Random Top Twenty

Cafe Society
1

Been awhile since we did one of these. I’m tired and bored, Mrs. Rabbit is sleeping, and I’ve got nothing else to do, so what the hell.

The rules: Set your music player of choice on random. List the first twenty songs that it plays. Attempt to draw some insight from the results. Make unfair judgements about your fellow posters based on their tastes in music. No cheating to make yourself look cooler.

Mine, out of 12437 tracks:

[ol]
[li]Compulsive Gamblers - They Call Me Names[/li][li]The Buzzcocks - Love Battery[/li][li]The Tokens - Animal[/li][li]Kraftwerk - Neon Lights[/li][li]Sons Of Adam - You’re A Better Man Than I[/li][li]The White Noise - Firebird[/li][li]Shuggie Otis - Country Girl[/li][li]Queens of the Stone Age - Leg of Lamb[/li][li]Blood Drained Cows - Caveman[/li][li]Radio Birdman - Remorseless[/li][li]Suicide - Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne[/li][li]Bellrays - Dead[/li][li]Portugal Japan - Have Love Will Travel[/li][li]Joy Division - Sister Ray[/li][li]Hawkwind - Orgone Accumulator[/li][li]Music Machine - Masculine Intuition[/li][li]The Yellow Payges - The Two Of Us[/li][li]The Black Keys - She Said, She Said[/li][li]Pretty Things - Thousand Ages From The Sun[/li][li]Alice Cooper - Public Animal #9[/li][/ol]

Insight #1: I’ve been collecting mostly vintage Delta/Country blues over the past couple of years, but I haven’t made nearly caught up with the punk/garage/glam that I spent most of the past decade and a half accumulating.

Insight #2: Huh. Not a single bad song, with possible exception of the Joy Division, whom I’ve never really liked. At least it’s a Velvets cover.

2

(Man, threads like this just show everyone the shitty taste in music I have.)

  1. Green Day - Extraordinary Girl
  2. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Wild World
  3. Boxcar Racer - I Feel So
  4. Guster - Stairway to Heaven
  5. Modest Mouse - Float On
  6. Eagles - Desperado
  7. Jimmy Eat World - Work
  8. Evanescense - Everbody’s Fool
  9. Weezer - Tired of Sex
  10. End Credit theme from the Buffy episode “Once More With Feeling.”
  11. Weezer - Lullaby for Wayne
  12. No Use for a Name - Exit
  13. Black Eyed Peas - Don’t Phunk with my Heart
  14. David Bowie - Starman
  15. Staind - So Far Away
  16. Weezer - My Name is Jonas
  17. William Shatner - I Can’t Get Behind That
  18. Guster - Fa Fa
  19. R.E.M. - It’s the End of the World as We Know It
  20. Tenacious D - The Road
3

20/2800

  1. Metric - Combat Baby

  2. Regina Spektor - Us

  3. Vienna Teng - My Medea

  4. A Perfect Circle - The Outsider

  5. Beborn Beton - Another World

  6. Pretty Balanced - Floating

  7. Placebo - Where Is My Mind?

  8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Dudley

  9. Shihad - Pacifier

  10. The Pierces - Beautiful Thing

  11. Tegan and Sara - Clever Meals

  12. Dar Williams - Are You Out There?

  13. Rammstein - Du Hast

  14. Wolfsheim - Love is Strange

  15. Blue October - Balance Beam

  16. Charlotte Martin - Raven

  17. Anouk - Losing My Religion (Live)

  18. Nine Inch Nails - The Hand that Feeds

  19. HUMANWINE - Rivolta Silenziosa

  20. Kristin Hersh - Your Ghost

An amazingly lucky draw for me. This actually showcases a lot of favorite bands and/or songs and emphasizes my female singer-songwriters bent while also showing my love for the more rocking styles of NIN, APC, et al. What’s with all the Germanica, though?

PS: Anyone reading this must find and listen to both 12 and 19. They are amazing, but in completely different ways. Trust me.

4

Out of 6885 on my iPod:

  1. Sparks - “Falling In Love With Myself Again”
  2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - “New Morning”
  3. Dirty Pretty Things - “The Enemy”
  4. The Kinks - “Shangri-La”
  5. The Clean - “Whatever I Do It’s Right”
  6. The Remains - “Why Do I Cry”
  7. Beastellabeast - “The Final Mistake”
  8. I Am Kloot - “Morning Rain”
  9. “Radio Zhou Xuan Announcement/Hua Yang De Nian Hua” (from the In the Mood for Love soundtrack)
  10. Essential Logic - “Fanfare In The Garden”
  11. Aretha Franklin - “Think”
  12. The Gothic Archies - “Walking My Gargoyle”
  13. The Optic Nerve - “Ain’t That A Man”
  14. The Charlatans (US) - “Codine”
  15. Television - “Torn Curtain”
  16. The Clean - “Clutch”
  17. Jeff Buckley - “Eternal Life”
  18. Marvin Gaye - “What’s Going On”
  19. Mclusky - “That Man Will Not Hang”
  20. The Shins - “Weird Divide”

A little heavy on the Nuggets boxed sets (and The Clean!), but otherwise pretty good.

