So, I’ve had my car for about 16 months now. And pretty much, it’s been one CD of MP3′s playing. The same 150+ songs, just cycling through.
Not that that’s a bad thing — with my driving, it’s good to have familiar music playing, so as to not be a distraction. But, yeah, well, after a year plus of playing, it was time for something new.
Sunday, I sat down in front of iTunes, made a new non-smart playlist, and dragged over the song Kick Out The Jams by MC5. Yes, I was going to build a CD of music from one song.
Kick Out The Jams? Damn straight. It rocks. It’s awesome. Fantastic. MC5 — Motor City 5 — was a hell of a band in their day, and this is the signature song. I found it on the soundtrack to Pump Up The Volume, a million years ago, only it was being covered by Bad Brains with Henry Rollin singing (and yes, it too both wailed and was awesome).
So, yeah. MC5. I then went to last.fm and punched in MC5. Here’s their page. Down the side of last.fm artist pages is the section of similiar artists. I use that as a kick start for my own brain, to think of (or to click on) related artists. This led me on a meandering path through both last.fm and through my own iTunes library. Some were direct links from last.fm, some were things I thought of as being related, probably in equal amounts.
For most artists, I added just one song. Some, though, got a few — The Clash, obviously, but also Foo Fighters, Stiff Little Fingers, The Boss Hoss, Prodigy, to name a couple. But mostly it was just one song and then move on.
When I had a good batch of almost 700 MB of songs, I went back and shifted them around some. Harder stuff and more traditional rock (Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Foghat, Argent) moved up front, and alternative stuff (Franz Ferdinand, White Stripes, Kaiser Chiefs, The Trucks) filled out the middle, with odds and ends and mash ups bringing it all to a close.
Strung together, it’s awesome. Fantastic. It was a pretty easy way to string together a whole slew of related music, making listening that much easier.
| Kick Out The Jams | MC5 |
| Crazy Train | Ozzy Osbourne |
| Iron Man | Black Sabbath |
| Highway to Hell | AC/DC |
| Welcome to the Jungle | Guns N’ Roses |
| Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love | Van Halen |
| La Grange | ZZ Top |
| Breaking The Law | Judas Priest |
| You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ | Judas Priest |
| Sweet Home Alabama | Lynyrd Skynyrd |
| Free Bird | Lynyrd Skynyrd |
| Slow Ride | Foghat |
| Don’t Fear The Reaper | Blue Oyster Cult |
| Hold Your Head Up | Argent |
| Radar Love | Golden Earring |
| Born To Be Wild | Steppenwolf |
| Here I Go Again | Whitesnake |
| Still Of The Night | WhiteSnake |
| Run to the Hills | Iron Maiden |
| Peace Sells | Megadeth |
| We Will Rock You | Queen |
| The Final Countdown | Europe |
| You give love a bad name | Bon Jovi |
| Livin’ on a prayer | Bon Jovi |
| Story of My Life | Social Distortion |
| Barracuda | Heart |
| Last Caress | The Misfits |
| Blitzkrieg Bop | The Ramones |
| I Wanna Be Sedated | Ramones |
| God Save the Queen | The Sex Pistols |
| Anarchy in the U.K. | The Sex Pistols |
| Personality Crisis | New York Dolls |
| Search And Destroy | The Stooges |
| Holiday | Green Day |
| London Calling | The Clash |
| The Guns of Brixton | The Clash |
| I Will Dare | The Replacements |
| Alternative Ulster | Stiff Little Fingers |
| Suspect Device | Stiff Little Fingers |
| Teenagers | My Chemical Romance |
| Keep your hands off my girl | Good Charlotte |
| The Kids Aren’t Alright | The Offspring |
| How Soon Is Now? | The Smiths |
| This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race | Fall Out Boy |
| Underclass Hero | Sum 41 |
| My Friend | Groove Armada |
| Love Will Tear Us Apart | Joy Division |
| Blue Monday* | New Order |
| Seven Nation Army | The White Stripes |
| What I’ve Done | Linkin Park |
| We Both Go Down Together | The Decemberists |
| Loser [LP Version] | Beck |
| Rock This Town | Stray Cats |
| Moby Dick / Bonzo’s Montreux | Led Zeppelin |
| Keep The Car Running | Arcade Fire |
| Starlight | Muse |
| Song 2 | Blur |
| Caring Is Creepy | The Shins |
| Super Bon Bon | Soul Coughing |
| Dare | Gorillaz |
| Clint Eastwood | Gorillaz |
| Take Me Out | Franz Ferdinand |
| Do You Want To | Franz Ferdinand |
| Highly Evolved | The Vines |
| Dry The Rain | The Beta Band |
| My Generation | The Who |
| All Along the Watchtower | Jimi Hendrix |
| Smoke On The Water | Deep Purple |
| Enter Sandman | Metallica |
| Rock You Like A Hurricane | The Scorpions |
| Light My Fire | The Doors |
| Is This It? | The Strokes |
| Chasing Cars | Snow Patrol |
| Hands Down Gandhi (Dashboard Confessional Vs Sage Francis) | The Legion of Doom |
| Shattered | The Trucks |
| What I Want Lizard Cake | Cake vs. Flying Lizards |
| Aerodynamic | Daft Punk |
| Ruby | Kaiser Chiefs |
| Woman | Wolfmother |
| Block Rocking Beats | Chemical Brothers |
