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.

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Moi Je Joue

Usually when a commercial comes on 99% of the time my brain either shuts off or starts thinking about other stuff and I don't listen to* or observe what is coming out of my TV. I've had friends ask, "Wow, did you just see that?" and I'll have no idea what they're talking about. Even though I'm looking at the screen and can hear what's coming out of the speakers my brain isn't tuned in. This has led me to believe that commercials don't really work; at least not on me. That's probably not entirely true but I really can't think of another instance where a seeing a commercial caused me to buy a product. Magazine ads work on me, television commercials don't. This was the exception:



The 60's French pop had me listening and I really wanted to know who was using such a fun song to sell their product. I'd been listening to a bunch of similar stuff recently and I imagine that had something to do with why I was so receptive. Also, it was apparently directed by Sophia Coppola. So I guess, knowing that, it's not all that surprising that I was so taken in by it. She does tend to use music I like in her movies.

Embarrassingly, I'm pretty sure I tried out Miss Dior Cherie in a Sephora once, pre-commercial viewing, based on a description I read and didn't really like it. It's possible it was the original Miss Dior but I kind of think it wasn't. This December when I was shopping for Christmas presents (for myself) I figured it would be a good idea to get a new perfume. After seeing the commercial and downloading the Brigitte Bardot song, Miss Dior Cherie was the first perfume I tried out. I wasn't completely sold at first so I walked around for a bit with a few fragrances on those little bits of paper with various designer names on them. After the fragrances settled I decided that j'adore'd the Dior most of all.

It's probably impossible to know for sure if the commercial directly led me to liking the perfume. The fact that I think I didn't like it before makes me think that maybe it did. At the very least it made me give it a second chance. It's also possible that I'm moving away from the more intense, citrus-ey fragrances that I loved so much in college. For now I'll just enjoy my perfume and the song that led me to it.

PS: There was also this random HPV commercial that had a similar 60's sounding French pop tune with female vocals that I definitely paid attention to. It was actually, I think, out before the Miss Dior one. I really want to know what that song is. Although I didn't go out and get vaccinated as a result of the commercial. I put it on youtube so I could post it on this blog and also so maybe someone will figure out what song it is and comment:



*Since starting this post I have come up with another exception; commercials that I have listened to. Ipod commercials have tended to use bands that I either got into eventually or already liked. Like the Ting Tings, The Fratellis and CSS. The commercials never led me to buy an ipod; I already had one. I did buy the Fratellis first album on itunes though so I guess apple did win in the end. (I already had and loved the first CSS album by the time I saw the commercial)

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Hooray!!

We FINALLY have a new president. I got chills the first time he was referred to as President Barack Obama. Sometime around the 2004 election I realized that if he won again George W. Bush would be president until I was 25. It was incredibly depressing. I spent all day yesterday (with the exception of some Australian Open coverage), watching the inauguration ceremonies and balls.

The whole inauguration was really nice to watch, even though I tend to dislike stuff like that. I don't really like parades. I didn't watch that much of the concert the other day. I think I needed to watch the whole spectacle yesterday because all that ceremony and formality finally made it sink in for me. We were actually getting a new president. A president I, more or less, liked. A president I voted for in the primary

I teared up a whole lot. Stuff that has to do with voting, especially formerly disenfranchised people voting, tends to make me to cry. A lot. Every time I watch Iron Jawed Angels (which I think is ridiculously underrated, all those other HBO movies (usually about men) get so much recognition but seem so boring) I don't just cry, I weep and sob and other synonyms for cry a whole lot.

I don't think Obama is going to be perfect. He's already done some things I don't like a whole lot. I am, however, cautiously optimistic. There's a chance that a lot of good will come out of his presidency. I've already written more than I planned to so I'll just stop now.

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Pet Peeve

I really can't stand the abbreviations POTUS and SCOTUS (for the President and the Supreme Court respectively). POTUS is too close to pocus (as in hocus) and also kind of sounds like a sick old dog's name. SCOTUS bugs me even more because it sounds like a really unpleasant medical implement. And now in explaining how they bug me I've had to dirty up my blog with them which bugs me even more.

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Holiday Break

I'll be posting again soon. I was apartment-sitting at a friend's without internet for a bit then got busy with holidays. I have a bunch of ideas and will have some new stuff up shortly.

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