So. For this installment of iPod roulette I got my brother-in-law, Tim, to subject his randomized music library to our scorn or vicarious embarrassment or whatever. The results, I think you'll see, were quite different from Eric's, a fact which will make Eric the saddest man in America this Holiday season, I'm sure.
Jeff: Okay. So now we're on the record, Tim. Do you have the iPod--do you have it on shuffle yet?
Tim: I haven't yet.
Jeff: Okay, do it now.
Tim: Want me to push 'shuffle songs?'
Jeff: Yeah. Like, start a new shuffle.
Tim: Here we go.
Jeff: Okay. Tell me what the first song is and then pause it.
Tim: The first song is . . . is Charles Brown.
Jeff: What's the song?
Tim: The song is 'Lonesome Feeling.'
Jeff: 'Lonesome Feeling.'
Tim: And I have never heard this song before.
Jeff: (Laughter) Well, you have headphones there, right?
Tim: Yeah.
Jeff: So listen to it; see if you recognize it. I'll take a minute. You listen to some of it.
Tim: Okay. (Pause for about thirty seconds) Yeah. Never heard it before.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Tim: But it's off his record Driftin' Blues. And, uh--
Jeff: (Laughter) Wait a minute. I am reasonably certain that you only have that album because I gave it to you. And so, what? You never listened to it? Cuz I have that album and I don't necessarily remember that song, but I love Charles Brown.
Tim: Yeah, I mean, it's saxophone rich and so, I'm sure it's . . . good.
Jeff: (Laughter) What, does that drive you into the corner?
Tim: No, no, no. I think it's . . . it's good.
Jeff: Well, so, here's what you have to do immediately after this interview: put Charles Brown on your damn playlist. Cuz, he's cool. It's soulful.
Tim: I'll do it.
Jeff: All right. So, what's the next song on--that your shuffle comes up with.
Tim: The next song is by Swan Lake. The name of the song is 'Shooting Rockets.'
Jeff: Okay, I've never heard of Swan Lake.
Tim: Swan Lake is a collaboration between Dan Bejar and, uh . . .
Jeff: Yes. No, I have heard of this. And the guy from Wolf Parade, right?
Tim: Yeah. What's his name?
Jeff: Spencer . . .
Tim: Spencer Krug.
Jeff: Krug. Right. Yeah.
Tim: And the other guy from Spencer Krug's old band, the fat kid, the fat guy.
Jeff: (Laughter) That I don't know.
Tim: Frog Eyes. That guy.
Jeff: I got nothing, but okay.
Tim: So, you know. A Canadian power--indie power--group.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Tim: But the album for me kinda fell flat. It has a couple good songs--
Jeff: Do you remember this song in particular?
Tim: Uh. Let me listen to it really quick, just to remember.
Jeff: Yeah.
Tim: Hold on.
Jeff: Yeah.
Tim: (Pause for about thrity seconds) Okay.
Jeff: So?
Tim: Yeah, I do remember.
Jeff: And?
Tim: And it's--it's not anything worth remembering.
Jeff: It's just there.
Tim: You know, Dan Bejar--
Jeff: You went to that Destroyer concert with me, right?
Tim: I did.
Jeff: Yeah. That was cool.
Tim: It was fun.
Jeff: Yeah, all right.
Tim: It was good.
Jeff: Okay, so, uh--but not good enough to make a, uh, a Swan Lake record anything.
Tim: Yeah, I mean . . .
Jeff: All right. What are you gonna do?
Tim: They're at their worst--
Jeff: I gotta say, so far your iPod seems pretty nonplussed with you.
Tim: I know.
Jeff: All right, so what's third?
Tim: Huh?
Jeff: What's third? Third thing on your shuffle. You get five.
Tim: Okay. It is, um . . . John Coltrane. 'Autumn Serenade.'
Jeff: Oh, see, that's--that's a good one.
Tim: And I have heard this one before.
Jeff: Yeah, I hope so.
Tim: And . . . it's good. I like John Coltrane. I'm not a big--I'm not a big jazz person, but there're some things that I like and I do like John Coltrane.
Jeff: Oh, man. You should just go home and listen to John Coltrane until your ears bleed.
Tim: Yeah.
Jeff: You know?
Tim: Anyway, yeah. I like John Coltrane. He's a good guy.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Tim: And this is off the album John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.
Jeff: So, okay. You have nothing more to say other than "it's good," you bastard? This is, I mean you should be able to wax philosophic about 'Autumn Serenade,' it seems to me.
Tim: (Silence)
Jeff: (Laughter) Okay. Good answer. You win. So what's next? What's fourth?
Tim: Next one?
Jeff: Yeah, fourth.
Tim: Okay. Next one is by the Buena Vista Social Club. 'Orgullecida.'
Jeff: God, all right. I wish my Spanish were better. We should ask Nate what that means.
Tim: Orgullecida. I dunno.
Jeff: Do you remember which one that is?
Tim: Yeah. It's um, the one that's called 'Orgullecida.'
Jeff: (Laughter)
Tim: (Sings) "Orgullecida!"
Jeff: (Laughter)
Tim: Yeah, you know. It sounds like that.
Jeff: Did you see the movie? The documentary about the making of the album?
Tim: Yeah. This really--this album made me really like Cubans.
Jeff: (Laughter)
Tim: So, you know.
Jeff: It did what all those posters of Che could never do for you.
Tim: Yeah.
Jeff: So, did you also see that they released a live recording, I think from that New York concert from the end of the documentary. I think that's the concert they just released as a live album and on Metacritic it's like one of the best reviewed albums of the year.
