MP3 Shuffle-a-gogo

1. HUSKER DU - Don't Want to Know if You Are Lonely (Candy Apple Gray 1986) I love that drum into that kicks off almost every song on this album.

2. CAST - Promised Land (All Change 1995) - I had high hopes for John Power's post La's band Cast. They came out of the box with a few stellar singles and solid debut album, but fizzled pretty quickly. Still, anything from All Change is always welcome on a shuffle.

3. GARBAGE - Milk (Absolute Garbage 2007) The slow sexy closer from their 1995 debut.

4. KING CRIMSON - 21st Century Schizoid Man (In the Court of the Crimson King 1969) I'm hit and miss with prog (more miss than hit, actually), but I've always been a fan of this monster of jam. I’m especially fond of Greg Lake's distorted-as-shit vocals. Plus this song is on my short of list of rock songs actually made better by wailing saxophone.

5. TOM ZE - Vai (the Best of Tom Ze) A cassette of the first Brazil Classics comp on Luaka Bop got a lot play at the Rose Records I worked at, which led me to pick up this comp as soon as it came out.

6. the SWINGING BLUE JEANS - Gotta Draw the Dance (Sydney) (Hippy Hippy Shake: the Definitive Collection) A nice twangy number from one of the more harmless bands of the Merseybeat invasion.

7. BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD - Pay the Price (Buffalo Springfield 1967) One of the Stephen Stills numbers from the band's debut.

8. AC/DC - Problem Child (If You Want Blood You've Got It 1978) Was this live album sweetened in the studio? That guitar solo sounds awfully clean. And the crowd sounds potted up out of nowhere at one point.

9. MICHAEL NESMITH - Harmony Constant (the Older Stuff: Best of Michael Nesmith) - One of my favorite post wool cap Nesmith songs. It’s just Mike on guitar and vocals and Red Rhodes on pedal steel.

10. CHRIS MARS - I, Me, We, Us, Them (Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 1992) For my money Chris has the best two post Replacements albums of the bunch. At least the two I play the most...by a long shot. I tried not getting caught up in the Replacements reunion hoopla, but after seeing that setlist and hearing songs from the first show, I'm reconsidering my "don't get your hopes up" stance.

My MP3 player has been on a major new wave kick the past few days, which you'd never guess from this shuffle. I recently added almost 2,000 more songs to the library and yet not a single one came up here. Maybe next time.