What I love about using shuffle to do my Friday playlist is that I really don’t have to think very hard to get the playlist out the door. Sure I throw my $.02 in there about each track and/or band, but the natural flow of shuffle makes it much easier for me to maintain my mindless zombie status. Especially on a crappy Friday morning that really should just give up and end.
Again, I’m giving you the list just as my iPod pops them out at me. There may be comedy (and comedy gold depending on what lovely bits this infernal contraption decides to embarrass me with) and potentially even some audiobook snippets. I think I may even have some old MIDI samples on this thing. Let’s find out.
1. Danger Doom – Bada Bing
Danger Doom is a great combination. Danger Mouse and Doctor Doom on their own aren’t especially the best on their own, but combined and mixed together with Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim makes for a damn good record. I guess Adult Swim is a lot like bacon: there’s nothing it can’t make good.
2. The Adolescents – Losing Battle
“Losing Battle” is angry. Released six years after the infamous “blue” album, this song off of Brats in Battalions  is a good summation of that angsty skatepunk sound that only Southern California could put together. “Losing Battle” isn’t my favorite song by The Adolescents; in fact, I find it a bit whiny, but it’s instantly recognizable.
3. Minutemen – You Need the Glory
This isn’t a song normally recognized as Minutemen gold. Pretty much consisting of random bongo, piano and what can only be described as either scatting or just plain ‘ol jibber-jabber, this song has no point. No slight to the wonder that is the Minutemen, but I’ve got less use for this than a diet soda.
4. Lil Wayne – Nothin’ On Me
While I really wish he’d pull up his damn pants, I’m a big fan of Lil Wayne. Maybe it’s because he claims Nirvana as an influence or maybe it’s because he’s the most functional person on cough syrup I’ve ever seen, but I think he’s pretty fun. Actually, it’s probably because he sounds like what I would imagine Gollum would sound like if he rapped.
5. Cub – Exit
Oh how I love Cub. This track is off of Mauler (not their best album), but it’s Cub and very typical of their “cuddlecore” sound. If you have never heard these lovely ladies from Vancouver before, find some Cub. Back in the mid-90s some buddies and I followed them around on their tour for a while. They had a fill-in drummer at the time who you might be familiar with: Neko Case. There’s a good story about the death of Jerry Garcia, a case of Keystone tallboys, some “special” brownies, skee-ball winnings and Cub in Fort Worth, but I’ll save that for another day.
6. Smashing Pumpkins – Dross
By the time that the Machina album(s) came out, I was pretty much done with the Pumpkins. Dross is exactly indicative of what I didn’t like about what they had become. At this point in the musicography of Billy Corrigan, I saw almost no difference between Billy (or is it B0lly?) and Marilyn Manson except that Manson had a way better theatrical presence. This phase of SP totally threw out all of the subtlety of their musicianship and replaced it with the crunchy guitars that so many bands dropped on records during this time.
7. They Might Be Giants – Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head
This song has been pretty much stuck inside my head off and on since it was released in 1986. If examined, the lyrics are quite creepy yet horribly catchy. I guess that’s true of many TMBG songs. The thing from this song that stuck with me the most was the line “Memo to myself, do the dumb things I gotta do.” That’s pretty much a credo for my entire life.
8. Reverend Horton Heat – Cowboy Love
I’ve already explained my devotion to the good Reverend. For some reason, this song (while surprisingly one of the “newer” ones) cracks me up to no end. In typical Rev. style, it’s beautifully played and has some of the best steel guitar out there. Leave it to Jim Heat to make a Brokeback Mountain ballad you could two-step to.
9. The Real McKenzies – Raise the Banner
Damn it’s hard to listen to the McKenzies sober. We found these guys accidentally a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back since. Scottish-Canadian, the McKenzies are one of the most amazing bands to watch live. At one point during the show, the piper was so drunk that he could barely stand up yet he didn’t miss a single note. With all the songs about footie, drinkin’ and carrying on, the only real difference between the McKenzies and my family get-togethers is that the McKenzies have better singing voices.
10. [DARYL] – The Informant vs. The World
I make no effort to hide that I am seriously biased towards [DARYL]. While I started out as a wary fan, several of the guys in this Dallas ex-band are really good friends of mine. It’s actually quite interesting to go back and listen to some of the older stuff to see where they are now (mostly Les Americains and The Crash That Took Me, respectively). [DARYL] still holds up.
11. The Ramones – I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
The Ramones doing a cover of Tom Waits. This song (unsurprisingly) has pretty much been my anthem since I realized that I was, in fact, growing up. In typical Ramones fashion, the song is sped up from the Tom Waits version and definitely given the Joey Ramone twist.
12. AFI – Now The World
Before they became the poster-band for the emo-gothy, Hot Topic masses, I listened to a lot of AFI. I think I have Tony Hawk 2 on Xbox to blame for that. I can’t hate all over AFI; they just went a different direction than I would prefer.
13. KMFDM – Power
Unsurprisingly, one of my favorite bands of all time. For some reason, KMFDM and their techno-industrial mess melded right into my punk leanings back in the 80’s and have always just been there. It’s very scary to think that I’ve been listening to these guys for over twenty years. By far, my KMFDM music collection (LP, tape, CD) is larger than any other given artist. KMFDM was definitely the gateway drug for my years in industrial music.
14. KMFDM – Godlike (Doglike Mix)
Another KMFDM song. I’m not surprised. Now, of course, I’ll probably be listening to them all day. “Godlike” is an excellent song of theirs to help explain my attraction to them. With my background in Political Science I am often attracted to political-leaning bands. KMFDM has a few tracks that, over the years, have had a political slant, but “Godlike” is the only one that I was able to open one of my bigger papers for a political economic policy seminar I took while in grad school. The prof though the line “Pray every day that your country undergoes recovery” was quite profound (and I got my “A”), but was more than a little scared when I brought him a copy of the song. Old people, huh?
15. Johnny Cash – Train of Love
The Man in Black. Like many people growing up in the past fifty years, I feel that Johnny Cash was damn near a part of my family. While my folks weren’t really “country music” fans per-say, there are just a few artists that transcend all genres and are required listening to anyone living in America; the South/Southwest at the very least. Johnny Cash pretty much tops that list. Thankfully, not many people don’t recognize his music (unlike Marty Robbins, unfortunately), so I don’t have to administer beatdowns on a regular basis.
Well, that’s another Friday Playlist. Maybe next week I’ll try out the “Genius” function and see what happens there.