5 Random Songs

[John Gillies]

Being a bit of a music nut, I'm interested in what other forumites are listening to. For instance is Kirk's taste in music as bad as someone previously asserted? Is Charlie a Norwegian Death Metal nut, or Sophie K a Dixieland Jazz gal?
In order to find out, I suggest sticking your iPod onto shuffle and listing the first five songs that come up. Please be brave enough to list anything you think may be embarassing so as to leave yourself open to ridicule

I'll start it off then. Here goes:

1. SIX NATION STATE - Can't Let Go
2. THE BONES - Straight Flush Ghetto
3. REIGNING SOUND - Find Me Now
4. GUITAR WOLF - Sparkle Baby
5. THE DAVEY BROTHERS - Chickenbone.

Oh dear, all a bit obscure.

[Joseph Krol]

I don't have an iPod but my sister does.

[Kai Laddiman]

My iPod has a huge load of rubbish on it:

1. MIKA - Relax, Take it Easy
2. The Saturdays - Work
3. The Saturdays - Forever is Over (facepalm)
4. Will Young - Changes ( )
5. Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand

But on my 'good' playlist:

1. Ellie Goulding - Your Song
2. Nelly - Just a Dream
3. Black Eyed Peas - Where is the Love?
4. Scouting for Girls - Elvis Ain't Dead
5. Cee Lo Green - Forget You

[Mark James]

What a great idea John. My five random tracks from my iPod are:

TOOL - Parabola
LED ZEPPPELIN - The Lemon Song
PANTERA - Revolution Is My Name
SPINAL TAP - Hell Hole
DAMAGEPLAN - Breathing New Life

I think I got extremely lucky there. Can't believe I even got five actual songs, I've tons of stand up comedy on there and I usually get when I have it on shuffle.

[Jon O'Neill]

Ok, this could be interesting.

Hot Chip - Colours
Beach Boys - Be True To Your School
Eminem - Must Be The Ganja
Lily Allen - Not Fair
The Beatles - Pepperland

Yeah, I think I've been lucky too, dodged The Vengaboys discography.

[James Bradley]

My 5 are:
Oh Carolina - Shaggy
This is it - Michael Jackson
I'm one - The Who
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Greenday
Bat out of he'll - Meatloaf

Quite a varied selection!

[JimBentley]

Brakes - Heard About Your Band
Maroon Town - Average Man
Moving Units - Between Us And Them
Betty Wright - Clean Up Woman
Mates Of State - Like U Crazy

[Andy Wilson]

Brakes - Heard About Your Band

Interesting story with this one - good song, but the riff is lifted from 'Pavement Tune' off 'Dance the Devil' by the Frames, Glen Hansard of Once/Oscar winning song/swell season fame's original band (who are still going as far as i know). A mate of mine was listening to Brakes about 5 or 6 years ago and sent me a link to their myspace and i was staggered when i heard it. Can't be coincidence, it's too similar... and then i heard the first line...

Anyway, I don't have an ipod or mp3 jobbie, so I'll put my computer on shuffle later - even though I generally just listen to CDs and only have a limited selection ripped to the laptop/nicked off my mate.

EDIT: What I mean to say is I think Glen Hansard is the subject of that song!

[Andy Wilson]

I think I got extremely lucky there.

Sometimes DJ random can play a blinder alright!

[Mike Brown]

OK...

Black Horse & The Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall
He Wasn't There - Lily Allen
Dance Wiv Me - Calvin Harris (damn that NOW compilation)
Adrian Cronauer - Robin Williams (from Good Morning Vietnam soundtrack)
Camera - R.E.M.

Could have been worse (honest!)

[John Gillies]

Ok, this could be interesting.

Hot Chip - Colours
Beach Boys - Be True To Your School
Eminem - Must Be The Ganja
Lily Allen - Not Fair
The Beatles - Pepperland

Don't want to depress you Jon, but I have albums by 4 of these artists (not Eminem) and I'm only a bawhair off my half century.

Yeah, I think I've been lucky too, dodged The Vengaboys discography.

