FRIDAY RANDOM TEN

The iPod d’Elisson, AKA the Little White Choon Box.

I have been unconscionably sloppy about posting my Friday Random Ten lists in the last year or so. As I mentioned last time, that’s because (1) I am lazy, and (2) I am pretty sure you, Esteemed Reader, do not give Shit One about the music I am listening to at any given moment. And that’s perfectly OK.

Nevertheless, every so often I will do it anyway, even if only for the annoyance factor.

By way of a refresher, the Friday Random Ten is a list of songs generated at random (duh!) by the iPod d’Elisson when set on shuffle mode.  The actual iPod - the first-generation example of the device pictured above - has also been joined in this endeavor by a few newer devices: the iPhone and the iPad d’Elisson.  Think of it as a window that allows you a look into my ridiculous taste in music.

Let’s see what the Little White Choon Box has for us today:

1. Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits
   
   Tom Waits for no one. Heh.


2. Flight of the Passing Fancy - Squirrel Nut Zippers
   
   
3. Act I, Scene 1: Soldiers of Heaven Hold the Sky - John Adams, Nixon in China
   
   
4. Stairway to Heaven - Tiny Tim
   
   Yes, that Tiny Tim.  Strangely enough, his cover of “Hey Jude” is pretty good.  This one is just... weird.
   
   
5. Mozart: Requiem in D Minor, Communio - Lux Aeterna - Herbert von Karajan
   
   
6. How Do You Do? - Radiohead
   
   
7. I’ll Be Back - The Beatles
   
   
8. Where’s Summer B? - Ben Folds Five
   
   
9. Dream Gerrard - Traffic
   
   
10. Particle Wave - Sticklips
    
    Tread lightly
    So as not to startle
    The shadow
    Whose particles gather nightly
    To feed on the gallows
    
    Don’t stand here
    In that squalid dungeon
    Whose silence
    Harbors thund’rous squalls that leave me
    Shaken from their violence
    
    We believe in something
    But it doesn’t have a name
    Our skulls are the cages built for
    Beasts we cannot tame
    
    Don’t leave me
    In those dirty trenches
    Spoon-feed me
    Whispered words to quench my thirst
    And quell the hell that stillness breeds
    
    I believe in the chemicals
    Coursing through my veins
    And in the electric signals
    Firing in my brains
    
    But how much can you take
    How much can you take
    Our skulls are the cages built for
    Beasts we cannot tame
    But some forces are too strong
    For cages to contain
    
    Sticklips, the brainchild of one Johanna Warren, is hard to describe - Electro-Folk doesn’t quite do it, but it is as good a category as I can think of.  This tune is from their second album, Zemi, which I highly recommend.  You can find it here.

It’s Friday. What are you listening to?