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Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Mite on November 03, 2003, 11:25:41 pm

Title: Music to commute by
Post by: Mite on November 03, 2003, 11:25:41 pm
Normally, I'm an NPR junkie. But there are mornings where even Bob Edwards can't make me feel like driving to work. So what music do you listen to that keeps you from steering into oncoming traffic just to get it over with?

My picks:
Fountains of Wayne - Yeah, it's formulaic pop. But if I had a formula that good I wouldn't write anything else either.

Harvey Danger/The Long Winters - Literate, cheery and rockin'. Plus I've had a crush on Sean Nelson since I was 17.

Electric Six - Electric Six:70's Rock::Kill Bill:70's movies. And you can't be mad at work when there's a guy named Dick Valentine singing "Girl, I wanna take you to a gay bar" in your head.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: slink on November 03, 2003, 11:47:51 pm
Hmmmmm.
For me it, well can be pretty much anything what with the wealth of MP3 CD's I have in the car.
Some days:
Sublime - Sublime
Gotan Project - La Revancho Del Tango
Desert Sessions - various ones
QotSA - all of
NIN - The Downward Spiral

All just depends what random mood I'm in that day, and what folder I come to first that grabs me too.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: jough on November 04, 2003, 12:34:32 am
Asherdan: That was pretty much my playlist from when I was 16 - you'd just have to add some obscure Sex Pistols imports and a lot of Miles and Coltrane.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: wombat on November 04, 2003, 12:35:55 am
I have to commute on days Bob Edwards doesn't go to work, so this is a real issue.  My solution is Bruce Springsteen.  It's my perfect driving and keeping awake music.  This used to make me feel old and uncool, till I was doing a tour for  some kids a while back and there was a 12 year old wearing a tshirt for the album The Rising. So if I'm uncool, at least it's not because I'm old. Which reminds me, I met a trick or treater that age dressed as Sid Vicious.  So kids don't rebel against their parents' music anymore?
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: jough on November 04, 2003, 02:58:22 am
Not when their parent's music is punk rock.  There is no further rebelling.

Me, I liked to listen to jazz, which my parents didn't really like.  My dad's learned to like it, like I've learned to appreciate Gordon Lightfoot, but it's just not his music.

Now my grandfather listened to pretty much nothing but swing music, which I've always liked and was cool for about ten minutes in the 1990s when every eager young hipster started dressing like me and listening to swing music.

Yep.  I look like a Gap ad from 1997.

Okay, to address the actual topic of this thread:

I like mix discs (minidiscs, usually) when travelling - my latest includes some new tunes from Belle & Sebestian, the new Strokes album (which isn't all that great), the Kill Bill soundtrack, the Postal Service, New Order, the Smiths, Elvis, Elvis Costello, Public Image Ltd., the Pixies, Fiona Apple, Dave Matthews Band (sometimes it's just "Lover Lay Down" on repeat for a half an hour), Sparks, Tori Amos, Bad Religion, Fear of Pop, Morphine, Soul Coughing (always good driving music), They Might Be Giants, Meat Beat Manifesto, Nirvana, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, EMF, and Sade (although I prefer the Marquis de Sade).

I highly recommend the new Belle & Sebastian album "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" which, while a bit twee, is funny and has a nice 60s swagger to it.  And VERY VERY Scottish.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: jay-ell on November 04, 2003, 04:16:04 am
<gloat>My morning commute only takes about 8 minutes, so if there's nothing good on NPR I can just turn the darn thing off.</gloat>
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: Choop on November 04, 2003, 04:40:40 am
Mine's 5 minutes. In Atlanta, yes, home to the longest average commute in the country.

I always enjoyed fuck*ng up the curve.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: Limmo on November 04, 2003, 05:38:01 am
I work from home.  Zike.

Today's work music was a CD that's half Adrian Belew and half Edie Brickell.  Because both their names start with B.

That, and a ton of Led Zeppelin.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: AugustWest on November 04, 2003, 05:45:25 am
Commute = 30 - 35 minutes on twisty, turny, deadly country road.

