Basically just put your iPod/MP3 Player/whatever on shuffle and list the first 5 songs it plays. Also to make it more interesting, talk a little bit about each song you list so it's not just 5 random song titles for everyone to see. Talk about what you like/dislike about the song, etc. I'll post mine later tonight...

1. Halloween- The Arsonists
Not a great song by any means, but I'm generally a fan of The Arsonists. They have decent lyrics and some great chemistry on their tracks, even though the beats are sometimes pretty weak. This is no exception.

2. Heaven- Nas
Now THIS is a great song. One of my favorite Nas songs, though I have a lot. The chorus sounds great, though I don't know the name of the girl who sings it...but eh...Nas is on point as usual, and I like the concept of "what if Heaven were on earth?"

3. Pink- C-Rayz Walz
C-Rayz Walz is always a lot of fun to listen to. He's got a really choppy flow that shouldn't work but does. The chorus on this song is pretty much unncessary, especially because Walz doesn't usually use them, but meh. Walz rips into weak rappers and fake thugs, which is pretty traditional, but it's still fresh. The beat's average and pretty bouncy.

4. Sugar Ray Hearns- Cormega ft. Large Professor
The beat's really dreamy sounding, especially for these two, but it works. The lyrics are completely unremarkable, but Cormega's voice carries well with the beat and makes it worth listening to. It's a good song.

5. Giving Up the Ghost- DJ Shadow
One of my favorite songs. Unlike every other song on this list, Shadow isn't rap, more like....hip hop/ electronica. I dunno. The way he layers his beats is pretty remarkable, and this song supplements the typical drum set he likes to use with some popping strings, distant screams, and slamming gates really sets up a creepy mood to the song. Love to listen to this when I'm relaxing.

A Winters Tale- A.F.I.

Great B-Side to Art of Drowning. Was pretty much the soundtrack to this past winter for me, which is kind of ironically funny. Gives me a reason to use the word Somnambulant, which is always a good thing. Fun fun chorus and bridge.

Minor Threat- Minor Threat

So much fun. Just a great sing along song. One of the reasons I wish I was born twenty years earlier, so I could hear shit like this live. One of the best examples of Dischord Records style hardcore. One of the songs I reccomend to people who want to check out Minor Threat (the band).

The Hanging Garden (Demo)- The Cure

Totally different from the album version, which I think is cool. Far more going on in this version, lyrically. I quite like the echo effects on Fat Bobs voice, too. Very pretty song. Kind of feels, musically, like what the song is about, if that makes sense. Gives me a very Sleep-like feeling, almost like I'm sleep walking.

Hearts Frozen Solid, Thawed Once More by the Spring of Rage Despair and Hopelessness- A.F.I.

Thirty seconds long, off of "Short Music for Short People". Fun song. WHOAH-OHs! abound. Not much else to say.

Isolation (Live)- Joy Division

It sounds like their Synth overheated on this track, as it's a bit out of tune. Quality isn't great either, but c'mon, it's Joy Divison doing a song off of Closer. What else is there to know?

They did this with some celebrities in the Onion about a month ago. One catch, though...you can't hit "next" and cheat to give yourself an "impressive" playlist, show-off.

In my truck I'm currently playing a big MP3 disc that I made around 2001-2002. On the way home tonight, I heard:

1- Tygers of Pan Tang- "Don't take nothing"
I think the only reason I got this was so I could be a dick like Lars Ulrich. Lars alwasy cited this band as NWOBHM influences and I had never heard of them. I like their grumbly singer and the music has some grindy sounds. Not my favorite tune of theirs, but acceptable.

2- Spinal Tap- "Cups & Cakes"
Thought it was funny when I put it on the disc.. but it's getting old. Usually an instant "NEXT" button song.

3- Pissing Razors - "Dodging Bullets"
Went with some buddies to a CD store and our gimmck was to find the most disgusting band name in the store. These guys won. Really ugly tune, but manages to keep somewhat of a harmony and not devolve into typical "growlies/Astro from Jetsons" crap.

4- KISS - "I"
Probably the only decent tune from "Music From the Elder". The lyrics sound like they were written by self-empowerment guru Tony Robbins, but it's an underappreciated KISS tune.

