What You Should Have Heard #73

My Mix CDs

I’ve got a lot of music but limited space to hold it in, especially in my car. So I’ve gone the old tried-and-true way of making mix CDs to have access to as many bands as possible while driving. I’m going slightly old-school since I’m a bit backwards and have no iPod.

Most of the songs will be more upbeat, with probably only the occasional ballad or slower song included. I like to sing in the car, and the more upbeat songs are more fun to sing.

I’ll be going in alpha-numeric order with these, so if you’re wanting to argue with me about what Weezer songs should be included, you’re going to be waiting for a while.

My only limitations are that I use 80 min. discs, and I’m only going to use one disc per band/artist. I will make exceptions for only my most favorite bands with huge playlists (Foo Fighters and Self, off the top of my head), but I’d really like to boil everything down to just one disc.

Here’s the list guide:

Track # - Song Name - Album Name [Artist if album is by a different artist]

                                                                

Shinedown Mix CD

1. Fly from the Inside – Leave a Whisper
2. Burning Bright – Leave a Whisper
3. 45 – Leave a Whisper
4. Devour – The Sound of Madness
5. Sound of Madness – The Sound of Madness
6. Second Chance – The Sound of Madness
7. Cry for Help – The Sound of Madness
8. The Crow and the Butterfly – The Sound of Madness
9. If You Only Knew – The Sound of Madness
10. Sin with a Grin – The Sound of Madness
11. Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide – The Sound of Madness
12. Call Me – The Sound of Madness
13. I Own You – The Sound of Madness
14. Energy – The Sound of Madness
15. Son of Sam – The Sound of Madness
16. Heroes – Us and Them
17. Save Me – Us and Them
18. I Dare You – Us and Them
19. Trade Yourself In – Us and Them
20. Fake – Us and Them
21. Junkies for Fame – Rock Band extra

A few notes on Shinedown:

• My views on Shinedown mirror my views on Nickelback. I consider them both to be extremely generic, uncreative rock bands. The music is pleasant to listen to, but it doesn’t challenge the listener (and I wonder at the challenge to the musician). Ditto with the lyrics. Vocalist Brent Smith has a pleasant singing voice, but there’s nothing that makes it stand out from anything else. With the amount of music I listen to, I really don’t consider myself a snob, but sometimes I do do (heh) a little head tilt when I hear that this (or similar bands) is somebody’s favorite group. Really? These guys? Like I said, they’re pleasant to listen to, I won’t fault them for that or you for enjoying their music, but your favorite? And then I might judge you a little while I listen to some of Weird Al’s polka mash-ups.
• With only a handful of songs from Leave a Whisper and Us and Them, I was surprised at how many songs I had included from The Sound of Madness. The only two songs I left out were “What a Shame” and “Breaking Inside.” This album sounded different. It had an energy to it, an intensity and drive that I didn’t get from the first two. I love the way “Devour” opens the album, and it flows perfectly into the title track. Sometimes I get a little sick to my stomach if I listen too closely to some of the sappy, sugary lyrics, especially from “Second Chance,” “If You Only Knew,” “The Crow and the Butterfly” and “Call Me.” If I were making the mix today instead of months ago, I doubt I would include them. But I was in a different mindset then, relationship woes and whatnot, and they spoke to me a bit, as all good music should. Now, though, I just cringe.
• Also, these guys are douches for not allowing embedding of their videos. God forbid somebody reading this likes a video posted here and wants to check out more. Instead they might decide clicking the YouTube channel link below is too much work and the band is forgotten by someone else with better taste. But then Vimeo comes along. Yay for Vimeo!

Shinedown - Devour from Ahmet Dursun AKYUZ on Vimeo.

Shinedown - Sound Of Madness from Ahmet Dursun AKYUZ on Vimeo.

Shinedown Official Site

Shinedown Wikipedia entry

Shinedown AllMusic entry

Shinedown MySpace page

Shinedown Facebook page

Shinedown Twitter feed

Shinedown YouTube channel

Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!