5

20/488

  1. Don’t Lose Touch- Against Me

  2. Dr. Feelgood- Motley Crue

  3. Stayin’ Song- Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show

  4. Shake That Shit- Shawnna ft. Ludacris

  5. Big Train- John Fogerty

  6. Lemon- U2

  7. It Only Hurts When I Cry- Dwight Yoakam

  8. I Don’t Like Mondays- Boomtown Rats

  9. What’s My Age Again- Blink 182

  10. Give it to You- Jordan Knight (how the hell did that get in there?!?)

  11. Faster Horses- Tom T. Hall

  12. Fuck Her Gently- Tenacious D

  13. Sabes a Chocolate- A.B. Quintanilla y los Kumbia Kings

  14. A Place in the Sun- Stevie Wonder

  15. 9 to 5- Dolly Parton

  16. I Guess I’ve Come to Live Here in Your Eyes- Willie Nelson

  17. Blue Christmas- Dean Martin

  18. Can’t Fight this Feeling- REO Speedwagon

  19. This Hotel Room- Steve Goodman

  20. ToLoveSomebody- Billy Corgan

I’m more than a little embarrassed to post this, but…

6

20/874 on iPod

  1. Blondie–Atomic
  2. Michelle Shocked–Forgive to Forget
  3. Patti Smith–Dancing Barefoot
  4. Michelle Shocked–What Can I Say?
  5. k.d. lang & the re-clines–Big Boned Gal*
  6. Phranc–Ballad of Lucy + Ted*
  7. The Klezmatics–Hinokh Yafo
  8. Mickey Hart–Temple Caves
  9. Patti Smith–Glitter in Their Eyes
  10. Patti Smith–Kimberly*
  11. amoebic ensemble–Owls are Actully Very Stupid
  12. Ani DiFranco–Dilate
  13. Patti Smith–Boy Cried Wolf (Live)
  14. Ani DiFranco–If He Tries Anything*
  15. U2–All Along the Watchtower (Live)
  16. Klezroym–Fel Shara
  17. Kate Bush–Rocket’s Tail
  18. Patti Smith Grop–Space Monkey
  19. Bob Marley–So Much Trouble in the World
  20. Tracy Chapman–Why?

If there’s an asterisk, I’d skip it on shuffle. There’s an over-representation of Patti Smith relative to the proportion of the songs she represents.

7

20/724 on Creative Zen Micro:

  1. “Rocket” by Def Leppard
  2. “Manic Monday” by the Bangles
  3. “Midnight in Chelsea” by Jon Bon Jovi
  4. “Ain’t That Unusual” by the Goo Goo Dolls
  5. “Miles Away” by Winger
  6. “Nth Degree” by Morningwood
  7. “Ode to My Car” by Adam Sandler
  8. “Crazy Mixed Up World” by Soul Asylum
  9. “Send Me on My Way” by Rusted Root
  10. “Shake & Tumble” by Firehouse
  11. “Thank You For Loving Me” by Bon Jovi
  12. “Armageddon It” by Def Leppard
  13. “Don’t Do Me Like That” by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
  14. “Basket Case” by Green Day
  15. “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” by Jim Croce
  16. “Dirty Man” by Joss Stone
  17. “Jump Right In” by the Urge
  18. “She Don’t Use Jelly” by the Flaming Lips
  19. “Deceived by an Angel” by The Getaway People
  20. “Think About Me” by the Goo Goo Dolls

A couple of notes:

  1. If you can’t tell, I was born in the mid-70’s.
  2. You ALL should own more Soul Asylum records than you currently do.
  3. Def Leppard is overrepresented, Bon Jovi underrepresented. Similarly, that no Springsteen (or Poison) showed up is curious.
  4. (preemptive) Screw you all. Firehouse and Winger are AWESOME. :smiley:
8

20/2779 on my Phillips 30GB:

