Random 10

Rilo Kiley, "Silver Lining"
David Garza, "Float Away"
Jorge Ben, "Ponta de Lanca Africano (Umbabarauma)"
Gothic Voices, "Columba aspexit"
Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, "I Want to Break Your Heart"
Swan Dive, "Caprice"
Harry Nilsson, "Salmon Falls"
Leonard Nimoy, "Spock Thoughts"
Harry Nilsson, "Dayton, Ohio 1903"
The Zombies, "Care of Cell 44"

Yes, "Spock Thoughts." Deal with it.

Random 10

Beck, "Paper Tiger"
Fountains of Wayne, "Someone to Love"
Fountains of Wayne, "Radiation Vibe"
Badly Drawn Boy, "Is There Nothing We Could Do?"
School of Seven Bells, "Half Asleep"
Prefab Sprout, "Silhouettes"
Etta James, "At Last"
XTC, "The Smartest Monkeys"
Psychedelic Furs, "The Ghost in You"
Semisonic, "Secret Smile"


Nonrandom bonus track:
David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull, "I've Got You, Babe"

Random 10

Nick Drake, "One of These Things First"
Mosquitos, "Domesticada"
XTC, "Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead"
Carole King, "(You Make Feel Like) A Natural Woman"
Chris Stamey, "Instant Karma"
Kirsty MacColl, "My Affair"
Broken Bells, "The High Road"
Joe Henry, "Trampoline"
Harry Nilsson, "1941"
The Raveonettes, "The Last Dance"

Friday Random 10

Random 10, March 19, 2010

Friday Random 10

Random 10, March 12, 2010

First track makes this sort of NSFW. Sorry.


NOTE: Counting is not my strong suit.

Random 10

Random 10, March 5

A note from the management

I miss posting Random 10 lists, but I stopped doing it after SeeqPod got sued into nonexistence. (Well, it's rumored Microsoft bought the technology, but it's yet to resurface.)

I recently started using an online music service called Lala--and I'm impressed. You can stream the 6 million-plus songs in its catalog for free once. Further unlimited streams only cost 10 cents. You can also upload all the music you have on your computer and then stream it anywhere you are. Cool, right?

You can also post songs from your collection to your blog, so let's see if this works:

Note From the Management

Any issues playing?

(Oh, and if you want to sign up, contact me via e-mail and I'll send you an invite--that way I earn some free songs. Yes, it's kind of a Ponzi scheme in that way. My e-mail address is on my profile page.)

Random 10

Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, "Here and Now"
Sufjan Stevens, "Prairie Fire That Wanders About"
k.d. lang, "The Consequences of Falling"
World Party, "Vanity Fair"
Nellie McKay, "Baby, Watch Your Back"
Rilo Kiley, "Does He Love You?"
R.E.M., "Stand" (from Green)
Elvis Costello, "A Man Out of Time"
The Knickerbockers, "Sweet Green Fields"
Fleet Foxes, "Oliver James"

Random 10 with selected lyrics

Nilsson, "Living Without You," Nilsson Sings Newman: Milk truck hauls the sun up/And the paper hits my door/The subway shakes my floor/And I think about you

Thomas Dolby, "She Blinded Me With Science," Retrospectacle: Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto -- you're beautiful!

Rilo Kiley, "More Adventurous," More Adventurous: And it's only doubts that we're counting/On fingers broken long ago/I read with every broken heart we should become/More adventurous

Richard X. Heyman, "Cornerstone," Cornerstone

Jane Siberry, "Waitress," No Borders Here: And I'd probably be famous now/If I wasn't such a good waitress

Marshall Crenshaw, "You're My Favorite Waste of Time," This Is Easy

Death Cab for Cute, "Your Heart Is an Empty Room," Plans

Nick Lowe, "All Men Are Liars," Party of One: Do you remember Rick Astley?/He had a big fat hit/It was ghastly

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, "Perfect Skin," Rattlesnakes: Shame on you/You've got no sense of grace/Shame on me/Ah, just in case

Serge Gainsbourg, "L'Hotel Particulier," Histoire de Melody Nelson

Random 10

More random than usual:


SeeqPod - Playable Search

(Semi) Random 10

As usual, I'm limited to what I can link to via the handy SeeqPod.


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Random 10--now with actual audio!

