts I've ever been to. Lots of drunken singing and dancing and having fun (I didn't know I could have fun either). The opener was terrible. Man Man was amazing. However going back to stuff like this, I guess it's my fault for not seeing the boring doo wop album coming. Oh well.

 

Jay Reatard - Death Is Forming
RIP Jay. I still miss the hell out of you, and I think about you every time I'm confronted with a new weak rock band trying to play at being edgy and loud.

[caley]

and AGAIN!

 

01. The Carpenters - (They Long To Be) Close To You: I honestly did not know this was on my iTunes.  I don't mind  it because Karen Carpenter's voice is kinda amazing, but I've literally never had it come up before.

 

02. Sturgill Simpson - Turtles All the Way Down: This is a great country song that ranges from insanity ("There's a gateway in our mind that leads somewhere out there beyond this plane where reptile aliens made of light cut you open and pull out all your pain") and really touching ("Marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, and DMT they all changed the way I see But love's the only thing that ever saved my life").  The biggest problem with it is if I hear this song I am going to have the reptile aliens line stuck in my head for several days GUARANTEED.

 

03. Constantines - Trans Canada: This is a song that is really awesome but also kind of ruined by being a wrestling fan.  There's a line that goes "I had that vision, brother.  The one about you, brother" and every time I think of it I end up changing the 'brother' to doing an impression of Hulk Hogan's 'brother'.  Still a bad-ass song, though.

 

04. Mike Angelo and the Idols - The World May Not Like Me: And another wrestling connection.  This is the original version of the song Roddy Piper sings on that on WWF album that I could never understand when I was little and now understand better because WWF bought the rights and cleaned it up (Changing the chorus from "Fuck everybody" to "For Everybody" and "kiss my ass" to "kiss my trash").  Truthfully, Roddy Piper probably sang it better.

 

05. The Weakerthans - My Favourite Chords: This song was the soundtrack for my favourite concert-going experience ever.  When I saw the Weakerthans, some years ago, they were my absolute favourite band at the time they came through and I came with a mental list of songs I wanted them to play and this was near the top of the list.  So they took an intermission for the rest of the band, save lead singer John K. Samson, to go out and smoke while Samson took requests, he then ignored them all and played this song, the first portion of which is just his voice with acoustic guitar and I was happy they played it, though bummed it wasn't going to be the full band.  So as he sang and played, the various band members slowly began to spill back in, until they were all back save for the drummer, and then he stubbed out his cigarette, tossed it, walked back in and picked up the drumsticks and the entire band joined in at the EXACT moment the whole band joins in on the song and it was this wonderful moment of musical synergy that I'll remember forever.

 

06. Glass Tiger - Someday: When I was really young (Like 10 or so), I heard this song at McDonald's and just loved it.  But in those previous pre-internet days, it was impossible to figure out what it was, but as a particularly emotional 10-year-old, I remembered the chorus and would sing it in the shower finding a way to make it about myself and some elementary school girl I had a crush on.  About 2-3 years ago, I heard it on the radio and went "Oh I remember this song", remembered that moment, and realized it was a Glass Tiger song.  It's kinda cheesy and dorky, but I still kinda like it.

 

07. Built to Spill - Else: This song always reminds me of summer.  And of Jeff the guy who introduced me to this band.  He moved away and we had sporadic email contact over the next couple years and I would hear updates of what he was up to from various people.  And one guy whom we both know came in one time to where I worked and told me he'd gotten an email from Jeff saying that he could die a happy man because he'd gotten a chance to play pick-up basketball with Built to Spill.  And a couple months later, my friend saw my mom in the mall and told her that he'd heard Jeff had gone into diabetic shock and passed away.  I never heard from him again, so I assumed it was true, but I also never saw an obituary either.  So, he's either alive and laughing about his bizarre practical joke fake death and reminiscing about the time he played basketball with Built to Spill, or he passed away but at least got to do it after playing basketball with Built to Spill.  Somehow both results make me smile, though sometimes I can't listen to this band because it reminds me of him.

 

08. Clive Tanaka - I Want You (So Bad): I found about this guy on another message board and was mesmerized by his backstory.  A hickimori, which is a Japanese term for someone who basically shuts himself off from the world, he was extremely shy and never left his bedroom.  His sister decided to try to get him out of his shell and left an old keyboard and her old ABBA and disco cassettes outside his door and the next day they were gone.  A few days later, his family began to hear him singing in his bedroom late at night, writing his old songs.  Over time his love of music helped him overcome his extreme shyness and he came out of the room and finished an album and it was really good.  But, I learned earlier this year that it's almost 100% made-up, too.  He's never recorded another album, but filed a lawsuit against Nicki Minaj earlier this year (Alleging her song 'Starships' ripped off one of his own songs).  His attorney said he was Brazillian.  I added him on Facebook, where he's listed being from Japanese.  But one music site dig some digging and found he's most likely from Chicago after all that.  Still, it was a great story.

 

09. Yo La Tengo - Green Arrow: This has been my go-to sleep song for many years.  Quiet guitars strumming, crickets chirping, and the gentlest drums come in at the very end, it is so peaceful and summery sounding and wonderful.

 

10. Maria Mena - You're the Only One: Found this song years ago during the heyday of music blogs and it's really fascinating, a Norwegian pop singer who speaks most of the lyrics on this save for the chorus with lines like "I hope you can forgive me for that time I put my hand between your legs and said it was small because it's really not at all" and it's funny and sort-of sweet and breathless and terrific and I just re-discovered it this year after forgetting about it for a while.

[SolidGoldBomb]

01.) Radiohead - Myxomatosis

 

02.) Florence & The Machine - Ship To Wreck

 

03.) UGK - Diamonds & Wood (Probably my favorite UGK track ever.  Damn I miss Pimp C)

 

04.) Nirvana - Lithium

 

05.) Carl Perkins - Ready Teddy

 

06.) Cake - Hem Of Your Garment

 

07.) Beach House - Lover Of Mine

 

08.) Rage Against The Machine - Voice Of The Voiceless

 

09.) John Mayer - Good Love Is On The Way

 

10.) The White Stripes - Blue Orchid