Me, MiPod, and I

Am I mentally connected with my iPod? Some might call me crazy for saying so, but I often get the distinct feeling that my iPod knows me oh too well. It knows how I am feeling and what I am thinking and will play a nice little soundtrack accordingly. For example.

I almost always listen to my iPod on random; it’s just how I roll. There is far too much music on there for me at any given point to really know what I want to listen to, so I usually let the musical fates reside in the digital hands of my favorite little MP3 player. The other day at work I hit play and the first artist to come on was Ella Fitzgerald. I love me some Ella so it put me in a good mood right out the gate. I thought to my self, “This is exactly what I want to be listening to at this exact moment, some nice and quiet Jazz music. Not to intrusive but still able to hold my attention from afar". A few songs played in between than some Thelonious Monk started to play. “Nice” I thought to myself. Right after that some Norah Jones played. Things were going well. I say, I must have listened to about 60 songs that day, 20 of which were various Jazz songs. That’s a pretty heavy Jazz rotation to be played considering my iPod has over 20 different genera’s to choose from.

At the end of that day, I was driving towards the northern suburbs to go pick up the shorty, (My 2 ½ year old daughter) and my mind begin to wonder. Now, during my down time at work, I often scroll through the digital pages of Wikipedia to pass the time. On this particular day I some how ended up looking at stats on various bridge collapses that have happened thought time. Of course I ended up looking up the 35W bridge collapse and as I was driving my mind journeyed back to that thought. I started thinking about how life will be different for me being a resident of Minneapolis and all once the new bridge is built and how often I ended up using the old one. Well, as I am thinking about this, a band by the name of “The Redwalls” started playing on my iPod. I thought nothing of it because my mind was still deep in thought else where. All of a sudden my mind was pulled back to the foreground by the chorus of this song. The song’s name is “Love Her” and the lyrics for the chorus were “Build a Bridge and Bring Both Sides Together.” Holy Shit, I was just thinking about building bridges. Cool coincidence. I did not give it much thought and kept on driving.

After that thought happened, I started thinking about how much I loved the band “The Redwalls”. I was thinking to myself about how much they really do sound like The Beatles and how this little band from Chicago might be the closest we may ever come to hearing new Beatle tracks. After the song finished “Ride with Me” by “The Vines” came on. OK song, whatever. Not much thought put into it. After that song, came another slap in the eardrum. It’s Fucking “Let It Be”! Now, even though it happened to be a cover of the Beatles classic performed by “Eros” from the “Beatles Regrooved” album, I still was very shocked and impressed with my little iPod. It knew what I was just thinking about, picked up on it and played me that song. Now, I have every Beatles Track ever made on my iPod but lately I have been on an electronica kick so it was a nice treat.

So now, it’s time to put my iPod to the test, time to see what it’s made of. I will give my iPod a chance to make my proud once again. It has 10 songs in which to give me a song by what ever band I think of. It can be a cover of that band, or that band playing a cover. I figure I will start pretty easy. Let me think…What could my iPod pick up with ease? Ah Ha, I’ve got it. Radiohead. They have a large catalogue and I have a tone of shit from them on there. I’ve got all their albums, all their b-sides and a ton of live shit so it should be pretty easy to pick up on my thought. Ok iPod. Listen to me and listen well. Radiohead. R-A-D-I-O-H-E-A-D! Go get them for papa!

While I wait for my iPod to do my bidding, now would be a good time to mention that as of right at this moment, I have 12,570 songs on my iPod from which it can choose what it’s going to play me next. So it’s not like there is little to choose from. Here is the rule that I am setting for myself. I am not allowed to skip any song that comes up on my iPod unless it’s an Audio book track. First off, they are way to long to listen to and second, I don’t count that as music so technically, I’m not skipping any songs.

OK, so here they come starting with track one.

1. Fountains of Wayne – “Comedienne” from “Out of State Plates”
2. Spoon – “Jonathan Fisk” from “Kill the Moon Light”
3. Fort Minor – “Kenji” from “The Rising Tide”
4. The Beach Boys – “Sloop John B” from “Pet Sounds”
5. Console – “?” from “Pan-or-Ama”
6. Daft Punk – “Oh Yeah” from “Homework”
7. Sneaker Pimps – “Think Harder” from “Bloodsport”
8. Foo Fighters – “On Your Mind” from “In Your Honor” Disc 2
9. Guster – “Long Way Down” from “Keep It Together”
10. Red Hot Chilli Peppers – “Animal Bar” from “Stadium Arcadiam”

DAMMIT iPod!!!!!!

I thought it was going to work. There were some good songs in there and it was staying with in the genera I was looking for, for the most part. You know what, let’s let it roll. Double or nothing. I will give my iPod 10 more chances to come up with a Radiohead song. After all, there is a lot to choose from and it will still be rather impressive if it can come up with 1 band out of 1000+ that I want to hear. OK, go and do my bidding, and get it right this time!!!

11. The Beatles – “And Your Bird Can Sing” from “Revolver”
12. Morchebba – “Shallow End” from “Fragments of Freedom”
13. Bjork – “Frosti” from “Vespertine”
14. Finger Eleven – “Swallow Tail” from “Tip”
15. Iron & Wine with Calexico – “Red Dust” from “In the Reins E.P.”
16. Yo La Tengo – “You Can Have It All” from “And Than Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out”
17. Louis Armstrong – “Mood Indigo” from “The Complete Louis Armstrong Collection”
18. Radiohead – “Paperbag Writer” from “Com Lag E.P.”


Holy Shit!!! I actually worked. I did not actually think my iPod would come up with a Radiohead tune, and under 20 songs I might add. Wow, I am really impressed with this little gadget of mine. I guess I learned that I need to have patience when dealing with a machine that has so many choices to pick from. In the end, all the music I put on my iPod is music I chose to listen to so whatever my iPod decides to play for me I should just accept and be happy with it’s decision. But when it all comes down to it. I still think that in some way or another, this little iPod of mine is looking out for me and my musical needs. It’s guiding me each step of my day one beat at a time, and that’s something I can really get into.