more shuffle.

i need something to do while i drink my coffee and get ready for the shopping madness i am about to undertake, so i am shuffling the i-pod again and discussing. shuffle. discuss. repeat.

also, while i'm thinking of it, i just want to take a moment and say happy birthday to alec ali baba, who i love very much and who just had a birthday on the 22nd. happy birthday, lady. and remember the big table people? and gloom and doom? i thought of them the other day.

anyhow, here's the ipod on shuffle:

the moldy peaches: downloading porn with dave- certainly a weird song, but how cute is kimya dawson? i mean, really...

jonny greenwood: nudnik headache- this is one of those things that i don't really know is on my ipod till i hear it, and then i am not quite sure exactly how it got there... this song is comprised of a lot of sounds, no words and a drip noise that sounds like it was recorded in a leaky moldy old basement. but not the moldy peaches old basement.

david byrne: pirates- i love david byrne. his songs are so funky, and he makes his voice like an instrument. i personally think of something stringed. a viola maybe? this song is fun. about pirates.

diskothi-q: cowboys- diskothi-q is the super low fi alter ego of peter hughes, and a few years ago he wrote two albums, one each about each conference in the nfl. and every song is about a different team. some of them are fucking hilarious: namely the saints, the packers, the falcons, the redskins, the st. louis rams... and actually this one is pretty rockin' too. "if you only understood how rare and brief and precious is this moment, then you'd work harder..."

sahara hotnights: mind over matter- i don't listen to sahara hotnights enough. they're good. i just don't ever think of them. probably cause they're not necessarily a compelling band, but they do play good, solid, rock and roll and they're hot chicks. so i should listen to them, or at least put them on playlists for work and stuff.

john vanderslice: underneath the leaves- john vanderslice and scott solter are geniuses. end of story. this song is a very good illustration of that genius. if i were writing an essay on the genius of john vanderslice and scott solter i would use this song as an example and then follow it with sentances that support that statement. but right now, i'm just going to tell you that it's really fucking good.

the mountain goats: hellhound on my trail- look, the smart little ipod knew that jv and jd are friends and wanted to be shuffled together. this thing is super smart. i love the mountain goats. favorite band ever, easy. and jd is my favorite person i don't know ever, no doubt. and this song, from this album is early mg's back when it was just jd and the panasonic boombox. there's a hellhound on his trail, ladies and gents, and he's gotta keep moving. obviously.

damien rice: volcano- i assume that everyone picked up the damien rice album, cause that's the smart thing to do, but if for some reason you were out of town or in the hospital or something, you should take your ass to itunes or wherever you buy your music and pick up "O". just about all of his songs are seductive, sultry odes to lost loves or people who fucked up real bad, and his stylized approach make it seem like it's not so bad to writhe around on the floor and be miserable. his voice is amazing, and he has a lady friend adding breathy backing vocals... it's an amazing album and i rediscover my love for it often. other standout songs include "jolene", "cold water" and "delicate". of course there is "the blower's daughter" which, for those of you who have seen closer, know as the best use of a song in a movie possibly ever.


jay-z: can't knock the hustle- oh, reasonable doubt... jigga back when he was so young you could hear it in his voice, his first song off his first album ever. the incomparable mary j. blige is his backup vocal on this one...can you imagine? her voice is gritty and hungry, not the polished version we know today. one of my favorite lines "my pops knew exactly what he did when he made me, tried to get a nut, and he got a nut and what?" listening to this, you can basically forget that kingdom come ever came out... jay-z is still retired, best rapper alive.

pavement: summer babe(winter version)- holy crap, this is one of those songs that i can still smell and feel the way i did when i first heard it, just by hearing it. i was so young then... that's the overwhelming sensory indication: youth. i was a junior in high school maybe? this is a great song, one of pavement's earliest and best, and like the mountain goats, pavement is one of my long-standing favorite bands. i will always have a place in my heart and mind for the pave. it's really amazing though, how this song can bring me back to my high school bedroom, with its white shag carpet, and purple walls...and the way i felt then, a mixture of fear overwhelming tinged with the sense of invincabilty that is really only possible when one is that young and inexperienced in all things life.

kanye west: get 'em high- kanye rules, it's just that simple. i was on the train yesterday listening to grave shift, which is a great song too and i realized how glad i am that kanye west is in the world and making music. awww...makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

the decemberists: we both go down together- these folks maybe should have been around in another era, when epic poetry and sea shantys were the thing, but i for one am sure happy that they are around now. adjectives that come to mind when i think of the decemberists are: grand, dramatic, sweeping, tragic... there's always something major going down, together...

ok, coffee's finished, gots to run off to buy things in the captial of the whole entire world, new york city... xo