Random Filler

It's rare that I get the opportunity to rip off not one, but two independent sources, but I'm doing just that today.

My friend, the Blogadier General (Blog. Gen., 2nd class), himself ripped off the AV Club (a not great site) feature - "Random Rules" - where they get some "indie" celebrity to go through their IPod (since IPods are cool) and, with the song list set to random (hence the name of the feature), they comment on the song that shows up, usually with a witty anecdote from their professional or pre-professional lives. Here's what happened when the Blog. Gen. did this.

So, anyway, I decided to do the same today, since I'm kind of bored and think it's an interesting idea. Quick note - I don't have an IPod, I have a SanDisk Sansa e260. Eat that, Apple.

Here goes:

1.) Count Basie - "Jumpin' At The Woodside"
Ah, a classic from my bootleggin' days. I've got a million jazz songs on my MP3 player, mostly from Miles Davis. This song features a young Miles, back when he was in Basie's orchestra.

That's all I got.

2.) Soungarden - "Ty Cobb"
Down On The Upside is easily in my top 5 favorite albums of all time. I could (and do) listen to it all the time. The title track might be one of my top 5 favorite songs of all time. I hear Stone Temple Pilots is getting back together - what about these guys??

When this album came out, I was in high school, driving a "classic" 1984 Toyota Tercel hatchback. It was so old and rusted that the words "Toyota" and "Tercel" had long since fallen off the back hatch. Pieces of it would fall off when I closed the hatch. I loved that car. Anyway, I used to give my friends in the neighborhood a ride in to school every day, and this one guy David used to insist that we start the ride listening to this song. It is a pretty great song. So, he would always sing annoyingly along and act like he was playing the drums (yeah, he was that guy), and when the chorus came along, instead of the actual words ("Hard-headed, fuck you all!") he would yell out, "I'm ready to fuck you all!" He thought those were the words. I kept trying to tell him that that didn't make any sense and even showed him the lyrics in the liner notes, but he was still convinced his version was right.

Along with Offspring's "Bad Habit", this is the best song to listen to while stuck in traffic.

3.) Smashing Pumpkins - "Today (live acoustic version)"
Not much to say about this song, it's a good one. I actually saw the Pumpkins play their last show before the keyboardist OD'ed and they kicked their drummer, James Chamberlain, out. Now he's back with the band, and their music sucks!

4.) DJ Shadow - "Organ Donor (Extended Version)"
My little brother got me into Shadow, along with RJD2 and Madlib, last year. This is off Shadow's Endtroducing... album, the double CD version. Specifically, this version of "Organ Donor" is on the 2nd CD. I actually like this version better than the one on the first CD, but I like that one as well. I've definitely entered a phase in my life where I'm more into DJ-driven tracks, like Shadow, RJD2, St. Germain, Stereolab. It's a good phase to be in, I think. Anyway, great track - might end up being the best song on this list.

5.) Less Than Jake - "9th and Pine"
When I was in high school, and to some extent in college, LTJ was my favorite band. I definitely went through a ska phase, and these guys were the best. For a while, though, all I listened to was Jake, Hepcat, Skatalites, Pietasters, Rancid, Mustard Plug, and so on and so forth. I would attend every Vans Warped Tour, get into it with the moshers (despite weighing about a buck twenty). I even had my hair shoulder length. I was so cool.

The first time I saw these guys live, I got pulled over (in my Tercel) for being a suspected narcotics dealer. True story. My friend got slammed against the car by the cop. Turns out we had accidentally stumbled into the top narcotics zone in DC. Oops. Anyway, as it happened, they were mistaken in their belief of our being drug lords. But, on the plus side, at least they were dicks about it!

Anyway, this song is off their best album, Losing Streak. The best song on this album is "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts."

Incidentally, Less Than Jake is the Blogadier General's favorite band!

6.) Less Than Jake - "Jen Doesn't Like Me Anymore"
Awesome. And really, I only have this one album on the MP3 player. I like how the chorus to this one develops at the end: "Jee-e-e-e-e-e-en, no she doesn't fucking like me anymore." I miss the simpler songs.

