blue canary in the outlet by the light switch

When I buy songs offa iTunes they automatically go into a "Recently Added" playlist. And because these songs are fresh, new, thrilling acquisitions, I tend to opt for the "Recently Added" playlist for a soundtrack to tooling around in my car. I was listening tonight as I drove back from a party, and thought "interesting mix of songs" and that thought led to "Interesting enough to parlay into a blog post??" And the answer to that is ...probably not. But it's not as if I have any better ideas.

So, without further adieu, let's have us a look-see at the last 15 songs I put on my iPod.

1. Kaliyugavardana-- WTF, right?? Last Wednesday night my sister conned me into going to see Eat, Pray, Love. Not exactly my top pick, but I was overdue for some delish oversaturated popcorn, so what the hell, right? I noticed a number of decent songs during the movie and wondered if it might then have a worthwhile soundtrack. There was one song from the scene where she arrives in India and is in a cab in the insane city traffic and it's a very Bollywood, hyper sort of song and I dug it. Of course, I didn't already know it, had no clue as to the title, so when I looked up the EPL soundtrack on iTunes and saw "Kaliyugavardana" in the track listing, I suspected that may be it. And from the 30 second sample of sitar I heard in the iTunes preview, I really could not tell. But nope. This is NOT the arriving-in-India song. I dunno where this one was in the movie really, though it was for sure in the Indian segment . It's not awful, and the World Music subsection of my iPod could use building up.
Watching EPL also moved me to purchase...
2. Heart of Gold [Neil Young]-- there were 2 Neil Young songs in that movie. This one and "Harvest Moon". I'd been wanting "Heart of Gold" for a while, so this just kinda reminded me of that. I do like "Harvest Moon" a bit, so maybe I'll get that on a future iTunes spree. Oh , by the by, are you acquainted with Jimmy Fallon's excellent Neil Young impression? Love that Jimmy.
3.Kookie Kookie (Lend me your Comb) [Edd Byrnes]-- I'd heard that phrase before "Kookie, Lend me Your Comb" but had never heard the song until it came on while I was shopping a coupla weeks ago. I can't remember what store I was in, not that it matters too terribly much, but still, I've been straining me brain over it because maaaaan, it's just going to drive me bonkers that it's eluding me. Well anyways, the song--

It's got a classic 60s slow-twist beat...saxophone..the sax doesn't really show up in pop music quite like it used to does it? (though there was sort of a sax renaissance in the 80s..but it had a different feel to it... it was not the fun, campy sax of yore, but the hypersexy Sergio kinda sax.) And add to the vintage groove--every single scrap of youth slang they could cram into two minutes and seven seconds!! It really cracks me up to imagine real life people talking like that. I don't mean to sound dismissive, I actually like old-timey slang. I think a lot of it is more creative than the parlance of today (actually, I have been lusting after these for quite a while. Only 70 more shopping days 'til my b-day, peoples!!) but I think when you O.D. on slang--of any time period--in your speech it becomes silly. Which is not to say I don't like silly. That's why I like this song. I had to ask my dad about that last line--"Baby, you're the GINCHIEST" Did people really truly say ginchy? Yes, he told me. I think he's gotta be bullshitting me.
4. Get Low [Li'l Jon & co.]-- To tha WINDOOOOW! To tha WALL! Classic. I just can't believe I didn't already have this song. I hate to condone vocal profiling or anything, but it's an undeniable truth: Li'l Jon and his cohorts (East Side Boyz, Ying Yang Twins, et al. ) all sound like dirty bastards. Not ODB,dearly departed and of Wu Tang fame, rest his soul. . . but just random generic dirty bastards. Now you can have a guy sing smut and have it sound sexy (Trent Reznor, for an example) but ugh..none of these guys. This is toothless guy swillin' libations from a paper bag, and hollering at you from a shadowy nook 'neath an overpass soundin' shit. So it's just as well that their lyrics are 98% mysogenistic raunch, as probably anything outta their mouths is gonna sound that way. Like, if either Ying or Yang read the copy on a box of Pop Tarts...it would sound dirrrrrrty.
5. Rye Whiskey [the Punch Brothers] --sort of the other end of the spectrum of Get Low, but I love 'em both. I never used to like this sort of old timey hillbilly jam but I LOVE the stuff now. It's quite a drastic taste 180 and if it's an aftereffect of some sort of head trauma I can't remember any such incident (amnesia perhaps??) I love the "musicianship" of this...and the "OH BOY!" yell is a particularly delightful bonus

