Magic Jewball

all signs point to no

 

Running with the Jewball

Filed under : Music
On March 16, 2008
At 9:00 pm
Comments : 3

Hey, do you read my comments? You should! Kb had a great idea for me to share my fun running tunes with you via iTunes iMix and so it shall be iWritten, so it shall be iDone. There were only a couple of songs I have that aren’t in there but how much are you craving B-Movie anyway?

A few notes. First, avid Joy Division fans may notice that Twenty-Four Hours is on there and it’s got a lot of slow bits. I no longer run to it, but when I was beginning the Couch to 5k program, I really liked to warm up to it. It has 45-60 minute sections of alternating fast and slow and was just perfect. You may find it so too, otherwise, leave it out. You can hear the full song on the iPod Song of the Week page. Also, I left out the “walking warm-up” song, New Order’s Slow Jam, since it might confuzle other iTunes shoppers. You can always just search on it.

Second, several of the songs had terribly selected snippets on iTunes, so I’ve created better ones which include vocals. You can listen to both iTunes’ snippets and mine to get a better picture.

Lastly, here’s a reminder on how to get the song to start and end where you want it, either because the intro or outro are too long and non-inspirational or because you are creating snippets for your Couch to 5k run. Just click File, then Get Info, and cruise to the tab shown. Fill in the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” sections as you wish.



Click here to see my running mix! It will open your iTunes, if not your eyes.
Becca’s Running Mix



And now for those better snippets. Mofo especially is a great running song which isn’t done justice on iTunes. They actually just use a section I cut out! Oh the humanity.

Happy running!



Van Halen – Runnin’ With The Devil

 
 

iPod song of the week – The Cars

Filed under : iPod Song of the Week
On
At 12:30 pm
Comments : 3

Who was the first New Wave artist? Was it Talking Heads? Blondie? Gary Numan? The Human League? Devo? As you can probably tell from the title of this post, I disagree with all those choices. Yes, I would argue that it was The Cars. The Cars are kind of an odd thing. As I’ve mentioned, I listened to the premiere New Wave radio station east of the Mississippi and they never played The Cars. In fact, the only station playing them in the late 70’s were the rock stations (WPLJ and WNEW, boy am I dating myself). But I never thought of The Cars as a rock band and in fact I have proof to back this statement up. When I was in 6th Grade (that’s when I was 10), we had to do a presentation in front of the class on our favorite hobby. I (duh!) did mine on music. I used a cassette recorder to play various kinds of rock music and label them helpfully for the class. I remember little of it except that I used Baba O’Riley to illustrate rock and that I used The Cars to represent New Wave.

See, all the things I consider hallmarks of the New Wave sound are present in The Cars’ music: cool synth lines, chilly and distant vocals, a certain phrasing. Their 1978 self-titled debut album is what I believe to be one of the greatest first albums in rock history. Arguably, they never topped it. But personally, I loved the second record best for this one song, which, through all the Joy Division and Depeche Mode I adore, is still the quintessential New Wave song to me. When I dug it up this week to listen to for the first time in many years, I still knew every single word. No, it isn’t the one from the Circuit City commercial or the one that will forever remind you of Phoebe Cates taking off her bathing suit top in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, although those are good too. No, it’s this one, the one where the late Benjamin Orr sounds like he’s in a freezer and the synth sounds like a snake flicking its tongue at you.



Napster:
The Cars – Candy-0

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.