saturday shuffle

1. Serena Ryder — Stompa
2. Beirut — The Flying Club Cup
3. The Magnetic Fields — If There’s Such a Thing as Love
4. Hermano — Señor Moreno’s Plan 
5. Patty Larkin — Anyway the Main Thing Is
6. Godflesh — Circle of Shit
7. Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel — Highball with the Devil
8. Daedelus — Tsars and Hussars 
9. Electric Boys — Into the Woods
10. Black Pussy — Indiana
11. Odd Nosdam — We Bad Apples
12. Thao and the Get Down Stay Down — We Don’t Call
13. Tame Impala — Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
14. The National — Humiliation
15. J.S. Bach — Cantata BWV 140
16. Adam Ant — Goody Two Shoes
17. My Bloody Valentine — Come In Alone
18. Super Furry Animals — Tradewinds
19. Qntal — Non Sofre Santa Maria
20. Monster Magnet — 19 Witches

1. Austra — Darken Her Horse
2. Pale Sketcher — Supple Hope
3. My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult — Diamonde Doll
4. Chet Faker — Blush
5. Lightning Dust — I Knew
6. Orangutang — Bigger Chunk
7. Author & Punisher — L_r
8. Modest Mouse — Satellite Skin
9. Datarock — I Used to Dance With My Daddy
10. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club — Fault Line
11. Serj Tankian — Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition
12. Andy McKee — Drifting
13. Isle of Q — Bag of Tricks
14. Tombs — Deathtripper
15. Corrections House — Run Through the Night
16. Thao Nguyen — Bag of Hammers
17. Spirit Caravan — Dreamwheel
18. Aimee Mann — Nothing Is Good Enough
19. The Wake — Control
20. Bang Tango — Wrap My Wings

1. Circus of Power — Circles
2. Wye Oak — The Alter
3. The Beautiful — Together
4. Parralox — Factory Friends
5. The Golden Filter — Look Me In the Eye
6. Rob Crow — Chucked
7. Helen Marnie — We Are the Sea
8. Nobody — Our Last Dance
9. Diary of Dreams — Traumtänzer
10. Goon Moon — Apartment 31
11. Systems Officer — Oui
12. Cinderella — Coming Home
13. The Fratellis — Jesus Stole My Baby
14. Eels — Jungle Telegraph
15. Galactic Cowboys — About Mrs. Leslie
16. KMFDM — Panzerfaust
17. pre)Thing — Can’t Stop (22nd Century Lifestyle)
18. Faith No More — She Loves Me Not
19. Marsheaux — Radial Emotion
20. Elbow — Every Bit the Little Girl

1. Marsheaux — Hanging On
2. Gil Scott-Heron — Me and the Devil
3. Tony Joe White — As the Crow Flies
4. Wrathchild America — Time
5. Richard Thompson — Stony Ground
6. Fun Lovin’ Criminals — The View Belongs to Everyone
7. Alabama Shakes — Hold On
8. Metric — Blindness
9. The Morning After Girls — Chasing Us Under
10. Eddy Grant — Electric Avenue
11. American Head Charge — Take What I’ve Taken
12. Midfield General — Reach Out
13. Killing Joke — Requiem
14. Primal Scream — Autobahn 66
15. Sepultura — Bottomed Out
16. Philip Boa and the Voodooclub — Rome In the Rain
17. Ween — The Rift
18. Black Grape — A Big Day In the North
19. Chumbawamba — Timebomb
20. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse feat. Suzanne Vega — The Man Who Played God

1. Brant Bjork & the Operators — Cheap Wine
2. The Throbs — Only Way Out
3. Zero 7 — Light Blue Movers
4. Wolfmother — 10,000 Feet
5. Built to Spill — Else
6. Fever Ray — Dry and Dusty
7. Son Volt — Slow Hearse
8. Chad VanGaalen — Wind Driving Dogs
9. Skinny Puppy — Magnifishit
10. Pinback — Sediment
11. Iron & Wine — Promise What You Will
12. Godflesh — Antihuman
13. Rasputina — Thimble Island
14. Blur — Jets
15. Prong — Prove You Wrong (Fuzzbuster Mix)
16. Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty — You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly
17. Populous — Hip-Hop Cocotte
18. Dead Can Dance — Return of the She-King
19. Rhea’s Obsession — Between Earth and Sky
20. Twinemen — Spinner

