Filed under: Alexi Murdoch, Bel Biv Devoe, Lupe Fiasco, Monday Morning Shuffle, Mos Def, Red Hot Chili Peppers
My life has been insane lately. Great, but insane. There’s something going on pretty much every moment of every day… I have this party going on,
I am out all the time trying to promote it, i’m working like 6 days a week and by the time i go out at night to pass out flyers and meet with people, i’m “working” like 18 hours a day…and i’m not complaining at all. I love it. I really do. This isn’t me bitching about it. I’m having the time of my life and no matter how busy or how stressful it gets, i still find myself with a huge smile on my face. When i used to work hard for someone else, i was bitter that my effort was benefiting someone else’s pocketbook. Now that my effort is 100% my own, it’s just a night and day difference. But, no matter how much fun i’m having, it’s still pretty exhausting and i find myself wired at all hours of the day, all jacked up on Red Bull and feeling about as bugged out as a speed-addict with a bad case of ADD and an unlimited Starbucks gift card. The only other time i’ve really felt this is during my frequent trips to Las Vegas…whether it’s for fun or for business, when i’m in that town i find myself so overstimulated that i often have overwhelming cravings for just 5 quiet minutes without flashing lights or naked ladies or a drink in my hand.
When i get the chance, i throw on my Bose soundproof headphones and pick one good song to just absorb that allows me to check out for a few. Anyone who has roomed with me there has seen it. It’s an absolute must when i’m in that town…and apparently it’s becoming a must in Phoenix too.
Friday, i asked in a myspace bulletin what people listened to in order to chill out…i was listening to Imogen Heap at the time, but here are some of the suggestions i received: Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Joshua Radin, Cary Brothers, Regina Spektor and Iron and Wine. Some of these i have, some of these i’ll be checking out. If you see something that should be on this list, let me know in the comments. If you see me with my headphones on and my eyes closed…just give me 5 minutes and i’ll be right with you.
On with the shuffle:
1. That Girl is Poison – Bel Biv Devoe
This song keeps popping up in my life ever since Mos Def performed it in February. I hadn’t heard it in a long time, but now it frequents my iPod and my party mixes. The DJs at the clubs seem to be playing it a lot more recently than i remember as well. Weird how that happens. Anyway, this song is great, good harmonies, lyrics i can agree with and a rock-hard classic beat.
2. I Could Die For You – Red Hot Chili Peppers, off of By The Way
This album was totally underrated. It has been completely missed and ignored. I don’t know why, but nobody thinks anything happened between Californication and Stadium Arcadium, and they couldn’t be more wrong. This CD, while it didn’t have the epic stature of the two aforementioned albums, was very very good and worth every bit as much time as the others. And like many of the RHCP albums i have, i purchased it at the beginning of the summer, right as i was about to take a road trip to Wyoming. Ever song on this CD reminds me of some part of that summer, this song in particular bringing to mind a drive from Pinedale to Jackson Hole, with the sun shining the windows down and a very slow RV teetering through the canyon on its way to Yellowstone, doing everything in its power to keep me from passing it…
3. Muhammad Walks – Lupe Fiasco
This is the Jesus Walks beat but with Lupe rapping about the muslim prophet Muhammad instead of Jesus…a pretty interesting take and, because he helped do the production on the original, he has the rights to the beat.
Whatever power you believe in, this beat is amazing no matter what they’re rapping about and since Lupe kicks a bunch of ass, it’s worth checking it out.
4. Blue Mind – Alexi Murdoch
Something tells me i’ve written about this song before but i can’t find any record of it and i really like this song, so we’ll talk about it.
There’s some intangible quality about his voice…i’m not sure if it’s an accent, or just a way of enunciating certain words, but it makes everything he says sound more important and poignant. And this song really reminds me of something that would have been on the Braveheart soundtrack. Bad ass movie=good song. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to Alexi, i definitely recommend it. He’s a good one out the “guy and his guitar” set and an excellent choice for those 5 minute music refreshers i mentioned earlier.
