Jeri Smith-Ready

Megashuffle returns

Since the resurrection of Natalie T. Steppenwolf, I've been hard at work re-ripping my CDs onto her new hard drive. So far I have about 1,800 songs loaded, which is more than half, so why wait any longer for a Megashuffle? Let's see what comes up:

1. "Travellin' Soldier" by the Dixie Chicks. This song was featured on the compilation album Songs that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11. I just heard it for the first time today, and it made me cry. About a girl who loves a boy who goes to 'Nam and never comes back.
2. "Pentagram" by Cake, off of their first album, Motorcade of Generosity. I loves me some Cake, yes ma'am, I do. I love that they found a distinctive sound and have never changed it. They don't "develop," and they don't need to. Despite their steadfast style, no two Cake songs sound the same.

3. "The Sprawl" by Sonic Youth from their classic Daydream Nation. I'm ashamed that I never really discovered this band until last year. They were pioneers of punk and alternative rock, and singer Kim Gordon has been called 'The Godmother of Grunge.' She introduced Kurt Cobain to David Geffen, who then signed Nirvana to their first big label release.

4. "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf (Philip Steir remix), from the soundtrack to the movie Go, which has been called Generation Y's Pulp Fiction. It's a load of fun. This kickin' remix does great justice to the original tune. "Magic Carpet Ride," from Steppenwolf the Second, combined psychedelic rock with early heavy metal to give us one of the grooviest tunes evah.

5. "Monkey" by Bush, off their first album Sixteen Stone. I love Bush. I love Bush so much that I can say "I love Bush" with no irony whatsoever, because it doesn't occur to me that I might be referring to the President of the United States, whom I do not love. The fact that I love Bush pretty much proves that I'm a rock idiot. They're reviled by critics as over-produced Nirvana wanna-bes. Whatever. Unlike the rest of Sixteen Stone, "Monkey" sucks.

6. "Alien" by Bush, off the same album. Out of 1,861 songs it could have gone to, RealPlayer went only two tracks down the list to pick this one, the other sub-par song on Sixteen Stone. Proof that the process is truly random. Bush hired Steve Albini to produce their second album, Razorblade Suitcase (my favorite), because they wanted a grittier sound. I don't like any of their albums after Suitcase. My theory is that after singer Gavin Rossdale married No Doubt chanteuse Gwen Stefani, they were both too happy to make decent music.

7. "The Perfect Girl" by The Cure, off of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. Anyone who thinks The Cure writes nothing but mopey songs should listen to this album. It runs the gamut from exuberant to gloomy to spooky. Short song, so that's all I have time to write.

8. "Silent World" by Donna Lewis, from Now in a Minute. I once made a compilation tape to deal with my feelings about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and this song was on it. It's a raw, simple song about someone who was ripped from the world unexpectedly.

9. "Where Do We Go from Here?" off the soundtrack to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More With Feeling." Every time I put in this soundtrack I expect it to be funny and wry, but it ends up depressing me. There were some serious conflicts and sadness going on at that point in the series. This song plays near the end of the episode, after everyone finds out that Buffy was actually in heaven, not hell, before they brought her back to life. Oops.

10. "Feelin' Good," by Little Junior's Blue Flames, from Sun Records' 50th Anniversary collection #1. We visited Sun Records' Memphis studio in 2003 and stood in the exact spot where artists like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and U2 had recorded. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips was one of the first white producers to record black musicians and try to bring what were called "race records" into the mainstream. You could call him the "midwife of rock 'n' roll." Thank God for him.

• posted by Jeri @ 8:29 PM
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