1. Cathedral — Autumn Twilight
2. Ginger Wildheart — Begin From Within
3. Alabama 3 — U Don’t Danz 2 Tekno Anymore
4. Extreme — Leave Me Alone
5. School of Seven Bells — Love Play
6. Modest Mouse — Perfect Disguise
7. Gojira — Ocean Planet
8. Anthrax — Intro to Reality
9. Robbie Robertson — Akua Tuta
10. Spoon — Who Makes Your Money
11. Micachu and the Shapes — Lips
12. King’s X — Hate You
13. Helmet — L.A. Water
14. Curve — Perish
15. VAST — Blue
16. Arcade Fire — Headlights Look Like Diamonds
17. Mr. Cooper — Five
18. Black Sabbath — Thrill Of It All
19. Chemlab — Megahurtz (Mindfield Aurora Mix)
20. Michael Giacchino — Arnhem Knights

1. Girlschool — Demolition Boys
2. Alabama 3 — Converted
3. Spirit Caravan — Lost Sun Dance
4. Eisbrecher — Treiben
5. Dark Tantrums — Damage
6. Cornershop — We’re In Yr Corner
7. Masters of Reality — Rolling Green
8. The Chemical Brothers — The Devil Is In the Beats
9. Gomez — Army Dub
10. Rammstein — Ohne Dich
11. Ministry — Let’s Go
12. Loreena McKennitt — The Gates of Instanbul
13. Raven — Don’t Need Your Money
14. The Dresden Dolls — Gravity
15. Clutch — 10001110101
16. School of Seven Bells — Dial
17. Grouplove — Tongue Tied
18. Into Another — Splinters
19. Junkie XL — Booming Right At You
20. Kyuss — Apothecaries’ Weight

Let’s end the year in song, shall we?

1. VAST — Bruise
2. Mushroomhead — The Wrist
3. Glen Porter — Forgive Me
4. The Four Horsemen — Nobody Said It Was Easy
5. G. Love & Special Sauce — Hobo Blues
6. Fatboy Slim — The Journey
7. Soundgarden — Zero Chance
8. Ladytron — Sugar
9. Omid — Chemical Wedding
10. Ziggy Marley — Tomorrow People
11. Carolina Chocolate Drops — Hit ‘Em Up Style
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Maps
13. Alabama 3 — Way Beyond the Blues
14. The Cardigans — Slow
15. Down — Jail
16. Rose Chronicles — Visions
17. Masters of Reality — Lover’s Sky
18. Quicksand — Freezing Process
19. Thao and Mirah — Folks
20. Saigon Kick — Down By the Ocean

Got a new iPod recently, so I’ve been able to add a lot more music. Let’s see what we get.

It’s feeling like spring around here, so it’s close enough to being time for another one of these.

1. Robbie Robertson — Mahk Jchi
2. Primal Scream — Exterminator
3. The Dresden Dolls — Night Reconnaissance
4. Andreas Kisser — Virgulândia
5. Tomahawk — Antelope Ceremony
6. The Wildhearts — Tim Smith
7. Faith No More — Stripsearch
8. Erik Mongrain — Fusions
9. Black Mountain — The Hair Song
10. Eisbrecher — Kuss
11. The Obsessed — Touch of Everything
12. Sigur Rós — Ágætis Byrjun
13. Yawning Man — Sonny Bono Memorial Freeway
14. Dead Can Dance — The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove
15. Nine Inch Nails — My Violent Heart
16. Primus — Here Come the Bastards
17. Rob Zombie — Virgin Witch
18. Type O Negative — Haunted
19. The Beta Band — Alleged
20. Grandaddy — Collective Dreamwish of Upperclass Elegance

1. School of Seven Bells — I L U
2. Against Me! — Spanish Moss
3. Meat Beat Manifesto — Repulsion
4. Greg Ellis — Form 4
5. Einstürzende Neubauten — Morning Dew
6. Social Distortion — Ring of Fire
7. Nobody — Hip$ters
8. Dreamend — Magnesium Light
9. Charlotte Gainsbourg — Master’s Hands
10. Son Volt — Down to the Wire
11. Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke — Pilgrimage of Lost Children
12. Blackeyed Susan — None Of It Matters
13. My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult — Spotlite Hooker
14. Rasputina — Olde Dance
15. The Vines — A Girl I Knew
16. Clutch — Opossum Minister
17. Gomez — Machismo
18. KMFDM — Juke Joint Jezebel
19. Mazzy Star — Into Dust
20. Michael Nyman — Against Constancy