5. Do It Now – Mos Def, off of Black on Both Sides
Mos teams up with Busta Rhymes for one of the most poppy songs on the entire album. It’s interesting to hear how talented Busta Bust is when he’s not just accompanying Janet Jackson or some shit. I mean, he and Mos go back and forth and you can almost feel the energy of their collaboration through the CD. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall of this recording session…i just wonder what Busta Rhymes is like in real life. Do you think he’s that excited all the time? Hoo Haa!
But first, i had the opportunity last night to attend the Mos Def concert in Brooklyn. When i heard he’d be playing in his home town and i would be nearby i knew i had to go, but i really had no idea what to expect. My friend Mark used a few connections and a few well-placed bribes to get us in and as we made it to our seats, we realized we’d be in the 8th row. A piano player comes on stage and starts playing, then a DJ, then a bassist and guitarist. Three Saxophones come in stage left and a tuba, a souzaphone, and 2 trombones come in stage right. Then a drummer, then three horns and then Mos himself. So to recap, i saw Mos Def in his hometown of Brooklyn at a 500 capacity opera house in the 8th row in front of a 17-piece live band. It would suffice to say that this was one of the best concert experiences of my life. More on that later.
******
Alright, a few weeks back I posted some less than kind words about George Bush’s favorite rapper, Kanye West. Ron took this opportunity to A. ask why I didn’t like Kanye’s second CD as much, and B. to unveil his theory on hiphop which claims that almost every hiphop album is 1/3 good, 1/3 guilty pleasure and 1/3 bad. It would seem that Kanye’s albums fit this philosophy to a T so while on a flight to New York (my plane smells like Cat pee…seriously, don’t fly ATA) I took the opportunity to listen to both of them straight through and make some notes and see if I couldn’t explain why I liked the first CD so much and why I hate the second one. Here goes:
The College Dropout album has a few things that make it great. First, it was a novelty. It was a happy sounding, feel good, non-thug sounding album. I say non-thug because there was no rap feud, no fabricated story about the artist having been shot 9 times, there wasn’t a ton of buzz about it, it came out of nowhere, it was kind of an underdog story. This was especially prevalent when the first single released was Through the Wire. I first caught on to this song because the video told the story of Kanye’s car accident and he actually laid the vocal track down with his jaw wired shut, which you know, is just a little bit impressive.
But the more important thing was that you had an artist wearing LaCoste shirts and sweater vests, rapping about jesus and making fun of the normal rap video, which – and I’ll go ahead and get this out of the way right now – appealed to white people. Now I’m not saying this is the only reason that the CD is good but am I going to identify more with a rapper who at least tried to go to college and dresses a little preppy or Akon? Maybe you don’t want to admit it but I think you know the answer.
OK and now that we have the race issue dealt with we can just talk about the music. The beats on this CD are epic. Spaceship, Get Em High, The New Workout Plan and Breathe In Breath Out are hot. There’s just no other way to explain it. No matter what he’s saying in the lyrics, the beats pop and gets you to nod your head and as Saul Williams says, if you’re nodding your head back and forth that’s the universal sign for “Yes, I agree with this.” And nothing gets the head nodding more than Jesus Walks. I mean, put your head phones on, put this song on and tell me that you’re not walking in stride to this beat and nodding your head to it. I used to pump this song walking from class to class at ASU and it just felt good. There’s something to be said for that. That beat is just epic and that song, no matter your religious affiliations, just feels like something higher.
Also, the College Dropout theme is mentioned in almost every track…I mean, this is as close to a rap theme album as I think we’ve ever had. It pervades the entire album and gives it this kind of cohesiveness that most albums (even rock) don’t have.
In addition to Kanye’s rhymes, which are really, really, really good, he throws in cameos from Jay-Z, Common, Jamie Foxx and Talib Kweli, who, if you don’t know, are some of the hardest hitters in hiphop today.
There was just a passion and cohesion to College Dropout. The whole thing fit and it made sense and it was completely catchy from song to song. And there were some stupid skits but they at least made sense in the theme of the album. (What these skits did to affect the higher education aspirations of thousands of African American students remains to be seen and won’t be discussed here, but it deserves mentioning.)
