MP3 Player Shuffle-a-gogo

10 songs on shuffle with real time commentary....

1 the GODFATHERS - Sticks and Stones - a helluva tune from Hit By Hit, an album that kicked my ass when I first heard it.
2 TRAFFIC - Feelin' Alright - a long time favorite from a band I didn't realize how much I liked until I picked up the double disc hits collection 7 or 8 years ago.
3 PETE TOWNSHEND - Let My Love Open the Door - This song came out right at about the time I was really starting pay close attention to music and I used to just wait for it to come on the radio.
4 KRAFWERK - Computer World 2 - Hearing this just makes me want to listen to all of Computer World
5 SQUEEZE - Another Nail in My Heart - 45's and Under is, for my money, one of the most perfect greatest hits album ever. nd yet, for some reason, I hardly ever play anything else by Squeeze.
6 FELT - Rain of Crystal Spires - Finally one I had to look at the screen to see what the hell it was. At first I thought it might be Tom Verlaine. This is from the Creation Records Soup boxset, which whenever anything from it comes up on shuffle I have to look to see what it is, but I'm always pleasantly surprised. Great jangley guitars and organ. Now I'm thinking I need to buy a Felt album or two.
7 PLACEBO - Black Eyed - I don't think that Placebo have gotten their due - they have a killer catalog and are always trying new things while not deviating from what made them so great in the first place.
8 THIN LIZZY - Don't Believe a Word - One of those songs that don't ring a bell for me by the title, but the second that guitar comes in I remember what a great song it is.
9 NEKO CASE - Lions Jaws - This isn't one of my faves from Fox Confessor, but it's still a great song. At first, when this came up on shuffle, I was a bit bummed becasue it wrecked the flow of some great bouncy melodic songs. But once her voice kicked in I just didn't care.
10 bis - Sale or Return - Outside of the Beasties, this is probably my favorite record to come out on Grand Royal. Too bad after two albums they lost all sense of fun and became incredibly bland.

Mix Disc Covers: single artist best-ofs

In the pre MP3 player era I used to make lots of single artist mix disc best-ofs to play in the car and office. Many of these often got so much play that I tended to not return to the artists' full albums anymore.

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ABOVE: Big Black and Green Day

BELOW: the Velvet underground (which I couldn't keep to a single disc) and the Fall Outs

ABOVE: the Move

BELOW: House of Love and the Shazam

 

I've made several XTC best-of discs over the years, done rarities collections, a double disc Colin Moulding overview, and yet I still felt compelled to make more. So here are two collections, each focusing on faves from 4 albums. 

more pictures around Chicago

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ABOVE LEFT: WHen you get off the elevator and walk up to the cigar shop in this building on Wabash you're hit with the one-two punch of the overpowering smell of cigars and the creepy stare of this cigar shop greeter.