Declaration
of Independence set to music by JTMP.org
THE MUSICAL AUDIT
by Kevin Wohlmut
Okay, a pause from the Peace Corps diplomacy and the politics and all that. I'm gonna play a frivolous little blog game, and I really hope you, yes you reading this, you'll help me by participating.
A lot of the blogs I read have played this "10 songs" game: The Musical Audit. (for example, http://www.norbizness.com/http://norbizness.com/archives/001471.html ) Many of you know, I'm heavy into music, so I've been dying to do this myself. I hope people will reply to this message and play the same game.
The rules are: Take your iPod or MP3 device or what-have-you, RIGHT NOW, and hit "Shuffle" or "Random" or whatever. Don't edit yourself, don't try and make your playlist look any better than it is by omitting songs.
List the first 10 songs that come up. Describe them for people who might not be intimately familiar with them. Rate each song on a scale of 1 to 10, and be stern but fair. Average the ratings, and report your total score for your music taste (at least, your current playlist).
Now when I do this, I am already a bit biased towards the good. My total music collection ( http://www.wohlmut.com/kevin/ENTIRE_LIST.xls ) is 12,000 songs. However, less than 9,000 songs fit onto my 20GB Lyra player. So I already stacked my Lyra with the songs that I thought were in the 25th percentile. Left behind a lot of real dogs.
And the rating thing is kinda arbitrary too. It´s supposed to be based on "coolness". I've seen bloggers rate their own lists based on musical artistry and skill, others based on staying power and relevance to today's scene, others based on popularity and memorability. I personally suspect that the main point of the quiz is to see if MP3 technology and cheap memory storage cause you to waste your time listening to music which even you don't like. I'm gonna try and rate them based on all of the above.
So let's spin the wheel and see what comes up.
Music Audit for Friday, March 30, 2006
Ooooh, I bet I'll score high, I see a bunch of good ones:
1) "Exotica Fever [Jinxy mix]" by I Cosmonauti (Album: "KFJC Curl Rider" ) Well I'm not off to a great start here, but I see that I will make it up later. This is a compilation album of surf music played by various artists who visited San Francisco radio station KFJC during 2004. Okay, so surf music is probably so-far-out-that-it's-still-out. Hasn't been "cool" since about 1957. On the other hand, this is an indy college radio station, and the group is not only talented, but also they're surfers from Italy. ( http://www.instromania.net/ART/ART_I/I%20COSMONAUTI.php ) Now that's kinda cool. End result: a toss-up. Not uncool, not cool. Give it a 5.0
2) "Search and Destroy" by Iggy Pop & the Stooges (Album: "Nude & Rude: The Best of Iggy Pop") Very few punk or rock fans will fail to recognize this old classic. If there's a ten-out-of-ten anywhere in my music collection, outside of the Beatles, it might be this one. Love the tune, love the lyrics (I even like the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover of this song, which everyone else hates.) I think I'm gonna be conservative and call it a 9.0 out of 10 (mainly because I keep thinking Iggy should have shouted more in the vocals. His performance has a definite edge to it, but it's not as forceful as I would have liked. This is the studio version, probably it was better live.)
3) "Cally Man" by Slightly Stoopid (Album: "Live in Colorado 10/4/02" ) This is one of my all-time favorite songs performed by one of my top-five favorite artists. The only catch is that it's a live version that is not quite as good as other live or album versions. It's a decent version, and I'll give it a lot of credit for being inventive. The album version is a kind-of croony acoustic guitar ballad whereas this live version has some record-scratching and seems to be overusing the echo effect on the vocals. Still, those effects kinda flow into the song pretty well. A mellow, soulful tune by talented artists (pardon the overused adjectives there). Like other songs on this list, here we have punk artists showing off their lighter, more mellow side, just to keep us all on our toes, and doing a stellar job outside their normal territory. I think I'm being conservative if I say it's 7.75 out of 10 Obtained from: http://www.sublimearchive.com , more about this particular website later.
