Who got the funk?

February 20, 2010


Impromptu soul/funk iTunes genius mix for a Saturday afternoon photo editing session.

“I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” – Stevie Wonder
“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” – Otis Redding
“Save the Children” – Marvin Gaye
“A Change is Gonna Come” – Sam Cooke
“Flash Light” – Parliament
“Sign ‘O’ the Times” – Prince
“That’s the Way of the World” – Earth Wind & Fire
“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” – Stevie Wonder
“I Want You (live)” – Marvin Gaye
“Night Time Is the Right Time” – Ray Charles
“Just A Thought” – Gnarls Barkley
“Jungle Boogie” – Kool & the Gang
“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” – The Supremes
“Mustang Sally” – Wilson Pickett
“Try a Little Tenderness” – Otis Redding
“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” – Marvin Gaye
“Spanish Harlem” – Ben E. King
“You Haven’t Done Nothin’” – Stevie Wonder
“Alphabet St.” - Prince

Conclusion: despite it’s inability to stray too far from convention, sometimes iTunes Genius is pretty great.

Tags: Music, Steinbeck on Random, The Top... |

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Steinbeck on Random - 3.5.09

March 5, 2009


It feels like it’s been years since I’ve thrown Steinbeck on random and seen what tender little gems I could round up from the depths of my musical library. It hasn’t been, though – simply months, if you look at it technically. After all, I used to work out, which gave birth to the adapted Steinbeck on Steroids.

Of course, if you look at it literally, it’s true. I haven’t thrown Steinbeck on Random for this blog since September 2007.

Weird.

So, with that in mind, let’s do this.

1. The White Stripes – “Honey, We Can’t Afford to Look This Cheap”
Conquest EP

I don’t know this song.

But, I do know that, without a doubt, The White Stripes show up on random more than any artist I listen to. Despite the fact that several artists have a ton more songs available, The White Stripes always seems to bully its way into the lineup.

Which would be fine, except, you know, they have so many songs that are just, well, whatever. I mean, they’re unremarkable. They have some brilliant songs. And they have some just plain ordinary songs.

This seems like one of them.

2. Johnny Cash – “A Boy Named Sue (live)”
Johnny Cash at San Quentin

Listening to the songs on their own, not as part of an album, I can’t tell the difference between those on Live at Folsom Prison and those on this album. I guess that answers the question, “Despite how good both albums are, is it really necessary to have two live albums from the same artist during the same era?” (The answer, for those not paying attention, is, “No.”)

3. Beck – “Gettochip Malfunction (Hell Yess) (8Bit Remix)”
Guerolito

Guero is by far my favorite Beck album. And that makes my love of these remixes so much more surprising to me.

As a purist in most cases, I prefer the original – the goldy oldies, the book version of the movie, the “before it was cool” aspect of nearly everything. I probably do it to be hip - the elitism of originality. It’s one of my more noble traits, if you’re into a healthy dollop of ego mixed in with every stray comment.

But I’ll repeat it. I love these remixes. This one is pretty sweet. Do I lose punk points for revealing that? Will my subscription to Paste suddenly dry up?

4. Thirty Ought Six – “Tourmaline”
Hag Seed

Travel with me, if you will, back to 1995.

I was an aspiring punk rocker who still had a soft side for the soft-loud-soft of the post-punk landscape – the genre that eventually became known as “emo” before “emo” meant wearing black and cutting yourself. It was melodic punk. Math rock. Whatever. It’s what all of the old hardcore bands turned to when they got too old to shave their heads.

I wasn’t able to latch onto the genre as it was beginning, so I enjoyed some of the larger label versions that sprouted up in the years following. Sunny Day Real Estate was one of them and, through the power of complicated music and lyrics, they quickly became one of my favorite bands.

Which means any time singer Jeremy Enigk showed up on someone else’s album, I had to have it.

He showed up on this album, by Thirty Ought Six, a band that no one has ever heard of. I knew this thanks to a one-year subscription to CMJ magazine, which came with a sampler CD that, surprise, included this exact song.

I had to have it. My friend Eric got a hold of a promo copy for my birthday. I still have it. And I still love this song.

5. Bob Dylan – “Blood in my Eyes”
Dylan

Hey, did you hear that Bob Dylan is surprising everyone with a follow up to Modern Times? Pretty sweet.

6. Brother Ali (w/ Slug) – “Blah Blah Blah”
Shadows on the Sun

As I’ve grown older, I’ve stopped going to shows.

Not just shows in Minneapolis or Omaha – places I’d happily drive to several years ago in order to see bands I only borderline liked – but here in Sioux Falls. As in, band I truly like, in my own backyard. As in, I could walk there. As in, I have no excuse.

The list of bands I’ve missed, either due to prior engagements or apathy, includes Against Me, Atmosphere and Brother Ali. I like all three a lot. But I didn’t go to the show because, well, whatever.

I guess that’s the long way of saying its cool to hear Slug and Brother Ali together on this song. It pairs a fantastic hook with two of my favorite indie rappers, and the chorus is as irrelevant as can be created by today’s advanced technology. And, it has this short breakdown that sends the track into a mini-version of “Guns and Cigarettes.” Sweet little trick there, boys.

7. The Decemberists – “The Infanta”
Picaresque

Huh. How about that. A Decemberists song that sounds like a mix between sea shanty and military march. Who’d have thunk it?

8. Jurassic 5 – “Sum of Us”
Power in Numbers

Like most album cuts from Jurassic 5, I can honestly say I don’t think I even know this song. And I can also say it sounds strangely like every other album cut from every other Jurassic 5 album.

Don’t get me wrong. I love these guys. But the difference between the awesome singles-worthy songs and the rest of the stuff is pretty wide. They could have gotten away with releasing 5-song EPs every time around and they’d have just as many great songs without the filler.

And, people would probably remember them more fondly. They’d have been scrambling for more, raising their value by a low number of releases. See – that’s supply and demand. That’s economics, as illustrated by Jurassic 5! I’m like Malcolm Gladwell in my ability to explain complex concepts using trite examples!

9. Office – “Company Calls”
A Night at the Ritz

If you don’t listen to Office yet, stop what you’re doing and start listening to them. That’s all. I don’t know what’s wrong with you.

10. Seven Storey Mountain – “Incomplete”
The Emo Diaries, Chapter Two – A Million Miles Away

I’ve always had a short list of phenomenal bands that consistently go unrecognized by me: Jets to Brazil, Mason Jennings, Frank Black, Seven Story Mountain. These are bands that I absolutely love. They can do little wrong in my eyes. They put forth smart, rocking music that, upon hearing, sends me into a weeklong obsession.

Yet, if you were to ask me what my 10 favorite artists were, I’d probably forget all of them. I’d go through the obvious favorites and, upon consulting my iPod to find the rest, I’d slap my head in amazement, wondering how I ever forgot to add them.

It happens every time.

Seven Storey Mountain, like Texas is the Reason before them, are one of the bands from my emo days that still sound fresh. Some of the bands I followed grew old, their sound became dated and silly, too angsty or too complicated or simply too boring. Seven Storey Mountain just rocked. That’s all they did, every song, and they still rock today. They’d be just as cool now as they were in the mid 90s.

Another note – this Emo Diaries album was the last to actually include great music from bands anyone had heard of. What started as a who’s who of the genre on album one and two quickly turned into a series of “the best of people you’ve never heard of.”

By album five and six, I had stopped buying these albums. I realized there was a reason no one had heard of the bands they were featuring.

Tags: Music, Steinbeck on Random |

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Steinbeck on Steroids – 11.02.08

December 2, 2008


Usually, you work out to something upbeat. Something with energy. Hip hop, or metal, or anything with a steady beat and a constant electricity. It’s only natural that we typically just select one of these genres to shuffle.

Today, I didn’t. I just Super Shuffled it. In doing this, outside of a ramping up at both ends, I found tranquility in staying quiet, my playlist ranging from brooding to folky, emo to childish. Nothing hard-core. Nothing from the streets. Just a vanilla and, surprisingly, soothing playlist.

It worked. I was able to think. I left not just physically accelerated, but mentally.

“Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me” – The Pipettes
“Red Letter Day” – The Get Up Kids
“Rear View Mirror” – Grandaddy
“Hot Cha” – They Might Be Giants
“Origami” – Ani DiFranco
“Star Me Kitten (Demo)” – R.E.M.
“Reckoning (Live)” – Ani DiFranco
“Bombtrack” – Rage Against the Machine

(Let’s stop here for a second. While it sometimes seems as if Steinbeck can read my mind, piecing together a perfect series of songs using some intense E.S.P., there are times when it reveals its inner machine – pulling some song out of the recesses of the system that is so completely off track it leaves me wondering how it ever ended up on the iPod in the first place.

This was the case with Rage Against the Machine this go around. Steinbeck was gently soothing me through my first trip to the gym in over a month, keeping me settled and smooth, and it tried to slip this one past me.

I skipped it. Then I scolded the machine. It responded with one of the oldest songs in its repertoire.)

“I Wish I Were in Love With You” – Ella Fitzgerald
“In 3’s” – Beastie Boys
“In the Jailhouse Now” – Johnny Cash
“Unemployed Black Astronaut (Nobody Remix)” – Busdriver

Tags: Music, Steinbeck on Random |

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On lapsing - Steinbeck on Steroids (10.15.08)

October 16, 2008


It was about a year and a half ago that I began working out in the morning.

The idea was that I could get up early, sneak out of the house and have a routine finished before even making it in to work. It seemed to be a perfect idea – I didn’t have to waste my evening running to the fitness center. It worked well for a while. Until Sierra was born. And sleeping in became a luxury I could ill afford to neglect.

Before the morning routine, I was working out after work. I would see the same people every day, a few of which stood out. There’s ultra-scrawny computer geek, a guy who looks like he’s here on court-sanction and resembles my first college roommate (a kid who grew up on a turkey farm) right down to the constant wearing of blue pocket t-shirts. And there’s DVD-walker – a bigger bearded guy who brings a portable DVD player to the center, which he watches as he walks the track. No joke.

Now that I’m back on the fitness wagon, I’ve started going at night again. And lo and behold, a year and a half later, those two are still there, working away. DVD-walker has lost his DVD player, and ultra-scrawny computer geek looks more confident – and in much better shape.

I used to look at them and think to myself, “what a couple of characters – I wonder what their story is.” I would take comfort in the fact that I wasn’t the most unlikely guy at the fitness center – certainly not with those two around.

Now, I realize that, while I left, fell off the routine, and still continue to struggle to stay on track, those two continued on, fighting through the annoyance and hard work, persevering in their workout patterns. To get healthy on their own.

I lapsed. They didn’t.

Maybe I am the most unlikely guy at the gym. And maybe I need to change that.

Song wise, I threw it on Super Shuffle for my 30-minute elliptical ride.

“I Can’t Win” – The Strokes
“Long View” – Green Day
“The Stallion, Pt. 2” - Ween
“You Gave Your Love To Me Softly” - Weezer
“Shake it Off (Bad Dreams Part II)” – Lyrics Born
“Busy with Other Things” - Office
“Speaking of Errors” - Floodplain
“Rock Singer” – Hot Water Music
“Jamming” – Bob Marley and the Wailers

I couldn’t have picked a better wind-down song if I had tried.

Tags: Music, Steinbeck on Random |

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Steinbeck on Steroids - 10.06.08

October 6, 2008


Every week during the NFL football season, Drew Magary of Deadspin presents his Jamberoo, an article chock full of hilarious obscenity and 4th grade fart jokes.

My favorite feature of this weekly column is the “Pregame Song That Makes Me Want To Run Through A Goddamn Brick Wall,” where he naturally pulls from his extensive collection of rock to give us a little insight as to what music you might want to listen to in the event you needed to, well, hype yourself up. For a game, you know.

Or, in my case, for a bi-weekly session at the gym.

I’ve fallen off of my routine, sure. This is harder than it looks. But I know one thing - if there was ever a band that made me want to run through a goddamn brick wall, it would be Hot Water Music. Thankfully, I chose the “Punk” genre on Steinbeck the iPod - a genre that’s actually pretty thin outside of several Hot Water Music and Alkaline Trio albums - and was able to get myself into the workout mode.

Today’s list:
“Olympia, WA” - Rancid
“Nameless (live)” - Avail
“Wild in the Streets” - Hot Water Music
“Oyster” - Jawbreaker

Wait. A quick aside. I know Jawbreaker could be considered punk. But this album? It belongs in indie, or even the dreaded emo. This is not Jawbreaker’s punk album. I love the stuff, but I about fell asleep on the treadmill.

“We Laugh At Danger and Break All the Rules” - Against Me!
“Alachua (live)” - Hot Water Music
“This is Getting Over You” - Alkaline Trio
“Not For Anyone” - Hot Water Music
“8 Full Hours of Sleep - Against Me!
“(Ben)” - Avail

(Not even a real song. Doesn’t count.)

“Alive or Dead” - The Draft

End of workout. See you Wednesday. That is, if I can manage to get to the fitness center within another two weeks.

Tags: Music, Steinbeck on Random |

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Steinbeck on Steroids - 9.22.08

September 22, 2008


I was pumped to begin working out again; pumped mainly because I had fallen back in love with music, and the idea of listening to Steinbeck the iPod for 45 minutes, three times a week seemed like a habit I could get into.

I even went as far as to post my first playlist: Steinbeck on Steroids, a play off of the Steinbeck on Random posts.

And then, schedules were rearranged. Day care was switched. The days seemingly became more packed. Vacation threw things for a loop. And I haven’t been to the fitness center in over a month and a half.

I went back today, and the only thing I could think of is “which Metallica album is more likely to rock my way back into heavy elliptical use?”

It turns out it was Master of Puppets. Today’s playlist:
“Battery” by Metallica
“Master of Puppets” by Metallica
“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” by Metallica
“Disposable Heroes” by Metallica
“Leper Messiah” by Metallica

Metallica fans will notice two things.

First, there’s no “The Thing that Should Not Be.” That’s on purpose - I skipped it, knowing that it was ill-equipped to handle the metal ways of elliptical pounding. It’s too sludgy, too dark and slow. I wanted my Metallica the way it was best - fast, blistering solos and nod-along time changes.

Second, this is only about 30 minutes worth of music. Yeah. I only did 30 minutes worth of working out.

I’ve noticed over the past month that my tendencies toward Metallica have improved considerably. I find myself gently humming Kirk Hammett’s solo from “The Unforgiven.” I long for the noise of …And Justice for All. I have given in to my middle school being, memorializing the best albums from their catalog and embraced them, as I always should have.

I was wondering yesterday, which wickedly metal album is best to mow the lawn to: Metallica’s …And Justice For All or Metallica’s Master of Puppets.

I compromised. I played Metallica’s Live Shit: Binge and Purge. And got the best of both worlds.

Tags: Music, Steinbeck on Random |

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Steinbeck on Steroids

July 29, 2008


I’m back on the workout wagon again, frantically trying to curb the oncoming weight of turning 30 in October.

I’ve tried and failed at some kind of workout/diet regiment about, oh, I don’t know, six or seven times in the past two years. Unfortunately, I don’t really know what to do – I have a weak disposition, and when the bagels and donuts show up at work, I certainly have my share.

I realize that one of the few things that will motivate me to work out regularily is my iPod – Steinbeck, as you might recall – and that the idea of music fueling my desire to lose weight can be a strong motivation.

Today’s workout was the tip of the iceberg. And all I could think about was that I had a great playlist, randomized on the Indie Rock genre.

“Grounds for Divorce” – Wolf Parade
“Live at Dominoes” – The Avalanches
“The Farewell Party” - Cursive
“Modesto” - Beck
“Busy with Other Things” - Office
“Poor Places” - Wilco
“The Crystal Lake” - Grandaddy
“300 MHz” – At the Drive-In
“Going On” – Gnarls Barkley

This should be a regular feature. So you can see what’s driving me to work out. And so you can see what I’m currently rocking.

Tags: Music, Steinbeck on Random |

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