5- WASP- "Blind in Texas"
Holy crap! The magic of the "random/shuffle" button! See, the legend is that Blackie Lawless of WASP was in the audience when KISS performed "I" and "The Oath" on the TV show Fridays in 1981. Supposedly, he was inspired at that moment to form WASP. Eerie that the random/shuffle key made this connection. Anyways, this is a fun song and one of only two WASP songs that I'm not embarassed to play (the other being their 1989 cover of The Who's "The Real Me")

Now for my ultra-unhip random 5 - These are bad, I may have to try again later:

Coleman Hawkins - "For You, For Me, Forever"
Good classic Jazz. Not the biggest Coleman Hawkins fan, but this is a nice, slick song.

The Wallflowers - Laughing Out Loud
I love the Wallflowers. The mixture of southern soul with indy rock is perfect for me. Jacob's voice is infinitely better than his dad's.

Fletcher Henderson - Limehouse Blues
Archaic Jazz here. Somewhere between dixieland and swing. Not something I could listen to often, but a decent little novelty for me.

Shirley Murdoch - As We Lay
Who in the blue hizzle is Shirley Murdoch, and further more, why is this on my player? This is crappy modern R&B which has now been deleted.

Booker T. and the M.G.'s - Heads or Tails
Instrumental soul from the Stax house band. Simplistic and groovin, just the way I love it.

I suddenly feel really lame. I have no diversity in my music collection.

I don't want to be snobbish..but you really should expand. Especially if you are wanting to be a musician. You should be listening to everything you can get your hands on. It will only make you better.

Listen to stuff you hate, and ask yourself what exactly you hate about it. What could someone else like about it? Is there any artistic merit to it at all?

I have a lot of different stuff on my MP3 player, but I didn't come up with any of it on the shuffle.

Right. I know I should expand, my problem is there's so much stuff that I know I'll like or think I'll like that I haven't gotten around to yet, it's hard to keep a balance between expanding and getting stuff I'll like. I've been doing a pretty poor job of that lately, actually.

Sounds like fun, even though I have a ton of full album's on there, so who knows whats gonna come up.

1. Joyful Noise (reprise) - Batboy: The Musical - Original Off-Broadway Recording
Well it sure didn't take long to get gay here, did it. Actually, this is an awesome fuckin musical, which was the last one I did in my college career. The show is awesome, and the music is so diverse and incredible. I seriously doubt any of you give a shit, but thats what this is.

2. Piano Man - Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vol 1 & 2
Awww, and we have a winner. As if you need to know anything about this song. Great song, and my buddy does a great karaoke version of it that I'll probably be hearing tonight when we go out in my hometown. Just a great song that makes you feel great.

3. The Roach (Outro) - Dr. Dre - The Chronic
This hardly counts, and is it one of those rediculous hip-hop album skits. The better story is that it is from The Chronic, which is of course, the best hip hop album ever made (for me anyway). I believe this is the last song on the album, which means you are either fucked up beyong belief, passed out, or getting some pussy long before you get to this.

4. Stan - Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
Interesting random choice here. Really liked this song, and the entire album when it first hit. I'm actually way burnt out on Eminem at this point. I still love the Slim Shady LP, just cause of its originality. Eminem Show and Encore didn't last long at all for me. This is a cool song though, and I like his change in flow, its cool.

5. Wasting Time - Kid Rock - Devil Without a Cause.
Awesome man. This song rules. No song makes me wanna party, get fucked up, and just go nuts like this song. If I ever needed entrance music for a babyface stoner, this would be it. This album is totally underrated, and I basically think Kid Rock is a punk now, but this album is fucking good.

This is fun, so I'm keepin it goin to hopefully include more of my loves. The first half was alright with the hip-hop, but I'm interested in what else my random generator brings:

6. These Arms of Mine - Soundtrack: Dirty Dancing
Not all that sure who the original artist is here. Great little love-making song though. I believe it was from the scene when Baby and Patrick Swayze finally hit it, but hell if I remember. This soundtrack has some really good music on it, which is why I have it.

7. Darius Rucker - Wild One - ?
Sweet. My love for Hootie has been expressed on here before, and I have this from when I went huntin for some new Hootie. This is a cover I believe, and I can't tell you who the original is. Great almost light jazz song here that I actually listen to alot. Just a feel good little love song with some nice horns in the background.

8. Richard Cheese - Are you Gonna be My Girl? - I'd Like a Virgin
Not one of my faves to pop up here, but if you didn't know, Richard Cheese is a guy that does "lounge" covers of hit songs. This of course being the ______ (again, can't think of the artist. Some new Alt thing?) song. All slowed down and pimped out. He has some great versions of Gin & Juice, We Are the World, and many many others.

9. Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John - Greatest Hits 1970-2002
I have some Elton John Greatest Hits on here, and even though this isn't my favorite song in the world, I do like it. Elton John is pretty timeless, and I just love his style. So many different styles mixed in, and a great voice to boot.

