I’m challenging myself to get through a whole shuffle of my music collection on my iPod without skipping. Then I write about what I heard each week.
This week I seem to have perfected the art of tuning shit out. Sometimes I would zone out and not be able to remember what I just heard. The title of the post this week comes from ‘The Trees’ by Rush. Ironically it came up in the shuffle this week, a week in which two of our trees sustained significant damage due to heavy snow. We have two mature cherry trees in front of our house and they aren’t super healthy (the trouble with the cherries, is their premature leaf drop–check it, totally fits in the song!), but they still bloom beautifully every spring, so we plan to keep them until they don’t. A pretty big branch of one of the cherries split, which was very upsetting. These trees aren’t really replaceable. Well, they are, but I’d be an old woman by the time new cherries got as big as these. The County cut the branch today since it was still hanging on and we have a tree company coming out on Monday to try to prune more dead branches and try to lighten the load on the remaining branches. So this line from ‘The Trees’ seemed appropriate this week.
I decided to listen to the shuffle while I run on the treadmill instead of giving myself dispensation to listen to other stuff (and to allow skipping). Apple then proceeded to mock my playlist shuffle challenge by having its machine play the most inappropriate musical selections to accompany running ever. We’re talking multiple Enya songs here. I like Enya, but she is for the spa and for napping, not for exercise motivation. So now there’s a new category:
* Percentage of songs that came up during running that were so totally not helpful in motivating my running: 74%
One running session included THREE Enya songs. I have no idea how I kept running through that. Also had to listen to Sting’s ‘It’s Probably Me,’ which is definitely one of his more annoying songs. For someone who purports hating to say it, Sting seems to say it a lot. And I had to run through all of the saying of it.
Here is the weekly summary:
* Songs listened to this week: 156
* Completed: 15%
* Number of double shots: 1 (Mew, both new to me)
* Number of triple shots: 2
The Beatles and Genesis (during running and all way too mellow for running: ‘Follow You, Follow Me,’ ‘Another Record,” and ‘Afterglow’)
* Number of new to me songs: 3
Genesis ‘Cuckoo Cocoon,’ not exactly new, but I’ve never gotten through all of the songs on ‘The Lamb,’ and I don’t remember ever hearing this one before (and ugh). Someday I will try to explain my feelings about Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, but not this week since I’m already getting this post done later than I wanted. Also had a double shot of new to me Mew songs: ‘Intermezzo 1’ (very brief) and ‘Hawaii’ (charming)
* Number of songs that I’m so totally deleting: possibly 4
LL Cool J ‘Murdergram,’ Ned’s Atomic Dustbin ‘Until You Find Out,’ (not every song from one’s youth needs to be kept on one’s iPod), The Innocence Mission ‘Someday Coming,’ (their entire first album is pretty tough for me to listen to), Sarah McLachlan ‘Ice’
* Most wanted to skip: See previous, plus The Beatles ‘Act Naturally’ (don’t have it in me to delete Beatles songs, but ugh) and Simon & Garfunkel ‘7 O’Clock News/Silent Night,’ (such a great pick me up)
* Number of songs that were a complete mystery to me: 1
Dave made me a mix for Christmas in 2009 and for some reason the artists and song titles didn’t rip. I was able to identify most of them through an iPod app (Soundhound, I tried Shazam first, but it didn’t work at all), and one by asking Dave who the hell did the ‘Lithuania’ song. But I didn’t remember any of the lyrics to ‘Track 16,’ so I still don’t know what the hell this is. NEWS FLASH: I just played it for Dave and have been informed that it’s ‘Opulent Canine’ by the Gay.
* Song I’ll be saddest not to hear again until this is over: Best Coast ‘Boyfriend’ and Interpol ‘Untitled’
I heard ‘Boyfriend’ a lot on Sirius when I was staying with my Mom to help after her back surgery and just got around to buying it to put on a Christmas mix for my brother, so I haven’t gotten my fill of the song yet. I wanted to listen to it again when it was over. Just so adorable. As for Interpol, I listened to them almost exclusively in November. First to prepare for the concert we were going to see and then after the show and discovering I liked their music a lot (it had to grow on me), I put all my Interpol music on shuffle and listened to that for a couple of weeks straight. I was kind of obsessed there for a bit. Weird that three weeks in and this has been the first Interpol song that’s come up.
* Song that made me dance around during the dog walk: Lords of Acid ‘Young Boys’
We saw Lords of Acid in Rochester once and when they played this, a lesbian couple seemed more into this song (particularly the line “I’m on my way, yes I’m soaking wet’) than made sense to me given its content (not that there’s anything wrong with that…). EDITED TO ADD: Mother of god, it’s a good thing that the first few weeks of the shuffle have essentially been the ‘Lords of Acid’ mix, because this morning ‘Do What You Wanna Do’ came on and that is the song with this line. Good to know my overall impression of the week (tuning things out) was accurate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d63diCFs5Q
* Song I could’ve sworn I’d heard already: Lords of Acid ‘Voodoo U’ (another reason to stop listening to other stuff while running) and The Innocence Mission ‘Edelweiss’
* Most awkward transition: Lords of Acid ‘Hey Ho!,’ followed by The Innocence Mission ‘What a Wonderful World’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuCZ0a3zu2k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ah96-6aOng
* Best Dave mix song/random memory: Those Darn Accordions ‘Lithuania‘ (Dave wants an accordion, god help me)
I’m not sure he’ll ever top this find for a mix for me. I’m Lithuanian, and during my sophomore year of high school while learning about different world cultures, our teacher felt the need to point out that she could tell I was from one of the Baltic states because of “my pale, oddly shaped face.” Uh, thanks?
I am a sucker for any band who sings about chinchillas. I had God Fodder before I knew who it was by or what it was called. I think I got it from Raloon, who didn’t know what it was either. Then one day I was sitting next to Grant in class and he was writing out the lyrics (or maybe I was?) and he solved the mystery for me.