My Year in Reading

Here is a little picture of the books I read this year and how I rated them on Goodreads:



For more specifics you can click here and see a more detailed list.

I ended the year by reading three absolutely amazing novels that are completely different from one another; Possession, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and A Storm of Swords. Possession was extremely literary but also accessible and human. I have the film on my DVR currently but Aaron Eckhart and Gwynneth Paltrow seem like pretty terrible casting choices for Roland and Maud so I'm not expecting it to live up to the book. I am excited to see Lena "Cersei Lannister" Headey as Blanche Glover though. And speaking of George R. R. Martin properties A Storm of Swords has been my favorite of the series so far. Even though by being on Tumblr I had some major plot points spoiled there were still so many other things that came at me from nowhere. It was exciting, I started to like characters I had hated and think twice about characters that I loved and it makes me really happy that such a popular novel does things like that.

I ended the year with my first Murakami and loved it. It's the kind of novel that would have made me feel so cool to read in High School or college but I feel now I can just really enjoy it on its own merits as a thoughtful and ambiguous experience. I feel like I didn't really read enough books that left a lot unexplained and this kind of made up for it. It managed to be exciting, existential, sad, wacky, and very real all at the same time. I listened to the version of Danny Boy from Straight to Hell, Like a Rolling Stone, Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again, and Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands on repeat through the last few chapters and it enhanced the experience.

I had challenged myself to read 50 books this year and managed to surpass that once I decided to branch out into YA territory and realized it was faster for me to read 3 books concurrently than reading one-at-a-time. I wasn't sure if I'd make it because I started the year with the long and dense 2666 and even though it seemed like a bad idea at the time it was a great way to start the year off.

read on

Behind on Internet Memes: 25 Random Things (aka The Final Post In My Half-Assed-List-Post Trilogy)

1. I can’t stand the bottoms of my feet touching or rubbing together, I kind of get over it for yoga.2. I have really high arches in my feet.
3. I have really short fingers, like when I worked at an elementary school, 4th graders had longer fingers than me.
4. I can’t use chopsticks. I’ve tried really hard many times but I just can’t do it. I worry that when I ask for a fork people will think that I’m some assy ethnocentric person that just refuses to use them.
5. Certain loud noises really bother me; vacuum cleaners, my grandmother’s television.
6. When I’m in a closed in space (usually some form of train) and someone stinks I put on hand cream and smell my hands until I can get out of there.
7. I’m vegetarian.
8. I’m definitely one of those people who don’t know what their real hair color is. I imagine it’s darker now than it was when I started dyeing it, but I’m not entirely sure.
9. I hardly wore any makeup when I was in high school but now I LOVE it and spend way too much money on it.
10. Drinking too much too strong coffee has more of an effect on me than actual stimulant drugs.
11. I started watching tennis again for the same reason I started watching it when I was in middle school: male tennis players are hot, they’re strong but not too muscle-y looking.
12. I probably watch TV more on the internet than on actual TV. This is probably because I watch a lot of UK TV shows.
13. I really miss living in London and being in Europe in general and I wish I had enough money to go back and forth between New York and London/Europe more often.
14. I miss being in college but I can’t decide what to go to grad school for (or if I even want to go because it seems like an insane amount of work and is ridic expensive)
15. I’ve recently decided that instead of dress pants I’ll only wear skirts and dresses. Jeans, of course, are ok.
16. I think I decided to wear skirts and dresses instead of dress pants as an excuse to buy more cute dresses.
17. I always take way too much stuff with me whenever I go anywhere and usually have a way too big bag that annoys me at the time but that in the end I’m happy I had with me.
18. My writing style tends to be confessional, possibly a vestige of Catholicism.
19. I like to read bad reviews of books before I buy them because I think it's important to know why the people who hate them feel that way.
20. I consider myself nerdy and cool and I can’t decide whether I’d be considered a hipster or not. I don’t consider myself one.
21. I tend to wear clothes inappropriate for the weather. I generally dress as if it’s a warm fall day and the actual days that are warm fall days are very small in number.
22. I love to be barefoot and if I’m home or at someone's home I usually am barefoot.
23. I worry about whether people think I’m copying them or copying some famous person but I own up to it if I am deliberately taking inspiration from copyingsomeone.
24. I usually respond to emails right away unless I’m feeling depressed and then I take forever to respond or don’t respond at all.
25. I don’t wash my hair as often as I should and it’s gotten used to the fact that it’s not washed as often as it should be (doesn’t get greasy for a really long time).

