Yesterday we made our way from Dublin to Cork, passing through the unearthly beautiful Glendalough Valley. The sights were expansive and welcoming; the bus ride long and uncomfortable.
Halfway through the ride, Colin leaned over the back of our seat and showed us the list he was keeping of every song that shuffled through his Ipod on the ride.
I loved the idea, so naturally I did what I do every time someone else has a good idea -- unabashedly rip it off and make it my own. So consider this preface my attempt to give him some of the credit due.
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I'm not a big fan of the SHUFFLE mode on mp3 players. Never have been. My choice of which artist and song to play has always hinged on my mood at the current moment. The shuffle takes away my power of choice.
And since there are so few things in life that one can directly control, I generally resent giving away what little remains of my autonomy to some stupid square of metal and plastic. This is know as raging against the machine.
I had a bit of change of heart yesterday during the bus ride from Dublin to Cork. I found that I could mold the meanings of the songs to fit my mood at the time, and this gave me a chance to possibly see the piece from a new perspective.
Here is my 24-track Driving to Cork Playlist:
*All songs marked with an asterisk signify, to my shoddy memory, the first time I have ever heard the song.
1. "Minority Report" -- Jay-Z*
- Political songs always help ground me and make me forget about petty personal troubles. Imagining how people suffered during disasters like Hurricane Katrina remind me that my shit is nothing compared to what they've gone through.
2. "Science of Silence" -- Richard Ashcroft*
- Never heard the guy before and couldn't tell you how he got on the Zune, but his repetition of the line "We are on a rock / spinning in infinity" made me feel so small in a good way. There's nothing like seeing yourself as a speck of sand in the ocean to ease your stupid little anxieties about how you come across to a new group of people.
3. "Laughing With" -- Regina Specktor*
- Couldn't really hear the lyrics with the noise of the bus and highway, but I heard "God" a few times. Not in the Christian "Praise the Lord" way, but in the "God as a eternal concept and symptom of the human condition way", which I prefer.
4. "Red to Black" - Fort Minor
5. "Cemetery Gates" -- Between the Buried and Me*
- I generally avoided heavy or borderline metal music during the trip. Screaming has its place and time, I agree. Just not on a bus in Ireland. Still, these guys are such good musicians I had to let it slide.
6. "Know Your Enemy" -- Rage Against the Machine
- Zach De la Rocha is God-Poet. 'Nuff said. I dream of crafting venomous lyrics like his. RATM is surprisingly big in Ireland, too. We've heard the intro baseline of "Killing in the Name of" at pubs a couple times already.
7. "Old White Lincoln" -- The Gaslight Anthem
- My favorite band in the entire world. I've been looping their albums endlessly for the past three years and still can't get enough. Brian Fallon could publish these lyrics as straight poetry and win awards, I'm positive.
8. "Just Wait" -- Blues Traveler*
9. "The Upsetter" -- Jack Johnson*
10. "Closer I Get" -- Rebelution*
11. "KRS-One" -- Sublime*
- Bradley Nowell's voice always gets me. And I love how the hip-hop vibe leaks into a lot of the band's old stuff.
12. "Flesh" -- Atmosphere*
- Slug's introspective and fiercely personal lyrics never cease to inspire me. I would love to be able to hold a mirror up to my life the way he does. It's hard, a lot of of people (myself included) don't want to face the sad or ugly sides of ourselves. But I think facing the pain might be the only way really break free.
13. "Your Favorite Late Night Song" -- Racing Kites*
14. "On a Bayonet" -- Beirut*
- I love Beirut's sound. I'd would love them even more if I could get past thinking that every song sounds the same.
15. "Dream House" -- Dane Cook
- The downside of having stand-up albums on my Zune: I had to make a half and hour detour from the playlist so that I could hear the rest of Retaliation Disc 2. Helluva comedian.
16. "Nights of Wine and Roses" -- Japandroids
- I've listened to this a lot since boarding the plane for Ireland. It's the concept of wild and reckless life that really gets me. We should all live for nights filled with wine and roses.
17. "You Really Got a Hold on Me" -- The Beatles
- If my love-interest doesn't swoon when I play her a Beatles love song, she's not the girl for me.
18. "Car Radio" -- Spoon*
19. "High Speed" -- Coldplay*
20. "Later On" -- Kate Nash*
- By far the most striking change from this song to the next. On second I'm in the mind of some girl with boy trouble and the next I'm back in junior high, a skinny white kid walking the halls and rapping DMX songs under my breath. God, I love gangsta rap.
21. "Niggas" -- Notorious B.I.G.*
22. "Dreams" -- We Came As Romans*
23. "Colorful Language" -- You, Me, and Everyone We Know
- On of my roommate first showed me this band. His cousin used to be the guitarist for them. Since then their two EP's have been a mainstay in my listening rotation. Clever, overtly-sexual lyrics mixed with frequent group vocals guarantee a good time.
24. "Lord, I'm Discouraged" -- The Hold Steady
- I sincerely wish I had more of their stuff / listened closer to the songs I do have. It speaks to the exhaustion and helplessness all of us feels sometimes and conveys everything we want to say in just three words: "Lord, I'm discouraged." Me, too.
NOTE: Some Ipod purists may decry my having music I've never listened to on my player. They may call me a music hoarder who simply wants to say he has X number of songs or artists. But 'tis not true, dear reader. To my detractors I have three things to say: 1) It's a good thing you can't see my bookshelves at home, because the effect is much the same 2) As with the books, I fully intend to read/listen to everything eventually and 3) Screw you, it's my freakin' blog. I do what I want.
Till Next Time.
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