I've got nothing better to do, and an hour plus to kill before having to head off.

*HITS RANDOM ON ITUNES*

Let's do this:

Song #1: Roundabout [Early Rough Mix] by Yes

This is one of those bonus songs that you never really listen to unless you're really hardcore into the band. And... I am not a huge fan of Yes. But I really like the album Fragile, which this song comes from. I don't know. It's only got three or four actual real songs, but at least two of those are about as silly/ridiculous/indulgent/awesome as prog gets (this song and Heart Of The Sunrise, for the record), and the rest of the album is just small but cool instrumentals building up to the rightful centerpieces. It works surprisingly nicely even as someone who's not *huge* into prog.

This mix is annoying me, though. Not because it's bad, but it's just different... and I'm used to hearing the official version of the song.



Song #2: Glory Bound--Grass Roots

No idea what this song is. I might have downloaded to get some of Creed Bratton's most famous group's better stuff (Let's Live For Today, Wait A Million Years), but otherwise never heard it. I think there is a sitar in here... otherwise it sounds kind of like Tom Jones territory. Not going to post a Youtube video of this, cause I doubt anyone would want to listen to it.

Song #3: Poison Moon (Demo)--Elvis Costello

Whenever I did random iTunes writeups in the past... I would cheat and skip past the demos and the not-so-flattering stuff. I think that makes me a bad person... but at least in the case of the demos, it's because there's not much to say about it. It's from the My Aim Is True disc... there's little instrumentation... I've never heard this song before... it sounds like a demo... what more do you want me to say?

Song #4: Do You Wanna Dance--Beach Boys

I wrote about this song about a month ago. It was in the post in which I listened to a bunch of other versions of this song. I think I came to the conclusion that this was my favorite version, if only for the Phil Spector-ized production. That's all I have to say, really... umm, check out the brown cover?



Song #5: Someday--Ween

I was just listening to Ween earlier, because I stumbled upon this cool little article about the band. This is from their collection of unreleased songs called Shinola Vol. 1, which actually has some *really* great stuff. This is... OK. It initially sounds to be a fairly normal song for them... and well, it is. But there's some typical odd touches thrown in. It sort of sounds like Golden Slumbers by The Beatles to me for some reason... or at least has somewhat of the same vibe. Maybe I'm just hearing things.



Song #6: The Times They Are A-Changin'--Simon & Garfunkel

This isn't even one of Dylan's better songs, but it sure as hell got covered plenty of times. This is from S&G's (if I can be so casual to call them that) debut album that did poorly enough that it almost broke up the band (until a remixed version of Sounds Of Silence launched them into superstardom). The reason why the album didn't do well is because--it's really not that good. It's got a couple decent songs... Bleecker Street is probably better than their acoustic version of Sounds Of Silence, actually... but this song ain't one of them.



Song #7: I've Just Seen A Face--The Beatles

From Help! I believe. This is actually one of my favorite early-ish Beatles songs (I mean, it was like 5 albums into their career, but still) as well as one of my favorites from Paul. Cause usually, I'm going to go for John or George in the group, and Paul far too occasionally drifts into saccharine territory for me, but this song... is really good. Maybe it's just the guitar work--no, the melody is pretty top notch too... without sounding too sweet either.



Song #8: Alien Christ--Cloud Cult

I don't really listen to much Cloud Cult, despite the fact that I know they're on The Current a lot (mainly because they're a local band, and what not), but my main impression has always been that the lead singer's voice reminds me of Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips--which has always made me want to go listen to The Flaming Lips instead. It's pretty much the same on this song--it's not bad, but... I haven't listened to The Soft Bulletin in a while. It makes me want to listen to that.



Song #9: Tracy Jacks--Blur

In terms of the 90's Britpop bands, I'd probably go 1. Pulp, 2. Supergrass, 3. Oasis, 4. Blur. There are other bands I'm probably forgetting, but whatever. I guess I don't necessarily hate Blur--there are a couple songs of theirs that I'd probably exalt to the heavens--but a lot of the songs I've heard somewhat annoy me. Include this one on that list.

(I should probably put Blur ahead of Oasis, since it's cooler to hate on Oasis... but, Don't Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova are both great. So f*** it.)



Song #10: Two Weeks--Grizzly Bear

I heard this in concert when they were just introducing it to the live crowds, about a year before it would come out--and I thought it was thoroughly unimpressive. The studio version thankfully improves upon it quite a bit. I guess it's just that the piano keys don't have quite the same thump live than on studio? I have no idea. No wait--it was the harmonizing that annoyed me for some reason. I don't know why it bothered me, but...



Song #11: Loretta--Townes Van Zandt

This is from some live album that I got after realizing that he was the guy that did the cover of the Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers" that appeared at the end of The Big Lebowski. And then I never really listened to the album--probably because it didn't have "Dead Flowers" on it. I don't know why I probably didn't give it a whirl--well I do. Country--well, I need to be in the right frame of mind to want to listen to country. And that's not often, usually. But this song is nice... the type of nice where I'd say that based on the strength of this song I would listen to the rest of the album... but then never actually listen to it. But that's at least something...



Song #12: We're Going Wrong (Demo)--Cream

Cream was probably the first band I "got into". I had the boxset, which included just about everything ever released by the band... plus a couple demos, some of which I actually listened to! This one included. I actually liked this song better than the original one for a while... it's more generic-bluesy than the ethereal/haunting Disraeli Gears version... but this really cooks for a bit. Probably would lean towards the released version nowadays, though... I would post a version of that one too, but I can't find a studio version of it, and the live cuts all just highlight what a poor singer Jack Bruce can be.



Song #13: Accept Yourself--The Smiths

No clue what this song is... I'm guessing it's from Hatful Of Hollow, because it's labeled "live" in the title, and I wouldn't own any live Smiths aside from the half live/half originals album they put out. I have no idea if it was actually released as a proper song on any of their other albums... and I'm feeling lazy enough to not check. This is the sort of Smiths song that inspires a middling response from me, which seems to be my overall impression of most of their output.



Song #14: Company In Your Back--Wilco

This is from their Kicking Television live album put out a while back. I don't really remember anything from it other than it possessing a great version of "Misunderstood", which is probably my 2nd favorite Wilco song outside of "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". (When I saw them live, those two songs were the first two they played. Needless to say, the concert peaked early.) The studio version of this song is from A Ghost Is Born... but I'm more of a Being There and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot guy. So screw this one.



Song #15: White Winter Hymnal--Fleet Foxes

I'm not too huge on this one in comparison to other songs on their debut, but it's alright. But my girlfriend made a t-shirt based loosely off of this song... and it made her $2000. And if I remember correctly, if I didn't introduce the song to her, I at least gave her a CD of that entire album + the EP that preceded it. So would I say that I am responsible for her making 2000 bucks? Well, no, not really. But right now I'm gonna claim that I am... basically just for the hell of it.