Jeri Smith-Ready

Monday night Megashuffle

Tomorrow, for the first time since August, I'll wake refreshed and well-rested on a Tuesday morning, since Monday Night Football is no more. Last week doesn't count, because I wasn't well-rested from New Year's Eve (which for me, didn't end until 8 am on January 1) until Wednesday.

So for alliteration's sake, let's resurrect the Megashuffle, in which I name and hastily discuss with bad grammar the next ten songs that come up on RealPlayer as it shuffles through all 3,525 tracks.

1. "Victrola" by Veruca Salt, off of their sublime 1994 release American Thighs. If my best friend from college and I had ever formed a band, this would have been it. Saw them open for Live in 1995. They had so much energy and hey, they could play their instruments, even though they're girls.

2. "Strange Little Girl" by Tori Amos, off the album Strange Little Girls. The idea behind this fascinating compilation was to perform men's songs from a female perspective. Her cover of Eminem's "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" is chilling and reveals to all who ever doubted it what a screwed-up little creep he is. "Strange Little Girl" was originally performed by The Stranglers.

3. "Serve the Servants" by Nirvana, off their final studio album, In Utero. Apparently they designed this album to turn off as many fans as possible. The lyrics to this, In Utero's opening tune, start off, "Teenage angst has paid off well/Now I'm bored and old."

4. "Canary" by Liz Phair, off her never-to-be-equaled-in-this-or-any-universe debut release, Exile in Guyville. Sigh...this album made me glad to be a girl, showed that a woman could be a tough feminist and still adore men.

5. "The Old Ways" by Loreena McKennitt, off The Visit, which was I think her second album. Though still rooted in Celtic sounds, it was less traditional than her previous work, Elemental. McKennitt had started experimenting with instruments and arrangements influenced by other parts of the world, much to the benefit of her music and those of us lucky enough to listen to it. She's probably one of the Top Five Musicians to Write Fantasy To.

6. "Truckdrivin' Neighbors Downstairs" by Beck, off Mellow Gold. I guess you can't be an official genius without a few of these oddities in your repertoire.

7. "Round Here" by the Counting Crows, off their debut August and Everything After. I know they're whiny and melodramatic, but God, I love these guys. Each album gets better than the last (although honestly I only have their first three). This song is a tragic look at great expectations among big-dreamin' newcomers to Los Angeles. At least, that's my interpretation.

8. "The Fly" by U2, from their last great album, Achtung Baby. This song was one of the few songs not released as a hit single, but it's every bit as good as "One" or "Mysterious Ways."

9. "Meant to Be" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, off of Hot. Some of you might remember the Zippers (or the Squirrel Nuts, if you prefer) as part of the late nineties swing revival movement, that also included Cherry Poppin' Daddies (my favorite) and Big Bad Voodoo Daddies. If you do, you'd be right.

Is it me, or are all these songs from one decade? Really, I like older music, and to a much lesser extent, newer music. Let's hope the last song comes from another time other than the decade in which I grew up ("growing up," for my generation, came during our twenties, not our teens).

10. "Ages of You" by R.E.M. from Dead Letter Office. Whew, at least it's the eighties. This album was an extremely fun collection of songs that didn't fit on any of their other early albums. Their early stuff was great to sing along with, even though we didn't have a clue what they were saying 90% of the time, and when we did, we didn't know what it meant.

Bonus song, because it came from before I was born:
11. "When You Got a Good Friend" by Robert Johnson, from The Complete Recordings. Originally recorded in 1941. So there.

Labels: music

• posted by Jeri @ 9:06 PM
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