A Shuffle For Shovelling Snow

This was the playlist my iPod came up with when I put it on shuffle whilst digging out my sidewalk and cars from this weekend’s snow. I thought it was a particularly odd list and thought I would share along with some brief commentary:

1. Ghetto Classics — Ying Yang Twins (Honestly didn’t know I had this on my iPod. Just when I think shuffle plays the same damn song every time, it comes up with something like this. Uhm, if you don’t like hip-hop, you really won’t like this.)
2. Sitting, Waiting, Wishing — Jack Johnson (Generally, Jack Johnson isn’t my vibe. But I really do like this song and it’s early enough in the shoveling process not to be too groovy.)
3. Kennel District — Pavement (I was listening to a live version of this song from one of Pavement’s lesser albums IMHO.)
4. Show Business — A Tribe Called Quest (One of my all-time favorites. I think I’m actually dancing while brushing snow off my car.)
5. Baleboste — SoCalled (By my favorite accordion-playing, remixing, Yiddish-rapping, Canadian DJ. Pretty sure I’m the only one on my block listening to this.)
6. Toto Dies — Nellie McKay (Nellie McKay both attracts and scares me. The oh-ee-oh parts of the song had me feeling like an overworked Munchkin.)
7. Sleep All Summer (originally by Crooked Fingers) — St. Vincent and The National (I’ve just loved this track off an album of covers by various artists of Merge Records, although a song about summer seems somewhat ill-suited to the moment.)
8. Story of My Life — Social Distortion (If only I had heard this song BEFORE I finished high school. Great blue-collar feeling song for the manual labor of digging-out.)
9. Fidelity — Regina Spektor (Overplayed? Yes. Still great musicianship and lyrics? Absolutely. I swear I’m not menstruating.  Also, back in the day when I made mixtapes to impress girls, I would always make sure to included back-to-back songs by women — cuz that makes me a feminist. )
10. After All — Dar Williams (Don’t know why my iPod thought I could use a good cry in-the-middle of shoveling snow, but who am I to question the wisdom of the shuffle. With this and Regina Spektor, beginning to think my iPod is OD’ing on estrogen.)
11. I’m Nothing [live] — Violent Femmes (Now, I think my iPod is just messing with my head. Still, when you’re trying to break-up stubborn patches of ice and snow, this is a pretty good song to bang-away with.)
12. Misfits & Mistakes — Superchunk (Good. Need to break more ice.)
13. So Says I — The Shins (A little dramatic for how I’m feeling right now, but the indignation is keeping me warm.)
14. Debaser — Pixies (My arms are jelly. My back is sore. I think I am both freezing and dehydrated. Can’t say anything much more coherent than “Got me a movie, oh-ho-ho-ho!” I wonder to myself if this is how Black Francis feels all the time?)
15. Eddie Walker — Ben Folds Five (Is my life flashing before my eyes? Is this my iPod’s way of saying I’m risking a cardiac arrest if I keep shoveling?)
16. Sisters of Mercy — Leonard Cohen (I am defeated. Whatever snow I haven’t gotten up can turn into a glacier and plow me under for all I care. I’m going back inside where it’s warm.)