I was too tired to read on the way home from work this evening. This usually frustrates me, since the train rides are the few extended reading sessions I get these days. It's been happening a lot this week; I haven't been getting enough sleep.
But, luckily, I had my iPod to hand. I use it primarily at work, but also at the gym and during such times as these. I have 4568 songs on the thing at the moment, and recently I've been listening to it on shuffle, trying not to re-set it, to listen to as many of the songs as possible. I'm 1162 songs in. Only 12 weeks to go!
1149. Neu! - "Sonderangebot"
1150. The Flatlanders - "Stars in my Life"
1151. Beck - "Devil's Haircut"
1152. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "Madeleine-Mary"
1153. Out Hud - "Dear Mr. Bush, There Are Over 100 Words for Shit and Only 1 for Music. Fuck You, Out Hud"
1154. Captain Beafheart - "Sue Egypt"
1155. Tower Recordings - "I Didn't Know That Hajji Smoked/ID Can Hear The Magic Spring"
1156. James Brown - "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Just Open the Door I'll Get It Myself)"
1157. Sonic Youth - "Sympathy for the Strawberry"
1158. Nas - "Represent"
1159. Nina Simone - "Old Jim Crow"
1160. The Kinks - "Uncle Son"
1161. The Rolling Stones - "Prodigal Son"
1162. The American Analog Set - "Two Way Diamond II"
Some notes:
1149: Neu! had been one of those shadowy groups I kept reading about, whose stuff was long out of print, but key inspirations for bands like Stereolab, who I was listening to a lot at one time. I ran out and got the cd reissues as soon as they were available. This track is from the first one, Neu1, which never really grew on me. I prefer the second and third records.
1150: The Flatlanders were another mystery band for me to track down. In the mid-90s I was listening to a lot of non-mainstream country such as Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams, and I'd loved the Jimmie Dale Gilmore record Spinning Around the Sun. When I heard about the existence of the Flatlanders cd More a Legend Than a Band, I had to have it. It remains one of my favorite cds. For a while thereafter I was keen on digging up hard-to-find country and folk-tinged stuff, like Butch Hancock and Joe Ely and Guy Clark.
1151: I still more or less like Odelay; haven't listened to anything since Midnite Vultures, which I found mostly tedious at the time.
1152: Not much to say about Will Oldham. I liked him in Matewan.
1153: I liked STREET DAD but was wary of Let Us Never Speak Of It Again when I heard it was going to be more dance-oriented. Turns out it's fucking awesome, and I should just shut up and dance. Who knew?
1154: I like Captain Beefheart, love Safe as Milk, among others, but I've not been able to get into the last couple of records he did, like Doc at the Radar Station. I don't like this song much.
1155: I liked listening to the Tower Recordings cds, like that kind of noisy/folky shit, but their songs don't work well on the iPod, particularly on shuffle--lots of short "songs" bleeding into each other--in general I've been deleting them, though this one is a little longer and is cool enough.
1156: No one needs me to tell them about James Brown. I got the Star Time box for Christmas the year it came out (1991?), and listened to it a lot for a year or two, occasionally dragging a disc out after that. But it languished for years. Until I got the iPod, when I decided to load it up with a lot of stuff I hadn't heard in a while. I'm glad I did. It's always nice when James Brown comes on.
1157: I fucking love Sonic Youth. Murray Street is a great record, but it wasn't a comeback. They never went away.
1158: Would you believe I've had Illmatic since it came out and never listened to it until a couple of months ago? This is because I am an idiot. After college, I didn't listen to much hip hop until last year, but still. I'd always heard it was supposed to be great and that Nas had never matched it. It's true: Great album.
1159: I'm new to Nina Simone; my fiancée loves her. This nice track is from the 1960s Philips Recordings box.
1160: Bought Muswell Hillbillies based on a rave from Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan. I don't love it, but this song is pretty good.
1161: Perhaps my favorite song from Beggars Banquet.
1162: Interesting. I always forget about American Analog Set. If my tastes had ossified at a certain point, I could have settled in with them, and other VU-lite bands, and listened to plenty of safe, comfortable, perfectly decent music until the end of time. From Our Living Room To Yours is the only cd of theirs I have, and that's probably enough.
A longer post than I thought it would be. Dunno how often I'll do this, but it was fun this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment