My new iPod’s name is Onomatopoeia. The birthday gift ended up with that name because I like the idea that an onomatopoeia is its own name. Boink means the sound boink. Ka-blam means the sound ka-blam. I like that concept. The words have integrity.
Because I’ve never had all of my music on one MP3 player before, I’m going through all my music on random. It interests me to see what my music tastes are actually like. So here’s a random playlist, generated as I type.
1. “Weird” by Clem Snide. I played this for a friend who promptly asked, “You like country?” Somehow, I don’t see this as country. But it definitely is. I love the lyrics in this song.
2. “What Can Separate Us (Whitebread)” by New Life Ranch. A summer camp theme song. Incredibly appropriate for second track, as NLR is a huge part of my life and these songs are part of my underlying consciousness. I know these songs so well that it feels like I never learned them.
3. “Christmas in July” by Sufjan Stevens. I love Sufjan, and I love the easy yet energetic groove of this song.
4. “Psalms 40:2” by the Mountain Goats. Thank you iPod. You are making this list awesome. The easy groove of Sufjan melts into the subdued strumming of this track, which eventually explodes into an all-out rock track. Tight.
5. “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” by Five Iron Frenzy. First weird transition of this list. We go from the intense cries of John Darnielle straight to the easy-listening ska cover of ELO’s biggest hit. There are definitely no sha-la-la’s in the previous track.
6. “Bittersweet Symphony” by the Verve. Hearing my cry, my iPod returns to darker fare. This is the track that destroyed the Verve’s career. Wikipedia it if you don’t know the story. Good tune for driving, though.
7. “It’s Oh So Quiet” by Bjork. I definitely would have put this neo-show tune between tracks five and six. It would have been a nice transition. Oh well. Can’t win ‘em all.
8. “You’ll Always Remember” by Courage Riley. This is an incredibly sad song. The whole of Courage Riley’s output was uber-dramatic and prone to outbursts of distortion amid the pensive, sweeping indie-rock, but this is one of the biggest tracks they ever put out, emotionally and time-wise (yeah, it’s seven minutes long).
9. “Mercy Me” by What Made Milwaukee Famous. Feeds nicely out of the mood of “You’ll Always Remember” with a less abrasive, dreamier take on rock. But it’s definitely an upbeat track, as evidenced by the goofy keys track and snare-heavy drums.
10. “Back from Kathmandu” by OK Go. The bouncy but not over-enthusiastic mood of the acoustic-led track fits perfectly as an upper after the WMMF track. I hope a super-energetic track is next. That would be tight.
11. “You’ve Been Flirting” by Bjork. Party foul, iPod! Party foul! You killed the mood with a mellow track and you repeated an artist from the same album! Yeesh.
12. “Sky is Falling” by Lifehouse. Standard pop song to get the mix back on track? Hopefully so. Angsty, but still singable.
13. “Letters and Drawings” by Damien Jurado. Okay, this is spectacularly interesting. Jurado only has about five fast songs, and this is one of them. It’s got harmonica and background vocals. It’s even in a major key! Perfect move to get the mood back up. Keep it up, iPod!
14. “Maggots, Liars” by Inner Surge. I have approximately 50 metal songs on this iPod out of 4333 songs. One of them is right here. Mood killer for sure.
15. “Nothing is Beyond You” by Rich Mullins. Okay, that’s just mean, iPod. Follow up a brutal metal track with a lo-fi song on piano about Jesus? We’ve devolved from any semblance of mood into true randomness. Oh, well.
16. “Bring Back July” by Holland. Back to pop/rock. I don’t really listen to this band any more, which makes it interesting to hear them pop up on a random list like this. I like this song.
17. “7th Fret Closer” by Old Canes. A song vacillating between optimism and dark gloom, it’s the perfect way to end up this list. The trumpet solo is awesome.
I guess my listening tastes are not as cohesive as I thought. Interesting.