Haha. Scott's elder brother was into the Vengaboys, and then he graduated into Gangsta Rap, which was really dire. He's relatively normal now and likes some Indie stuff I like. Scott's weird - he doesn't buy albums but I occasionally catch him listening to girlie pop nonsense on the music TV channels.

[George F. Jenkins]

I don't understand modern songs which must be accompanied by frantic prancing round the stage. I think that it is an ugly style of so called musc

[Ben Hunter]

I don't understand modern songs which must be accompanied by frantic prancing round the stage.

I don't understand this sentence.

[Jon O'Neill]

Ok, this could be interesting.

Hot Chip - Colours
Beach Boys - Be True To Your School
Eminem - Must Be The Ganja
Lily Allen - Not Fair
The Beatles - Pepperland

Don't want to depress you Jon, but I have albums by 4 of these artists (not Eminem) and I'm only a bawhair off my half century.

Haha that's cool, you should pick up some Eminem.. if you like The Beach Boys then you should like it.

Yeah, I think I've been lucky too, dodged The Vengaboys discography.

Haha. Scott's elder brother was into the Vengaboys, and then he graduated into Gangsta Rap, which was really dire. He's relatively normal now and likes some Indie stuff I like. Scott's weird - he doesn't buy albums but I occasionally catch him listening to girlie pop nonsense on the music TV channels.

Dad?

[Andy Wilson]

Hot One - The Bees, Octopus
Taste - Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Miniature - SFA, Rings Around the World
Number Three - They Might Be Giants, Dial-a-Song: 20 Years Of...
Section 29 (Light to Follow) - Polyphonic Spree, The Fragile Army

EDIT: Apart from Animal Collective, haven't really gotten around to listening to any of these yet, although I like all three, especially the last two.

[Jayne Wisniewski]

Was drawn to this topic as I love listening to music. Very interesting to see what others are listening to, however as I haven't heard of many of the selections I guess my music taste is a bit more mainstream. Anyway here goes with my ipod shuffle:
1. Apocalypse Please by Muse (Absolution)
(glad this came out first as Muse are one of my favourites)
2. Tip of Iceberg by Owl City (Ocean Eyes)
(Think I have only listened to this once)
3. Goodbye Mr A by The Hoosiers (Now)
(I get all the Now albums as I like to keep up (or is it down?) with the kids)
4. Beneath a Moonless Sky by Andrew LLoyd Webber (Love Never Dies)
(Ah now we're talking- love ALW)
5. Wake by Linkin Park (Minutes to Midnight)
(Saw them on recent tour -excellent)

[Joseph Krol]

Embarrassingly I haven't even got 5 songs on my phone, so here's the first five sound files that come up:
1) Ode to Joy on the euphonium (that's what you get by messing around with the settings of a digital keyboard)
2) The countdown clock song with me saying 'Is DUALISER even a word?' on about twenty seconds
3) A chicken sound effect
4) The first seven minutes thirteen seconds of the 'Garden' episode of QI
5) The last four rounds of the OBESEJERK/JOBSEEKER game.
Now you know how strange I am.

[Mark James]

I think I got extremely lucky there.

Sometimes DJ random can play a blinder alright!

To be fair there wasn't as much room as I was hoping on my iPod so I ended up having to be selective about what went on it so there's very little that I would be embarrassed about. And also I don't really get embarrassed about my taste in music, the most embarrassing thing I like is probably this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP1Xq3wjLBU Anyway I've decided to see what five I'll get today.

DISSECTION - Soulreaver
LOVE - Maybe The People Would Be The Times Between Clark And Hilldale
RADIOHEAD - Go To Sleep
LOVE - The Red Telephone
LOVE - Amdmoreagian

Bloody hell shuffle. Three songs from the same album. That's not very random. Although I did get some stand up from George Carlin and Jerry Seinfeld between four and five.

[Matt Morrison]

Good topic. I nearly always listen to music on shuffle.

Underworld - Kittens
Definitely not the Underworld track I'd choose, but there we go. Honesty.

Dredg - Cartoon Showroom
Bit of a summer anthem last year. Doesn't sound like a summer anthem.

