The good,bad and crazy of the art of ipod shuffling

Ok so I've championed the art of the album as a whole more then once on this here website. And I stick by my belief that now one can truly be considered an artist in the field of music without being able to create an album...elvis i'm looking at you buddy( on a side note one of the best lines ever in a song ever is from Public Enemy: Elvis might of been a hero to some but he doesn't mean shit to me...hells yeah.). Anyway lately, and especially in the morning while driving I have had the serious problem of trying to decide what music to listen to while doing said driving. So I've been doing the ole I pod shuffle. Taking all 16772 songs on my lil juke box and mixing them together.

Today alone I've poured through 283 songs...not that i've listened to them all, i skip a lot....Let me pause here and say that I've come to realise as much as I love the man there is no reason for anyone, let a lone a lame suburbanite as myself to have 28 lil' wayne albums...4 full albums and like 2 more albums of his best songs....plus everything he's ever done on anyone elses records is enough...But the really cool thing is I'm listening to a lot of stuff I wouldn't normally get around to listening to...I'm listening to soul coughing right now and loving it, that only ever happens when I'm around mike.Now It's bring da ruckus by wu-tang clan."bring tha bring tha mutha fuckin ruckus'' still the best opening to a hip hop album maybe ever and i'm sure someone could argue one of the best hip hop albums ever. But there we go I'm thinking and talking and enjoying music i usually just pass over.

The thing is we live in an era of music unlike any other before us. There is an infinite amount of content at the fingertips of any who reach for it. My parents talk about having like a dozen LP back in their highschool and college days, and my parent are pretty music savy: bowie,eno,queen,csny, niel young...they like good stuff and like it a lot. Can you imagine only having 12 records....I can't imagine going a year without getting 12 new albums. I'm obtaining through questionable paths 8 albums right now.(now i got pahses and stages by willie nelson playing, see this is fun). Anyway there is so much you can have at your fingertips. I have about 1400 albums on the ole ipod. 1400!!! that's a lot even by the amount that i digest daily. so of course there are things that are being pushed to the side.This tends to make songs and music in general less important. I mean in reality there are probablly 12 albums i could name that are like the ultimate of ultimate of importance to me and that literaly have attached themselves to my soul.oooh there's an article, john's big ones and why they are so...strangely enough me and my mom share one of these intense album connections and we will never listen to that album at the same time....try to guess what album it is and if you get it right you get 80 indie points 600 friend points and a cookie.

So back to the point, maybe there isn't one...there usually isn't one, like a Fiery Furnace song...(1917 off the FF's blueberry boat album is in my ears). We have so much music floating around us just there for the taking. So what do we choose to listen to. Does that make each song, each album more or less important. When you pick to listen to A over B are you saying A is better because it's getting that precious air time in between your ears. What does that say about you...for me I'm a lot more country and a much bigger pussie then any of you can imagine...shhhhh. ('there were rumors he was into field hockey players'....ok 1000 indie points if you can tell me what that little opening tangent is from, hint: it's spoken in the studio before the song starts and it's a girl bass player saying it)

One of my favorite things about this little shuffle effect is the mixed up memories that come a long with the music. I never realised how one song can send me spining on a daydreamic tangent. I was thinking about tennis class in bisbee arizona and my old freind nigel for the first time in like 5 years because of a beck song i hadn't heard in just about as long. (now i'm groovin to Be thankful for what you got by Massive attack, and thinking about katie melocik my ex-friend aaron's cool sister, who introduced me to this band, and the art of smoking bannana peels). I've just been in this wierd state all day thinking about all these personal connections that specific songs that randomly come up on shuffle have on my life. It's like this wierd dream state, the people at the coffee shop must have thought i was really high, just stairing off into space smilling and giggling to myself...wierdo.

Here's the problem, and especially for me. Music is an addiction to some. Obviouslly i have a pretty bad case. Listening to music like this just juices me up. I've now started a list of things I want to listen to again, things i want to share, things i want to blog about, songs i need to download. I mean it's totally absorbing. To the point where real and important things in life, like watching battle star galactica are going to be possed over so that i can feed the addiction. I mean I've added 11 albums to my dl list since i started this little blog. Oi i am sick. And now I've written a lot and have really no clear point , thesis or agruement. See blogging is like a kloisterman novel...it's just rambled barely coehisive thought based around cultural events. And yes let's end with that reference and critisism...(oh and i'm ending with 'If not now then When' by the Books...and if you have never listened to the albums Lemon of pink or Lost and Safe by the books you would do yourself a favor and mind meld with that beautiful shit.)