Tim: Hmm.
Jeff: Yeah. Even though it's, I think, the same songs that you already have, so . . .
Tim: (Silence)
Jeff: No strong feelings about that, though . . .
Tim: I think, out of--I mean, there's some other, some better songs, but I think that entire record that they made was--
Jeff: It is really listenable.
Tim: I listen to it every summer.
Jeff: Yeah, I agree.
Tim: I listen to it at, you know, barbecues and--
Jeff: No, it is really listenable. It does always sound good. Did you ever buy any of the spinoff albums by the different people who were in . . .
Tim: Yeah. What's the old guy's name?
Jeff: They're all old, dude. That's kind of the gimmick.
Tim: (Laughter) The guy who's the singer, what's his name?
Jeff: Oh, I do know his name, but now I can't remember it. As soon as we're being recorded I . . . go blank. Ah, it doesn't matter. But you have that one, too?
Tim: Yeah, I do. What's his name? I don't remember.
Jeff: If I think of it later I'll pretend you remembered it in the written version of this.
[Editor's Note: I didn't so pretend and his name is Ibrahim Ferrer.]
Jeff: So, right. Okay. Last one. Last one. Big number. Let's hope it's more embarrassing than any of these have been.
Tim: Yeah, okay. So the last one is . . . drumroll.
Jeff: Drumroll.
Tim: Okay, it is the Pixies.
Jeff: Ah, you fucker. How come every song you've gotten has been totally defensible and good? All right, what song, what song?
Tim: 'Nimrod's Son.'
Jeff: Oh yeah, sure. That's even a good one. Fuck you.
Tim: Yeah. It is good. So, I started listening to the Pixies not too long ago; maybe--no, that's not true. Kind of a while ago. I'm trying to think. Where was I? I was on--I'm trying to remember.
Jeff: It better not be because of, you know, Fight Club. Else I'll come over there and slap you.
Tim: What does it have to do with Fight Club again, I'm sorry.
Jeff: There's that Pixies song 'Where is My Mind' in the end of Fight Club and after that, suddenly people liked the Pixies, you know, who didn't like the Pixies before and I . . . I had to slap all of them.
Tim: Really?
Jeff: Yes. Fuck you.
Tim: I think it was after that. I think it was like 2002. Fight Club was like 2001, right? 2000?
Jeff: Actually, yeah, I don't remember. It might have been before that.
Tim: Yeah, I think it was 2002. I think, yeah, I think I got into them in the end of 2002. I listened to Surfer Rosa. And it's like--It's like one of those--it's only happened a couple of times where, like, you listen to a artist, like, for the first time really and you're kind of just blown away?
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.
Tim: It's like, I remember the first time I--
Jeff: Changed your life.
Tim: Or like, not really listened to David Bowie, but like, really listened to it, you know?
Jeff: Yeah.
Tim: Yeah, it was incredible. I think Surfer Rosa was the first one I listened to. No! Doolittle. It was like the whole album--
Jeff: Yeah. I know what you mean. It's true. You don't get very many of those, you know?
Tim: And then I listened--shortly after that I listened Surfer Rosa, but I didnt listen to this one, Death to the Pixies until--
Jeff: Death to the Pixies, that's the greatest hits, right?
Tim: Is it?
Jeff: Yeah. I think.
Tim: I didn't listen to this until like 2006.
Jeff: I see. Well, all right. I will tell you this much: the person who is going to be the most angry at you after I publish this blog is gonna be, uh, Eric.
Tim: (Laughter) Why?
Jeff: Who you are going to see soon enough, because he's visiting here for the holidays, and he's probably gonna--oh, he's probably gonna dump a vat of something noxious on you.
Tim: (Laughter)
Jeff: Because he had five songs, and he did not get a single one he was happy with, you know? Yeah, I mean he was like--his iPod was like out to cock-block him on a date or something.
Tim: (Laughter)
Jeff: It was determined to make a fool of him. It was like--it was clearly--compared to this? I mean you got five songs in a row that I think are all--not only mostly--not only are four of these five easily defensible great songs, but the fifth one, which is maybe that Swan Lake song is, you know, it's cool because it's so obscure and--
Tim: It's not a very good album. It is cool I guess because it's obscure, I guess, but it's not--
Jeff: But that was Eric's dream, was to get a bunch of obscure things he didn't really like and pretend that he did.
Tim: Yeah.
Jeff: Okay. So that said, I guess I still should give you the same thing that I gave Eric, even thought it isn't fair to Eric, but I should give you an alternate. Is there a song that, like, you really wish had come up cuz it would have made you seem the way, you know, the way that you wish you seemed?
Tim: Uh . . .
Jeff: Not really?
Tim: Lemme think. I mean, it was pretty fair. I guess.
Jeff: (Laughter) Sure.
Tim: Um, let me think . . .
Jeff: You know, I know that you have, on your iPod, you have songs that you made - how embarrassing would it have been if one of those had come up?
Tim: Embarrassing.
Jeff: Oh, it would have been really--
Tim: Well, I dunno if there would have been much conversation since I'm the only one who has really heard them.
Jeff: Yeah, but I would have pilloried you.
Tim: You would have pilloried me?
Jeff: (Laughter) Yes. It's a word.
Tim: What's that mean?
Jeff: (Laughter)
Tim: (Laughter) What's it mean?
Jeff: Oh geez. You're only doing this now because you know it's getting into the transcript and will make me look worse than you.
END
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