read on

10 Albums I've Been Meaning To Check Out But Haven't Yet

I've been in a music rut lately. More specifically I haven't listened to anything new, as in current, in awhile. I also haven't been listening to anything new, as far as older albums go, to me. I've pretty much just been listening to a bunch of MP3s, mostly not current, that are more or less impulse downloads. I dunno why, I guess I just go from phases of being voracious about music to being more complacent about acquiring new stuff. Maybe it's because I've been extra cash poor lately. I've also been reading more often. I like the concept of the album, and as much as I love getting eclectic and obscure MP3's I also enjoy listening to music the way the artist generally intended it to be listened to. Anyway, here's a list of 10 albums (an arbitrary, but round, number) I've been meaning to check out, old and new, but haven't gotten around to (although I have heard a song or two (or more) off most).

In no particular order:

Cornershop - When I Was Born For The 7th Time

Richard Hawley - Coles Corner

Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts

Next 7 after the jump.

Santoigold - Santogold

Graham Coxon - The Spinning Top

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

Pete(r) Doherty - Grace/Wastelands

Monks - Black Monk Time

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

Wire - Chairs Missing

Hopefully getting all these down in list form will help inspire me to actually check them out, in album form, sometime in the near future, and maybe I'll actually write about them.

PS: I took out the yet from the title of this post originally but then taking it out made me think of the yet scene in High Fidelity and it kind of sums up my position perfectly. I'm not desperate to hear all these albums but I want to and I probably will. I mean Laura did sleep with Ian/Ray in the movie and I've been of the opinion, for awhile, that High Fidelity contains most of life's answers.

read on

Friday Tuesday Random2 10: Shuffle vs. Genius

It's not Friday and it's been a super long time since I've done one of these but I figured the best way to get back into blogging would be to do something that was kind of like filling out a form; that I didn't have to be too creative with. Both the Genius and Shuffle lists this week are particularly good so it was extra hard to choose a winner between each song.

Before I go onto the songs I just want to mention how much I love the starting song; Pulp's Like A Friend. It's so gorgeous and so fun and so quintessentially Pulp yet also really fits the movie it was penned for (kind of like Born To Cry, although that's kind of less fun, more sad). I love how it, like most of my favorite Pulp songs, is about relationships and is like sex in the fact that it starts out slow, rises to a climax (the awesome, quasi-headbanging bridge, "You are the last drink..." etc.) and then ends in a slow comedown. It's probably the Pulp song I've played most on bar jukeboxes (along with Disco 2000 and Do You Remember the First Time).

I obviously heard it the first time I watched Cuaron's Great Expectations, which unless I'm misremembering was in my friend Matt's basement, but didn't really notice it at the time, being background music and all. Any time I think of all the times I must have heard Pulp songs but didn't notice it makes me sad I didn't get into them sooner, like Mile End in Trainspotting and I'm sure some Pulp must have been played at the ULU bar, the Duck and Dive, when I was studying abroad. Oh well, onto the lists.

Starting Song: Like A Friend - Pulp

(I used a pic with Russell even though Like A Friend is a post-Russell song because Russell is awesome)

Shuffle Playlist................................Genius Playlist
1. Like A Friend – Pulp.........................1. Like A Friend – Pulp
2. She's Gone – Tindersticks.................2. I Will Kill Again - Jarvis Cocker
3. In Many Ways – Pulp.......W.........W.3. Lazy Line Painter Jane –

..................................................................Belle & Sebastian
4. Tango Maureen – Rent Soundtrack...4. The Drowners - Suede
5. Beyond The Pale – BAD.....................5. Please, Please, Please, Let Me

.................................................................. Get What IWant - The Smiths

6. Diamonds In The Dark – Mystery......6. Laid - James

......Jets (Dusty Cabinets remix)
7. Allison – The Pixies..........................7. Wild Horses - Sundays
8. Theme From Permanent Record.......8. Bar Italia - Pulp

.....Joe Strummer
9. This – Vic Ruggiero..........................9. Heroes - The Wallflowers
10. Jezebel – Owen Gray......................10. Love Will Tear Us Apart –

...................................................................Joy Division

Track comparisons after the jump.

