I Take It Back...

... sort of.

I am still wrangling with the genius feature of the pod. My past annoyances with it have lessened since previous rants, but some irritation remains. For example, it has a habit of instead of using remixes rather than the original you want to use - it does this for Music Sounds Better with You by Stardust. Don't tell me you can use genius for a song if you can't, you annoying thing.

Nonetheless, yesterday it came up with the best selection of 25 tunes. Not that each one was a total favourite, but I loved the variety and sheer weirdness of the tunes it came up with - the juxtapositions were just bizarre, but ace. It gives me hope that genius is learning about me and so, in turn, coming up with record selections more along my lines. So, having not made a list for yonks, I thought I'd reproduce it for you here... lucky you.

1. Paris by Friendly Fires (starting song)
   
2. The Eraser - Thom Yorke
3. Just Like Honey - The Jesus & Mary Chain (am definitely getting into them, that will be my next retro discovery)
4. Spooky - Dusty Springfield
5. I Turn My Camera on - Spoon
6. Long Hot Summer - The Style Council
7. Fight Test - The Flaming Lips (I do not listen to this enough)
   
8. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
9. The Hurting - Tears for Fears
10. Baby Boy - Beyonce feat. Sean Paul
11. Balloons - Foals
12. Lovesick - Friendly Fires
13. Eat Yourself - Goldfrapp
14. Sea Within a Sea - The Horrors (best album of the year pour moi thus far)
15. Don Gon Do It - The Rapture
16. No One Does It Like You - Department of Eagles
17. Turn It on - Franz Ferdinand
18. Golden Phone - Micachu
19. Naive - The Kooks
20. Cheap and Cheerful - The Kills
21. Strict Machine - Goldfrapp
22. I'm Sticking With You - Velvet Underground
23. Kids with Guns - Gorillaz
24. Lovin' You - Minnie Riperton (no, I'm not joking!)
25. On Board - Friendly Fires

Sunday Selector: The Monday Edition

Yesterday was a blur of activity. Well, not really. I watched West Ham v. Man Utd., then I went to a baby shower, bookclub and watched (after several fumbling attempts to utilize modern technology) two further episodes of Battlestar Galactica, my newest obsession. Goddamn it's tense. Essentially, it was not as relaxing a Sunday afternoon as it should have been. I was also recovering from a very late night out in BK watching Little Boots on Friday (my well-documented obsession of late).

So I wasn't sure what to go with for a starter for ten. Genius is still refusing to acknowledge Little Boots' presence. Two of my favourite songs of recent times got played at the club - the Aeroplane remix of Paris (originally Friendly Fires) and William's Blood by Grace Jones, but Genius doesn't deign to allow them a go either. So, in honour of a great night out (and great food although TERRIBLE drinks at Relish, first) we were going to go with Shove It by Santogold. But, of course, Genius doesn't like that either. It really is annoying that so many songs just don't work.

Right, inspired by one of my favourite concerts ever in BK, and her amazing performance last night (and I do mean the outfits), it's Bamboo Banga by MIA.

1. Fancy Footwork - Chromeo. I've heard this called "Stripper Music," and I sort of get it. Still, it makes me shake my arse, it cannot be denied. Although Bona Fide Lovin' is the one that worms inside my brain like almost nothing else. I have great memories of bopping around Pasadena to this album last spring break.
   
2. Earth Intruders - Bjork. I find her equally annoying and yet compelling to listen to. I can see why people loathe her as I listen to her, but the music, particularly the later, crunchier and more abstract stuff that has so much more electro and heavy drums and bass... it's brilliant.
3. DVNO - Justice. This whole album is pretty special, and has really grown on me (although the weird kid-singing ones are still slightly annoying), but this definitely makes a case for my favourite. What the hell it means, I have no idea.
   
4. Hustler - Simian Mobile Disco. This copy is actually from the Spank Rock Fabric Live (which is one of my favourites). I love the way they mix it in with big euphoric trance and then that sludgy bassline comes in, and then the euphoric comes over the top.
   
5. Touch It/Technologic - Daft Punk. This is from Alive 2007, one of the albums that confirms in my mind that 2007 was one of the best years for music that I can remember (1994 being another GENIUS one). The particular genius of this is that I loathe Discovery, the second Daft Punk album, yet this manages on each track to mix a song from the amazing Homework with a song from Discovery and it just works.
6. In the Morning - Junior Boys. Somehow I missed Junior Boys first time around, but again it's that crunchy bassline and I love the vocals so much. It really reminds me of someone else... can't work it out. But will do.
7. Don't Stop - Brazilian Girls. I went to a rather interesting concert of theirs that took far, far too long to get going. But the singer being highly preggers and wandering around in a body stocking was pretty awesome.
8. Galang - M.I.A. This was responsible for the most amazing bit of her concerts at Terminal 5 last year (or whenever it was). That "ya ya hey" bit - spinetingling. And everyone goes mad. Shame it was on those stupid car ads.
9. Hearts on Fire - Cut Copy. I downloaded this but haven't really listened to it yet - I think I bought it just because it was $5 on amazon's end of year sale, and heard various good (albeit generic) things about it. It's ok. Meh.
10. Sad Sad City - Ghostland Observatory. This is by far my favourite of their tunes. Funny how Genius does manage to find that sort of stuff... maybe it's not that bad after all. Then I remember how many songs it won't let me start a playlist with - LCD Soundsystem? Really, Genius? But I do love this. I'm so torn. Gah.
    

