Friday Random Ten

After thinking about "Friday Random Ten" as an aesthetic phenomenon, it seems silly not to slap one up there myself.  I'm normally no fan of the routine blog post—as evidenced by the couple I've concocted that've fallen by the wayside—but that has more to do with the "length" of my attention span.  A few iterations and I'm bored with it.  This window into my iRiver's soul will slam shut sooner than later:

1. Clem Snide - "Action"
2. The Pogues - "If I Should Fall From Grace With God"
3. Dave Van Ronk & Frankie Armstrong - "The Legend of the Dead Soldier"
4. Sleater-Kinney - "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone"
5. The Jayhawks - "Wichita"
6. Django Reinhardt - "H.C.Q. Strut"
7. Wilco - "Box Full of Letters"
8. Blonde Redhead - "Without Feathers"
9. Drive By Truckers - "Lookout Mountain"
10. Grant Lee Buffalo - "Lonestar Song"

What have I learned?  To believe in Random.  At least one-third of my iRiver consists of Jeff Tweedy-related albums, bootlegs, demos, solo- and side- projects.  What ends up on my only ever Random Ten?  One mediocre track from Wilco's only mediocre album.  Not that there aren't some fortuitous entries:

• When Holbo was out here last week I actually mentioned Grant Lee Buffalo's "Lonestar Song." 
  
• Scott McLemee will dig the appearance by the Drive By Truckers. 
• The Pogues' "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" is the best song off the album of the same name. 
• The Dave Van Ronk & Frankie Armstrong album full of Brecht covers is as good as it seems pretentious.  More people should own it.  Same with the Jayhawks' Hollywood Town Hall.
• Sleater-Kinney's "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone," while not one of my favorite songs, at least comes from their best period ('95-'99).

The list is odd in many respects, however.  There's no rap or hip-hop.  In fact there aren't any African-American performers on it.  It seems I own a racist iRiver.  Anyone know if there's a firmware upgrade for that?

Comments

[Lauren]

Surely you're courting me with that song list. You coy thing, you.

[Lauren]

Also: my Winamp only wants to play Nina Simone and Jurrasic 5, so I'm balancing you out.

[Dr. Virago]

You know what amazes me about the Friday Random 10 phenom -- that academic bloggers apparently all have the same taste. It's kind of humbling to realize one is not as eclectic as one thinks.

Btw, I own Hollywood Town Hall. Awesome.

[Belle Lettre]

Awesome list! I became fast friends with the only other person in school I found who even _knew_ about the Jayhawks! (btw, I own Hollywood Town Hall, Tomorrow the Green Grass, and Rainy Day Music) Did we not once talk about how you dislike Sean Penn, and did I forget to mention that the first time I really fell for a performance was in Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown," in which Penn's character is always struggling with the knowledge that he can never beat the greatest jazz guitarist? "Django...", he mutters ruefully.

Again, awesome list, kindred music brother.

[Craig]

Sleater-Kinney's "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone," while not one of my favorite songs, at least comes from their best period ('95-'99).

Surely you jest. "The Woods" is, by far, their best album.

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

I believe the four of us may well be responsible for all Jayhawk album sales in the past eight years or so. They ought to do us a favor, let Mark Olsen come back and make another album. Which all four of us will then buy. Then we can take them out to dinner or something. (I just read that Olsen and Louris did an acoustic tour together in 2005. How did I 1) not know about this and 2) no one bootleg it?

Lauren, I'm glad one of us is picking up the slack. I actually hit shuffle a few more times just to see what happened and, well, I'll post the results later tonight.

Dr. V., I've long ago given up the pretense of eclectic taste. It makes us "eclectic" in the way this beast I shall note name is eclectic; namely, in a very circumscribed way. (Don't click on that link. Really. It's terrible. I really ought not embarrass myself like that. Sigh.) I'd say we all have the same eclectic taste, which, as phenomenon go, is altogether strange, since I'm sure we all came to it via very different channels.

B.L., in high school, my friends and I only argued about music. Which new band was newer and/or more alternative. I could've spent that time reading. And yes, Sweet and Lowdown was also the moment when that guy-I-used-to-hear-behind-NPR-programming-notices became an actual person whose music I wanted to listen to. I'd be ashamed, but Allen said part of the point of the film was to proselytize, which means, well, I'm a sucker. But of all things to fall for, Django's one of the best.

Craig, I'll be honest: I haven't heard it yet. It's on my "to buy" list, but it slipped below a number of other albums because I hadn't been all that satisfied with their last couple. The Hot Rock was the last one I really loved, but if you took "The End of You" off it, I wouldn't have been too impressed by it either. That said, I've heard others make the same claim about The Woods, so I'll eventually pick it up. Although, even if it is their best album, unless they produce a couple more ones of similar caliber, '95-'99 will still be their best period. (I am, of course, rooting for a new dynasty. Two periods of sustained brilliance in a career is a lot to ask for, though. Most bands are like Big Star, burning brightly and fading into mediocrity.)

[Craig]

You should hear it -- despite some calling it a "classic rock" sound, it bears little resemblance to my dad's radio station. It's an interesting question: should the best piece come from the best period? We'd be left with questions concerning eras (consistency? innovation?) and the relation they bear to individual albums (whose own unity is often misleading). Take Sonic Youth as an example: regardless of how enjoyable "Sonic Nurse" is, few would dispute that their best period was "Evol", "Sister", "Daydream Nation" and few would dispute that one of those three is their best.

[Jon]

Actually, and seriously, it might be interesting to compare the non-eclectic eclecticism of a given social class fraction's musical taste, with the non-eclectic eclecticism of their reading habits, in matters theoretical and also non-theoretical.

Another, now Bourdieusian, way of framing the issue. (Except that Bourdieu's already in part been there, done that. See inter alia the excellent The Inheritors.)