She's Gone vs. I Will Kill Again: Ok, even though it annoys me that so many Pulp/Jarvis songs showed up in genius (I know it's supposed to have similar songs but instead of the repetition how about some Blur, Cornershop or Black Box Recorder). I'll take a really good Jarv solo song over a sleepy song off an ex’s mix tape any day. Round one to shuffle

In Many Ways vs. Lazy Line Painter Jane: Now it’s shuffle repeating artists. Lazy Line Painter Jane (although off the same mix tape as She’s Gone) is an amazing song. In Many Ways is good for early Pulp (although it's no Blue Girls) but I like LLPJ better.

Tango Maureen vs. The Drowners: Embarassing musical song on my itunes round. I do like all the songs from Rent, pretty much, but The Drowners is my absolute favorite Suede song. It’s sexy, trashy, and homoerotic. Everything I want from Suede. Genius pulls ahead 2-1.

Beyond the Pale vs. Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want: Please, Please is one of my fave Smiths' songs but I absolutely love Beyond The Pale. It's my favorite BAD song, mostly because the lyrics just ooze Strummer. "My grandpa came from Russia. Stowed away hidden in some bales. And he took my grandma dancing. To the air raid siren's hail" could easily be from a song on Sandinista! It makes an image form in your head of people waltzing while bombs glow faintly in the background like an orange sunset.

Diamonds In The Dark (Dusty Cabinets remix) vs. Laid: It took a few YouTube searches to find the uncensored Laid video. If you know what come means in this context you probably won't be too damaged by hearing it in a music video, and if you don't, it won't make any sense to you so the censoring is pretty useless. I love Laid, I can listen to it over and over again. I also love that it sounds like a song from the 60's, like it played on the oldies station that used to be on all the time when my parents drove me around as a kid, but Diamonds in the Dark is one of those rare songs by a new band that is completely, unreservedly great, and this particular remix enhances the song without making it lose any of the aura it had to begin with. Also I'm biased because I hung out with Mystery Jets when they played New York awhile ago and they're really fun and really nice and I tend to like it when bands aren't assholes to the people who like them (one of the many and one of the most important reasons for my adoration of Joe Strummer).

Allison vs. Wild Horses: Despite being less than two minutes long, or maybe because of it's awesomeness being so concise I love Allison. It has that dreamy quality so many of my favorite Pixies songs have while still having a hard-ish edge. Sundays' cover of Wild Horses is really pretty, I tend to like covers of Rolling Stones songs better than Rolling Stones songs (probably because I'm immature and my parents like them) and it gets extra points for being in a very important scene in Buffy but it does not beat the Pixies.

Theme From Permanent Record vs. Bar Italia: This one goes to genius. Bar Italia so clearly conveys the kind of malaise one feels while sitting at a coffee shop or diner after an eventful night out. Whether it was eventfully good or bad, there's always a come down when it's all over and your head is spinning and you're too wired to go to sleep but too tired to stay out. It's my go to song for train rides home in the wee hours. The Theme from Permanent Record is good but it's an instrumental and Bar Italia is just so poignant I can't not go with it.

This vs. Heroes: I love Vic Ruggiero's solo stuff. It's trashy and sexy and bluesy and I've been lucky enough to hear him play some of his songs solo. I walked into the last Warped Tour I went to, which I went to mostly to see The Toasters and maybe Rancid, and heard the familiar voice and was completely shocked to see him, guitar in hand, playing to a small group of people. It was awesome. I think that's where I bought his album(s), with the hand drawn artwork, because it was always sold out at Slackers shows but I might have already had it. The Wallflowers version of Heroes is ok, it's pretty faithful but obviously nothing compares to Bowie and I pretty much only have it because I had the misfortune of being a teenager in the late nineties. Vic clearly wins and Genius attempts a late comeback.

Jezebel vs. Love Will Tear Us Apart: This is an easy one, a random song from a Trojan comp (which are awesome and inexpensive and full of songs), the page of which the Jezebel link takes you to as there is no YouTube vid, and my favorite Joy Division song (I'm not that into them yet so the most popular/iconic is still my favorite, I kind of predict that in the future Transmission will be my favorite). I very assuredly go with Joy Division and Genius gets one more point.