Sunday Selector: Guitar Hero Edition

So, I finally got Guitar Hero. Tragic, but true. And, of course, dear reader, I am utterly obsessed with it. Actually, "obsessed" doesn't do it justice.

There is no Jimi Hendrix on Guitar Hero. You can do Paint it, Black, but again, Genius cannot apparently deal with that (really? The effing Stones? How rubbish IS this program?). Nonetheless, I was in the mood for some serious guitar music, and so I listened to that on the way home from football and thought, who better to start off a genius top ten? So here it is - the Guitar Hero edition stemming from All Along the Watchtower.

1. White Room - Cream. I love this song, although in my mind, nothing ever beats Sunshine of Your Love which you can do on Guitar Hero, and is by far my favourite thing to play on it. And really is the best thing they ever did - sexy, genius guitar and fab. But I do love this, too.
   
2. Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane. Oh, how Grace Slick rocked. I'm sort of named in homage to her, if not entirely after her. Rocking. If only they could have seen "They Built This City." That's tragic.
3. Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones. I've been trying to work out what my favourite Stones song is, and I just can't. Under My Thumb is bizarrely, sadistically sexy; Paint It, Black is hypnotic and a wonderful description of a disturbed individual; You Can't Always Get What You Want is just fab. But if I'm in the mood for overwrought, haunting, dramatic and sexy, Gimme Shelter always wins. I just love that beginning, as the layers of sound and the volume build up.
4. About a Girl - Nirvana (MTV unplugged version). The more I think about it and listen to them, the more I am amazed at just how great Nirvana were. I took them for granted, I think, and still do, but the melodies are spectacular and they just seemed to meld the Pixies' gift for melodies and songs with Sonic Youth's sensibilities on dischordant songs.
   
5. Evil Ways - Santana. He's cheesy, but I still really enjoy it. The guitar is too smooth to really get to me - I know he's extremely gifted, but it's almost loungey to me - I prefer something a bit rougher. But, like I say, I still enjoy it, and this is much closer to the sort of stuff I like - more latin sounding.
   
6. Old Man - Neil Young. I absolutely, 100% fricking LOVE this Neil Young album - it's from Harvest, and although I tolerate his other stuff, I just really love this whole album - it's amazing from start to finish. Theatrical in some places (There's a World), political (Alabama, Are You Ready for the Country?) and just plain weird in others (A Man Needs a Maid). This is just lovely - the guitar is so pretty and folksy, and the chorus and its harmonies suck you in so that it's really, really hard to not sing it.
7. A Town Called Malice - The Jam. The start is so nicked from You Can't Hurry Love, but it's so exuberant, and I love the way that it takes a motown sound to talk politics. This is definitely one of my favourite Jam songs.
8. Highway Star - Deep Purple. I definitely prefer the more hippiefied Deep Purple - Hush, Smoke Along the Water. This is a bit too headbanging without anything else going on.
   
9. Voodoo Child - Jimi Hendrix. Sweet!
10. Roxanne - The Police. This remains in my top 5 songs of all time. I just love it. I know, I know, it's The Police. But how could you resist those pleas to her, the way his voices gets strangled with the emotion? And I fricking love the backing to this - the guitar is just genius. I just don't understand how someone couldn't love this song. It is, also, my karaoke song, but that's a whole other, truly terrifying story.
    

Sunday Selector: NOT brought to you by Genius

I've not used Genius before - I hate the whole iTunes recommending stuff it thinks you ought to buy. But, one of my favourite bloggers uses it every Friday to generate a random playlist, and I thought that it might be a fun thing to try, to compare what Genius thinks about my record collection as opposed to what I'm listening to. Well, I'm trying to but it has to "gather information" about my library and has been doing so for several hours now. Gah!

Right, we're good to go. Genius, do your thing! Starting song: Stuck on Repeat, Little Boots. Oh, it turns out that Genius can't handle this song. Apparently it is limited to certain songs about which it can get information. How crap is that? I wouldn't mind, but I bought it from iTunes - if I bought it from another source, I could understand it, but I didn't. GAH.

So, anyway, this is suspended until I can actually get it to work. Also, a while ago I managed to wipe an awful lot of my iTunes library, accidentally, from my external hard drive. It finally showed up (I don't understand how, but there you go), and I am now painstakingly adding it back in. It means I cannot, alas, use the stupid old iTunes. In VERY BAD MOOD. That's also probably because TOH has gone away for five days, it's cold in the house, and I am working on what is supposed to be a day off.