The Weekly iPod Shuffle: 5/12/07

1. "Shape of Things to Come," Audioslave
Audioslave is, of course, broken up now, just a few months after releasing their most accomplished album to date, Revelations. Now, seeing as how they've already broken up six or seven times (at least twice before their first album was even released), the reunion could be coming any day. I'm not holding my breath.

2. "Original of the Species," U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb has not held up at all over the past few years. And seeing as how this track was fairly dull and nondescript at the time, I'm not exactly delighted to hear it. In fact, I'd forgotten I even had it.

3. "Crazy," Seal
The Main Theme of the next Hunter soundtrack. Miracles will happen as we speak, but we're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy. Of course, I doubt anyone in my Hunter group will actually dig it.

4. "#40," Dave Matthews Band
From...uh, one of the Dave live albums I've got. Frothing Daveheads have been clamoring for an album release of this song for years, which is silly, considering that it appears on at least two live records. But those are Daveheads for you.

5. "The Wind Cries Mary," Jimi Hendrix
One of the fifteen or so coolest songs ever recorded. I once had a screenplay in mind about a serial killer who tortured his victims while this song played in the background. For some reason, I thought this was "intense." Ah, my late teens.

6. "Orion," Metallica
Stephen and I once spent hours talking about making a Pink Floyd: The Wall-type movie set to Metallica songs. "Orion" was to be the centerpiece, as it's a long, beautiful instrumental that practically screams for visual accompaniment. For the life of me, I can't remember a single thing about that movie idea, but it certainly held our attention for a little while. Of course, we once spent nearly an hour improvising a sketch that recast various scenes of Full Metal Jacket with professional wrestlers -- "Are you allowed to have jelly donuts in the locker room, Viscera?" -- and giggling so hard we almost passed out, so that doesn't really mean much. Ah, my late teens.

(Seriously: Viscera has a page on Wikipedia? What the fuck?)

7. "Cherub Rock," Smashing Pumpkins
One of the saddest things I've ever seen: my father listening to this album on some headphones and trying to "headbang." 'Cuz, you know, he rocks. What an asshole. (Though in fairness, my dad did play the drums, about a thousand years ago. Though I've never actually seen any evidence of this, come to think of it.) The funniest part about that is that this song is about those who pretend to be "cool" to gain favor.

8. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," Stevie Wonder
Man, Stevie Wonder ruled, back before he got to that "I Just Called to Say I Love You" phase. My earliest memory of Stevie is wondering who the hell he was when he had a cameo on The Cosby Show. 'Cuz, you know, the Cos is hip.

9. "One of These Days," Pink Floyd
One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces. The song's only lyric, delivered by a creepy, synthesized voice that gives me chills every time. This was included as a piece of "Fight Music" on a previous game soundtrack.

10. "Hard to Concentrate," Red Hot Chili Peppers
Speaking of game soundtracks, again, this song might end up as background music for a future Hunter session: it's a surprisingly pretty ballad about a wedding.