Mayer Hawthorne - Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'
Mayer is probably the coolest man on the planet in my opinion. If I was skinny and American and cool I'd like to be him.

Madvillain - Fancy Clown
Probably my favourite Madvillain song. Just like the top comment on the video, I never listen to this just once.

McLusky - Collagen Rock
Classic McLusky, a good example.

A pretty strong selection I reckon, pretty good effort from random play.

[Jon Corby]

Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc
Wonderstuff - Cartoon Boyfriend
REM - Orange Crush
Kelly Clarkson - Since You've Been Gone
Kate Bush - L'amour Looks Something Like You

[Matthew Tassier]

Don't update my mp3 player very often, but here is its shuffled output.

1. The Orb - Spanish Castles In Space. Sumptuous, love the Russian speaking on it.
... 15 mins long, ran out of power, plugged in now ...
2. Mogwai - Batcat. Bit noisy.
3. David Bowie - Hallo Spaceboy. Bit too poppy.
4. Silver Eye - Thirdimension. Never heard of them, no idea where this came from. Relatively harmless.
(5. Ivor Cutler - Time. Not strictly music and only 15 seconds long, I'll have another one.)
5. Half Man Half Biscuit - When The Evening Sun Goes Down. HMHB always classic.

Make of that as you will.

[James Doohan]

1) A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
2) Gin and Juice - Snoop Dogg
3) All My Life - Foo Fighters
4) When You're Young - The Jam
5) 7/4 Shoreline - Broken Social Scene

Could have been much better, could have been much worse

[Soph K]

Sophie K a Dixieland Jazz gal?

What's that supposed to mean?????!!?

Aw, come on, ya gotta like Katy perry at least!

[Rhys Benjamin]

My iPod has a huge load of rubbish on it:

1. MIKA - Relax, Take it Easy
2. The Saturdays - Work
3. The Saturdays - Forever is Over (facepalm)
4. Will Young - Changes ( )
5. Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand

That's not half bad actually..... (OK, let's all admit you've had one of these tunes stuck in your head..... I Have!)

And Kai, do you watch Top Gear?

[Phil Reynolds]

OK, so I was feeling less than gruntled because I want to contribute to this topic but don't have an mp3 player. Then I had an idea.

I listen to music on CDs. I keep them in a storage rack which has 11 shelves, each holding up to 15 CDs. So: PM me a set of three numbers - the first being a shelf number from 1 to 11, the second a disc number from 1 to 15, the third a track number from 1 to 20 - and I'll use the first five sets of numbers received to determine my five tracks. If the selected shelf has fewer than 15 CDs and/or the selected disc has fewer than 20 tracks then modular arithmetic will be used to locate the chosen disc/track.

I'm excited.

Edit: Five received - results shortly.

[Kai Laddiman]

And Kai, do you watch Top Gear?

Meh, I can give it or take it. I'm not an avid fan, but if nothing else is on, then it's quite a laugh.

Today's shuffle:

1. Kanye West - Heartless (On NOW! 72, good song though)
2. The Killers - Human (Also on NOW! 72, also a good song)
3. Sean Kingston - Fire Burning (NOW! 74, used to like it, but not elite enough to be on my good playlist)
4. Jordin Sparks - Tattoo (I'm glad I've stopped getting NOW! CDs...)
5. Ne-Yo - Mad (Quality song)

[Phil Reynolds]

Right then, here are my five tracks randomly chosen by other C4Cers. Astonishingly, not one musical in sight...

3 - 7 - 2

1. Kometenmelodie 1 (Kraftwerk, Autobahn)

A nicely pretentious-sounding start - citing pieces of music with foreign titles is good for making people think you have a more highbrow taste in music than they do. I wasn't overly familiar with this when I listened to it just now, as (like most people, I suspect, other than hardcore synth freaks) I only ever listen to track 1 on this album - the 23-minute title track - before taking it off.

ill go for 1 1 1, and if it's an abba track, i'll think you're sad for keeping them in alphabetical order.

