Start Your iPods

Shuffle-up five. Describe.

  1. Derek & The Dominos - Key To The Highway. Nine and a half minutes of 12-bar blues, with innumerable endless solos. Gack.
  2. Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder - Ai Du. Another long slow blus-ish jam. But this one is saved by Touré's interesting Malian guitar and lyrics.
  3. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Heavy Metal. A fun snappy thing. I really like the resonating guitar that snakes around through this - it's a sound I use all the time (via my BR600). The singer does kinda wear on you, tho...
  4. The Sword - Maiden, Mother & Crone. These guys do such a great job with that classic metal sound. Heavy, sludgy. This could've come from any of Sabbath's first four records.
  5. Blonde Redhead - Bean. Probably my favorite B.R. song. Slinky and melancholic, with just enough Youthy noise to keep things hazy.

Make it so.

13 thoughts on “Start Your iPods”

  1. Cris

    Shpongle – Star Shpongled Banner
    Psilocybic electrance, with enough variety of sounds, styles, and tempos to keep it from getting repetitive over 8 minutes. Judging from the YouTube search, these trippers do seem to inspire creativity among independent amateur video makers.

    Chuck Berry – Memphis
    [Spoiler] Marie is his daughter!

    Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
    Winehouse had a great voice, sure, but I’m in love with her production team. This album doesn’t sound like an homage to the 60s; it sounds like it was actually cut in the 60s. That’s like trying to make a TV show look like it was shot in the 70s; it’s a lot harder to do convincingly than it may seem.

    Beethoven – Duet for Clarinet and Bassoon in B flat, WoO 27/3
    Ludwig van’s use of woodwinds in his symphonies is underappreciated (if anything about the man’s work can be considered so) — subtle, rich, masterful. So I was really excited to buy this album of works for chamber winds. But I was pretty disappointed. It’s some of his earliest work, and as such it’s exactly what you would expect: a young student of Haydn, trying to sound like Haydn.

    Gloria Estefan – La Parranda
    You guys mock me, but this album seriously shakes my walls.

      1. Rob Caldecott

        I couldn’t take my eyes off her guitar playing. I wonder what tuning she uses for that song. :)

  3. platosearwax

    I’m liking Shpongle…never heard of them.

    This latest Name That Tune is going to be the death of me.

    1. Depeche Mode – Clean
    Nice ending to one of their better albums. Kind of slow and creepy, with a nice build.

    2. The Diary – Love Will Tear Us Apart
    Somewhat bland cover of the iconic song. From 1995, though sounds like mid to late 80’s and I have no idea who this band is or how I have this mp3, the only one of theirs I have.

    3. Jesus and Mary Chain – Surfin’ USA
    Inevitable Beach Boys cover from the alternative Beach Boys. This sounds like it was recorded through a wormhole tunneled into the studio where the Dead Kennedys recorded their first album.

    4. The Woodentops – Everything Breaks
    Nice little song from the mid 80’s. British jangly pop, sounding a bit like Echo and the Bunnymen.

    5. Pavement – Unfair
    One of my favorites by them. I really like the sing songy bits that devolve into almost bang your head rocking out. I always wondered what would happen if Malkmus or Bernard Sumner from New Order (or hell, Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse) went on American Idol or The Voice and totally bombed.

  5. The Modesto Kid

    Los Shakers, “On a Tuesday I Watch Channel 36”. Maybe the weirdest song by this Uruguayan Beatles clone band.

    Ernie Tubb, “Walkin the Floor Over You” This is the first song I think of when I think of Tubb. (An alternate reading of the title would suggest that his lover’s corpse is buried under the floorboards.)

    Cannon’s Jug Stompers, “Come on Down to My House” Pretty wild take on a Blind Willie McTell number. Heavy use of washboards.

    The Soft Boys, “Each of Her Silver Wands” (from a 2002 appearance on FMU)

    Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, “A Day in the Life” — Cool, Beatles clone band opened the shuffle, Beatles cover closes it.

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