SeeqPod - Playable Search

OK, not 100% random. I set my iPod on shuffle, and those songs I could find via SeeqPod are here. But some I hoped to find were not posted anywhere, and I have no way to host music on my own. Still, SeeqPod is awfully nifty.

Random 10

Nick Drake, "Thoughts of Mary Jane": "Who can know/The reason for her smile?/What are her dreams/When they've journeyed for a mile?"

Midlake, "It Covers the Hillsides": "I'm not sure where this river goes/But we have no choice but to follow/There is smoke in the sky over those trees/Let us hope they are kind to you and me."

Mosquitos, "Sunshine Barato": "Já te conheço, rapaz/Ele chega de mansinho, mas sei que já não vai dar/Mais Sunshine Barato."

XTC, "The Smartest Monkeys": "We're the smartest monkeys/The smartest monkeys/The evidence is all around/Our brains are bigger/This we've found."

Nilsson, "Remember": "Long ago/Far away/Life was clear/Close your eyes..."

The La's, "I Can't Sleep": "I was going through a nightmare/I was layin' on the line/And there's a big black train coming/D'you think it would be a shame running?"

The Bird and the Bee, "Preparedness": "Are you prepared?/Are you prepared for me?"

Elvis Costello, "Indoor Fireworks": "They're not so spectacular/They don't burn up in the sky/But they can dazzle or delight/Or bring a tear/When the smoke gets in your eyes."

Death Cab for Cutie, "Your Heart Is an Empty Room": "The flames and smoke climbed out of every window/And disappeared with everything that you held dear/And you shed not a single tear for the things that you didn't need/'Cause you knew you were finally free."

The Flaming Lips: "Do You Realize?": "Do you realize/You have the most beautiful face?"


Have I mentioned I've become obsessed with Midlake?

The soundtrack of our lives

I don't usually participate in blog memes--I like reading them others' blogs, but never get around to joining in--but this one, which I spotted on Fermicat's blog, looked like fun, and it's a twist on the recurring Random 10 feature. It's sort of a musical I Ching.

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

Here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every item, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new item, press the "next" button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...


Opening Credits: "One Big Love," Patty Griffin ("Let's take a ride to the seaside/We can go out swimming in the high tide/Just wear your shorts and your long hair/Don't forget the lawn chair")

--Well, that's a promising start! I guess my life will be a fun summer romp ...


Waking Up: "Leave the Biker," Fountains of Wayne ("Please leave the biker/Leave the biker/Break his heart")

--... though not without some bumps in the road.


First Day at School: "La La La," The Bird and the Bee ("If there's someone you don't like/You don't have to say hello/There's no reason you should leave/There's no reason you should go")

--Sounds like good enough advice, though the guidance office probably wouldn't like the "there's no reason you should go" part.


Falling in Love: "She Loves You," K.J. Denhert ("She says she loves you/And you know that can't be bad/Yes, she loves you/And you know you should be glad")

--Apparently, in my biopic, I'm heterosexual, rather like Cole Porter in "Night and Day."


Fight Song: "Greenman," XTC ("Please to dance round for the one called the Greenman/He wants to make you his bride")

--Would only be a good choice for a fight song if they set my biopic in pagan England.


Breaking Up: "She's Leaving Home," Harry Nilsson ("Quietly turning the backdoor key/Stepping outside she is free")

--We gave her everything money could buy!


Prom: "Mermaids," Swan Dive ("It was over the waves we go/Diving for coral down below/Love was the undertow/When we were mermaids")

--I was kind of hoping for Fountains of Wayne's "Prom Theme" here, but this one works, actually.


Mental Breakdown: "That Teenage Feeling," Neko Case ("Now that we've met/We can only laugh at these regrets")

--Regrets, I've had a few.


Driving: "Kid Gloves," Fountains of Wayne ("Here is what I've found/New York just gets me down/When the going got tough/I got a bus ticket/Back to my home town")

Flashback: "Girl on a Wire," Swan Dive ("Higher and higher/Girl on a wire/Don't look down")

Getting Back Together: "Sleep Late, My Lady Friend," Harry Nilsson ("Sleep late, my lady friend/Let the warm summer breeze/Drift through your window")

--Let me amend my previous comment. I am relentlessly hetero in my biopic.


Wedding: "In the Name of Love," Kenny Rankin ("What burns and glows without flame?/What lives and grows without rain?/What brings a smile that lasts for a little while/Then makes me cry without shame?/How can you please me then and torture and tease me/And do it in the name of love?")