This week Genius wins in the end, a close 5-4, eking out shuffle. The overall score sees Genius pulling ahead of shuffle 3-2. (It's really sad I've only done this 5 times.)

read on

Friday Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius

Finally, it's time for another Friday random 10 comparison (I did actually finish before it became Saturday)! Ok, so as of last time the score is shuffle 2, Genius 1. Here we go...

Starting song: Body Of An American - The Pogues



(This is another bad scan (this time of a not so great pic to begin with) but I decided that where possible I'd use pictures I'd taken. It's from the first time I saw the Pogues, St. Patrick's Day 2006)

Shuffle Playlist...............................Genius Playlist
1. Body Of An American - The Pogues..1. Body Of An American - The Pogues
2. Prayer Of St. Francis -.............W.....2. Police On My Back - The Clash
.......Sarah McLachlan
3. Shark Attack Theme - Sven Libaek...3. Sweet Jane (live) - The Velvet
.................................................................Underground
4. Pencil Skirt - Pulp (Peel Sessions).....4. Visions Of Johanna - Bob Dylan
5. Sell Out - Reel Big Fish....................5. Debaser - The Pixies
6. Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night -...6. Wonderlust King - Gogol Bordello
...... The Hold Steady
7. Under The Bridge -..........................7. Streams Of Whiskey (live) -
.........Red Hot Chili Peppers......................The Pogues
8. Girls & Boys (live) - Blur..................8. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get
................................................................. What I Want - The Smiths
9. Pulp - The Trees.............................9. Rudie Can't Fail - The Clash
10. Home Altars Of Mexico - Art Brut....10. A Message To You Rudy -
.....................................................................The Specials

Track comparisons after the jump.

Prayer Of St. Francis vs. Police On My Back: Since I have Prayer of St. Francis because of it's use in a Buffy episode so I figured I'd go with a Buffy themed video. It's pretty obvious POMB wins here, I don't even think I have to explain why, the songs speak for themselves. Also I'm pretty sure it's the only song that I've heard both Joe Strummer and Mick Jones perform. I saw Joe play it was with the Mescaleros in 2001 and 2002 and I saw Mick play it with Carbon/Silicon last April (wow, can't believe that was a year ago.)

Shark Attack Theme vs. Sweet Jane (live): I couldn't find anything on YouTube that comes close to this version of Sweet Jane. It's the live version form the Best of the 20th Century Masters Millennium edition so I just linked to the Amazon page where you can preview it. Also the Shark Attack Theme video is pretty random. But, anyway, Sweet Jane is the clear winner here. This version is slow and sparse, sad and pretty, basically everything a VU song should be. It's one of my favorites and beats a random instrumental from The Life Aquatic Soundtrack.

Pencil Skirt vs. Visions Of Johanna: No YouTube for Pencil Skirt but the Different Class version is up on Last.fm and you can listen to a sample on Amazon. The Peel Sessions version of Pencil skirt is a little more interesting to the standard version. It's more flowy, the violin is more featured and it has more of a live feel. Still it can't stand up to the sheer awesomeness of Visions of Johanna. I'd quote some lyrics but I'd probably just end up quoting the whole song. I used to sometimes use "The all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the D train" as an away message back in college when I still used AIM.

Sell Out vs. Debaser: Sell Out is a really fun song. It was kind of the first ska song I liked before I really even knew what ska was. That being said, Debaser is probably a better song. Like most Pixies songs it's really layered and the delivery of the lyrics is perfect. It also references a Salvador Dali film so points for that too.

Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night vs. Wonderlust King: Another Last.fm link for Chicago Seemed Tired and this one's actually working for me now. Wonderlust King is just so passionate and joyful that I definitely prefer it. Maybe if it had been Certain Songs, Don't Let Me Explode, or How A Resurrection really feels I would have gone with the Hold Steady but not this time.