One of the last tracks, Family Business, almost feels like an extra effort on the CD but it does a decent job of ending on a high and optimistic tone after an album that despite being fun and poppy, actually dealt with some pretty heavy issues. And then Last Call is a little cherry on top with Jay-Z laughing in the studio and my favorite rhyme of the entire frickin album, “I went to the malls and I balled too hard, They said, ‘oh my god is that a black card?’/ I turned around and replied why yes/but I prefer the term African American Express. “
Top notch.
Moving on to Late Registration. I have to admit that I was seriously looking forward to this CD and I had such huge expectations for it that maybe there was no way it could satisfy me. But when you hear that first few minutes with another Bernie Mack intro and the super-sick echo of the “Mr. West!” part and it breaks into that beat, well I just thought that maybe lightning had struck twice. But for some reason the first song drags…the beat is really hopping and then the piano comes in and it just slows the whole thing down. I felt like this CD just had to come out rocking track one, side one, and it didn’t. Even Kanye’s lyrics seem to lack enthusiasm on this song. But still, I was willing to keep listening.
So then you hit next and Touch the Sky just flies out of the box and rolls along and it’s almost like this song should have been the first track on the album. He gets Lupe Fiasco (who is awesome) into the mix and everything should be kicking ass. Well it doesn’t. It’s a self-congratulatory, self-absorbed, egotistical, product-placement driven club track. That’s it. And then pulling out the Evil Kneivel reference with Pamela Anderson (and I can’t believe I’m saying this but Pam was the token white girl in the rap video here…Maybe I’m reading too much into it but the video seemed to be saying, I’m the hottest black musician in the world and I’ve got all of your white girls loving me too…I don’t know. Seemed weird at the time.)
So then we move on to Gold Digger which is a great track. Great beat, great hook, tongue-in-cheek subject matter, Jaime Foxx, all the crucial ingredients to another good Kanye track. And I really did like this song but bottom line is that it’s a club track, plain and simple. If this song had some good tracks around it then it would have lasted a lot longer, but it’s carrying the whole album at this point. (Total Guilty pleasure)
One of the worst parts about Late Registration are the skits…they’re absolutely awful and appalling and appealing to the very lowest common denominator. They bug me. Let’s move on.
Let’s see if Ron’s theory holds up here:
Good Songs: Drive Slow (I’m being generous), Touch the Sky, Bring Me Down
Bad Songs: Crack Music, Heard Em Say, All of the skits, My Way Home (sorry Common), Roses, Addiction, We Major, Hey Mama, Celebration, Gone, We Can Make it Better
Guilty Pleasure: Gold Digger, Diamonds From Sierra Leone
So by my count, that’s 3 good songs and 2 guilty pleasure songs out of 21 …sure doesn’t add up to even thirds in my book, but I’m being hyper-critical and I do see where Ron was coming from on this philosophy. I’m interested to take a look at some other albums that I like and see how it applies.
In the end, Late Registration just lacked continuity, took itself too seriously and tried to do too much for my taste. Some of the beats start out great and the some other sound or track gets added in and it messes it up. And it’s not that the subject matter was any lighter in the first CD, because it wasn’t. And I applaud Kanye for tackling topics like the diamond trade (although making a song like this and then having a huge blinged out chain around your neck is more than a little suspect) and Kanye’s sarcasm and facetiousness about topics like gold digging and video ho’s make him endearing. But this CD was just slow and boring for me. Maybe it was out of order a bit but you can’t blame anyone but K. West for that either.
Sophomore albums are tough, especially when your first album was as good as it was. Hopefully Kanye will bounce back in a big way on his 3rd (I’m not holding my breath…I think the success has gone to his head and he may be lost for good.)