Birth of Child: "Down From Dover," Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra ("My body aches, the time is here, it's lonely in this place where I'm lyin'/Our baby has been born, but something's wrong, it's much too still, I hear no cryin'/I guess in some strange way she knew she'd never have a father's arms to hold her/So dying was her way of telling me he wasn't coming down from Dover")

--Yes, that's right, my iPod picked the one song I own that's explicitly about the death of a child. I thought Lee Hazlewood wrote it, but apparently it was Dolly Parton, though I've never heard her version. It's quite a tear jerker.


Final Battle: "Like Lovers Do," Lloyd Cole ("Everyday you're so sad to see me/And I'm so glad to take the blame/It's always going to be that way")

Death Scene: "My Finest Hour," Paula Kelley ("I want my finest hour to be/When everything's a part of you's a part of me")

Funeral Song: "Writers Are a Funny Breed," Jane Siberry ("You said someday when we're pure and high/We won't need to capture and describe/The things we see or don't see/We'll let things be/Let things be/That's when you'd leave")

End Credits: "Back to Even," Bill Lloyd ("I've been in the red and I've been in the black/It's good to be back to even.")

--And I guess that's a good enough place to end up.

Random 10, without links

Jill Sobule, "One of These Days": "One of these days/And it'll be real soon/I'm gonna kick some ass/Gonna clean my room/Sometime soon"

Magnetic Fields, "All My Little Words": "Now that you've made me want to die/You tell me that you're unboyfriendable"*

The Citadels, "Like the World Never Ended": "I dreamt to myself/I dreamt to myself/Being with you's like the world never ended/Never ended"

Fountains of Wayne, "Red Dragon Tattoo": "I brought a .38 Special CD collection/Some Bactine to prevent infection"

Harry Nilsson, "Gotta Get Up": "Down by the sea she knew a sailor who had been to war/She never even knew a sailor before/She never even knew his name/He'd come to town and he would pound her for a couple of days/And then he'd sail across the bubbling waves/And those were happier days/But now ..."

Elivs Costello and the Attractions, "Pump It Up": "I've been on tenterhooks/Ending in dirty looks/Listening to the Muzak/Thinking 'bout this 'n' that"

XTC, "Harvest Festival": "Harvest festival/Harvest festival/What was best of all/Was the longing look you gave me/That longing look/More than enough to keep me fed all year"

The Beatles, "Hard Day's Night": "It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog/It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log/But when I get home to you, I'll find the things that you do/Will make me feel all right"

Death Cab for Cutie, "Soul Meets Body": "I want to live where soul meets body/And let the sun wrap its arms around me/And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing/And feel, feel what it's like to be new"

Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs, "She May Call You Up Tonight": "I've been telling lines I never knew/All to keep that girl away from you"


*Really, if "unboyfriendable" isn't the best made-up word of all time, then I don't know what is.

Random 10, with links

"The Newlyweds," Chris Stamey: "And I ask him how he feels/And he says, 'Nothing much'/Do you ever think of her?/'No, hardly never'"

"Smoke and Mirrors," The Magnetic Fields: "Smoke and mirrors/Special effects/A little fear, a little sex/That's all love is/Behind the tears/Smoke and mirrors"

"Walk Away Renee," The Left Banke: "Just walk away Renee/You won't see me follow you back home"

"This Is Not a Love Song," Nouvelle Vague: "This is not a love song/This is not a love song/This is not a love song/This is not a love song"

"Float Away," David Garza: "Now you're the storm inside the wave/When you touch me, I float away"

"Ring of Fire," Johnny Cash: "I fell in to a burning ring of fire/I went down, down, down/And the flames went higher"

"Radio Radio," Elvis Costello: "Radio is a sound salvation/Radio is cleaning up the nation"

"Girl Like Me," K.J. Denhert: "Honestly, you don't play hide and seek/When a girl like me comes knocking at your door/Can't you see the obvious before you?/With a girl like me, you know you won't get bored"

"Nothing Has Been Proved," Dusty Springfield: "Stephen's in his dressing-gown now, breakfasting alone/Too sick to eat, he's on his feet and to the telephone/The police inspector soothes him with his sympathetic tone/It may be false, it may be true/But nothing has been proved"

"The Girl's Insane," The Januaries: "The girl's insane not to love you/And I must be crazy too"


Overall, it looks like I had my iPod set on "Depressing."