Under The Bridge vs. Streams Of Whiskey (live): Not the same version of Streams of Whiskey but kinda close. The specific version I have is from 1988 with Joe Strummer on guitar. The sound isn't as good as the version in the YouTube clip but I'm going to be completely biased. Even though I don't like when Genius puts more than one song by the artist within the ten, and the sound isn't good the Pogues with Joe Strummer is going to beat just about everything. Sorry RHCP.

Girls & Boys (live) vs. Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want: Ok, so the G & B also isn't the exact live version but is pretty close and Please, Please is supposed to be a studio version but I linked a live version. So I'm going with genius yet again here. If it had been the studio version of G & B it would have been a really hard decision but the live version isn't as good. Please, Please is really is another one of those sad and pretty songs I love so much. (I'm totally thinking of doing a full post on sad and pretty songs...maybe sometime soon).

The Trees vs. Rudie Can't Fail: The Clash clip is from Hell W10 which is kind of awesome and makes me miss living in West-ish London. The Trees is a really good song, one of my favorite off of We Love Life but Rudie can't fail is a classic. The interplay between Joe's voice and Mick's voice is probably at it's best in this song. It's fun, great to dance to, has great lyrics; it's pretty much anything you could want a song to be. Has shuffle gotten even one point yet? This is pretty much a landslide.

Home Altars Of Mexico vs. A Message To You Rudy: I've had such bad luck with YouTube this time. Maybe companies are getting more rabid about taking songs down... Anyway, another point for Genius. I really like the Art Brut song but Rudy is just too good. It's a song I've loved for a really long time. I love it in pretty much all of its incarnations from Dandy Livingstone's original, to the Joe and the Meskies live version, to this version. The light, kind of airiness of the keys is what makes me really love this, and is also part of what makes The Specials' Pressure Drop my favorite version of that song.

This weeks competition was a total blood bath. Shuffle didn't even get one point. Genius was a bit repetitive with two Clash songs and two Pogues songs but the songs were so good I didn't really even notice. As for the overall score Genius has pulled into a tie with shuffle, 2-2.

read on

Random Grammy Thoughts

• Why did Kanye start out American Boy and why did Estelle come out after he started?* They made it seem like it was his song that featured her when it was really the other way around. SO WRONG!
• Of those nominated, I'm glad Adele won best new artist. I'm not the biggest fan but I think slightly watered down Winehouse should beat blonde, whiny, Winehouse copycat.
  
• Why did M.I.A. not get to perform her whole song alone? I think I've heard more of her music while watching the BAFTAs. She's awesome, she's super pregnant, her song was everywhere, she should get her own spot. It's nice to get lots of different people together at big events sometimes but I really wish she'd performed solo. Maybe she was offered a solo spot but said she'd rather do a group performance, but I kind of doubt it. Her performance was the only reason I was watching. At least it wasn't too far into the show so I could switch to the aforementioned BAFTAs.
  
• I was visiting my grandmother when Katy Perry came on. My grandmother's awesome reaction to Katy Perry: "Asshole."

Well that's pretty much all the thought that the Grammy's inspired. I don't usually watch but like I said I wanted to see M.I.A. At least A.R. Rahman won a BAFTA for his music from Slumdog Millionaire so someone good got an award for their music tonight.
Also, one random BAFTA thought: Is every presenter going to say "a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude"? It's getting so old I almost feel bad recreating it in print here.

*Ok, I do know why but it still pisses me off...

read on

Friday Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius

I had planned to make this a weekly thing but since I haven't been posting a whole lot random tens would pretty much take over the blog if done weekly. Instead of a consistent Friday Random 10 it's going to be more of an Arbitrary Friday Random 10 or a Friday Random² 10. Anyway onto the lists.

Starting Song: What Went Wrong - The Slackers


(I took this ^^ pic, it's kind of a bad scan though)

Shuffle Playlist....................................Genius Playlist
1. What Went Wrong - The Slackers.........1. What Went Wrong - The Slackers
2. Clampdown - The Indigo Girls..............2. Fake Tales Of San Francisco -
.......................................................................The Arctic Monkeys
3. The World Is Our Playground - ............3. Let's Dance To Joy Division -
...........Babyshambles........................................The Wombats
4. Bandits - Reverend and The Makers......4. Golden Brown - The Stranglers
5. White Riot - The Clash (demo from..........5. L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold
...........The Future Is Unwritten soundtrack)
6. Don't Give Up - Noisettes.....................6. Golden Skans - Klaxons
7. Wishful Thinking - Pulp........................7. Oh My God - Mark Ronson
.........................................................................featuring Lily Allen
8. The Way I Feel - Rancid......................8. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
9. Rivers Of Babylon - The Melodians.......9. Rider - The Slackers
10. Alphabet Pony - The Kills...................10. When The Sun Goes Down-
.........................................................................The Arctic Monkeys

Track by track comparison (as usual) after the jump.