Filed under: Counting Crows, Crosby Stills and Nash, Guster, Half-Marathon Playlist, John Mayer, Mos Def, PF Changs, marathon
Alright, so i haven’t mentioned it in a long time but i did, in fact, run (well, some of the time) the PF Changs Rock And Roll half-marathon yesterday. I had a blast and was kicking myself the entire time for not training harder for it. A combination of shin-splints, knee issues and general chaos/laziness prevented me from really getting into a strict training regimen. Fortunately for me i spend 20-30 hours a week walking briskly around a concrete-floored restaurant serving Italian food so i wasn’t completely unprepared, actually i felt great the entire time. And a day later, i feel pretty damn good all things considered. I’m definitely doing it again next year and if i can actually commit to training maybe i’ll do the full 26.2. We’ll see. But i highly recommend the event to all of you. The organizers really do a great job, everyone is out and having fun, and for a guy who really doesn’t get caught up in too many moments, i’ll admit that i got caught up in all of yesterday’s activities. Crossing the starting line at 8am and crossing that finish line at 11am really were two highlights of my 2007 so far. It was a ton of fun. And you don’t really even need to run the whole thing to enjoy it. A quick walk can get you around the course in 3 to 3.5 hours and it really is fun for the whole family. Get a group together and do it next year. Seriously.
As far as the music goes, well i have to say i was kind of disappointed. It’s not that the bands weren’t good, because they were (highlights include the country-bluegrass band at mile 5, the guy who just backed his truck up to the course, plugged into an amp and started ripping off huge guitar solos on mile 2 — even though i don’t think he was one of the official bands –, and to the steel-drum orchestra that literally had no fewer than 30 people on a single stage around mile 10) but on the half-marathon course there was about 1 band per mile and you just cruise right by them in about 4 seconds so there’s really no way of telling whether they’re good or not, you can’t really listen to an entire song and there’s really no way of getting charged up to keep running unless they are, by total chance, playing your favorite song right as you happen to walk by. So the Rock and Roll part of it was really minimal.
Also, since i had my dad with me and we walked about 9 of the 13 miles (albeit a brisk walk, somewhere in the range of a 12-14 minute mile), we talked most of the time. So i didn’t even listen to my iPod.
I thought music was going to be a huge part of this thing, and it wasn’t. I’m not disappointed by any means, it’s just not that relevant of a topic to discuss on this blog anymore, especially after i slept through the Gin Blossoms concert last night. Oh well, on with the shuffle.
1. Neon – John Mayer
Kind of an out of character choice for my iTunes, but let me attempt to justify it. I picked up on John Mayer my freshman year of college in 2001. Way before he was linked to Jessica Simpson, way before he had a full band, way before he even had a full length album out. I even went and saw him in concert at the Fillmore in Denver. The ladies didn’t even throw their panties on stage. It was just this really talented guitarist with a decent voice singing songs about love and life and doing fun cover songs and making some pretty decent jokes on stage. It was just a nice laid-back show all around. I was, admittedly, a fan. And i was downloading his songs off of Kazaa (or maybe it was even still Napster then, i can’t remember) and everything i found was exactly like the concert. Just a guy and his guitar, the way i like it. The guy even had the balls to do his own version of Radiohead-Kid A, which you won’t be surprised to hear that i liked a lot, before i even heard the real version on Kid A (don’t beat me up Laura, please.) And then for some reason he released a full-length CD of all the songs i had downloaded acoustic, but with drums and bass and electric guitars and keyboards and he just entirely fucked it all up. This song, Neon, was the biggest disappointment of the post-acoustic John Mayer era because it really is a catchy song with a tremendous guitar part that was even more impressive when played on an acoustic, AND he could sing a long while playing this super-hard part. So anyway, i still listen to some of his early acoustic stuff with a touch of sadness at his then-inevitable sellout. If you can find this song acoustic, it’s a good one that hasn’t gotten old yet.
2. Rock And Roll – Mos Def, off of Black on Both Sides
I was hoping we’d get some Mighty Mos Def on the shuffle today because this was the weekend of Mos for me. Danny came into town Saturday night and hooked me up with Mos’ new album, True Magic (which, if the first song is any indication, is going to be REALLY good) and i watched 16 Blocks on HBO last night, which i really liked in theaters and thought Mos did a great job in. So anyway, this was my least favorite Mos CD but this is one of the tracks i liked. It’s a really simple track with a really good beat and very few rhymes. Mos is talking about the history of music and calls out some of the most popular artists as being fakers in the history of rock and roll and giving — how do the kids say it? — “props” to the people he thinks are real. For example, “Elvis Presley ain’t got no soul/ Chuck Berry is rock and roll/ you may dig on the Rolling Stones but they didn’t come up with that shit on their own.” or my favorite, “Kenny G ain’t got no soul/John Coltrane is rock and roll.”
