I'm partially cleaning my kitchen while trying to figure out what all I need to have ready for the Italian dinner tomorrow night some friends and I are putting on. Since I have complete brain fry from attempting to figure out a code block that isn't conforming to either Max(value) or row() partition I needed to get out of my head onto something a little more creative. Just shy of 5,000 songs in my iTunes collection, I wondered "Who ever uses shuffle all?" I use a huge collection of playlists to compile my moods and activities so the shuffle all doesn't appeal to me. Then it came to me- I'll do a shuffle all and see what comes up. The rules were simple, no skipping, just write about the song until it ends.
2. 'Int'l Player's Anthem'- OutKast with UGK. A great song about Andre falling in love with a bass line that hits soooo hard. "My partner yelling too soon, reconsider, read some literature. Keep your heart 3 stacks, keep your heart, play your part 3 stacks". It reminds me of when I had a system in my explorer and Josh and I would hit up every bar in Addison on a thursday night. The song still holds true. The singing melody works great with the lazy flow of the ATL and Houston kings. Still love the southern rap, speaking of southern rap... Where's Mike Jones (who) been?
11. 'I am Mine'- Pearl Jam. One of my claims to fame is going to the first Lollapalooza with Matt Duran in the 4th grade. Back then the Edge was 94.5, Pearl Jam was unknown, and you had to line your quarters up on the arcade ledge to have "next" at Street Fighter II. At some point along the way I couldn't stand Pearl Jam. I guess it was one of those idiotic thoughts a teen has about how a band was "yours" and then you hear them on top 40 stations right after 'Red, Red, Wine'. Something like that drove me from them. I never would have come back around for them if it weren't for Randy. He threw all his music on a SSD and then gave me the hardcopy CD's. A similar night like this happened and 'Immortality' came on. Ever since then I've little by little come back around on them. Eddie Vedder did the soundtrack for 'Into the Wild', after watching it I downloaded the whole thing. It's taking me longer than I would have thought but Pearl Jam and I have made up.
15. 'I'm not your Boyfriend Baby'- 3Oh3. ah 30h3. They always remind me of Linzie, she loved them so much. When I was hanging out with Melanie and Heather a lot they told me this story about an incident at Vernon's where Heather got into it with a girl who then threw a schooner at her since the guys with her were holding her back from charging Heather. The story soundeded... well, crazy as hell. About a week later I met Linzie at Logan's and we hit it off. A week goes by and we are both at Logan's as Melanie comes in to meet me. She instantly recognized Linze as the girl that threw the schooner. The moral of this story is that I have Awesome friends; 2 separate girlfriends that will fight at the drop of a hat and throw a giant beer schooner, if necessary.
Songs:
1. 'Baby One More Time'- Bowling for Soup. It's funny the first song on shuffle all happens to be a cover of a song. While Britney Spears is a lot hotter than Jared and the guys I think they still do an admirable rendition. The best covers I can think of are Rufio's 'Like a Prayer', GodSmack with 'Rocky Mountain Way' and Alien Antfarm just killed the Micheal Jackson Classic 'Smooth Criminal'. Not a bad start, I'll have to add some Rufio and Alien Antfarm to my workout mix. What ever happened to Bowling for Soup, I like the comedy rock and I feel like I've seen them at Taste of Addison or Richardson Wildflower Festival, or some other local event. If I recall they put on a great show, then again it could have been third eye blind, I wasn't really paying attention.
2. 'Int'l Player's Anthem'- OutKast with UGK. A great song about Andre falling in love with a bass line that hits soooo hard. "My partner yelling too soon, reconsider, read some literature. Keep your heart 3 stacks, keep your heart, play your part 3 stacks". It reminds me of when I had a system in my explorer and Josh and I would hit up every bar in Addison on a thursday night. The song still holds true. The singing melody works great with the lazy flow of the ATL and Houston kings. Still love the southern rap, speaking of southern rap... Where's Mike Jones (who) been?
3. 'Tunnel Vision'- Justin Timberlake. A pretty middle of the road song for Timberlake. Timberland does the beat and has the backing vocals. It seems like they would do a techno re-mix of it that would be a lot more popular. It's a radio song, I don't really have any opinion on it.
4. 'Since I've been Loving You'- Led Zeppelin. One of my favorite songs from their catalogue. I have to be in a certain mood for Zepplin but this song is great. I bet the Black Keys could do an amazing cover. 'Little Black Submarines' has elements of it, the voice though, Jimmy Page wails like no other. Controlled chaos, his tone matches exactly with the ups and downs of his emotional state while writing the lyrics. I wasn't always a Led Zeppelin fan, but this was one of the songs that drove me to others and really listen to them. Probably top 5 of my Zepplin favs; 'Hey, Hey, What can I do' is number one followed by 'Babe I'm going to Leave You', 'Going to California', and 'Rock and Roll'. John Marshall and I used to crank this up as we left Cory's lake house and headed downtown to party.
5. 'My Best Friend' Tim McGraw. Huh. Meh, very, very Meh. Sometimes I think iTunes throws some karma stuff in your download. "What was that, you just downloaded 100 rap songs that say "bitch" 58 times, "fuck" 92, and reference Killing a white person 1,015 times- You sir, now have a complete Tim McGraw album in your collection. No need to thank us, we're just the musical halls of Justice..."
6. 'Kill Yourself'- Timbaland. Timbaland's second appearance on the shuffle. This time it's a track from his own album. When shockwave first came out I really liked it, this was song that was just alright on it. Nothing too great but not horrible. I like the Red Queen from Resident Evil starting out; personally I think the song would be a lot better without the lyrics. It would make for a great underwater exploration track or the scene from Prometheus where the Engineer is standing next to the waterfall. But without the lyrics, no lyrics.
