Every week we have a staffer, freelancer or friend-or-enemy of the Clog put their iTunes or iPod on shuffle and tell us about the first 10 songs that come up. The only rules: No skipping, no cheating and you don’t need to be all music-critic-y about it. If you’d like to submit a 10-track mind of your own, contact Brian Howard at bhoward (at) citypaper (dot) net.
This week CP contributor Matthew Hotz digs through the digital crates.

iPod shuffle starting at 5:35 PM, 09/27/2007

Hey. My name is Matt. Sometimes people call me Scooter. I write for the City Paper every once in a while. I’m going to try my hand at this.

1. "Scratch 11," Refrigerator (Comedy Minus One)
Refrigerator is one of my three favorite bands of all time. I reviewed their most recent album for the City Paper back in February. Allan Callaci’s voice grates on some people, but I don’t really see (hear?) why. Then again, the other two bands in my top three are the Mountain Goats and Nothing Painted Blue, so maybe I just didn’t inherit the gene that allows most people to find voices like these annoying as hell. All three of these bands are part of the Inland Empire, putting out lo-fi records in Southern California on the Shrimper label back in the mid-’90s. I’m old. Anyway, I assume that the album is named after Albert Brooks’ first standup comedy album of the same name, which is notable because it’s also the name of the new record label started by CP’s own podcast curator Jon Solomon.

2. "West S," The Silver Jews (The Arizona Record)
The Arizona Record dates back to the time when this band was just a few guys messing around in their spare time, playing songs into their friends’ answering machines. That fun, haphazard sound comes through loud and clear, despite the tape hiss and ultra-lo-fi recording. I think I mailed a few tapes of live Mountain Goats shows to a guy in New York in exchange for a copy of this on CD in the days before PTP file sharing. God, I’m old. I have no idea what they’re singing about in this song — thanks to the recording quality, I can’t even make out half the words. I still like its rambly, casual pacing, though.

3. "Jumble Jumble," The White Stripes (De Stijl)
Really fun song. It encapsulates all the things I like about the White Stripes: it’s hard-charging, has a great guitar hook, starts simple and builds quickly, gets the job done in less than two minutes. Nice work, guys.

4. "Face Ache," Swisher (self-titled)
Man. Swisher was a local band fronted by Sara Weaver, who lost a long battle with cancer in 2002. She was a close friend and roommate of Brian McTear from Bitter, Bitter Weeks, whose song, "TN," was written for her. I saw Swisher once and, thanks to beer, don’t remember much about it. I shouldn’t be having such a hard time writing about this — I don’t think I ever met Sara, although she may have waited on me at Sugar Mom’s or McGlinchey’s. I had a tenuous posthumous connection with her, though: my roommate and I were the first tenants of the the house vacated by Sara and Brian shortly before she passed away. Once every two or three months, a letter from a medical imaging company would show up in our mailbox addressed to Sara. Seeing those envelopes was shocking and depressing every time, even though I didn’t know her and should have gotten used to those letters after the first few. I wonder if the current resident of that house still gets those letters. Talking about the song seems kind of trivial at this point, but in case you were wondering, it’s about punching another girl in the face really hard, and it’s awesome, angry and hooky as hell with lots of sha-na-na’s and la-la-la’s.

5. "In the Backseat," The Arcade Fire (Funeral)
What the hell? After the last selection, my iPod grabs a slow, haunting song about the death of a family member and its effect on the narrator from an album named, Funeral. My iPod does not have a light touch. If it was in my library, I’m sure the next selection would be that Eric Clapton song about his late son. I could really use something fast and/or upbeat next — I don’t want this feature turning into an episode of maudlin-era M*A*S*H.

6. "Sitars Tomorrow," Caterpillar (A Thousand Million Micronauts)
Awesome. Caterpillar was a local band in their heyday when I turned 21 and could finally start getting into shows at bars. Caterpillar went the way of all things when frontman Mike Lenert moved to Montana a few years ago. Well, kind of. Considering the frequency of their reunion shows, maybe they can’t be considered permanently down and out. This song kicks ass, starting slowly with a single guitar, swelling to a huge, fast, noisy apex in about 45 seconds and staying at that peak for the next four minutes. Lenert’s distorted vocals drive this feedback-laden burner all the way through the last second. Yeah.

7. "Scuttle Butt," Daniel Johnston (The What of Whom)
A long time ago, I got a few of Daniel Johnston’s albums on tape, his preferred format. As mentioned above, I’m old. Seeing the excellent documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston last year prompted me to track down digital copies of the stuff I had on tape and the rest of the stuff that I never had in the first place. This song features Johnston’s trademark poppy keyboard plunkings alongside the high, nasal voice which my aforementioned genetic flaw allows me to love. The highlight is this extraordinarily well-turned phrase: "She stretches the truth with such imagination/she’s more of a writer than a liar."

8. "Mealy Mouth Tree Monger," Caterpillar (Macdorium Chlorium Chloe)
Really? Only 46 of the 5,910 songs on my iPod are Caterpillar songs. Getting two in the span of ten songs is improbable. Two in the last three is even less likely. The guitars and the what-the-hell-is-that-guy-talking-about lyrics have a loose-limbed Pavement feel. The vocals remind me of Small Factory, but with a lot more wavering and even a little cracking. Very different sound than "Sitars Tomorrow."

9. "Girly Drink Drunk," Swisher (self-titled)
Getting a second song from Swisher right after getting a second song from Caterpillar, I considered linking to the YouTube clip of Gob from Arrested Development saying, "Come on!" like Mike Pelusi did when Quasi came up for the third time in his list. I won’t do that for two reasons: (1) That would be a little glib following what I wrote about the first Swisher song. (2) The clip has been removed from YouTube.

10. "St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)," The White Stripes (Icky Thump)
Come on!