1. The Neville Brothers / Can’t stop the funk (2006, at the Vienna Jazz Festival) — The Nevilles demonstrate their love for George Clinton.

2. Groucho Marx / Everybody works but Father (1972, from “An Evening with Groucho”) — Groucho at 82, telling stories and singing songs at Carnegie Hall, with a then-unknown Marvin Hamlisch at the piano. Love it.

3. Will Smith / La fiesta (1999, from “Willennium”) — Yes, Will’s mainstream-friendly raps are a guilty pleasure.

4. Herbie Hancock and Carlos Santana / Watermelon man (1981 boot, concert in Tokyo) — Herbie in his full electronic phase, along with Wynton Marsalis on trumpet, trades off trademark songs with Carlos Santana. (The track after this one is “Evil ways”.)

5. Harry Nilsson / Coconut (1971, from “Nilsson Schmilsson”) — My all-time favorite one-chord song. (For the musicians among us, it’s a C7).

1. Megadeth – Symphony of Destruction

Every once in a while I revisit my youth and listen to the Megadeth, Metallica, etc. Hasn’t happened in a while. I *really* have to be in the mood.

2. Public Enemy – “Rebirth” a short almost segue track from Apocalypse ‘91.

3. White Stripes – Little Cream Soda. From last year’s Icky Thump. Not my favorite track on the album, but still a great one.

4. Detroit Cobras – “Insane Asylum” – one of my favorite neo-garage groups. Sadly, this is another non-favorite track though.

5. Van Halen – “Oh, Pretty Woman.” Hey remember when Roy Orbison covered this?
I ran a 20k this morning (first time) and for the last 15 minutes or so all I wanted to listen to was DLR-era Van Halen. Go figure!

1. Brianstorm by Arctic Monkeys from “Favourite Worst Nightmare”, 2007.

2. Call Me the Breeze by Lynyrd Skynyrd from “Second Helping”, 1974. After all of these years, I still have to look up how to spell their name. What a pain in the butt.

3. Wild Night by Van Morrison from “Tupelo Honey”, 1971. I love old Van Morrison.

4. Blame It On the Tetons by Josh Ritter from “Girl in the War EP”, 2006. Another fantastic artist.

5. Razor by Foo Fighters from “Skin and Bones”, 2006. I personally loved the acoustic portion of their “In Your Honor” CD. Although this live CD is not life changing, I enjoy listening to it. I know that I am in the minority though. Maybe I just have a hard time find fault with FFs.

1. “Looking for Astronauts” by The National from Alligator. This band is from my hometown, Cincinnati, and they’re one of the better bands to come out of this boring city in the past few years.

2. “Man from Mars” by Kristen Vigard from the Grace of My Heart Soundtrack. This is a cover of the Joni Mitchell song. Kristen Vigard supplied the vocals for songs that were supposed to be sung by Ileana Douglas’s character in the film.

3. “Launch Pad” by Some Girls from Feel It. This is from one of Juliana Hatfield’s many side projects, which also includes Freda Love, her former Blake Babies bandmate.

4. “Outa-Space” by Billy Preston from Ultimate Collection. This is one of those tracks that I acquired somewhere along the way that I didn’t realize I even had. Good stuff, though. Probably the only Billy Preston track I have. That should be remedied.

5. “Star Wars Theme (Disco Mix)” by Meco from The Best of Meco. First: HAHAHAHHAHAHA! Second: Why do I have this? Third: HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!

1. “If You’ve Ever Been To Georgia” by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, WGST studio, Atlanta, April 8, 1954. Maybe not the greatest blues singer of his generation ( Son House, Robert Johnson for two) but a good writer, and Big Boy could bring it pretty well.

2. “Girl From The North Country” by John Gorka from “A Nod To Bob,” 2001. One of several fine tracks from this salute to Bob Dylan by artists on Red House Records (a Minnesota label).

3. “Reinlender” by Folque from “Folque,” 1974. Violins and heavy guitars from a folkish group that comes, I think, from somewhere in Scandinavia. I need to find out more about the group, but they had an interesting sound.

4. “Heed the Call” by Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, Reprise single 0953, 1970. One of those “Let’s get it together and save the world” singles from that era. Not a bad sentiment, even though the record is kind of lame.

5. “Roamin’,” by Fat Mattress from “Fat Mattress 2,” 1970. Pleasant folkish rock from the British group that Noel Redding joined after his days with the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

2. “Go to Sleep”, by the Avett Brothers from “Emotionalism” – Kind of an upbeat bluegrass/rock vibe.

3. “Kamera”, by Wilco from “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” – My cousin recommended this CD to me and although I like a couple of songs on it, I’ve never really gotten into it.

4. “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” by Bon Jovi & Jennifer Nettles from a ramdom MP3 I got from somewhere

5. “Soy Luz y Sombra” by Ry Cooder from Chavez Ravine – A really great CD that I like the more I listen to it. This CD is based on a historical incident (the building of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles). The songs all tell stories of the people who lived in Chavez Ravine, which was demolished to make way for the stadium. The songs range from funny to heartbreaking. I highly recommend it!

My shuffles are wierd with over 34,000 tracks.

2. “Don’t Pass Me By” by the Beatles from “The White Album” – One of my least favourite tracks from this album (which is one of my fave Beatles albums).

3. “A Kind Of Loving” by The Police from “Message In A Box: The Complete Recordings (Disc 3)” – I hit the strangest Police songs on these Friday shuffles. Not a song I can say I regularly listen to.

4. “Immigration Man” by Crosby & Nash from “Crosby, Stills & Nash (Box Set) (Disc 3)” – I went through a heavy CSN&Y phase, but I’ve been out of it for a while.

5. “Revolution Rock” by The Clash from “London Calling” – OK, here we go. The greatest album of all time? I think so!