On MetaFilter
the other day, they had a post about a new feature on the Onion where
celebs would put their I-Pods on shuffle then talk about the first 5
songs that came up. Most of them seem a bit tweaked (barely
anyone came up with a mainstream song – all celebrities apparently only
listen to cool, obscure Pitchfork-approved bands.)
Here's my version (I won't cheat but I'll say that this is only based
on the MP3 directory in my laptop so mostly is music I've added since
coming to London. Also, I'm not a celebrity so you may see a
mainstream song or two appear)
Five Random Songs
1. “Charles Bukowski Is Dead” – Boo Radleys
Cool so far. I got into the Boos when I was in England during the
height of the Britpop thing in 1995 and for all the bands strutting
around saying they were like The Beatles (Oasis was the main one but
there were many others), a pretty strong argument can be made that the
Boos were actually the most like The Beatles – vocal harmonies,
experimentation, genre-crossing, creativity – all with a strong
pop-based sensibility (yes, even in their fairly radical songs – with
this one is a prime example.) I also like that one of my
favourite bands happens to be a band that 99% of people don't know
about or only know for their cover of “There She Goes” on the “So I
Married An Ax Murderer” soundtrack. Their song “Wake Up Boo!”
might be the second most perfect pop song of all-time, ironically,
after The La's original “There She Goes”.
2. “Hymn For Her” – The Magic Numbers
The Internet has made it so easy to download songs by bands you've just
heard about as was the case with this band. I downloaded it a few
days ago and this is literally the first time I've heard this
song. First impression, nothing special. To be honest, I've
probably got dozens of songs on my HD like this one. I read about a new
band on somebody's blog or MetaFilter or whatever then download a few
songs and never even get around to listening to them. (In defense
of downloading, this technique has also led me to many bands/artists I
now like quite a bit and has actually resulted in <gasp> cash
purchases! Ed Harcourt. Bright Eyes being a couple examples
that spring to mind of artits I bought after first downloading tracks
to sample.)
3. “Wake Me Up When September Ends” – Green Day.
David Cross didn't put this on his list. But you know he has it.
4. “Nowhere Man” – Ron Sexsmith
Another cool thing about file sharing is the ability to find rare
covers and alternate versions of songs. I've probably got more
covers of Beatles songs on my computer than I have, the actual
versions. (Okay, not quite.)
5. “Smoke Baby” – Hawksley Workman
God, this songs just makes me want to dance. So funky.
Hawksley Workman is another one of my favourites that I'm proud to say
I got into before most people did. I first saw him about an hour
down the road in Waterloo when I was in Toronto for a conference in
2000 or so. Saw him in a small room (the Jane Bond Cafe) with
maybe 50 other college-aged people. They all knew every word to
every song and I realised this was something pretty special. His
new album is growing on me with every listen.
Classmate of the Day: Uhm, Emma
McNabney for being the only classmate I had an interaction with at all
today? She e-mailed to see if Shea and I were going to Toronto
this weekend and I replied that we'd decided not to. But I'm sure
her suggestions for things to do would've been great!
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