Filed Under: music

Mix it up: The aging mix

May 3, 2011 at 4:09 pm

Mixed Tape

Photo by Macappsaddict / by BY-NC-SA 2.0

I’m making another themed music mix, and since you guys were so helpful last time I thought I’d throw out another challenge for you. This mix’s theme is aging, so all of the songs have to talk about being a certain age or about getting older. There seem to be an abundance of songs about teenagers, but material starts to scarcer the older you get. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Sound of Music – Sixteen Going on Seventeen
Stevie Nicks – Edge of Seventeen
Janis Ian – At Seventeen
Ace of Base – Blooming 18
Paul Hardcastle – Nineteen
The Who’s Tommy – Twenty-One
Gin Blossoms – 29
Aimee Mann – 31 Today
Dido – See You When You’re 40
The Beatles – When I’m 64
Five for Fighting – 100 Years
Joni Mitchell – The Circle Game
ETA: (Forgot this one!) Band of Horses – Older
ETA: (Thought of another one!) Rod Stewart – Ooh La La (I Wish That I Knew What I Know Now)

Have you got any other songs for me? Songs should be about aging, not just about a number. So, “Three is the Magic Number” or “One” don’t really fit even though they have numbers in the song titles.

Ok, GO!

Mix it up: Same title, different song

March 3, 2011 at 7:52 am

Mixed Tape

Photo by Macappsaddict / by BY-NC-SA 2.0

I used to make mixed tapes for friends, actual tapes, which is one of those signs that I’ve been on the planet longer than a steadily growing percentage of the population. I make mixed CDs now and don’t even own a tape player, which means I won’t be listening to the recordings of my 6th grade band concert any time soon.

Sometimes I get high-concept ideas for CD mixes, like a mix of songs that track the progress of my life. Or a CD where all the tracks are covers of the same song. My latest concept is “Same Name, Different Song” which consists of songs that have the same name but aren’t covers, just totally different songs. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

Forever Young – Rod Stewart
Forever Young – Alphaville (Though I personally prefer the Youth Group cover)
Breathe – Erasure
Breathe – Sixpence None the Richer
Breathe – Jane French (The theme from “Passions” oh how I miss you)
Breathe – Maria McKee
Photograph – Weezer
Photograph – REM feat. Natalie Merchant
American Girls – Weezer (No link, sorry!)
American Girl – Tom Petty (Ok, not an exact title match, but close!)
Trouble – Ray Lamontagne
Trouble – Shampoo
Trouble – Shawn Colvin
Blush – Ben Lee
Blush (Only You) – Plumb
Independence Day – Imani Coppola
Independence Day – Ani DiFranco
Dancing in the Dark – Bruce Springsteen
Dance in the Dark – Lady Gaga (Again, not an exact match, but close!)
Heart – Pet Shop Boys
Heart – Stars
The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel
The Boxer – Carbon Leaf

Can you guys think of any others? If I were a programmer and cared more, I could probably write a script to parse my media library and find all the matches for me, but it’s more fun to ask you guys.

BTW, I realize my last two posts have been about music. I promise this isn’t going to become PQ’s Music Blog. It’s just a coincidence.

Why didn’t anyone tell me about Last.fm radio?

March 1, 2011 at 7:03 am

Last.fm radio

So, I was messing about on the Internet this week trying to do a bazillion things at once, and I somehow stumbled upon the Radio link at the top of the Last.fm home page.

Ok, let me backup. Last.fm is an audio scrobbler, which is a funny phrase that means it tracks all the music you play on your computer. (Well, all the music you play in programs supported by the plugin, like iTunes, WinAmp, etc. I think it can also download your iPod stats.) I’ve used Last.fm to track my songs for years now, and you can see my stats here. (Please ignore the Bieber. I was just experimenting. I didn’t inhale.)

Ok, back to where I was. If you click on the “Your Library Radio” link in the sidebar of the Radio page a widget loads that starts playing songs that you’ve scrobbled. It’s like having your MP3 collection with you anywhere, which is handy for me because I keep all my music on an external hard drive that I don’t like to lug to coffeeshops. It doesn’t play your whole library because they are limited to songs they have the rights to play, and I assume the artists all get royalties, but it’s still pretty damn cool. I was listening to it at a coffee shop this week and forgot I was listening to a stream and not my hard drive until an ad came on.

