Friday, March 24, 2006

Return of the Crap (Also, 10 Random Songs)

So I’m nervous.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I did one of these. Thanks to the play and all the corresponding stresses and business, so there’s that.

And then last night, just for fun, I loaded up and listened to a random playlist…and I’m not sure if it was my mindset or what, but it seemed like nothing but *crap* came out of Winamp. Which makes me nervous about tonight.

Is this going to be 10 songs of crap, for real? I mean, I’ve been using the word crap for awhile, in conjunction with the Friday Random 10, but is tonight the night that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy?

I guess we’ll find out shortly.

  1. Beck – Lost Cause – I’ve gotten on a crazy Beck downloading frenzy lately, having heard almost none of his stuff except this song and Guero. I’m still lacking the album that contains this song, which is about the only one left that I’m desperate to get my hands on. Because if the whole album is as good as this song is, I’d have a hard time imagining a better album.

  2. Sinead O’Connor & Sharon Shannon and Friends – Anachie Gordon – Clearly from the massive 10-CD O’Connor thingy that I downloaded. Peacefully acoustic. Or acoustically peaceful, depending on your approach.

  3. U2 – Bad (Live) – This sounds like some classic U2 that I’ve never heard before. The name seems familiar, so I have the sense that I’ve known that this song exists, but it doesn’t sound familiar, exactly. Only to the extent that many U2 songs from certain eras simply sound like U2 songs from that era.

  4. The Beatles – Polythene Pam – Don’t know this one. Doesn’t seem to do much for me either, actually.

  5. Richard Ashcroft – Science of Silence – Wow, haven’t heard this in awhile. I think this came from some kind of “best of the year” download, of which I only kept a few songs. But this is a great one. “We are on a rock, spinning silently; won’t you get close to me.” Good stuff.

  6. Onion Radio News – A New Starbucks Opens in the Restroom of an Existing Starbucks – Not technically a song, but whatever. The Onion is freaking brilliant.

  7. Depeche Mode – Any Second Now - Sounds like older Depeche Mode that I haven’t heard before, as opposed to newer Depeche Mode that I haven’t heard before.

  8. Information Society – Come With Me – A bizarre 80s techno band from Minneapolis that had some success with their first album, a moderate hit with their second (which I actually preferred), then kind of disappeared from view from their third. I think there was maybe a fourth, but people stopped caring by then. This is one of two or three of my favourite songs from from the “Hack” album. It’s good to hear it again.

  9. Roxette – (I Could Never) Give You Up – You know, I’m not ashamed when cheesy early-90s crap like this comes up, as long as it’s cheesy early-90s crap that I’ve heard before, and actually enjoyed.

  10. The Beatles – Another Hard Day’s Night – I don’t think I’ve ever heard this before, but holy cow is it brilliant. The early hit “Hard Day’s Night” approached as an instrumental with Indian instrumentation. Wild.

  11. Alanis Morissette – Hands Clean – I kind of like this song, in spite of spending a few years working with an anti-Alanis co-worker, and the fact that it’s apparently pseudo-biographical about an affair she had with an older man.

Okay, well, that actually wasn’t too shabby. And hey, what do you know, it’s actually Friday night too. Who’d have thunk it!?

[EDIT]

  1. A3 – Disneyland Is Burning – Okay, I had to tack this #11 track on, because A3 is pretty much my current favourite band, is this is among the songs that I’ve only acquired in the last week or so, so it’s still novel and amazing and brilliant. And it just happened to pop up as #11. I’m sure I’ve said it before – If you haven’t heard A3 (or Alabama 3, technically) then you’re doing yourself a massive disservice. Too often referred to as “The best band you’ve never heard,” which would be kind of cheesy if it wasn’t for the fact that it was so incredibly true.

3 comments:

elise_on_life said...

Yay! "Bad" is my favourite U2 song. I need to get some A3 stuff from you so I can try them out and see if I agree with their "The best band you'll ever hear" label.

elise_on_life said...

(You will notice that I refrained from ending the last post with quotation marks - I could have but I didn't. You can thank me later.

Todd said...

Actually, it's "the best band you've never heard," which I don't think is necessarily a comment that they're the best band that you'll ever hear, but that given their quality, it's surprising that they're as unknown as they are.