“Bombat” by Infected Mushroom
“The Ecstacy of Gold” by Metallica
“You’re a Son of a Gun” by Marvin Gaye
“I Don’t Even Know Myself” by The Who
“Stay” by The Dave Matthews Band
“Mistress” by Disturbed
“Anybody Listening?” by Queensryche
“Keep Hope Alive” by The Crystal Method
“The Last Resort” by The Eagles
“Peephole” by System of a Down
“I Want to Fuck You Like an Animal” by Nine Inch Nails
“Stumbleine” by The Smashing Pumpkins
“Twist and Shout” by The Beatles
“Back in Black” by AC/DC
“Lady Writer” by Dire Straits
“The Refugee” by U2
“I, Zombie” by White Zombie
“Swallowed in the Sea” by Coldplay
“Let Me Drown” by Soundgarden (Weird, huh?)
“Be Somebody” by 3 Doors Down

I won’t do the small MP3 player that I use for running; I’ll be exposed for the closeted Trance/Electronica fan that I am.

Heh heh, heh heh - Winger. ::Snicker::

9

1 Doors, Love Her Madly. Its the Frakin Doors man, what else do I need to say?
2 Thievery Corporation, Lebonese Blonde. Hands down one of the best live acts I have ever seen. electronica meets world with a live band. they tour with a crapload of singers (first time I saw them they had 9) who each do their own type of tunes taking turns.
3 Beasty Boys, Bruhaha. the last white boy rappers besides Emenem
4 T. Rex, Rabit Fighter. I admit I downloaded a discogrophy to see what the fuss was about, still need to pick more up in CD form, there is some really good stuff from these guys.
5 Lamb, Angelica. not one of my favorite bands, very hit or miss. BUT you should definitly check out remixes of Lamb tunes. Cotton Wool and Trans-Fatty Acid. both are fantastic jazz style electronica.
6 Frank Black (Pixies) Kicked in the Taco. Frank Blacks solo stuff is similar to the Pixies (who woulda guessed?) but still good stuff
7 A Perfect Circle, Renholdër. I like Maynard, prefer Tool over APC any day of the week though.
8 Hi-Fi Killers, Indo Dub one of the most interesting “reggea” albums I have ever heard. a local (Seattle) hip hop duo lays down some tracks without vocals, mails them to a producer they know in Jamaca with simple instructions, find some artists to lay down vocals over the tracks NO PUSSY ASS TOP 40 CRAP, new tracks return to Seattle for final edits and mixing and there it is. album is titled “Jamaca”
9 Betty Wright, Misty Blue. shes underrated fo sho
10 Iron Maiden, The Trooper. Maiden was the band that really got me into metal. still one of the best.
11 Dread Zeppelin, Heart Breaker. Comedic Brilliance? or just fucking strange? Led Zeppelin+Elvis+Reggea=Dread Zeppelin.
12 Dead Can Dance, Song of the Stars. this band is all over the map but with Lisa Gerrard on vocals its very hard to go wrong, she is amazing.
13 Dead Kennedy’s, One Way Ticket to Pluto. Punk from the days when Punk was Punk, Fuck greenday and every band to come out in the last 10 years with the word “THE” at the beginnin of their name.
14 Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Deja Vu, forgot this was in here, I like em.
15 Talking Heads, Burning Down the house. Hello! its the Talking Heads.
16 Red Hot Chili Peppers, Special Secret Song. one time my parents came over for a visit and this song came on and I didnt realise for a couple minutes it was playing…yeah.
17 K.D. Lang, Wash Me Clean. Her Ingenue album is one of my all time favorite cd’s I own. very powerful stuff.
18 Sneaker Pimps, Post Modern Sleaze. Nell Hopper on vocals most of the time, great band
19 Amon Tobin, The Lighthouse. One of my favorite dj’s ever, drum and bass like you never heard it before
20 dZihan & Kamien, Ocean Air. Love these guys, very nice chill/acid jazz

this is a pretty good representation of my stuff, I have a crazy range in my taste in music, the only thing missing from the list is some SoundGarden.
(note) I did delete one track durring all this, it was ass and needed to get removed anyway. I get a CD, bring it home and rip it to my harddrive, then find the ones I hate and yank em out as the come up.