4) "I Me Mine" by The Beatles (Album: "Web Bootlegs" ) A good song, though not my favorite, by my favorite Beatle (George Harrison). The studio version is off the "Let It Be" album. This version is a joke-y demo from a 1969 rarities album. It's short and clumsy and it sounds rather like a warm-up for more serious recording later. But... it's the Beatles. A Beatles rarity showed up in my random ten. If you're tired of the Beatles, you're tired of Life. 6.5 out of 10 , mainly for the historical rarity value. MP3 version obtained from: http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/plaza/7300/beatlesmusic.html
5) "Terrysong" by T-Minus-1 (Album: "Down to Earth" ) I've become viciously addicted to the punk/metal fusion of this San Francisco band. I like their second album better than their first one, though. And this song is a big departure from their aggro edge, it's a trippy, harmonious, almost acid-rock excursion. But it's beautiful. Smoothly done and absorbing. It's in my top-ten songs from a band that might be in my top-twelve favorite bands (out of probably a thousand or more bands in my collection). I just don't see how anyone could dislike this gem from an unknown local band. 8.5 out of 10 Eagerly awaiting their third album at: http://www.tminusone.com
6) "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" [cover] by 'Iz' [Israel Kamakawiwo'ole] (Album: "Alone in IZ World", also forms part of a medley on his most famous album, "Facing Future") Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar is a small milleu, but within it, few if any are better than Iz. And this is one of his more famous songs. This song is considered pretty much sacred by many Hawaiians, and I was frikken' born on O'ahu, man. My fellow kama'aina would kill me if I rated this performace as less than 8.5 out of 10
7) "Sunkist" by Buford (Album: "2003 Demo" ) Another local band, this time from San Diego, sneaks its way to the head of the line. Saw these guys live in one of my favorite watering holes in Pacific Beach when I picked up this demo. A perky, twangy guitar riff with a good showcase of the vocalist's range. Reasonably original tune, but I have heard similar stuff from other unknown groups. Nobody who doesn't live in Southern California could possibly recognize the band or the song. Certainly I had forgotten about it when it showed up in the randomizer. Not bad, but I don't think I can publicly defend a rating higher than 5.0 out of 10 . --Website: seems to be down and/or Google can't find it. I suspect these guys are gone.
8) "Little John" by Devilhead (Album: "Pest Control" ) The strong opener from an irreverent album by an irreverent Seattle 90s alt-band who fall between the cracks of classification. Their incessant focus on kinky sex and scatology marks them as punks (probably the best song on this album is entitled "Driving the Chocolate Bus", although there's another good one called "Fluffer"). However their musical style is more like operatic rock. I got this album because I'm a Pearl Jam fanatic and Devilhead was signed to Stone Gossard's record label, Loosegroove. It's a fun diversion but hard to defend as a classic. 5.5 out of 10
9) "Jury in Disguise" by The Lost Pilgrims (Album: "Live in Chicago 11/94" ) A second San Francisco local band finds their way onto the random ten! I guess it's official, I am a local-music zealot. My college friend Eric beat the skins for this band, which I followed around to various shows all up and down California. A strong rock song and this version has more grinding guitar than other versions. Drawbacks: I like other Lost Pilgrims songs better, and this one isn't the best vocal performance from my friend Martin. I think it's gonna stay above six due to good musicianship. 6.5 out of 10 This group broke up before there even was a Web; re-formed under a different name, but now they're gone. Check my Tribute page here.
10) "Ebin" by Sublime (Album: "Sinsemillia [1996]" ) Among the most famous (of many) bootleg studio albums from Sublime during their prime years. The quality of the recording is poor, but the production values of the song are slick. Which is odd from a bunch of punks, but songs like this one demonstrate why they were on the verge of megastardom when lead singer Bradley died of an O.D. I think enough time has passed, since they were overplayed so badly after his death, that we can now safely appreciate them again. "Coolness" rating doesn't necessarily have to mean "snobbishness". Brad puts in a good vocal performance here, song is nicely arranged and entertaining. It's far from my favorite Sublime song, but I don't see how it ranks less than 8.0 out of 10 . --Obtained from: http://www.sublimearchive.com , an incredible site for free music in this vein by a huge stable of different artists.
FINAL AVERAGE SCORE: 7.03 out of 10
My randomizer treated me fairly well. Many blogs I read, who take this test, end up scoring between 5 and 6. I guess if a song scores less than 5, you are unlikely to load it onto your MP3 device. But the prospect of mass storage seems to lead us to carry a lot of deadwood around. This tends to make one's score average out, to the middle, closer to five. I'm sure I have a lot of deadwood on my Lyra, but perhaps not as much as other people (if you can tolerate the fact that I favor obscure local bands whom nobody else has heard of). There´s too much good music floating around out there, to waste your time listening to boring music. I think I passed the test with good marks.
With about three exceptions, every song on the list could qualify as Alternative Rock, which seems to indicate I don´t have a lot of breadth in my collection. I'm surprised not to see any Pearl Jam in the list, when probably upwards of 12% of the 9,000 songs in my Lyra are from Pearl Jam. Given Murphy's law, that probably means the next time I try this exercise, there might be four or five Pearl Jam songs in there. (Apparently it is permitted to skip songs that have come up before, and also when the same band makes it into your randomizer twice.) But we'll see -- did I mention that part of the rules for this exercise, is to audit your collection regularly? Again, it's meant to help you identify and trim off deadwood.
Now your turn! Yes, I mean YOU!
Looking for inspiration? Check my tribute pages to some of my favorite lyrics,
(pages still under construction), at: http://www.wohlmut.com/kevin/Lyrics/LyricNav1.htm