Before I get into the tracks though, I just want to point out that it's kinda weird that Genius apparently thinks The Slackers are an up and coming British indie band. Further down the genius list, like in the teens and twenties the songs it picked became a little more relevant (totally off topic but I've been having a lot of trouble spelling relevant today, but I think I have it down now) with some Rancid, Joe and the Mescaleros, and Richard Hell. The shuffle list almost seems more like the Genius list since it has Rancid, The Clash, and The Melodians. If the head to head is close the general off-ness of the Genius list might sway my vote to shuffle.

Clampdown (Indigo Grils version which is not on Youtube) vs. Fake Tales of San Francisco: I'm going with the Arctic Monkeys on this one. I love Fake Tales, especially the line, "You're not from New York City, you're from Rotherham." (Ok, also off topic but how nuts is it that I spell Rotherham right on the first try but can't spell relevant. I've been spending too much time listening to Yorkshire bands.) I basically only have the Clampdown cover on my computer because it's a Clash song. It's also the only Indigo Girls song I have.

The Whole World Is Our Playground vs. Let's Dance To Joy Division: Genius is pulling out ahead. The Babyshambles song is a demo and the Babyshambles songs I like best generally have to be produced well. The Wombats song is silly and fun and infinitely more listenable.

Bandits vs. Golden Brown: I like Bandits and I should listen to it more. When I was in a big 'listening to Reverend and the Makers' phase I pretty much just played out He Said He Loved Me, Heavyweight Champion of the World, and The State of Things. Golden Brown, despite reminding me of Gordon Brown, is pretty and sad and I've already said how much I like that kind of thing.

White Riot vs. L.E.S. Artistes: Ok, despite my opinion on Babyshambles demos I do usually like demos. I think it's probably because when I really started getting heavily into music I was a big proponent of lo-fi (four track recordings, raw vocals, etc.). If it were the studio version of White Riot then Santogold might stand a chance since I LOVE her song, a lot, but live or demo White Riot beats pretty much anything.

Don't Give Up vs. Golden Skans: Shuffle is starting to come back...I love Noisettes and even though Golden Skans is my favorite Klaxons song (one of the few I like) Don't Give Up pretty much kicks it's ass.

Wishful Thinking vs. Oh My God: Ok, this one's tough but I think I'm going to give it to Genius. Wishful Thinking is one of my favorite songs from the early Pulp 'Jarvis sings really deep and kind of like Morrisey' era, which, although it kind of had to grow on me, I do like. On the other hand I think Lily Allen's version of OMG is better than the original; it has horns, and she does it really well live. I actually thought it was a new song when I saw her live so Oh My God wins.

The Way I Feel vs. A-Punk: Even though And Out Come The Wolves is probably Rancid's most consistent album The Way I Feel isn't one of my favorites whereas A-Punk is my favorite Vampire Weekend song by a mile. It's so distinctive and insanely catchy so Genius wins yet again.

Rivers Of Babylon vs. Rider: This one's kind of hard but I'm giving it to Rivers Of Babylon. Rider is a great song, especially when done acoustically in a Borders (is there anything better than walking straight from work to see live music in a book store?). Rivers of Babylon is just a classic, really good, and kind of makes me nostalgic for sing-a-longs at local ska shows.

Alphabet Pony vs. When The Sun Goes Down: This is another case of a band whose demos I really love. If this had been Alphabet Pony vs. Scummy, the same song from the Arctic Monkey's demos then the result would have been different. Going up against the studio version Alphabet Pony wins. The Kills most recent album is kind of near perfect as far as albums go. All the songs are good and some are great.

