Thursday Random Eight (12/03/2008)

iPod shuffle:

The dB's - Bad Reputation: An ancient track from Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple's groundbreaking alternative band; a precursor to a whole generation of REM'ish type music.

Black Dice - Seabird: Mostly ambient noise, Black Dice are consistently subtle and droning.

Mission of Burma - Outlaw: Speaking of groundbreaking, this is from the Signals, Calls and Marches album which is one of my favorite releases ever.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook - Lament: Brooks compositions with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's vocals are really a compelling match. I recently found a remix album of this release with tracks from folks like Asian Dub Foundation and Talvin Singh.

Slint - Rhoda: Maintaining the shuffle-theme of old indie rock, this track is a guitar and distortion-heavy release from the Tweez album, a treasured release from the flannel world.

Slint - Darlene: I guess the iPod likes Slint...and Tweez...and making me look old by not picking any new tracks.

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake, Act 2 No. 15 Allegro giusto: I dumped a bunch of classical music on the iPod a few weeks ago as I was starting to find I needed some calming background music during my busy days. For its familiarity, Swan Lake isn't exactly calming background noise as I would have hoped, especially this bouncy track.

The Crystal Method - Roll it Up: The iPod kicks and screams into the 21st century, albeit barely, with the Tweekend release. Crystal Method is very give and take with me, but Tweekend is a pretty good CD from beginning to end.