7.) Blind Melon - "Rebirth (Demo)"
Hmm. Blind Melon's one of my favorite bands of all time, but this song (and this recording) isn't that great. Not sure how it made it on there, except that I'm such a Melon fanboy. I just saw them live with their new lead singer a couple months ago. They sounded great, can't wait for the new album.

8.) Beatles - "Yellow Submarine"
The Beatles were at their best when they were stoned out of their minds. Really stoned out of their minds. The other Beatles songs on my player are "Strawberry Fields" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." My favorite part of this song is when Paul starts drunkenly parroting everything Ringo sings. I bet that pissed Ringo off good.

9.) Handsome Boy Modeling School - "The World's Gone Mad"
Featuring Alex Kapranos and Del the Funkee Homosapien. Love this song. It's the best song off of White People.

Del, of course, is the nerdy cousin of Ice Cube. I bet a thousand years from now, when aliens rule our planet and runaway slave humans congregate in the sewers, trying to keep away from the watchful eyes of robot police, Del will seem a lot more "gangsta" and "hard" than Ice Cube.

10.) Robert Johnson - "Preaching Blues"
Great way to end this. My fourth year of college, we had a summer roommate named Catfish (named after the fish, not the pitcher). He got me into Robert Johnson, as he was taking a summer class on the famed blues guitarist/singer/wife beater.

Hey, don't get uppity with me - Johnson sings about beatin' his woman on nearly every song! On "Me and the Devil Blues," he notes, "I'm going to beat my woman til I get satisfied." God, I love this album.

Anyway, we used to listen to his Robert Johnson box set all the time. It was pretty great. Pretty great summer, actually, now that I think about it.

Alright, well that's that. Hope you weren't bored to tears. Shit, I enjoyed it, that's all that matters.

Random

So I'm reading War and Peace, by a Russian fellow named Leo Tolstoy. The version I'm reading (Oxford World's Classics, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude) is about 1300 pages long. I mentioned to my boss (government boss) today that I'm attempting to read this book, and his response was, "What? Why? There's too many characters in that! You should just watch the movie!" If he thinks the book is long and tedious, how long and tedious would the movie be?!?!? Anyway, I'm on page 129, and the library book is due on April 8. By my calculations, I have to read 97.58 pages every day (starting tomorrow) in order to finish the book by the due date. I'm thinking I'll probably end up renewing it at least a couple times. I'm not only disgruntled, I'm pretty busy (and lazy) as well.

Speaking of which, there was a time when I used to post something nearly every day. Well, since I've switched job sites, I've gone from doing almost no work and having my own private office, to being swamped with work (albeit very interesting work) and working in a cubicle open to a very high traffic area. I can't post at work like I used to, and I especially can't post YouTube videos or other NSFW material. Big Brother is watching me in a big way - sometimes my cursor even moves on its own! So, anyway, that's my explanation for that.

Finally, two nights ago I went to see The Presidents of the United States of America at the 9:30 Club here in DC, with a friend of mine that I've known since before PUSA was even around. They were, as expected, incredibly fun, and put on one of the better shows I've been to. Afterwards, my friend (The Disgruntled Soldier, in case you were wondering) and I started talking about how crazy it was that we just saw a band that we would have loved to have seen back in 1995. A couple months ago, I saw Blind Melon at the State Theatre in Falls Church (new lead singer, of course), and it was both bizarre and very fulfilling. Anyway, so it got us thinking - what other bands would it be somewhat surreal to see, in the same manner that PUSA and Blind Melon (who were awesome live, btw, the new lead singer is enough like Shannon Hoon, and enough not like him, to make him a perfect new lead singer) was. Here's a partial list of the bands we came up with: Toadies, Collective Soul, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Crash Test Dummies, Coolio, Candlebox, Cracker. Man, it'd be crazy to see those guys live, kicking it like it was 1995. They could be introduced onstage by Dan Cortese! (Sorry, for the younger readers, this is Dan Cortese. Yes, it's true, even Dan Cortese has his own Wikipedia page. Here's a page with his picture.)

Finally finally, for those of you wondering about the screenplay for "Slumlord," I've got a very detailed full outline completed, and 12 pages of the actual screenplay written. My goal is to have a complete first draft by the end of April. Let me know if you want me to write you into the movie.

Gee! Disgruntled out.