7.'White' -Odd Future/ Frank Ocean. Tough to put into a box. Frank Ocean has a great voice and lyrically it's very good. I like how it's different from most everything that comes out these days. The sound and lyrics aren't trying to be different for the sake of being different. It's just how and what Frank feels. That's a nice change of pace iTunes.
8.'Letters to God'- Boxcar Racer. Blink that's not really Blink. When Mark and Tom couldn't get along anymore they split and formed about 20 different bands; Travis played in all of them. Boxcar Racer was the most successful and my personal favorite of the Blink off shoots. Jacob and I would crank it up during drives to the lake house or to Dallas, Lani and I would listen to it when we'd head to Bennigan's to drink and Neil and I would sing it loud at her parents place. 'Letters to God' reminds me of all of those great times, man I miss 2002 in Austin.
9. 'Superstar'- Lauryn Hill. Remember when you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing Lauryn Hill? I always thought 'Superstar' was vastly underrated on the Miseducation album. She sings, she raps, there is a harp, and it's got a one, one, two beat that you can tap your foot too. "Come on baby light my fire, everything you drop is so tired. Music is supposed to inspire, how come we ain't getting no higher". I'm guessing it's lack of popularity could be in direct correlation to how horrible the grammar is, but what do I know... I still dig it.
10. 'Joker' -Steve Miller Band. Shoot me now. Besides Jimmy Buffett I don't think there's a more generic 70's song lacking of creativity. Maybe it was good when it first came out, now it just makes my ears bleed. I picture a bunch of sorority girls floating the river with $6 straw cowboy hats from the convenience store drinking Bud light with Coach purses sealed in a $95 clear waterproof bag from REI. No. Thank. You.
11. 'I am Mine'- Pearl Jam. One of my claims to fame is going to the first Lollapalooza with Matt Duran in the 4th grade. Back then the Edge was 94.5, Pearl Jam was unknown, and you had to line your quarters up on the arcade ledge to have "next" at Street Fighter II. At some point along the way I couldn't stand Pearl Jam. I guess it was one of those idiotic thoughts a teen has about how a band was "yours" and then you hear them on top 40 stations right after 'Red, Red, Wine'. Something like that drove me from them. I never would have come back around for them if it weren't for Randy. He threw all his music on a SSD and then gave me the hardcopy CD's. A similar night like this happened and 'Immortality' came on. Ever since then I've little by little come back around on them. Eddie Vedder did the soundtrack for 'Into the Wild', after watching it I downloaded the whole thing. It's taking me longer than I would have thought but Pearl Jam and I have made up.
12. 'Addiction'- Kanye West. Kanye. Like most people I despise Kanye as a person. His tracks on the other hand are, for the most part, awesome. "Why everything that 'posed to be bad make me feel so good" (see Lauryn, Kanye can jack up grammar like it's nobody's business and score a hit, why couldn't you?). I guess graduation was the last lyricists album he did, pretty much everything after that was made for the club or hits with some flashes of brilliance. Ana turned me onto 'Street Lights' from the 808 album and I still like it, but it's his older stuff that I love. Kanye, why do you have to be such a tool? Northwest? Really? Number one in confidence, number 1,000,000 in intelligence.... sigh...
13. 'Zero Dark Thirty'- Aesop Rock. Not Aesop Rocky, Aesop Rock. A jewish hip hop MC along the lines of Evidence, Dilated Peoples, Del, and the like. He's part of the lyricst groups that have a good beat but what they say is more important. It's intellectual hip hop. While Rick Ross talks about eating 24/7 these guys use references from 19th century literature and Stanley Kubrick Movies instead of rapping about weed and cars for the 8,000 time.
14. 'New Wave'- Against Me. I've never heard this song before in my life. oh, wait... yup, yup I have. I knew the band from the song 'Trash Unreal' which describes in detail the kinds of girls I usually date. I like this song. It's nothing groundbreaking but it has a nice chorus and a simple 3 chord melody. I'd have more of a connection with it if it came out in 2002. I think they were just a little late in getting their record deal.
15. 'I'm not your Boyfriend Baby'- 3Oh3. ah 30h3. They always remind me of Linzie, she loved them so much. When I was hanging out with Melanie and Heather a lot they told me this story about an incident at Vernon's where Heather got into it with a girl who then threw a schooner at her since the guys with her were holding her back from charging Heather. The story soundeded... well, crazy as hell. About a week later I met Linzie at Logan's and we hit it off. A week goes by and we are both at Logan's as Melanie comes in to meet me. She instantly recognized Linze as the girl that threw the schooner. The moral of this story is that I have Awesome friends; 2 separate girlfriends that will fight at the drop of a hat and throw a giant beer schooner, if necessary.
16. 'Showerhead'- Eve6. I loved, love, Eve 6. I think I listened to their whole first album on repeat as I drove from Dallas to Kansas one December in 1999. It seems like every so often they would creep up and have another song that everyone would love ('Think Twice' and 'Here's to the Night' come to mind) and then disappear again. I guess Fallout Boy learned from them and having a ginger lead singer leads to immediate downfall with no staying power on the charts. Fallout did smart move to have Pete Wentz as the frontman, the music industry has no love for the ginger.
This was pretty fun, I'll have to do it again. Maybe tomorrow night for the dinner I'll do it and record what everyone says about some of the songs, that could be fun.
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