And then at the end of the song, following in line with the whole “Rock and Roll” theme of the album, it just goes all metal and there’s some hardcore drums and screaming and yeah. They did this a lot on the album and i liked the concept, it just didn’t work for me. Too much LinkinPark/JayZ collaboration for me.
3. A Long December – Counting Crows, off of Films About Ghosts
Originally this was one of my all-time favorite Counting Crows songs but it has kind of faded on me. It’s not bad, i’m just used to it and the Nah-nah-nah-nah’s wear on me now instead of inspiring me to sing a long. I don’t know why this happens. I can sing to the nah-nah-nah’s on Journey’s Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ all day.
That being said, i think the Counting Crows are one of the most underrated bands of my middle/high school years. They really were great and Adam Duritz really sealed the deal by having the hottest girlfriends in the world despite the fact that he was, without a doubt, heinous. If an ugly lead singer banging Courtney Cox doesn’t signify the power of music, well i just don’t know what does (although i guess now that she’s married to David Arquette we can completely say that she has zero taste in men.) Moving on.
4. Ruby Falls – Guster, off of Ganging Up on The Sun
Once again, Guster has put together an album that i can’t stop listening to. The other morning at work (i wear my iPod when i’m opening the restaurant because i’m anti-social) i listened to it 2 times in a row. I’ve talked about them before but they are really underrated in my book. They got railroaded into that college, frat-boy rock genre and perhaps it’s their own fault but on every CD i’ve heard, they consistently put together thought-provoking and profound lyrics and sing them using different styles and harmonies over some pretty innovative melodies and musical ideas. They bring in a lot of different styles, instruments and influences and it really keeps things fresh. My only criticism would be that their CDs, upon first listen, all sound the same, but when you dig a little deeper there are some intricacies that the casual (read: college frat-boy) would definitely miss. And, if nothing else, there has to be something to say about consistency right?
This song in particular starts off in your typical, straight-forward rock fashion but then around minute 4 it breaks down into this psychedelic sounding melody with a muted-trumpet solo over it. It’s not some fascinatingly groundbreaking move, but it’s different and interesting and innovative and completely pleasant to listen to.
5. Blackbird – Crosby, Stills and Nash
This is a Beatles cover sung by Stephen Stills off of their greatest hits album. CSN was a great band and their tight, high harmonies are absolutely responsible for many of the harmonies you hear today (I’m looking at you AFI). They really were talented musicians and if you’ve been too busy restricting your classic-rock listening to Led Zeppelin or The Who, i highly suggest you take a crack at CSN. It’s kind of amazing how their protest songs about Vietnam ring true today. The song Ohio is about US Soldiers shooting students at Kent State College during a Vietnam protest…could you imagine the shit that would hit the fan if that happened today? And we barely remember it even happened. What a country.
Alright, that’s enough for today. Check some of this music out and let me know what you think.
Filed under: At the Drive-In, Blackalicious, Jay-Z, Mos Def, The Eames Era
The Monday Morning Shuffle is consistently becoming the Monday Afternoon Shuffle but for the sake of continuity we’ll just leave it that way. I apologize for the tardiness but I’m betting nobody really cares.
Anyway, I want to address a few of Courtney’s comments from my last post before we get to the shuffle.
First off, I know Courtney has seen the movie from which this blog’s name is derived and I bet if she watched that movie again she would figure out where Kathleen Turner Overdrive came from and it really has nothing to do with Taking Care of Business or the amount of Kathleen Turner movies they play in AZ.