This is so awesome that I cannot believe someone hadn’t told me about it before. If you’re not a Last.fm user, it’s probably significantly less awesome since you don’t have any tracks scrobbled to your library. There is also room for hilarity because the widget shows pictures of the artists while it plays their songs. When I listened to a Kylie Minogue track I felt like I was watching soft porn.

If you do use Last.fm, I hope I’ve enlightened you a bit today!

Speaking of radio, I will be on it (the old school version) a couple times in the upcoming weeks, assuming that my cell phone signal doesn’t drop out mid-sentence. Here is a post with the details. I had a great interview on KERA in Dallas yesterday, but OMG it is quite a mental marathon to talk about yourself for a whole hour, particularly when a side effect of the headache medication you’re on is dry mouth. I drank a whole glass of water and wanted another one. Sometimes I wish I could send in a stunt double to do this stuff for me, hopefully with cuter hair.

Subway Commit to Fit Giveaway: iPod Shuffle and $10 iTunes gift card

October 20, 2010 at 12:33 pm

In the spirit of giving away other people’s loot, it’s time for another Subway Commit to Fit giveaway. As I mentioned before, the Commit to Fit program is encouraging people to set their own fitness goals, like Jared Fogle aka Jared the Subway Guy who is training for the New York City Marathon. This time around, they’re giving away a green iPod shuffle and a $10 iTunes gift card. (For the tech geeks among us, this is the 4th generation 2BG iPod shuffle.)

iPod Shuffle

There is no doubt a good playlist can help you keep moving. When I ran a half-marathon, it was only a dance remix of Bryan Adams singing “Run to You” that got me through mile 10. Here are some of the songs I’ve been listening to on my walks recently. Links go to YouTube or iLike, and occasionally feature an anime fan video:

Catie Curtis – You Can Always Be Gone
Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (Not only a catchy song, but a good review of spelling.)
Seasun – Delorean
The Veils – Sit Down by the Fire
Carbon Leaf – The Boxer
Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa – Hit Me Baby One More Time
Glasvegas – Geraldine (Best song about a social worker that I’ve ever heard.)
Shout Out Louds – Tonight I Have to Leave it
Florence + the Machine – Dog Days are Over

This giveaway is open to residents of the United States only. To enter, leave a comment below listing one of your favorite songs to work out to. Contest closes at 11:59pm EST on Sunday, October 24, 2010. Winner will be chosen randomly. For more information about the Commit to Fit program and for a chance to win up to $26,200, visit the Subway Facebook page.

Disclosure: The prizes listed in this post were provided for free.

Take a new song

November 9, 2009 at 9:10 am

When I am on a road trip, I want to listen to good music. The car is my not-quite-soundproof listening booth. I want to listen to my favorite, familiar songs. But how did my favorite, familiar songs become favorite and familiar? They must have been new and unknown once, before I listened to them over and over and learned the lyrics and the melody. If I listen to them too much, I find myself thinking, “Oh, that is a good song, yes, but I have listened to it too much already. I have it all figured out. Those chord changes do not surprise me. That syncopation is nothing new.” Then I must find something new.

I am always struggling to give new music a chance versus snuggling in the sonic warmth of those comfortable, well-worn, songs. I can be impatient listening to new music. I don’t know if I will like the song or the singer or the instrumentation when I play the MP3 or watch the video on YouTube. When a new song comes on the radio, if it doesn’t grab me within 10 or 20 seconds, I find myself hopping stations looking for songs I know I like.

But I know I have to give new music a chance. I never know when I could discover my new favorite band. I might hear a song that I will want to hear again and again until I want to know everything about the members of the band that created it. How old are they? Where are they from? Who are their musical influences? Do they have a cool web site? Do they blog? It is so exciting to blast new music alone in my car, feeling such joy at discovering something so beautiful and sparkly and new. I want to tell everyone about this pretty thing I have discovered.

Filed Under: music

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