10. Radio/Video - System of a Down - Mezmerize
Damn, my Itunes is on quite a roll here actually. I REALLY dig this song, and like almost all of this album as well. System of a Down is one of the most unique bands I've probably ever heard, and there music can be great for rockin out, or just chillin to, even though it changes rhythms and pacing so much. Love their voices too.

check out my avatar and signature....douchebag.

Yeah thats gonna be uh, my bad and stuff.

*smacks self in forehead*

The End of Heartache - Killswitch Engage
I like this band. A lot. Howard's voice is awesome and the music is great. I mark for melodic metal...

Opiate - Tool
Early Tool kicks ass, lately I've enjoyed this album more than the later stuff, which is mainly just because I'm burnt out on them. Anyway, I'm on a Tool binge waiting for Tuesday, so this was nice.

Lake of Fire - Nirvana
Meat Puppets cover from the Unplugged in New York disc. I think I put this entire album on my MP3 player, so usually at least one Nirvana song pops up every time I use it. No exception here...

She Said, She Said - The Black Keys
Haven't really gotten into this band all that much yet, but I really like this song. I'm gonna look for some more stuff from them now, actually...

Time of My Life - The Swamp Candles
I first heard this song on a video package for 3PW on the local access channel here, so I downloaded it and have enjoyed it ever since. Very early '90's -ish.

Alright, let's go for five more.

I Dig You- Cult Hero

Cult Hero was a one-off thing Robert Smith and Simon Gallup did with a singer to see if they liked playing together enough to bring Simon into the Cure. Nothing great here, but it's cool to hear with the Cure would sound like with another singer.

The Art of Self Destruction- Part One- NiN

Good song. I can't wait to see these guys live. Not my faveourite song by them, but solid.

A Strange Day- The Cure

Pretty decent. Again, not one of my faveourites, but far from unlistenable.

Songs from the Earth- Son of Sam

Okay, Son of Sam was a side project London May started off after the Samhain reunion tour in 99. He got his Samhain bandmates and did some music. Danzig even helped out on a couple of tracks. However, they didn't have a singer. So who do they call but one Davey Havok, of AFI. They recorded a pretty damn good CD. This is the Title Track of the CD, and one of the stronger efforts. It's cool to hear my faveourite "active" singer doing songs that aren't what he normally does. The music is pretty awesome too.

Arena- VNV Nation

VNV Nation rock. I got their hoodie yesterday. This is actually a song I didn't like at first, but have come to enjoy more and more with each listen. Kind of mellow and calming. Good stuff.

Morningstar- A.F.I.

One of the more accoustic and slow songs they've done, off of Art of Drowning. Nice vocals, and I quite like the Viola in the second verse. The big lead up to the breakdown is awesome. The drums into the pickslide gets me pumped every time.

Prelude: Death of a Tiger - Tiger Army

It's a prelude. Nothing much here at all. I usually skip right to Santa Carla Twilight.

Midnight Sun (live)- A.F.I.

A hidden track off of Black Sails, and a track they rarely do live. One of my faveourite breakdowns of any of their song, as they bust out some accoustic guitar and Davey recites a Baudelaire poem, De Profundis Clamavi. Awesome song.

To Them These Streets Belong- Rise Against

Really good song. I wish they'd have picked this or Dancing for Rain as a single instead of Swing Life Away. Catchy chorus and Tim keeps his screaming under control.

Deliverance- Earth Crisis

Decent song. Not really all that special. I prefer Killing Brain Cells or Firestorm, honestly.

Love this song. This whole album actually. Pretty much any song on the album I could have seen as a single with the exception of maybe the opener (too much screaming), but I agree that this or Dancing for Rain would have worked well. Possibly Life Less Frightening also.

Yeah, it really kind of ticks me off that they used the most "radio friendly" and more or less emo song as the second single, after Give it All. I loathe that song, because it just feels so ingenuine, like it was stuck there to sell records.

I don't mind it, its a nice change of pace really, but I agree that it feels out of place. Still a decent song on it's own.

I don't like it. Just not my style.

Played the shuffle game again, to much better results:

Maxi Priest - "Heartbreak Lover"
So, Maxi has the best voice in Reggea ever. This song is with Buju Banton and a little too dancehall for my tastes, but decent nonetheless.

ALO - "Girl I Wanna Lay You Down"
I know nothing of ALO, but this is a great, sexy soul song from would seem to be young white boys. They may suck otherwise, but this song is hot.

