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It’s been snowing out East, it finally feels autumn out here (all brisk and woodsmoke), and I’ve been letting myself waste time on foolishness. So here it is, my new favorite hobby: random playlists based around keywords! No really, it’s fun. Pick a random word and see what itunes gives you—they’re treasures hiding in your own music library!
RACIST:
“Everyone’s a little bit racist,” Avenue Q
“You and your racist friend,” They Might Be Giants
“Albi the racist dragon,” Flight of the Conchords
Fun with racism!
SISTER:
“Shakespeare’s sister,” The Smiths
“Commerce city sister,” Devotchka
“Your sister’s social agony,” Camera Obscura
“Sister winter,” Sufjan Stevens
“Sisters of mercy,” Leonard Cohen
Huh…less warm and fuzzy than expected.
CONEY ISLAND:
“Coney Island,” Good Old War
“Coney Island GOOD,” Death Cab
“Coney Island Baby,” Lou Reed
“Coney Island Shuffle,” Andrew Bird
Ooooh, interesting. We’ve got a lonely jaded ballad to the perennial love/hate relationship of the New Yorker to the city, a lonely jaded ballad to the glory of love and nostalgia in the city, a lonely jaded-ness-tempered-by-optimism ballad to nostalgia in the city…and a wordless romp of an old world fiddle tune backed by congas. Right! You can always count on Andrew Bird to buck the trends. But the best of all is that there’s one of the few shout-outs to a Rachel in pop music in the Lou Reed song—“I’d like to send this one out to Lou and Rachel and all the kids at P.S. 192.” Hells yeah!
Which is really all to say, I’m so glad that in a week, I too can swagger along the boardwalk (or wherever I find myself) and sing my own song of jaded nostalgia. Like Lou, sometimes I swear I’d give it all up for you, New Amsterdam…