Second, I appreciate and agree with everything she said. A CD is a book, the songs are the chapters, you can’t just listen to one or two songs and judge the whole album. I talked about this in an earlier post, about how all songs are on a CD in a specific order and some bands and some producers put an incredible amount of time and effort into deciding the order. I’ve always liked and appreciated albums that were put together correctly and recently (since the days I lived with Courtney in CO) have become almost fundamental in my quest for listening to albums in their entirety. I guess when I lived with Courtney I had a tendency to download partials CDs and base judgments on that. I’ve grown up a little since then and now am a very staunch believer in having the entire CD before I press play. Even if I downloaded it off of Kazaa (or Limewire, if you will). So my judgments on my posts last week and, as you’ll notice, quite a few of my statements on the Monday Morning Shuffles, are based on the entire albums versus just a few songs.
I said last week in my comments about Radiohead that they were one of the bands that I just missed. Completely. So yes, I missed a lot of context by not hearing OK Computer and whatever other albums came between. One of these days maybe I’ll have the chance to go back and really dive into Radiohead. The reason I wrote that post was for someone to challenge me to really dig into the groups I didn’t understand, and Courtney did exactly that. I never pretended to say that I have really studied any of those bands and could make a seriously educated deduction. The initial title of the post was going to be “Bands I Don’t Like” but while I was writing, I was listening to them and was really actually enjoying the music. So I had to seriously backtrack and re-evaluate my position. That’s the point of the blog, to get stuff out in the open, to air it out, and to learn about music and become a better music fan. I’m glad that is starting to happen.
Finally, I appreciate Sigur Ros and their roots and their influences and I think that just sitting there and listening and meditating and feeling their music would be an excellent and enjoyable experience. However, as I’ve said before, my favorite bands and favorite albums are ones that I can put on anytime, anywhere and enjoy without having to put away special time or special incense for. That’s never going to change, I don’t think, and that’s why Sigur Ros and some of the other bands I’ve named will never make my Top 5 list of all-time favorites, no matter how good they may be.
Thanks for your time, on with the shuffle.
1. Extracurricular – At The Drive-In, off of Relationship of Command
Before they blew the world away with the Mars Volta (and to a much, much lesser extent, with Sparta), At The Drive-In put out some pretty damn good hardcore screamo whatever label you want to call it. Extracurricular is second only to One-Armed Scissor as far as my favorite ATDI songs. It has a really catchy hook and beyond that, it just pretty much rages. The drums really drive this song along in a hectic, loud and borderline out-of-control kind of way, but they never cross that line into noise. Very few bands pull that off. I also really like the guitar riff that echoes through during the chorus. Let’s put it this way, if you’re really feeling Remy Zero right now, you probably won’t want to get into ATDI, but if you’re loving the new Tool, then ATDI might be a logical step. Great workout music, to say the least.
2. Heart of the City – Jay-Z, off of Jay-Z Unplugged
Remember last week when I said that some people really deserved unplugged albums and lately MTV had just sold them out (wait, am I really surprised???) to anyone with more than 5 minutes of stage experience. Well I failed to mention that Jay-Z was one of those that I really liked. Whether he deserved the shot or not could be argued (I would say Yes) but what Jay did was completely make the most out of his unplugged shot. And it’s not even so much him, as in, we know he can rap, he really doesn’t do anything special in his own performance. But what he does do is get the Roots band to back him up. I love the Roots, and I love the fact that it’s Hip Hop to a live band. They’re amazing musicians and I love that they make so much better music than anyone with turntables and a beta machine could ever dream of. And to have them backing up Jay-Z and playing his beats and adding nuances and layers to his music that blow his records out of the water, it just makes the whole album. When they open up with Izzo, well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have goosebumps.
3. It’s Going Down – Blackalicious, off of Blazing Arrow
Blackalicious is one of my favorite hiphop groups ever. The lead MC Gift of Gab is one of the most talented rappers to never get played on the radio. Most know him from the Alphabet Aerobics track when he just rattles off rhymes using only words with the first letter of the alphabet, in order. It’s an impressive track to say the least but he has many more genius moments on the albums Nia and Blazing Arrow. My favorite track is the song “Release” which features vocals from Zach DeLa Rocha from Rage and of course my favorite poet in the world, Saul Williams. That song blows my mind. (I heard Gift’s solo stuff is also amazing.) One of my favorite Blackalicious moments happened when I would hang out and drink beers at Adam Pierce’s house in Tempe and he would put this record on (that’s right, vinyl). He had just the instrumental of the entire Blazing Arrow album, no lyrics, but it was just about the coolest fucking thing ever to chill out and talk while listening to. You can’t say that about too many rap albums.