Traffic - "Glad"
Nice instrumental groove from one of the original jam bands. Kinda goes nowhere, but that's the idea for these jams. Little bit of a Gospel romp, here and there. I likes.

Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders - "Pitiful"
Good, soulful modern rock song. Gotta get more of Hawkins.

God Street Wine - "Happy Birthday, Mr. President"
Great late '90s obscure rock.

Whoa, Maxi Priest? I used to love him a while back, but I haven't listened to anything of his in a long time.

I like this thread, and my lastone wasn't very indicative of my tastes, so lets do it again. Starting on random with "Poison" by Bel Biv Devoe. Here we go:

1. "Never Had a Dream Come True", Stevie Wonder. Off of his greatest hits album that I have, I always love me some Stevie. Just a great voice that truly has yet to be duplicated. Some hard ass songs to karaoke too.

2. "Don't Know What You've Got (Till It's Gone)", Cinderella. Finally! Something in my tastes. I absolutely love hairband rock from the late 80's and early 90's. This track is actually from a Metal Mania Unplugged album or something, with a bunch of kick ass hairbands doing their songs acoustic. This is a kick ass song. One of the first songs I played on the piano too, thanks to my sister having sheet music for all the music she loved.

3. "Without Me", Eminem. Well, at least it picked one of the Em songs that is a fast party jam. Really its the only thing I can stand from him anymore. He seems to have lost all his originality as an MC, and basically just plays this crazy introspective whiteboy anymore. Oh well, this one is a fun jam.

4. "I'll be There", Mariah Carey. Well hells yeah. Good story here. This was the first tape I ever purchased with my own money. It was a single, and I wore the fucker out listening to it on my walkman back when I was a little dude. LOVE this song, still. The guy that does the fill vocals is just amazing. And this was back when Mariah was innocent, and you wished she would be slutty cause she'd be hot. But then we got to today, and well.....I wish she stayed innocent and made GOOD music.

5. "I Want It All", Ben Elton and Queen, We Will Rock You!. This is from the Queen musical, "We Will Rock You!" which I saw in Las Vegas when I went there last summer. I've always loved Queen's music, and seeing this was really cool. It was kind of cheesey, but what do you expect when someone writes a show AROUND your music. It was very fun, and more of a concert than a musical. Great band, and great singers.

That went much better this time.

Eminem sucks now. I could write a whole damn thread about how far downhill he's gone.

And I'd probably quote it and say I agree with every word. I'm right with you on that.

It's nice to have decent taste. One of my friends was like "omg I luv Just Lose It!" and I almost was like "Bitch, I'ma kill you!'

I really get irked when I hear people, or see some stupid show on MTV or VH1 putting his Eminem Show album up there like it means something. And the Marshall Mathers LP gets HUGE praise. For me, nothing beats Slim Shady LP. He just changed the minute he hit it big, even if his ass won't admit it.

Also, just cause its on my mind, if you listen to his flow on Kid Rock's "Devil Without a Cause" album's track called "Fuck Off", it doesn't even sound like the same dude anymore. He was so badass, and now....well, like all of music, he sucks balls. It sucks.

Honestly, there are several artists/groups who've gone downhill after hitting it big.

The biggest example is Korn. Their first two albums are INCREDIBLE. Some of the best hard rock/metal of the nineties. But once Follow the Leader came out, it was all downhill. Why? Because it's hard to sing about being tormented when you're rich.

Same with Limp Bizkit. Good first CD, then everything went downhill as Fred Durst believed he was a music god when he was just lucky.

Good points, although I liked Twisted Transistor alot as a single for Korn, and I REALLY like their new single so far as well.

I definitely agree. It's hard to maintain success over a long period of time, which makes 2pac even better, cuz he's dead and still putting out better music than 90% of mainstream rap today. Everything changed after the Shady LP for me, too, but I did like Marshall Mathers. It went way downhill after that.

And Limp Bizkit...man, was that sad.

It's the paradox of writing music about your personal pain. What happens when you're well off and don't have as much pain? What happens when your pain is trivial? (I can't get the right color Mercedes!!!!) You're art suffers as a result. That's why you have to look at guys like Johnny Cash and their careers. Cash may have written about personal pain, but he did it in universal ways. THAT makes career music. Personal pain makes Flavor of the month music

And you can point to that as what happened to Eminem...somewhat. Once he lost the poor white boy image, he could've kept going with his crazy white boy image, but didn't. When he lost both, it became moot. Mos Def also unfortuanetly fell into that trap.