10

20/3209 on my PC

  1. The Smithereens- “Behind the Wall of Sleep”
  2. The Carter Family- “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone”
  3. Super Furry Animals- “Happiness is a Worn Pun”
  4. The Shins- “So Says I”
  5. Blondie- “Poets Problem”
  6. The Go-Betweens- “Streets of Your Town”
  7. The Ramones- “Listen to My Heart”
  8. The Psychedelic Furs- “Aeroplane”
  9. Sage Francis- “Specialist”
  10. The National- “Available”
  11. …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead- “Heart in the Hand of the Mat”
  12. Nick Lowe- “Heart of the City”
  13. Devendra Banhart- “Now That I Know”
  14. Billy Bragg & Wilco- “One By One”
  15. Legends- “Breaking Time, Breaking Lines”
  16. Uncle Tupelo- “Sauget Wind”
  17. Big Country- “Heart of the World”
  18. The Hold Steady- “Same Kooks”
  19. Boris- “Farewell”
  20. Chris Bell- “Get Away”
11
  1. Mulatu Astatke - “tezeta (nostalgia)”
  2. David Bowie - “All Saints”
  3. The Microphones - “Map”
  4. the Residents - “Infant Tango”
  5. the Vaselines - “Dum Dum”
  6. His name is alive - “mescalina”
  7. Hobart Smith - “Chinquipin Pie”
  8. Camp Lo - “Krystal Karrington”
  9. Mike Jones - “Grandma”
  10. “jerzy urban gamelan”
  11. Bruce haack - “electric to me turn”
  12. Holger Czukay - “cool in the pool”
  13. the Screamers - “122 Hours of Fear”
  14. Bert Jansch - "do you hear me now?’
  15. Nas - “one love”
  16. Prince - “Under the cherry moon”
  17. Tenorio Jr. - “estou nessa agora”
  18. Moondog - “what’s the most exciting thing”
  19. John Foxx - “a new kind of man”
  20. the Wedding Present - “dreamworld”

out of 19,487

12

20/2448

“We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” - Blue Öyster Cult
“Teenage Lobotomy” - The Ramones
“F*!#In’ Up” - Neil Young
“Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar” - Primal Scream
“Laguna Sunrise” - Black Sabbath

“November Rain” - Guns N’ Roses
“Walk a Mile in My Shoes” - Elvis Presley
“Breadfan” - Budgie
“Without Him” - Elvis Presley
“To A Teacher” - Leonard Cohen

“Having A Good Time” - Thin Lizzy
“Borderline” - Thin Lizzy
“Beautiful Child” - Rufus Wainwright
“I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” - Elvis Presley
“Lie To Me” - Tom Waits

“Can’t Get There From Here” - R.E.M.
“I’ll Hold You In My Heart” - Elvis Presley
“Never Let Go” - Tom Waits
“All Along the Watchtower” - Bob Dylan
“Police On My Back” - The Clash

That’s right, just like Joan Jett, I like rock’n’roll. (Other stuff too, but iTunes wouldn’t show.)

13

No shame in that. :slight_smile:

14

[ol][li]Led Zeppelin - “We’re Gonna Groove”[/li][li]Led Zeppelin - “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper”[/li][li]Soundgarden - “Outshined”[/li][li]Aerosmith - “Hoodoo/Voodoo Medicine Man”[/li][li]Soundgarden - “Limo Wreck”[/li][li]Aerosmith - “Angel”[/li][li]Deep Purple - “Burn”[/li][li]The Rolling Stones - “Miss You”[/li][li]Led Zeppelin - “Royal Orleans”[/li][li]Deep Purple - “Space Truckin’”[/li][li]Led Zeppelin - “D’Yer Mak’er”[/li][li]Audioslave - “Heaven’s Dead”[/li][li]George Thorogood & The Delaware Destroyers - “Move it on Over”[/li][li]Audioslave - “One and the Same”[/li][li]The Who - “Join Together”[/li][li]Audioslave - “The Curse”[/li][li]The Offspring - “Damit, I Changed Again”[/li][li]Evanescence - “Lithium”[/li][li]Led Zeppelin - “Carouselambra”[/li]Black Sabbath - “Junior’s Eyes”[/ol]Hmm. Considering the first CD’s I burned were the Complete Studio Recordings of Led Zeppelin, I guess that’s representative of the 445 tracks in my iTunes.

15

Ok. I wanted to do this for some time now. That being said, I’m not in front of my laptop that has my music on it. (It overheats waaaay too much to do anything now days)

However, I will approximate a ‘random’ list of songs I have. These are all actual songs / CDs I own. I will force the issue and chose the most random songs I can think of. (Then again, my tastes ARE random…)