Snowed in and listening to music. Let’s see what the shuffle brings. And hey, you know what? Who says these mp3 shuffles have to be ten songs? I’m going to twenty this time. In honor of the twenty inches of snow on the ground. Wouldn’t it just be a yuk-yuk if Black Sabbath’s “Snowblind” came up?

1. Goldfrapp – Koko
2. Tosca – Chocolate Elvis
3. Nobody – After the Summer Hits
   
4. Masters of Reality – King Richard TLH
5. Rob Crow – Over Your Heart
6. Chumbawamba – Give the Anarchist a Cigarette
7. 16Volt – Blackbird
8. Morphine – Hanging on a Curtain
9. Econoline Crush – By the Riverside
10. Niyaz – Nahan
11. LCD Soundsystem – Yr City’s a Sucker
12. Verdi – Rigoletto: La Donna e Mobile
13. Kula Shaker – Ol’ Jack Tar
14. Nine Inch Nails – 14 Ghosts II
15. Mission UK – Run
16. The Knife – Heartbeats
17. Joe Beats – Doing the Nothing
18. B. Fleischmann – Nightly
19. Nobody presents Blank Blue – All the Shallow Deep
20. Mozart – Symphony no. 29 in A Major, K. 201: Allegro Moderato

Random thoughts to go with a random shuffle:

Leaning towards electronica again, I see. I was just telling someone that I’ve really been listening to more of that than anything else this past year or so. And I’m sure meditation purists would scoff, but I find that nothing makes it easier to let my thoughts flow while I step back and just observe them than putting a techno song on repeat, especially while I’m on the road. If I’ve ever had any brilliant thoughts or insights, they’ve probably come from doing that. I know at least a couple posts in recent months came after mornings spent listening to Joe Beats and NIN.

In a just world, Eric Powell of 16Volt would be as well-known as Trent Reznor. Not that I’m knocking Reznor, of course — the thirty-six Ghosts I-IV downloads were a hell of a release, and “The Four of Us Are Dying” from The Slip (given away for free on his website) was a song that helped me through some rough times last year. Big ups for both of them.

Goldfrapp and Rob Crow were probably my best discoveries last year. I knew of Crow’s work in Pinback and loved it, but after playing his solo records into the ground, I started listening to his many side projects too. Where does the ultra-prolific mofo find time to eat and sleep?

“Hanging on a Curtain” was really the song that got me hooked on Morphine (ba-dum-bum-tssh). I don’t know if a band’s name has ever been better suited for their music. Funny enough, it was a snowy day in February one year when I remember really digging into them and just wallowing in their “low-rock” sound all that day. Good times.

Nobody, a.k.a. Elvin Estela, just blows me away. I don’t even know how to fairly encapsulate his output. It’s like a kaleidoscopic mix of electronica, world music, shoegaze alternative, and who knows what else.

I don’t care if The Knife’s “Heartbeats” is sugar-coated Swedish electro-pop candy. That fucking song is addictive. I’m not ashamed to admit it.

How the Masters of Reality aren’t one of the biggest bands in the world is further proof that there is no God. Twenty-plus years into it and still writing great songs, and Chris Goss’s voice still sounds excellent. After almost two years of delayed release and numerous false hopes, I was beginning to wonder if fate was determined to prevent me from ever getting their latest release, but after a comedy of errors between me, their Dutch record company, and the U.S. postal service, I finally got it in October. Worth the wait? Of course.

1. Godflesh – Anthem
2. Saigon Kick – Dizzy’s Vine
3. Morphine – Souvenir
4. Doves – The Cedar Room
5. Band of Horses – Marry Song
6. Paul Oakenfold – Starry Eyed Surprise
7. Pop Will Eat Itself – Familus Horribilus
8. Suzanne Vega – Widow’s Walk
9. Faun – Iyansa
10. Elton John – Song for Guy