Friday random ten

The following are the first ten tracks to come up when I set my iPod to shuffle.

The New Pornographers, "To Wild Homes"
Wake up! Chika-boom strum rhythms, good breaks. Neko and Dan - you're what I was missing from the show.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Fault Line"
There's something really captivating about the eery, half Neil Young, half Noel Gallagher vocals. And I love harmonica.

Elvis Costello & the Brodsky Quartet, "Who Do You Think You Are?"
One reason I should shuffle more is I would never listen to the classical Elvis Costello stuff I have in its entirety. I don't think this song is even the best on The Juliet Letters, but it's ok. And kind of impressive that it even ever got released, as defiant of genre as it is.

Charlie Parker, "Chi-Chi" (alternate take 2)
Ah, bird. Knee dancing in the bus seat.

The Beatles, "Sun King"
Reminds me of sitting around in the off-campus default headquarters for the alternative literary magazine, when moments unfolded like yarn off a skein.

Jeff Buckley, "Opened Once"
Virtuosity, slowly. Listening inevitably brings on shaking of heads for hope lost.

Rogue Wave, "Kicking the Heart Out"
Most of the rest of this song's album (Out of the Shadow) is airy yet contented, a beach run in April, a canoe ride at dusk. This one, though, with its minor key and diminished top notes, spacey moog organ, and darkly descending bassline takes you to the melancholy side. And then it settles you back into those charming handclaps and modulates to a major key in an ending that should precede the calm of "Postage Stamp World." But not on shuffle!
[Aside: until this listening, I totally thought the repeated word of the chorus was "sex" not "sense." In defense of the normally non-guttered status of my mind, he sets it up with "If music is my lover/then you are just a tease."]

Ben Lee, "Career Choice"
Cheesy, true. Gotta love his willingness to admit to it, "getting all the chords right, all the words wrong." I skipped out halfway through.

Louis Armstrong, "When it's Sleepy Time Down South"
Head-on-someone-else's-shoulder: on the porch swing, in a foxtrot, on overlapping pillows.

Led Zeppelin, "The Rain Song"
A good ending song. Made me reluctant to go into the Fed, though.