2. The Visitors (Abba, The Visitors)

What's sad about keeping them in alpha order? How else do you find the one you want quickly? (This doesn't work with spice racks, I've discovered, as all spices begin with C.) Anyway, the stunning title track from their last studio album, inspired by the plight of dissidents in the Soviet Union and a million metaphoric miles from Waterloo. This is going well.

Shelf 4, CD 11, Track 8.

3. Ommadawn Part Two (Mike Oldfield, Ommadawn)

A great album - the last Oldfield made before he went into therapy, conquered his demons and unfortunately managed to stifle his creative genius at the same time. Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains plays uillean pipes on this track; when I bought the album in 1975 I'd never heard them before and couldn't imagine what kind of instrument could possibly be making this incredible, haunting, passionate sound.

10.8.10

4. Mystic Circles of the Young Girls (no sniggering at the back) (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Yuri Simonov, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring)

Not one I've listened to much - I bought this CD because it also has on it the 1945 version of Firebird which is one of my favourite classics.

7, 7, 7.

5. Our Song (Yes, 90125)

I'm not a huge Yes fan but I bought this album mainly for its two singles - Owner of a Lonely Heart and the lesser known Leave It (stunning, although the acapella version off the EP is even better).

So there you go, I'm not too ashamed of that lot (although it's slightly worrying that there's nothing there more recent than 1983). Given the alphabetical arrangement, things could have been a lot worse - e.g. one CD to the left of Kraftwerk and it would have been Leon Jackson...

[Jon O'Neill]

What's sad about keeping them in alpha order? How else do you find the one you want quickly

NOt sad I suppose, but I could see myself only buying music later in the alphabet than vengaboys to save the hassle of moving everything forward a space. God knows how you would cope if Abba reformed!

[Chris Davies]

1. The Bottom Line - Spock's Beard
2. Prodigal - Porcupine Tree
3. Perfect Tense - Kino
4. Open Mind - Blackfield
5. Comatose - Enchant

[Mark James]

I have two boxes I keep the majority of my CDs in and all the CDs are not only in alphabetical order but each artist's albums are in chronological order. The rest are on a CD rack, not alphabetically though. Each shelf is kinda genre specific so the top two are stand up comedy (George Carlin's albums are in chronological order, no one else's is) then indie, then metal and the bottom ones are miscellany and compilation stuff you get from newspapers. Don't worry though, I wouldn't obsess over any of them being "out of place". Before the days of mp3 players I'd bring a bag of CDs in to work. I had the bag in a friends house and he took most of them out and was browsing through them and then he asked if I minded that he took them all out. I said no so long as he put them back in the order they were in and the look on his face was priceless when he thought I was being serious.

[John Gillies]

Good topic. I nearly always listen to music on shuffle.

Underworld - Kittens
Definitely not the Underworld track I'd choose, but there we go. Honesty.

Dredg - Cartoon Showroom
Bit of a summer anthem last year. Doesn't sound like a summer anthem.

Mayer Hawthorne - Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'
Mayer is probably the coolest man on the planet in my opinion. If I was skinny and American and cool I'd like to be him.

Madvillain - Fancy Clown
Probably my favourite Madvillain song. Just like the top comment on the video, I never listen to this just once.

McLusky - Collagen Rock
Classic McLusky, a good example.

A pretty strong selection I reckon, pretty good effort from random play.

Trust you to go and do something awesome with links to all the songs. Superb as I hadn't heard of 3 of these guys: Dredg, Mayer Hawthorne or Madvillain. Really liked Dredg and must add them to my collection. Also, the McLusky song is ace.

[John Gillies]

Yeah, I think I've been lucky too, dodged The Vengaboys discography.

Haha. Scott's elder brother was into the Vengaboys, and then he graduated into Gangsta Rap, which was really dire. He's relatively normal now and likes some Indie stuff I like. Scott's weird - he doesn't buy albums but I occasionally catch him listening to girlie pop nonsense on the music TV channels.

Dad?

Erm no, sorry, I don't think I'm your dad. However, I did tavel a fair bit throughout the UK for my job when I was in my 20's.

[Soph K]

five songs

FIVE??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! what about 4, or 6...??? ya see, five's my unlucky number.

