Monday Morning Shuffle

1. Raum Der Zeit – Wizo, off of Survival of the Fattest
You know those songs that you love, but they just aren’t in your native language? Then you end up learning all the words -- or just the sounds of the words anyway -- but you have no idea what it means or what you’re saying and yet you can't stop singing it? Yeah, you all have one. I know it.
Well this is that song for me. It’s in German, and I’m pretty sure it’s an anti-nazi song or something like that. I’m too lazy to find the words right now but I’m pretty sure the translation is available somewhere. Here’s the thing, it’s a German punk song, and it sounds exactly like you’d expect a German punk song to sound. Lots of words that sound like their being fed through a wood-chipper and some chanting. In other words, it’s a good fist-pumping song. Download it. Or I’ll send it to you.

2. One-Armed Man - Project 86, off of Drawing Black Lines
Wow, my iTunes is obviously in a hardcore mood this morning. Another great fist-pumping, head-nodding, mosh-pit song. These guys reached their peak for me back in the POD, Christian hardcore, roadie for Freeverse days. (If you don’t know what Freeverse is, you’ve probably found this blog by accident, but just ask me.) I saw these guys at the old Mason Jar (no, it wasn’t the Jar, what was the other venue? I can’t remember. It was closed because they were selling drugs out of it. And we had a high-school battle of the bands in the basement. Somebody help. The Nile Theater?) in Mesa and it was absolutely the hottest concert I’ve ever been to. It was in July or August with no air conditioning and I wore jeans and moshed in the 2nd row the whole time. I thought I was going to pass out. Anyway, this is a hardcore sing-along song and it’s pretty inspirational. It’s a good song to work hard to, it makes you want to do good things. And I think it just found itself a place on the half-marathon playlist.

3. Taylor – Jack Johnson, off of On and On
And now for something completely different… I was really feeling the harder tunes this morning and the shuffle threw me for a loop. Oh well. I love the guitar at the beginning of this song. It makes me want to play my guitar. But then I’d pick it up and by the time I got it tuned and realized that I don’t know how to play, I’d get bored and frustrated and put it away and that would just be a waste of time. I don’t have to tell you that this is a good song and that Jack Johnson is good, and supremely cool. But most of his songs sound exactly the same. Are we sure he didn’t write songs for Everclear?

4. Braun Yr Aur - Led Zeppelin
This is a song I stumbled upon through Coheed & Cambria. C&C has this little guitar ditty at the end of their most recent CD. It’s kind a secret song deal and nobody really knows what it is called or what its relevance to the CD is but it sounds a little like Braun Yr Aur and so people just started calling it that. So I downloaded the actual Braun Yr Aur and although I hear a resemblance, the 2 songs are pretty different. I’m not sure how anyone made this connection. Anyway, it’s a cool short little guitar thing and if you’re into that I’m sure you’ll like this. In the words of Nole, “Listen to Led Zeppelin.”

5. Black and White Town – Doves, off of Some Cities
I’ve been waiting for these guys to pop up for a while so I could suggest them to you. They’re kind of a trendy choice right now but my friend Tim Hill recommended them to me and I’m a fan. This is probably the most eligible single off of this CD but I recommend listening to the CD as a whole. It’s kind of a lost art these days but CDs should be listened to from start to finish. A lot of people put a lot of effort into making the songs fit together in a certain way in order to make the CD tell a story and inject it’s various moods into your experience while you’re listening. Sure it doesn’t work with Britney Spears CDs but some bands are good enough to pull this off. This is one of them. As always, I’m more than happy to burn and/or IM this CD to you. It’s a good one and I highly suggest them.

I’m off to run and put some more thought into the half-marathon playlist. Keep the suggestions coming. I’ll be unveiling a good chunk of the list on Wednesday.