| Where’s Your Head At | Basement Jaxx |
| Now Get Busy | Beastie Boys |
| Smack My Bitch Up | Prodigy |
| Breathe | The Prodigy |
| Firestarter | The Prodigy |
| Get Down Stand Up | AUDIO SHRAPNEL |
| Little Green Yeah | CheekyBoy |
| The Pretender | Foo Fighters |
| Everlong | Foo Fighters |
| Best Of You | Foo Fighters |
| Californication | The Red Hot Chili Peppers |
| Overblown | Mudhoney |
| Come As You Are [LP Version] | Nirvana |
| Smells Like Teen Booty | Soulwax |
| Genies Revenge | Go Home Productions |
| Bring The Noise | Anthrax |
| Beautiful Son | Hole |
| 3345 (GHP Whole Lotta Velvet mix) | The Black Velvets |
| Plush | Stone Temple Pilots |
| Sunday Bloody Sunday | U2 |
| Losing My Religion | R.E.M. |
| Every Breath You Take | The Police |
| Never Tear Us Apart | INXS |
| Brass in Pocket | The Pretenders |
| She Drives Me Crazy | Fine Young Cannibals |
| Return Of The Weather Episode (remix) | Go Home Productions |
| Passenger Fever | Peggy Lee vs Iggy Pop |
| Push It Up the Mountain (Static X vs Shamen) | dINbOT |
| Every Car You Chase (The Snow Police) | Party Ben |
| Galvanize the Empire | Party Ben |
| TAINTED LOVE | SOFT CELL |
| Beastie Bop (Ramones vs Beastie Boys) | dINBOT |
| South Side | Moby |
| Breathless | The Corrs |
| Zombie | The Cranberries |
| Lovefool | Cardigans |
| My Favorite Game | The Cardigans |
| Here With Me [Acoustic] | Dido |
| Who Knew | Pink |
| Since U Been Gahan (Kelly Clarkson vs. Rex The Dog vs. Depeche Mode) | Earworm |
| Fuel (Metallica) | Avril Lavigne |
| Obsessed With Girly Boi | Avril Lavigne vs. Probspot |
| Christina Aguilera – Hurt | Various Artists |
| sugababes-easy | Various Artists |
| justin timberlake-sexy back | Various Artists |
| Amy winehouse-rehab | Various Artists |
| Darts Of You | Franz Ferdinand vs. The Jets |
| It’s Tricky (1987) | Run-D.M.C. |
| My Adidas (1986) | Run D.M.C. |
| Murder Rap | Above the Law |
| Bring the Muzik Back | Public Enemy vs. Beastie Boys |
| Radio Nowhere | Bruce Springsteen |
| Movie it on over | George Thorogood |
| Who do you love | George Thorogood |
| Boom Boom | John Lee Hooker |
| One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer | John Lee Hooker |
| Like a Rolling Stone | Bob Dylan |
| (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction | The Rolling Stones |
| Let’s spend the night together | The Rolling Stones |
| Sympathy For The Devil | The Rolling Stones |
| Sabotage | The Boss Hoss |
| Toxic | The Boss Hoss |
| Ca Plane Pour Moi | The Boss Hoss |
| Gimme All Your Lovin’ | ZZ Top |
| Legs | ZZ Top |
| I Got Stripes | Johnny Cash |
| I Walk The Line | Johnny Cash |
| Let Go | Frou Frou |
| Such Great Heights | The Postal Service |
| Rebel Never Gets Old | David Bowie / GHP |
| Uncontrolled Humping All Night Long | Radio Free Cheeky Monkey |
| Staying In Buffalo | manriki |
| I’m So Bored With The USA | The Clash |
| Paid For My Doorbell (Eric B. & Rakim vs. White Stripes) | Party Ben |
| Walking With A Ghost In Paris (Tegan & Sara vs. Mylo) | Party Ben |
| P-Funk Is Playing At My House (LCD Soundsystem vs. Gerald A. vs. Katie Enlow) | DJ Riko |
| It Takes Two To Kiss (Rob Base vs. Prince) | DJ John |
| Krack | Soulwax |
| Any Minute Now | Soulwax |
| Hot Rod Lincoln | Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen |
| Little Deuce Coupe | Brian Setzer & Brian Wilson |
| Belive (Belief, Elektric Cowboy) | chemicalbrothersremixed.com |
| Imagine / Walk On The Wild Side | RX |
| WingmanSong | Chris [k] |
March 18th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Awesome. It’s just creepy how much our musical tastes overlap…
I’ve raised my boys on eclectic stuff. But they listen to classical radio to go to sleep every night – have since they were babies. My 11 year old knows a heckuva lot more about classical music (and recognizes it better) than I do…
But lately he’s gotten into Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii… And he’s started coming down from the game room and talking about these awesome “new” songs he’s been playing along to from Guns ‘N Roses, Bon Jovi, Skynard, Nirvana, Van Halen, Eric Johnson, etc… and he was SHOCKED when I told him that I had all those CDs… so (even though they’re already in my iTunes library) I went through all my CD albums with him and pulled all the discs and let him rip them to his own iTunes library… way cool…
March 18th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I’ve done a few neat things with the kids.
– let them build their own mixed CD’s for their room, to listen to at night. It’s amazing what they choose;
– rewarded them for things by letting them buy music from the iTunes store;
– made CD’s for them to listen to. I call them the need-to-know series;
– asked friends (who are guitar freaks) to recommend guitar heavy songs. Son is taking guitar, so this exposed him to Iron Maiden, Jeff Beck, and others.
We have talked smart playlists, right?