I listen to a lot of books on tape, which is wonderful when you have a good one, but can be tedious when you have a lame one.

My default music selection, I'm ashamed to admit to this crowd, is one of the local classic rock radio stations.  Next most likely is a really cool public radio station which plays a lot of what I understand to be called "Americana".

When I really want driving music, I put a Dead CD on and groove.  GDTRFB.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: jough on November 04, 2003, 05:52:38 am
I can work pretty much from wherever I want.  If I work at home my commute is about 1 second - I stand up from the futon and sit down at the desk.

But my office is where I get more work done, and it's about a 30 minute commute.  

If I go to the library to do research instead I have a five minute commute.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: V-Adore on November 04, 2003, 05:58:08 am
Given as my current maximum commute is "12-minute walk," I can't speak from recent commuting experience, so I'll dip into my road-tripping knowledge. Your figurative mileage may vary.

Anyway, I personally find R.E.M.'s "Fables of the Reconstruction" excellent driving music. It's got a pleasant pastoral quality, even on the heavy tracks, that makes it smooth and appropriate as aural background while not turning into audio wallpaper. If you like stuff a little more high-octane, Green Day's "Dookie" is a transcendently stupid album but a great joy in stop-and-go.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: jough on November 04, 2003, 06:54:30 am
August, the only radio station I listen to (well, two actually) are the local Classic Rock station and the local NPR station which is usually mostly neo-hippie treehugging liberal commie pinko crap, but sometimes they'll have interviews with authors or filmmakers I enjoy.

Every once in awhile I'll listen to the new all-80s station, but they play "Cruel Summer" waaaaaaaaay too often for my liking.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: jay-ell on November 04, 2003, 01:18:01 pm
I totally listen to the local classic rock station in the afternoons, when they're not shoving nationally syndicated redneck gross-out shock jocks down this city's collective throat.  (I have a peculiar hatred of all morning shows save one: Bob Kelley in Toledo.)  But in the mornings I listen to NPR (if anything) because I'm an awful sourpuss when I first wake up -- especially if I'm headed off to work, as I'm not particularly fond of it at this point.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: Carlos del Vaca on November 04, 2003, 02:38:12 pm
I have a 45 minute commute each way.  So I listen to a lot of CDs.

The best driving music at the moment is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "Take Them On, On Your Own."  Of course, when half your commute is spent sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, rather than blasting down the road at 70 MPH, it's not quite the same.
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: PinkStainlessTail on November 04, 2003, 02:48:59 pm
Usually NPR in the morning. The evening could be more NPR or any one of a bunch of CDs. Atari Teenage Riot's 60 Second Wipeout seems to come up a lot lately. Especially "Your Uniform Does Not Impress Me". Great driving music, but I'm gonna be in huge trouble if I ever get pulled over:

Cop: I'll need your license and registration.

PST: You don't impress me. FUCKER!!
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: slink on November 04, 2003, 03:10:00 pm
Quote from: "PinkStainlessTail"
Atari Teenage Riot's 60 Second Wipeout seems to come up a lot lately.


Damn, lost my copy of that, great for insanely loud rock mixes!
Still, I can retrieve a copy I gave to my friend at some point.
It has to be said, the other thing I do listen to on a drive over an hour long, which is fairly often for me, is a good mp3 mix I've done at some point. And they're veeeeeery varied in bands, styles, and whatnot.
Like radio without the bad songs. (Which in the UK is all of them!)
Title: Music to commute by
Post by: CortJstr on November 04, 2003, 04:54:13 pm
In the morning I only have 20 minutes so I like listening to Kirk, Mark, & Lopez because they tend to be entertaining 3–4 days a week. On the way home it's 35 minutes so I'll usually pop in a rotating CD. Lately it's been the Transplants (hey, it was free on EMusic) but in general it's some combination of Mary Prankster, Fidel, Colouring Lesson, Laughing Colors, and the Kelly Bell Band.