Category Archives: Start Your iPods

Start Your iPods

Random five, described:

  1. Portishead - Plastic. Trip hop, you're back! Well, kinda.
  2. Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Thinking Like That. A lovely, dark & broody tune for this dark and broody weather.
  3. 10 Ft Ganja Plant - Righteous Dub. A sweet little instrumental reggae to brighten the mood.
  4. Mudhoney - Magnolia Caboose Babyshit. And then a crazed grunge instrumental to mix things up, in preparation for...
  5. The Black Keys - Howlin For You (live). This is a good one. I should like these guys more than I do, however.

Testify!

Start Your iPods

Random five. Describe.

  1. Television - Friction. It's taken many many years for me to like this band. If their reputation wasn't so strong, I wouldn't have given them a third chance.
  2. Tanya Donnely - Littlewing. From her 2006 "This Hungry Life" record. It's a mellower, softer sound than she had in her Belly days, with a hint of country twang here and there.
  3. NiN - Head Like A Hole. This bridge between poppy Depeche Mode and grinding Ministry was shocking when it first appeared. Nobody I knew even suspected something could occupy that space, let alone something great.
  4. Big Black - Steelworker. But if I'd known about Big Black at the time, Ministry would have seemed cute. I've never heard anyone even approach Big Black's seething anger.
  5. Tricky - Ghetto Youth. Ah trip-hop. Where are you today?

Start Your iPods

Songs of the week edition.

Shuffle em. First two songs up are your Songs Of The Week. Put on your fortune teller hat and tell us what the pairing of these songs portends for your next seven days.

Hector - Satisfied


photo by Carla Hernandez


One of my own. Well, the chords are mine, anyway; the words are Don's. Despite the title, it's a song about dissatisfaction, or, per the Replacements' song Don mixed in at the front, being un-satisfied.

You are never satisfied
Fists too small
And eyes too wide

This is perfect. So far - nothing about the first two hours of this week so far have been satisfactory. I have no doubt things can keep sucking for another seven days.

Emerson String Quartet - Beethoven String Quartet #16 in F, Op 135
As if to poke me in the eye, my iPod gives me something I am utterly unfamiliar with and which has no words. What else can this mean except that I am to be continuously baffled by incomprehensible circumstances? Unsatisfactory!

What you got?

Start Your iPods

Get your random five, rank them favorites first, justify your choices.

  1. Sam Prekop - The Shadow. The Sea & Cake's singer's first solo record sounds pretty much like it could have been an S&C record. But at the time, S&C was going into their dense Stereolab / electronic phase, and this is very airy, minimalistic, stuff.
  2. Colorblind James Experience - New Beret. CBJE started out with a unique jazzy two-step circus polka feel; but that eventually gave way to more of a straight country/western vibe. Regardless of the base, though, they always had Chuck's deadpan lyrics and delivery and his love of repeating a simple curious melodic figure like clockwork throughout the song. They seemed to play a call/response role: Chuck sing/speaks a line and the songs's clockwork melody jumps up for a couple of bars, then back to Chuck, etc..
  3. Replacements - Buck Hill. An instrumental. Country/surf guitar line, and breaks that were eventually reworked into Tim's "Kiss Me On The Bus" (I assume). It feels like it needs just a bit more ... something. Maybe some of Westerberg's clever lyrics, maybe an explosive ending. Something. Still, it's a nice sketch.
  4. Robyn Hitchcock - Ye Sleeping Knights Of Jesus (live). This was never one of my favorite RH songs. But, it's a decent rendition, and Robyn's lyrical improvisations are fun.
  5. Louis Armstrong : Alligator Crawl. A bit slow, a bit plodding, and Louis' trumpet boppin over the top can't get this one out of the mud.

That was a pretty good random five. No bad songs, this time.

What you got?

Start Your iPods

Random five, describe!

  1. Miles Davis - Blues By Five. A long one, but a classic. A snappy start to things on this dark and dreary Monday.
  2. Department Of Eagles - Waves Of Rye. This is such a good album. It's the kind of album that makes me wish the band had more albums I could buy. Roughly based in folk, but heavily tweaked-out with electronics - reminds me of Grandaddy, or St Vincent.
  3. Black Star - Brown Skin Lady. Hip-hop, laid-back and funky. This record has been growing on me, slowly, over many years.
  4. Sea And Cake - Neighbors and Township. It's from their brand-new record, so I'm not really familiar with this one yet. But, this sounds like it could have been on any of S&C's recent albums. It's too new to have a YouTube link, so here's a link to their cover of Bowie's "Sound And Vision".
  5. Elliott Smith - The Last Hour. A slow solo-acoustic tune - bittersweet, of course. And as with most Smith songs, the lyrics seem prophetic in retrospect.

What you got?

Start Your iPods

Random five, describe!

  1. CSN - You Don't Have To Cry. I really like the tune here - it's got an unusual vibe to it. Though not really unusual for CSN. I wish I knew enough music theory to figure out what it is that gives them that sound.
  2. Rolling Stones - Lies (live, 78). Least favorite. Terrible sound. Ron Wood's (I think) guitar is constantly feeding-back. And, like all live Stones, it feels rushed. Jagger just kindof shouts lyrics, live. Maybe if he stopped running around, he'd have the breath to hold a note.
  3. Bauhaus - Dark Entries. Sure, it's a stereotypical Bauhaus song, but it's the kind of thing Bauhaus did so well.
  4. George Shearing & John Pizzarelli - Lulu's Back In Town. Nicely done, but this song will always belong to Leon Redbone, IMO.
  5. Smiths - Still Ill (Peel). Ah, that classic harmonica intro/outro - which has nothing to do with the rest of the song. Johnny Marr kills it here - so busy, but so good.

What you got?

Start Your iPods

Random five. Tell us a little about each!

  1. Copeland - The Gray Man. They've got a Death Cab + Silversun Pickups vibe that sometimes (right now, for example) sounds a little too precious for me. It's not bad, but my mood apparently is.
  2. Holy Sons - Chapter Must Be Closed. This on the other hand, is just right. A nice dreamy melancholy thing. I really like these guys - they've got a nice sleepy semi-psychedelic vibe. Stoner.
  3. Tortoise - Spiderwebbed. A great one from their classic first album. Instrumental, of course. Two basses and drums.
  4. A Tribe Called Quest - Word Play. Mellow & smooth. Sounds a lot like Q-Tip's solo stuff.
  5. Bardo Pond - Cracker Wrist. I've never heard this, and know very little about the band. Just put this album on my iPod... ok... the stoner tag fits this, too. Loud, long, repetitive. Wait, what's this? A female vocalist? Singing clearly, not skreeeeching; is not an ironic sample? Not what I was expecting.

    What you got?

Start Your iPods

Today... let's... shuffle by album.

  1. The Smiths - The Smiths. First song is Reel Around The Fountain
  2. Jennifer Nettles Band - Gravity Drag Me Down. Starts with: What You Signed Up For
  3. Blonde Redhead - Blonde Redhead. As lead off by: I Don't Want U
  4. Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break. Begins thusly: Score from Augusta
  5. A Halloween compilation called "Ghouls With Attitude". First track up is a read-along reading of a story called "The Witch's Vacation", by Bruce Haack. There are little beeps at the places where you're supposed to turn the page. Can't find it on the web.