Ok so in the head to head Genius barely wins 5-4, but I'm taking off points for not really picking songs that go with the original (which I think is supposed to be Genius' main purpose) and I'm also taking off points for two artist repeats. Shuffle wins this week, and pulls ahead in the overall score: Shuffle - 2, Genius - 1.

read on

Friday Saturday Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius............

Today's Friday Saturday (I said in my first post I'm a bad procrastinator) and it's time for another Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius.

Starting Song: Is There A Switch For That - 1990s



Shuffle Playlist................................Genius Playlist
1. Is There A Switch For That -.............1. Is There A Switch For That -
.......1990s.................................................1990s
2. Jet Boy, Jet Girl - The Damned.........2. A Train Roars - The Horrors
3. London Girl - The Pogues.................3. Pump Up The Volume - Art Brut
4. Mensforth Hill - The Clash.....W.........4. This Month, Day 10 - CSS
5. Lady Stardust - David Bowie.............5. Black Magic - Jarvis Cocker
6. Help The Aged - W...........................6. Tight Fit - New Young Pony Club
.......Pulp (Peel Sessions)
7. Ob-la-di Ob-la-da - The Beatles.........7. The Wrath Of Marcie -
.................................................................The Go! Team
8. Racecar Driver - Girl In A Coma........8. Guilt By Association - Louis XIV
9. Ziggy Stardust - Seu Jorge................9. Scratch Your Name -
.................................................................Noisettes
10. First Night Back In London -.............10. The Bad Thing - Arctic Monkeys
..........The Clash

Track by track comparison after the jump.

Jet Boy, Jet Girl vs. A Train Roars: This one goes to shuffle. It's basically The Damned doing one of my favorite songs in the world (Jet Boy, Jet Girl/Ca Plane Pour Moi) against one of my least favorite Horror's songs. Definite no brainer.

London Girl vs. Pump Up The Volume: Shuffle wins again here. I'm planning a post about second albums and how bands can end up de-fanging them for a "more mature" sound. I think that's kind of what happened to Art Brut's second album. It still has really good, fun, dirty lyrics but it's so much less brash and the brashness is really what made me love them in the first place. Also, I'm happy my itunes picked a Pogues song from Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash because it went through a really long phase of only picking songs from Peace and Love which was really unfortunate.

Mensforth Hill vs. This Month, Day 10: I'm really surprised I found Mensforth Hill on Youtube. Again Shuffle has caused me to pick a non-Clash song over a Clash song. Last week it was because of a demo and this week it was because of one of the least listenable tracks on Sandinista! (which is my fave Clash album, but I'm not so into the 'other tracks played backwards' dubs). I think Even a second album CSS track could have won this one. This one goes to genius.

Lady Stardust vs. Black Magic: I think this is going to have to be a draw. I love both of these songs. A lot. Lady Stardust was my favorite Ziggy song for a long time (until the 'it was cold, and it rained...' part of Five Years totally won me over). Black Magic was probably the first song off of Jarvis' solo record that I liked. Most of the others had to grow on me. It's pretty much a perfect song, coincidentally about how hard it is to write a great song and how it's a kind of x-factor. So I can't choose...

Help The Aged (peel sessions) vs. Tight Fit: So I think it's pretty obvious that shuffle is going to win today. An amazing Pulp song played live at John Peel's birthday party is pretty hard to beat, especially when it's competition is a kind of mediocre New Young Pony Club song.

Ob-la-di Ob-la-da vs. The Wrath Of Marcie: I'm so indecisive today. I actually like both songs pretty much equally. The Beatles doing ska always has a special place in my heart and Wrath of Marcie is my favorite Go! Team song. I'm going to give this to shuffle though because genius picked a Go! team song last week and has a bad habit of always picking the same songs/songs by the same artist repeatedly. Maybe that's my fault for overlistening to stuff...but whatever...

Racecar Driver vs. Guilt By Association: I thought I was going to love Girl In A Coma's album because of how much I loved Clumsy Sky. It kind of left me cold though. I definitely need to listen to it more. It has potential but at the moment I prefer the catchier Louis XIV song so genius wins here.

Ziggy Stardust vs. Scratch Your Name: Shuffle wins again. Scratch Your Name isn't my favorite Noisettes songs. Sometimes their songs get kinda proggy, I guess is the word, like Bridge to Canada. I prefer their songs that are brighter and stripped down, like Don't Give Up, Sister Rosetta, and I Will Never Fall In Love Again. So this one's going to shuffle and Seu Jorge's gorgeous cover of Ziggy.

