The iPod Shuffle Challenge	August 1, 2008

In the interest of distracting myself from the enormous workload I should’ve been tackling this afternoon, I took the cue from Stef (and others) and took the iPod Shuffle Challenge: If you are in shuffle mode, what are the first twenty songs that come up on your iPod? And no skipping past the embarrassing stuff. Here we go…

1. 10th & Crenshaw
Artist: Fatboy Slim
Album: Better Living through Chemistry
I bought this album because there was once a music reviewer for Elle magazine whose tastes I really dug, and she called it the best house party album of all time. It’s good, but not the best.

2. Fast Forward
Artist: Lali Puna
Album: I Thought I Was Over That
My favorite sub-category of music belongs in an iTunes playlist I called “Girltronic.” It includes such girly electronic bands as Lali Puna, Broadcast, Tracy & the Plastics, Enon, and Ladytron. Nothing makes me happier than these songs! I got this particular album when Tower Records was going out of business and everything was cheap—score!

3. Irish Blood, English Heart
Artist: Morrissey
Album: You Are the Quarry
This is where Morrissey lost me. I loved every album the Smiths put out, and I at least liked every album that Morrissey put out, until this one. This song was the first single off this album, and I felt it offered nothing new, insightful, or interesting. Or maybe I just got sick of him.

4. Untitled
Artist: Interpol
Album: Turn on the Bright Lights
The first song from the first album by Interpol. Paul Banks’ voice can just get under your skin and haunt you.

5. World Around
Artist: Levitation
Album: Spin This
When I was a Spin magazine subscriber, I used to get these free CD samplers in the mail. They would usually be 20% awesome music, 20% total crap, and 60% songs that I could stand to listen to, but didn’t really do anything for me. This song falls into the third category.

6. Angel
Artist: Towa Tei
Album: Last Century Modern
Remember Deee-lite? There were three members: the fabulously chic Lady Miss Kier Kirby, Super DJ Dmitri (the Russian guy), and Towa Tei was the Japanese guy. His solo stuff is freaking awesome, and this album may get my vote for the best house party album of all time. I particularly like the samples of the computer-ey voice from the Speak-n-Spell.

7. I Can’t Stand Up (for Falling Down)
Artist: Elvis Costello
Album: Best of
How you gonna not have at least one Elvis Costello album on your iPod??

8. Magic Carpet Ride
Artist: Pizzicato Five
Album: Made in USA
Oh this takes me back. Oh how I love me some Pizzicato Five, and this was in fact the very first of their albums that I purchased (a quick check of my iPod reveals that today, I own no fewer than 16). I bought this album because Jamie told me to. God bless Jamie for the significant impact he had on my musical tastes.

9. Times of Trouble
Artist: Temple of the Dog
Album: Temple of the Dog
<swooning at the sultry sounds of Chris Cornell> I believe I listened to nothing other than this album the summer before my freshman year of high school. I remember going to desktop publishing camp that summer (yes that’s right) and my roommate doing a lot of eye-rolling.

10. As Estrelas Agora Elas Estão Mortas
Artist: Man or Astro-Man
Album: EEVIAC Operational Index and Reference Guide, Including Other Modern Computational Devices
I couldn’t remember what EEVIAC stood for, so I looked it up: “Embedded Electronic Variably Integrated Astro Console.” The internets also say that Man or Astro-Man doesn’t exist anymore, which is a shame! I saw them live once, a performance fully integrated with the EEVIAC itself, and it was such an awesome visual spectacle.

11. How Many Miles Must We March
Artist: Ben Harper
Album: Welcome to the Cruel World
I think I bought this album because Rolling Stone told me to. And I liked it very much. But my love for Ben Harper reached its pinnacle at the Bonnaroo Super Jam last year.

12. Pressed in a Book
Artist: The Shins
Album: Oh, Inverted World
Steve once pointed out that the cover of this album cover looks like our shower curtain. He is right.

13. Time’s Up (Dust Mix)
Artist: Moby
Album: Rare: the Collected B-Sides
I like Moby very much, and I like the song “Time’s Up” very much. But there is such a thing as too many remixes.

14. Florida
Artist: Modest Mouse
Album: Rare: Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
One of the catchier tunes from this album, which has a fair number of catchy tunes, but not quite as many as their last album.

15. Habanera and Carmen
Artist: Geirges Bizet
Album: Trainspotting #2
I’d be willing to venture that this is the only piece of opera on my whole iPod. I can’t recall what part of the movie this song is from, but I loved the first Trainspotting soundtrack that I had to purchase its sequel. It’s OK.

16. Do It
Artist: Beastie Boys
Album: Ill Communication
We got the funk, ah-ah ah-ah ah-ah. W-we got the f-f-funk.

17. Forever
Artist: Goldfrapp
Album: Black Cherry
I bought this album because my Color Theory teacher would play it during class and I found it to be groovy music to work to. Then I saw that movie Hard Candy (did you see that movie?). Goldfrapp was the band that creepy middle-aged man pretended to like to peak the interests of pre-teen girl. All things associated with that movie give me the creeps now, and so goes Goldfrapp.

18. Call it Fate
Artist: Richie Dan
Album: Vital 2Step
I went through a phase where I was taking stabs in the dark at different European techno and R&B artists, informed only by the recommendations of the English and French interns I was working with and Amazon.com suggestions. I got very lucky with this one – it was exactly the kind of thumpin’ compilation I was looking for.

19. The Man Who Sold the World
Artist: David Bowie
Album: The Man Who Sold the World
One can’t listen to twenty consecutive songs on my iPod without getting some Bowie in there, since I’d estimate he takes up at least 20% of my hard disk.

20. Bob Dylan’s Dream
Artist: Bob Dylan
Album: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
When I was a senior in high school, I finally realized that some of the albums in the drawer under my dad’s stereo were worth listening to. I totally stole this one, and I seriously doubt I ever returned it. Sorry, Dad.