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Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: jay-ell on May 02, 2012, 01:30:21 am

Title: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: jay-ell on May 02, 2012, 01:30:21 am
So, we have a music thread already, but I've been playing around with setting up playlists for specific things I do. I have an album I listen to for running, of course, but I also like to set up soundtracks that set the mood for other things. For instance, when I was in college I used to listen to vocal jazz while I was getting ready to go out because it made me feel sexy. And, of course, you've got to have a good playlist for a road trip.

I bet you guys have tons of these. Hit me with 'em.

Here's my contribution: I just made a playlist for doing housework. Mainly kitchen cleaning, but also toilet scrubbing, laundry sorting, and vacuuming.

TMBG: Birdhouse in Your Soul
Doobie Bros: Black Water
Steppenwolf: Born to be Wild
Phineas and Ferb: Brand New Reality
Frankie Valli: Can't Take my Eyes Off You
MC Frontalot: Colonel, Panic
Dexy's Midnight Runners: Come On Eileen
Sheryl Crow: Every Day is a Winding Road
Molly Hatchet: Flirtin' with Disaster
Dire Straits: Sultans of Swing
Dire Straits: Heavy Fuel
Al Brown: Here I Am, Baby
Foreigner: Hot Blooded
MC Frontalot: I'll Form the Head
ZZ Top: I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide
Jonathan Coulton: Kenesaw Mountain Landis
3 Doors Down: Kryptonite
TMBG: Letterbox
Steppenwolf: Magic Carpet Ride
Dire Straits: Money for Nothing
ZZ Top: My Head's in Mississippi
Phineas and Ferb: Not Knowing Where You're Going
Billy Idol: Rebel Yell
Styx: Renegade
Stealers Wheel: Stuck In the Middle with You
Stevie Ray Vaughn: Texas Flood
Weird Al: White & Nerdy

It would probably have been pretty hilarious to watch me putting away dishes while rocking out to "White and Nerdy" this evening. I am an incredibly huge dork, I dance like Donny Osmond, and I sing along even when I'm wearing headphones. Fortunately no other adults were here to witness it, but I realized how it must have looked when Danger Boy came wandering in, looked at me askance, and then said, "Mama. Do not. Sing or hum."

So! Playlists. What activities do you use them for, and what songs help you set the mood?
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: miles on May 03, 2012, 12:42:57 am
Every once in a while I'll do this almost obsessively. I even had one for smoking weed with people who have my exact taste in music, in case that situation ever arose. I don't save them for too long so I don't have any readily available. I'll usually make one for every road trip, and invariably this Modest Mouse song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWVKiiU50Ag) makes the list. And it's always going to have some Neil Young, Built to Spill and CCR. ALWAYS.
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: wombat on May 03, 2012, 01:48:49 am
I am much too lazy to do this. But also I tend to listen to one artist obsessively for days or weeks on end, and then switch to another and do the same. I don't seem to have much of a need to mix it up.
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: CortJstr on May 03, 2012, 01:52:50 am
Oh god I hate making playlists. I was just discussing this yesterday. In college when I made tapes to listen to while walking to class I'd just take all the mp3s I owned and delete them until I was down to 2 sets of 45 minutes and put them on a tape in alphabetical order. When the iPod came along with its "shuffle the fuck everything" button I thought it was the greatest invention in music history.
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: AugustWest on May 03, 2012, 03:30:07 am
I make mix CD's for the truck.  It's nice to have a theme.
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: Carlos del Vaca on May 03, 2012, 01:27:29 pm
I don't make a ton of playlists; I generally either listen to a given album straight through, or when I'm on my home computer, put the whole damn collection on shuffle. I do have the year-end mixes which I have posted here frequently.

Recently, in conjunction with my upcoming college reunion, I dug out the tape of my final college radio show, which was basically a "best of" from my college career. I put that out as a Facebook note (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150626792992717) and accompanying Spotify playlist (http://open.spotify.com/user/carlosdelvaca/playlist/7oGLMtxyyeN4j8GvVJfTyb). That was fun.
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: jay-ell on May 03, 2012, 07:01:34 pm
You guys are no fun. I was hoping somebody had a specific playlist for something really odd, like "Songs to Accompany Aquatic Calisthenics" or something.
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: AugustWest on May 03, 2012, 07:05:31 pm
You guys are no fun. I was hoping somebody had a specific playlist for something really odd, like "Songs to Accompany Aquatic Calisthenics" or something.

Sorry.  Closest I come to something like that is "Songs that are 2:15 or under" or "Songs that do not have the letter 'e' in the title".

Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: Nabubrush on May 04, 2012, 08:21:38 am
How about "30 seconds or less"? It's basically unlistenable, other than the NoFX.
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: greenkoolayd on May 04, 2012, 11:50:11 am
other than the NoFX.

please, no....
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: Nabubrush on May 04, 2012, 07:21:48 pm
NoFX is what Green Day would be if they had stayed fun and not got all U2 on us. What's not to like?
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: theinevitable on May 04, 2012, 11:33:21 pm
At some point I had tons of these, from my radio days. When I got a new computer I didn't transfer them over. Generally they were around some sort of stylistic/historical theme, though.
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: jay-ell on August 16, 2012, 07:21:51 pm
Today I made some mix CDs to take to work. Well, they are not actually mixes, just straight-up copies of albums. But I need stuff to play that has no lyrics and is not too distracting, yet is pleasant, upbeat, and (preferably) nerdy in some way. Most of our customers are dorks, so I kind of like the idea that when I am playing the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, someone who recognizes it will feel that we are sharing an inside joke.

I have the aforementioned LOTR soundtracks (all 3 films); the London Philharmonic's album of video game covers, the Vitamin String Quartet tributes to REM and Guitar Hero, and (coming soon) the Princess Bride soundtrack. I would like to make a disc of Star Wars themes, but that would have to be heavily edited because the Imperial March is a bit too bombastic (and too easily recognizable) for a retail environment.

Suggestions?
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: AugustWest on August 16, 2012, 07:29:03 pm
Today I made some mix CDs to take to work. Well, they are not actually mixes, just straight-up copies of albums. But I need stuff to play that has no lyrics and is not too distracting, yet is pleasant, upbeat, and (preferably) nerdy in some way. Most of our customers are dorks, so I kind of like the idea that when I am playing the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, someone who recognizes it will feel that we are sharing an inside joke.

I have the aforementioned LOTR soundtracks (all 3 films); the London Philharmonic's album of video game covers, the Vitamin String Quartet tributes to REM and Guitar Hero, and (coming soon) the Princess Bride soundtrack. I would like to make a disc of Star Wars themes, but that would have to be heavily edited because the Imperial March is a bit too bombastic (and too easily recognizable) for a retail environment.

Suggestions?

This album (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an71zLfrEwY)

This could be interesting too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYN4OI4fTdE)
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: CortJstr on August 16, 2012, 07:58:02 pm
People pretty universally like the Tron: Legacy soundtrack
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: Mr Trout on August 20, 2012, 01:15:32 am
A music blog I like (http://www.tinymixtapes.com) has a section where people post these sorts of playlists (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/mix-tapes), such as Songs that make me want to drink heavily after a day of heavy drinking (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/mixtape/songs-that-make-me-want-to-drink-heavily-after-a-day-of-heavy-drinking) and Songs to blast from the car windows on an impromptu beach roadtrip (http://www.tinymixtapes.com/mixtape/songs-to-blast-from-the-car-windows-on-an-impromptu-beach-roadtrip)

I believe you can also post a title and request a mixtape based on that title.

As far as instrumental soundtracks go I've always been partial to Joe Hiachi's work for Miyazaki's movies, especially Spirited Away (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCpFeE68Yjg). I must have listened to that album a thousand times in a few months. As far as actual bands, I really like this Blind Idiot God (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM_yLMWsmnQ) album, pretty much anything by Grails (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5NfwZRBrKE), Explosions in the Sky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdiY6kijYHE), Godspeed! You Black Emperor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZwQeZh6rP0&feature=related), A Silver Mount Zion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Mot5iGloY&feature=player_detailpage#t=45s), and The fuck*ng Champs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab-UPftaYqw).

I haven't made a mixtape since I made one for the touamb exchange and never mailed it to anyone since that was a little too scary (yet I will enthusiastically throw myself down a mountain on any number of contraptions).
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: AugustWest on August 20, 2012, 02:32:49 am
As far as actual bands, I really like this Blind Idiot God (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM_yLMWsmnQ)

I went to college with the bass player, Gabe something.  I remember partying with him one night, having a really cool intense conversation and agreeing that my true vocation was "Appropriate Nomenclature".  He couldn't play for shit then and had just picked up the guitar a few weeks before, I think.  I remember he was a really funny/interesting guy and I enjoyed talking to him.  Somebody told me a couple years later that he had formed a band called Blind Idiot God and moved to New York and played with John Zorn.  Good for him!
Title: Re: Playlists with a Purpose
Post by: miles on September 18, 2012, 05:37:03 am
I drove down to Vegas on Friday and happened upon a playlist with no purpose by chance, but it works pretty well as a mix. When I connect my iPod to the USB port in my car, it often defaults to an "all songs" list in alphabetical order. Instead of looking for something else I decided to let it play for a while. I skipped a couple tracks but this is what it looks like:

The Gits - A
Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
Grandaddy - A.M. 180
Cass McCombs - A.Y.D.
The American Analogue Set - Aaron & Maria
Robyn Hitchcock - The Abandoned Brain
The Flaming Lips - The Abandoned Hospital Ship
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Abba Zaba
The Jackson 5 - ABC
The Mekons -- Abernant 1984/5
The Magnetic Fields -- Abigail, Belle of Kilronan

So, turns out it doesn't sound as good on second listen, but it sounded fuck*ng awesome in the car. Also, I don't think I had ever listened to The Abandoned Brain before because it's on this rarities compilation I never got around to playing. It was part of a box set I bought a few years ago. It's a great song.