4. Bedstuy Parade – Mos Def, off of The New Danger
Wow, this is turning into the underground hiphop shuffle today. Not that you could call Mos Def underground anymore but you can’t exactly say that his music is mainstream either. Mighty Mos is one of my favorite artists of all time but I can’t say that I really got into this CD. I love “Black on Both Sides” but this album just never caught me in the same way. I really appreciate what Mos tried to do on this album, he incorporated a bunch of different instruments and a lot of heavy guitar sounds and a lot of really atypical things that you wouldn’t hear on an album of this genre. And I appreciate his effort but it really didn’t work for me. It’s almost like he tried to be too different and use too many different time signatures and things. I don’t know. I’m hoping he gets back to basics on his next album. We’ll see.
5. Could Be Anything – The Eames Era, off of Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack
My good friend Suzanne burned this soundtrack for me and as TV show soundtracks go, well it’s everything you’d expect. It has the token Postal Service, Rilo Kiley and Tegan and Sara songs, a little old school with Medeski, Martin and Wood, and a bunch of random cutesy tracks designed to make you feel like no matter how many bands you think you know, you’ll never know as much as whoever put that soundtrack together.
Alright, that’s enough for today. On Wednesday we’re going to have Championship Vinyl’s very first concert review. Yep, I finally made it out to see someone live for the first time in forever and I’m going to share about it. Stay tuned.
Alright, this isn’t finished yet but this is what I came up with just scrolling through iTunes. I like to work out to harder music with a solid beat and stuff that will distract me (ie. Good lyrics, a story, etc.). I also like some continuity among the music so I put a couple songs in a row. We’ll see how it works out. I’m going to go give it a test run (pun very much intended) right now.
1. Tom Petty – Running Down a Dream
2.-8. Rajiv Patel – The Retaliation for what they’ve done to us
I’m using this whole CD because it has a great beat to run to and it’s perfect to get me into the rhythm I’ll need. It’s 27 minutes long and should get me through at least 2.5 miles.
9. Fall Out Boy – Of All The Gin Joints In All The World
10. Fall Out Boy – Dance, Dance
11. Fall Out Boy – Sugar We’re Going Down
12. Modest Mouse – Float On
13. Mos Def – Fear Not of Man/Hip Hop
14. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Higher Ground
15. RHCP – Suck My Kiss
16. RHCP – Slow Cheetah
17. RHCP – Make You Feel Better
18. Tool – Vicarious
19. Tool – Jambi
20. Tool – Schism
21. A Perfect Circle – Magdalena
22. A Perfect Circle – Three Libras
23. Coheed & Cambria – Ten Speed
24. Coheed – The Suffering
25. Coheed – 33
26. Coheed – A Favor House Atlantic
27. Fivespeed – Fair Trade
28. Guns & Roses – November Rain
29. Bob Seger – Against the Wind
30. Eric Clapton – Running on Faith
31. Hoobastank – Running Away
32. Run Fay Run – Isaac Hayes
33. Pink Floyd – On The Run
34. Snow Patrol – Run
35. Soul Asylum – Runaway Train
36. Steve Miller Band – Take the Money and Run
37. Talib Kweli – Where you Gonna Run
38. Three Doors Down – Duck and Run
39. Thursday – Running from the Rain
40. I need something to end with. We Are the Champions is a little too cliché and maybe a little too dramatic for a kid who will stumble in the middle of the pack on a HALF marathon and isn’t actually winning anything.
Alright, this is just a preliminary list. Just like the race, this will take some training and some dedication. It’s all out of order and doesn’t really have the continuity I need it to. Besides, it’s already at 2.5 hours and I really wasn’t planning on running that long. We’ll see I guess. I’m sure I’ve missed some crucial songs.
Please give me your suggestions in the comments.
