Friday Five : |ˈfrÄ«dÄ – fÄ«v| : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button in iTunes and share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up the media player of your choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.
The Five:
“The Universe Is Laughing” by The Guggenheim Grotto (from Live on Mountain Stage, 2009)
The danger in consuming as much music as I tend to is in losing the acts/albums/songs that move you; the joy is in rediscovering those you’ve forgotten. (Yes, I totally hummed “Faithfully” in my head after writing the second part of that sentence.) There was a good year where I listened to this tune at least once a week. Hell, there was a month that my wife, and I, traveled into NYC once a week to see these guys play. That said, I haven’t heard this song in at least year (maybe two), and it’s a nice reminder to hear it again.
“Sonata No. 14 in C#m (Moonlight Sonata)” by Depeche Mode (from Little 15, 1988)
Yes, you are reading that correctly, the b-side to “Little 15” was Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” as performed by Alan Wilder, and secretly recorded by Martin Gore. Oh, those crazy kooks!
“No Life” by Slipknot (from Slipknot, 1999)
Well, that was abrupt. I remember buying the first Slipknot record shortly after hearing “Wait & Bleed” on the radio. I was at a point in life where I wasn’t really watching MTV, and YouTube was a few years away, so I had no clue what the deal was with the masked army (seriously, there were NINE members) on the cover, but I dug the music enough. Until this last record, I’ve purchased everything the band has put out. I might not listen to it often, but when the mood strikes me, I definitely dig some of their tunes.
“Transitions” by Beastie Boys (from Ill Communication, 1994)
Yeah, no joke, “Transitions.”
Hearing this got me thinking about my favorite Beastie Boys record, which led down a rabbit hole of possibly ranking the group’s output. I don’t know that I could, honestly.
“Betray My Heart” by D’Angelo (from Black Messiah, 2014)
You have not truly experienced Black Messiah until you have plugged in some (real) headphones, turned down the lights, and put the needle on the vinyl. There are so many gotdamn layers to this record that it’d take weeks to peel back the onion and figure out what’s going on. But, at the heart of it all, there are a handful of deep, resonating, and timely tunes that only add to the legacy that D’Angelo is building. Sure it took fifteen years, but who’s counting when the result is this damn good.
What’s on your shuffle today?
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