I put the ol’ iRiver on shuffle and post the first five songs that come up.
Junior Boys – In The Morning: The past few weeks, I’ve had the delight of driving my sister’s car to school which is nice because she has taken the liberty of installing a CD player that actually functions (so that obnoxious flag hanging on the rearview mirror: I have nothing to do with that). In September, Junior Boys released a new album that received nice reviews from the popular media and while I am not apt to agree with all of the stellar ratings, I am quite content playing this song over and over and over again, as I find it keeps me quite happy. My sister, however, does not agree, and as a result, I have had to make three new mix CDs with this song on it as the others have suffered “mysterious” disappearances and I refuse to submit to the idealogy that her car’s CD player only responds positively to reggaeton. In fact, we had a conversation, the CD player and I, and it consisted of us singing the wrong words to this song in carefree unison and plotting ways to destroy all of the reggaeton CDs in the dashboard with a wild conflagration. We’ve become very close.
The Decemberists – Summersong: The Decemberists are cool because um. Well. I suppose because they have written many great novels and set them to melody. So when you ignore the fact that they are pretentiouslly erudite and haven’t learned the proper term of “moderation” when it comes to acoustic guitars, I suppose this is a fantastic song.
George Harrison – Got My Mind Set on You: This song does a really good job of erasing all the credibility Harrison built in the 1960s. When I listened to Revolvor the first time, I thought to myself, wow, he was not kidding around with that sitar. This song made me think wow, he was just really not fucking kidding around now, was he?
Natsumi Abe – the stress: I am not sure why this is in my player. This is like a new discovery that is not welcome. This isn’t like discovering an obscure Depeche Mode remix, this is like discovering you had a moment of really flawed judgment. Abe was a former member of kid super group Morning Musume, and as one of the most popular graduated members, has gone on to put out many photobooks and singles, all complete crap.
Sandy Lam – Yi Ge Ren: By popular demand, I come bearing the Mandarin (Cantonese?) version of New Order’s “Bizzare Love Triangle” which adds about five extra cups of sugar to the recipe, but is as equally delicious. I once began an article that said something like “In 1994, or I guess 1986, Bernard Sumner & co. wrote my biography and titled it “Bizzare Love Triangle.” I was only seven years old but after I first heard this song on the radio, I spent a whole Saturday afternoon waiting with a recordable tape and my finger on the record button. I then proceeded to play this song endlessly to the chagrin of family members. For one brief year, my child mind moved on to overplaying hide until New Order saved me once again after they brought 80s music back for a brief hiccup in the life of Chicago radio (94.7 The Zone, I miss you).” I hope to finish writing that article this month and end it with the sentiment that yes, I still have this tape, and yes, “Bizzare Love Triangle ‘94″ is nestled in among “Rhythm is a Dancer” and “Another Night” and how once, my friend and I blasted the song driving down the freeway like it was our jam because it fucking was and it was the greatest song I had ever heard since Fancy’s “Colder Than Ice.” Actually, I’ll leave that last part out maybe.
appears 