6. Cruel to be Kind [Nick Lowe]

7.Good [Better than Ezra]-- I remember this song getting a lot of air play when I was in high school, and it amused me to sing in the chorus "I really wanna WAFFLE, 'cause they're GOOD!" I still sing that. It's funny because it's true! Well no. Yes, it is true (who doesn't love waffles??) but the comedic value is rather questionable. Oh, speaking of waffle-love.... whoever decided they oughtta get paired with CHICKEN ? Was it Roscoe that thought of that?? I love both, but this phenom has never made any sense to me.

8. Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend [M.C. Luscious]-- Further proof (not that it was needed) that I am predisposed to like any song with the word "Boom" in it. For reals. Think of a "boom" song. Betchya I like it!!

9. Birdhouse in Your Soul [They Might be Giants]-- This is the one that's presently stuck on loop in my noggin. Great lyrics to this song. I like that the singer has a quirky sort of voice. Like the Violent Femmes lead singer..he has this weird off-key shitty singing voice that I dig. I think that's why everyone (ok, not everyone..let's say every other one) came outta college with a special place in their ticker for Blister in the Sun --cause you would be drunker'n a ton of bastids and belt it out terribly and off key and it seemed to come out just perfect. Because that's how Gordon Gano sang it (yeah, I didn't know that dude's name...I just snuck off on a quickie jaunt over to Bing) Anyways, the They Might Be Giants guy..he has a nerdy, poindexter science teachery voice. Although, maybe I'm adding the science teachery undertones due to my knowing that TMBG have put out a few educational kiddie albums since the early 00s and the last one was entitled Here Comes Science. But that poindexter tag is totally objective. You know who else sings like a nerd? The singer in Cameo. At least, in Word Up he sounds nerdy. And you wouldn't expect that coming from a dude in a shiny red codpiece. Super-freakydeakiness, certainly. But nerdiness. . .notsomuch!

10-13. I stumbled onto this cool list from Paste mag : The 23 Greatest Sci-Fi Songs Of All Time I was inspired to track down a number of the songs on there. The first song listed is some Daft Punk reworking of Queen and it's "We Will Robot Rock You" and though I liked it, I never did track it down on iTunes. I searched "Robot Rock Daft Punk" and came up with quite another Daft Punk song, which I LOOOVED (Robot Rock from their 2005 release Human After All) I also saw that "Technologic" was a popular pick off that album so I got that one too. Numero 18 on the Paste countdown was "Spaceman" by the Killers. I hadn't heard that song but am really digging it. I love the Killers anyway. The last sci-fi song I got was "Robots" by Flight of the Conchords. I had seen it in Season 1 of FOTC ( I have the DVD of Season 1 & Season 2 is on my iPod. I can't find that DVD anywhere. Whaddya wanna bet if I broke down and re-purchased Season 1 that lost DVD would miraculously reappear?? That friggin' happens to me ALL THE TIME) Anyways, I had forgotten how much I loved their robot song. And the CD version was even better than the song as they did it on the show. So forgive the dull, inert embed vid, it was the only one that offered that superior version ..

14. Fade in to You [Mazzy Star]-- I found this on some "forgotten one hit wonders of the 90s " compilation. I always am very hasty to skip past during my driving-around-listening-to-the-Newly-Added-Playlist-cruises , but it does have its uses. It is very nice drift-off-to-slumbertown music.

15.Naked Eye [Luscious Jackson]--probably got this off the same 90s mix as #14. But this track is allowed in the car.