Thursday Random Eight (11/06/2008)

Through earphones on a morning DC Metro ride, the first eight songs from the iPod set on Shuffle Play:

Hella - Top Twenty Notes: A good plug here; if you are into legal decent live recordings of bands who don't object to having their shows shared, archive.org is a place for some fun stuff, including this Hella show from 2002.

The Byrds - Eight Miles High: It seems to me that any band with half an ounce of talent can cover a great Byrds song and make it sound beautiful. With this in my head, a few months ago I was dwelling on the computer at about midnight and got the idea that I should get a recording that had a 15 minute jam of Eight Miles High from the actual band (not the spastic two minute version Husker Du covered years ago, although that is beautiful in its own way) and ordered the live Untitled album. After listening to it a few times I decided I just really don't get these wacky 60's bands, and couldn't begin to imagine how boring it must have been to be at a show when they played this goofy jam fest (although I'm sure some aged hippy would fire his bong at me for having said that). Nonetheless, if I had to pick one song from Untitled to hear in the random eight, it would be Eight Miles High, as it is still kinda fun at times.

The Books - An Owl with Knees: The Books play very minimal music with lots of audio clips interspersed. While this is a good track from Lost and Safe, I'd highly recommend getting their The Lemon of Pink release.

Boredoms - I'm Not Synthesizer: I think the thing I like about the Boredoms is that sometimes there is really no reason why anybody should like the Boredoms. Somehow this song makes that line make sense.

Matmos - Public Sex for Boyd McDonald: Funky electro; mostly I was just glad Boyd McDonald wasn't on the same metro car as me.

Skinny Puppy - Downsizer: From The Greater Right of the Wrong, pretty standard fare from this era of the band.

Sebadoh - Sister: Yeah, smash your head on the indie rock, literally.

Lou Reed / John Cale - Black Angel's Death Song: Great, eerie acoustic version (guitar / viola) of the haunting track.