Shuffle

It's been awhile since I've shuffled the iPod and blogged about what comes up. I'm closing in on 10,000 tracks on the MP3 player, so this could (and should) be really random. Links provided when available.

1. Lambchop "I Haven't Heard a Word I've Said" Aw C'mon (2004)

I don't really have anything to say about this particular track, but I recall precisely when I first hearI d part this album,which was released at the same time as the humorously-titled companion volume No You C'mon. I was browsing in Used Kids Records on Valentine's Day 2004 before going to see Francis Ford Coppola's re-released One from the Heart. I was going crazy trying to place the artist and had to ask the clerk. (My best guess was Joe Henry, which I knew was wrong.)

2. Al Green "Tired of Being Alone" Al Green - Greatest Hits (1975)

I'm betting this will be the one track most of you will know. I was going to write how I randomly remember buying this in October 1996 while visiting an old friend in Madison, Wisconsin, but how banal is that. And the same goes for a lot of the rest that is likely to follow. So I'm scrapping the idea of saying much about these tracks in particular unless really provoked.

3. Broken Bells "The Ghost Inside" Broken Bells (2010)

4. Fiona Apple "Please Please Please" Extraordinary Machine (unreleased version) (2005)

I haven't downloaded much music online, but the Jon Brion-produced version of this album was something I tracked down because, if memory serves, people felt the record company was marginalizing and hiding it. (See, this is why I'm not following through with the concept. Do you care? No. But I was already deep into it when I decided to pull the plug.)

5. Guided by Voices "Dead Cloud" Earthquake Glue (2003)

The Dayton, Ohio indie rock legends have to go on the list of my all-time favorites, and I can't help but believe that local pride is partially responsible for why I took to the band.

6. David Gray "Long Distance Call" A New Day at Midnight (2002)

Mercy, the iPod must think I'm miserable if it's stringing all these songs together. C'mon, put a better face on things.

7. Beck "O Maria" Mutations (1998)

I expected Beck would be a one-hit wonder after "Loser". I was very, very wrong.

Let's just pretend this post didn't exist, shall we?