“The Call II” From ‘Dayuma’.
“Log Commercial” from Ren and Stimpy (As heard on The best of Nicktoons CD)
“Staff Credits theme” from Zelda Ocarina of Time Soundtrack
“Too Much of Heaven” -Eifel 65 (Second track on Europop, much better than Blue)
“Popcorn” - Hot Butter
“Innervision” - SystemOfADown
“Take on Me” -Aha
“The Night Santa Went Crazy” -Weird Al Yankovic
“Resurection” - PPK (Trance music)
“The Fletcher Memorial Home” -Pink Floyd
“New Toys” -The Cooper Temple Clause
“Mad World” - Gary Jules
“Roses” - Outkast
“The Restroom Door said Gentelemen” - Bob Rivers (Twisted Christmas)
“Castaway” -Benassi Bros.
“One By One” -Chumbawumba (Track 6 or so of Tubthumping, again better than the one hit wonder the group becomes known for. )
“Smooth Criminal” Micheal Jackson
“Orinoco Flow” - Enya
“Walking on Broken Glass” - Annie Lenox
“Brass Monkey” -Beastie Boys

In summary:

A LOT of one hit wonders
A LOT of Trance
A LOT of songs older than I am (I’m 24)
A LOT of stuff that is not on normal radio
A LOT of soundtracks from tv movie and musicals. (And I don’t like musicals that much.)

16

Why would you think people would disagree? Oh, wait… :stuck_out_tongue:
I’d participate, but I’m visiting the in-laws – no access to my MP3’s.

17

Out of 8736 songs.

  1. Sufjan Stevens - Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
  2. Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
  3. Brazilian Girls - Tourist Trap
  4. Depeche Mode - I Feel You
  5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Underwater (You And Me)
  6. The Stills - Lola Stars and Stripes (Acoustic)
  7. The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
  8. Incubus - Calgone
  9. Third Eye Blind - Graduate
  10. Rage Against The Machine - Vietnow
  11. The Ramones - Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?
  12. Kid Koala - Radio Nufonia
  13. The Pixies - Lovely Day
  14. Hot Chip - Tchaparian
  15. Jay-Z - Allure
  16. Matthew Good Band - Look Happy, It’s The End Of The World
  17. Hard-Fi - Middle Eastern Holiday
  18. The Walkmen - Louisiana
  19. Broken Social Scene - Superconnected
  20. Bloc Party - Helicopter

That’s not a bad mix of songs but it seems slightly skewed towards more recent (and commercial) releases. Nothing embarassing, I really enjoy that first Third Eye Blind album.

Considering 1 out of every 27 songs in my library is a Radiohead song, I’m surprised that none popped up.

18

You know there are bands other than Zep and Audioslave, right? d&r

19

I’m always surprised by the clusters that usually turn up when I put foobar2000 into shuffle mode…

  1. letsagetabitarockin’ - the 101ers (excellent too little heard pre-Clash Joe Strummer)

  2. Bowtie - Outkast (One of few hip-hop artists in my collection)

  3. St. Thomas - Sonny Rollins (Calypso jazz classic from one of the all-time great tenor sax players)

  4. TANK! - Yoko Kanno (from the brilliant 1st soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop)

  5. That Hypnotizin’ Boogie - David Wilcox (kick-ass boogie-rock from Canadian barroom blues staple)

  6. Down by the Seaside - Led Zeppelin (continuing Quixotic’s fine tradition)

  7. Golliwogg’s Cakewalk - composer: Claude Debussy, piano: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

  8. The ‘In’ Crowd - Ramsey Lewis

  9. Same Old Blues Again - John Lee Hooker

  10. Walkin’ Blues - Eric Clapton

  11. Sunology - Sun Ra

  12. Bitile - Habib Koite and Bamada

  13. Carrie Anne - The Hollies

  14. Dancing Days - Led Zeppelin (one can never have too much Zep)

  15. Bastards of Young - The Replacements

  16. Hear Me Talkin’ To Ya - Louis Armstrong

  17. Jeep’s Blues - Duke Ellington

  18. My Terrible Ways - Frank Black

  19. Stand By My Woman - Lenny Kravitz

  20. Wade In The Water - Eva Cassidy

20
  1. Abba - Take a Chance on Me
  2. Living Colour - History Lesson/Pride
  3. Masters of Reality - Blue Garden
  4. Simple Minds - Once Upon a Time
  5. The Motels - So L.A.
  6. Quiet Riot - Metal Health (Bang Your Head)
  7. Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King
  8. Pallas - Atlantis
  9. Motley Crue - Looks That Kill
  10. Scorpions - The Zoo
  11. Royal Hunt - Last Goodbye
  12. Realm - Eminence
  13. Rage - In the Darkest Hour
  14. Pentagram - Dying World
  15. Quarterflash - Harden My Heart
  16. Saga - Don’t Be Late
  17. Sacred Reich - Ignorance
  18. Sodom - Bombenhagel
  19. Sanctuary - Future Tense
  20. The Romantics - What I Like About You

For some reason, Winamp had a preference for the Q-S section of only one folder. Lots of classic 80’s thrash metal.