[George F. Jenkins]

I don't understand modern songs which must be accompanied by frantic prancing round the stage.

I don't understand this sentence.

I think it is called the generation gap Ben. It was the same in my young days, when I was a locomotive fireman. The old Drivers couldn't stand our modern music in the 1940's which included boogie woogie.

[Mark James]

I don't understand modern songs which must be accompanied by frantic prancing round the stage.

I don't understand this sentence.

I think it is called the generation gap Ben. It was the same in my young days, when I was a locomotive fireman. The old Drivers couldn't stand our modern music in the 1940's which included boogie woogie.

I don't know if there's really a generation gap. I'm 29 and I think modern music is rubbish purely because most of it is and so was the majority of music that would have been considered modern during every generation. It's just that the good stuff lasts and clouds peoples judgement about how good different generations of music were. I would say only 10% maybe 20% of the music output during any generation is actually any good. And it's not always easy to find. I bet there's modern stuff out there George that you would like, you just haven't heard it yet. I know I haven't.

[Andy Wilson]

Have a sconce at some of the modern stuff people suggest here George. You'll be pleasantly surprised. You have to turn off the telly/radio to hear any decent music these days.

[Soph K]

I don't have an iPod but my sister does.

YEAH WOO HOO I HAVE AN IPOD (nano!)

[Rhys Benjamin]

And Kai, do you watch Top Gear?

Meh, I can give it or take it. I'm not an avid fan, but if nothing else is on, then it's quite a laugh.

Ah right. You probably don't know that a long-running joke in 2008 was that Jeremy Clarkson was gay with Will Young after he made some comments when Will Young was the "Star in a Reasonably Priced car".

[Soph K]

And Kai, do you watch Top Gear?

Meh, I can give it or take it. I'm not an avid fan, but if nothing else is on, then it's quite a laugh.

a long-running joke in 2008 was that Jeremy Clarkson was gay with Will Young

was he??! oh, was that a joke?

[Ralph Gillions]

I don't have an iPod.
Many so-called personal headsets are far from personal.
I can often hear other people's music - but not clearly. I just get a sort of "tish,poo, tish, poo, tish, poo" effect.

The last 5 pieces of music I listened to:
Neopolitan Dance from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
He Stopped Loving Her Today (George Jones)
Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other (Willie Nelson)
Prendi l'anel ti dono (La Sonnambula - Bellini)
The Sad in My Song (Charlie Louvin)

[Martin Smith]

At random from my MP3 collection of around 7000 (was nearly double that until a recent hard drive crash, I'm gradually rebuilding it)

1 - Franz Ferdinand - Turn It On (oh dear. Borrowed this from the library and didn't really care for it. Still only really like Take Me Out, Do You Want To and This Fire by them)

2 - Sonic Youth - Rain King (Ditto. Can't remember this track off by hand)

3 - Ezee Posse - Everything Starts with an E (from a compilation of late 80s/early 90s dance music. Aside from the controversial title, one of the more ordinary cuts)

4 - Buckcherry - Lit Up - (from Ecstasy to cocaine, and from house to hard rock. My favourite of these tracks so far)

5 - Frank Sinatra - You Make Me Feel So Young (from a compilation of love songs I got from the library (there's a theme here....). Pretty pleasant and charming if you're into this sort of thing)

Not THAT representative of my taste - no metal, no classic soul/Motown, no Dylan, no Britpop, nothing with any comedy/novelty value, and only one fast-paced guitar-based song. Still, the NOW compilations mean there's some far worse and more embarassing stuff on here, mostly unplayed.

[Soph K]

Many so-called personal headsets are far from personal.
I can often hear other people's music - but not clearly. I just get a sort of "tish,poo, tish, poo, tish, poo" effect.

...so, i'm guessing that you only hear a 'tish, POO' effect when the person with their ipod is on the loo??!

[Marc Meakin]

1 the one and only by Adele
2 Roman's Revenge Nicki Minaj
3 Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
4 Rodondo Beach Morrissey
5 Price Tag Jessie J

Diverse or what. The next 6 tracks are by Plan B though.