meander

Around a year ago, a popular "meme" on the internets was to post an iPod playlist on shuffle, listing the songs as they appeared. I think that the idea was a sort of masochistic self-baring (it's the internet, remember), since it was important to include guilty pleasures as much as hipster-approved songs. Anyway, it's been several months since I've seen anything of the sort on the blogs, so the trend must be dead.

Accordingly, I'm going to start something similar on the Giant Turnip. Instead of a full-iPod list, though, I'm going to use the kids' playlist, which contains songs they have chosen to listen to (usually while in the car), and songs I've helped them choose. The playlist is currently about 300 songs long, and will continue to grow and shrink as we decide what we like and don't so much.

Here's the first ten to pop up:

1 Guided by Voices -- Drag Days
2 M Ward -- Chinese Translation
3 Built to Spill -- Now and Then
4 Kristin Hersh -- What'll We Do With the Baby-O
5 Voxtrot -- Soft & Warm (the Sophia Song)
6 The Breeders -- Drivin' on 9
7 Bob Hund -- Dusseldorf
8 Beach House -- All the Years
9 Beatles -- She Said She Said
10 Death Cab for Cutie -- I Was a Kaleidoscope

A few notes: yes, I know this is actually my music. But the children also tell me which songs they like, which are the ones which stay on the list. And they've become pretty attached to them: Gwennie often requests the M. Ward song (she's seen the clever video); both children refer to the song by Austin band Voxtrot by the name of their cousin, because of the resemblance of some of the lyrics (what does "so feel alive" sound like to you?).

Also, expect an entire post on the Kristin Hersh selection one of these days.