First Night Back In London vs. The Bad Thing: I think The Bad Thing is one of the AM's more forgettable/mediocre songs and First Night Back In London is one of my favorite weird, non-album Clash songs. It has great rhythm/syncopation and has dark, kind of noir-ish imagery and tone. Shuffle wins yet again.

This week shuffle takes it 6-2 so the overall score is tied up, Shuffle - 1, Genius - 1.

read on

Friday Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius

Basically I'm going to do a regular shuffle random ten and compare it to the first ten tracks of a genius playlist using the first song from the shuffle playlist. Then I'll do a song by song comparison and decide which is better. Every week I'll give the score, shuffle vs. genius.

Stating song: Paris Is Burning - St. Vincent


Shuffle Playlist................................. Genius Playlist
1. Paris Is Burning - St. Vincent..............1. Paris Is Burning - St. Vincent
2. Brown Town - The Livingbrooks......W.2. I'm On Fire - Bat For Lashes
3. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend -.......W....3. Knife - CSS
.........The Ramones
4. Streets of Paris - The Teenagers........4. Streets of Paris - The Teenagers
5. My Legendary Girlfriend - Pulp...........5. Birthday - The Bird And The Bee
6. Whiskey In The Jar - Pulp..................6. Arcade Precinct - The 1990s
7. Duck Soup - Drumbago's Orchestra....7. Formed A Band - Art Brut
8. Walking The Sidewalks - The Clash.....8. Grip Like A Vice - The Go! Team
9. Expansive Heart - Big Rig...................9. James Bonde - Bonde Do Role
10. Moon Over Asbury...........................10. B-A-B-Y - The Brunettes

Track by track comparison (with youtube links when available) after the jump.

Brown Town vs. I'm On Fire: Brown Town has the nostalgia factor of being by a local band I used to go see ALL the time. I'm On Fire is a really pretty cover that reworks a Springsteen song. I think I'm gonna call this one a draw.

I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend vs. Knife: I'm going to give this one to the Ramones. Knife, although a cover, is more like CSS's second album than their first, and that's not such a good thing.

Streets of Paris vs. Streets of Paris: This is a pretty obvious draw. Very unoriginal of itunes to put this on both playlists just because Paris is in the title.

My Legendary Girlfriend vs. Birthday: I'm gonna give this one to Pulp. My Legendary Girlfriend is one of my favorite from early pulp and the live version is kinda similar to the random techno song Jarvis ended his recent solo shows with. Birthday is alright, I got it as a Spinner free MP3 of the day but I rarely listen to it.

Whiskey In The Jar vs. Arcade Precinct: I'm giving this one to Arcade Precinct. I love the Pulp cover but shuffle gets points off for putting two Pulp songs in a row. Also, Arcade Precinct is an amazing song in its own right, the 1990s are great live and i love the end when it goes "and the ladies in the arcade, are drinking cherry kool aid".

Duck Soup vs. Formed A Band: Formed a Band wins, it's fun, kinda silly, and loud. Duck Soup is good but it's not one of my faves on the Trojan comp, it has less energy than most of the songs on it.

Walking The Sidewalks vs. Grip Like A Vice: Even though I like Wrath of Marcie better I'm gonna go with Grip Like A Vice. It's rare that I'd pick something over a Clash song, but Walking the Sidewalks isn't the best demo from the vanilla tapes, if it was the early version of Clampdown, Death Or Glory, or Koka Kola the Clash would've won.

Expansive Heart vs. James Bonde: Big Rig isn't my favorite post-Op Ivy solo project (Common Rider definitely is, even though I don't listen to it as much as I should Last Wave Rockers is probably one of my favorite albums). Bonde Do Role edges this one out.

Moon Over Asbury vs. B-A-B-Y: Moon Over Asbury wins here. It's a kind of spaghetti westernish tribute to New Jersey. Brunettes Against Bubblegum youth is pretty good but I think I thought I'd like it more than I do. For me, it doesn't stand up that well to repeated listens.

Genius wins this one 4-3, so as of this week it's Shuffle - 0, Genius - 1

read on