Mos Def, though, has recovered quite well. Acting and what not. Eminem should take some notes.

Well, that or he could become a producer a la Dr. Dre. That's the most reasonable path, in my opinion

Except one thing, Eminem is a terrible producer.

Well, he's screwed

Mos Def's doing well for himself, but his last CD was going through the motions compared to Black on Both Sides.

Anchors Aweigh - The Bouncing Souls
This is alright, nothing special. I'm not really a fan of the band, but this song stuck on the MP3 Player, so whatever.

The Weight - The Band
You all know this song and it's greatness, and if you don't you definately suck. Moving on...

Isis - Bob Dylan
Goddamn I need to learn how to play harmonica...

Ruby Tuesday - Rolling Stones
Lots of older stuff tonight. I swear to god this comes up more than any other song in the history of my MP3 player.

Cats in the Cradle - Harry Chapin
Wow, one song from the 1990's or beyond tonight. I love the old stuff, what can I say.

Alright, let's try this again at the end of the year and see how far (or not, with my luck) I've come...

Kick Out The Jams- Rage Against The Machine
Off their cover CD, Renegades. Good song. I should check out the original.

The Day The Ni**az Took Over- Dr. Dre
Not my faveorite song off the Chronic, but pretty good. Listening to Snoop from way back then is kind of odd now, because he was actually really good.

Schsim- Tool
Great song off a great CD. One of my faveorites off the disk. I love the guitar work and drumming, and the chorus is just so much fun.

Minimum Wage- They Might Be Giants
If I ever get to the point where I'm playing shows, I may just use this as taking the stage music, just to fuck with people's heads.

Mini Trucks Suck- A.F.I.
One of the worst songs they did ever. They wrote it when they were all in high-school, and it shows. Ugh.

Rose- A Perfect Circle
I don't like APC as much as Tool, but it's still good. I can't decide if I like the distortion on the guitar or not. I like the beat, though.

1119- Michale Graves
I like the stuff he did as Graves with Dr. Chud much more than his solo stuff. A lot of his CD sounds the same. Not bad, but not great by any means.

New Years Day (Live)- U2
Old U2 is phenominal. This is from "Under A Blood Red Sky" and is tops. I hope they tour one more time, because I really want to see them before they call it quits.

Since You've Been Gone- Weird Al
No, not a Kelly Clarkson cover. A song off Bad Hair Day, that kind of annoys me.

Saviour- VNV Nation
Good song off of a GREAT CD (Empires). I'm hoping to catch them when they come to Cleveland in April.


Well, it's not as uniform. I'd like to think I've ventured a bit outside my previous comfort zone this year.

Good to see some diversity creeping in here.

I'm trying. I got into some different stuff this year. Johnny Cash, Bad Brains, Depeche Mode, etc. None of it strayed too far from what I was into, but small steps and whatnot.

Unfinished - Mineral
Much like SDRE, some early 90's "emo" before emo sucked. Good stuff that sounds almost identical to SDRE, really.

In Circles - Sunny Day Real Estate
Speak of the devil, that was...weird. I have the whole "Diary" album on the player, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise, but still...weird. More of the same really, not my favorite track on the album by any means, but definately not a bad one.

Driftwood - Cursive
Meh. Cursive is alright, I checked them out on a whim after reading a little bit about them and they are definately the definition of "kind of good" I think. This song, however, is really not that great compared to a few others I have on here by these guys.

God Only Knows - Beach Boys
Yeah, this song rules. Fuck the haters. And fuck that stupid commercial that uses it, too.

Gimme All Your Lovin' - ZZTop
Wow, I forgot I had any ZZTop on here. And to check, I have a whopping 4 songs of theirs on here. But yeah, they're boss. Should probably get some more because as of now I have this, Tush, La Grange, and Sharp Dressed Man on here. I also have "Tough Enough" labeled as ZZ, but I'm pretty sure that's the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

A truely RANDOM set here:

Shiny Toy Guns - Chemistry of a Car Crash : What it this? and why do I have it? Ahhh, it's actually decent U2 wanna be rock.

Joss Stone - Tell me About It : I like Joss's voice, though I couldn't listen to her for long periods of time. Nothing special on this song.

Cream - Sunshine of Your Love : An incredible song that still sounds relevant 40 years later. I can't imagine what this must've souned like to a listener in the 60's. Truely revolutionary.

Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke : Love Stevie. Always great horn lines. Cool little funky tune.

James Moody - This Song is You : Good classic sounding jazz from a cat that's been doing his thing since the late 40's. This was done in 96 and sounds great.