another eye opens

“Penetration,” Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (The Social Network OS)
“Little Kids,” Kings of Convenience
“All We Ask,” Grizzly Bear
“This Love Affair,” Rufus Wainwright
“A Good Place,” Grizzly Bear
“Soldier of Love,” Sade
“Plastis Wafers,” Of Montreal
“Ramona,” Beck
“Do You Mutilate?” Of Montreal
“I Zimbra,” Talking Heads
“Heart Like a Wheel,” Kate & Anna McGarrigle
“What Is it About Men,” Amy Winehouse
“Sweet Old World,” Lucinda Williams
“My Will Is Good,” Port O’Brien
“Sanfoninha Choradeira,” Luiz Gonzaga & Elba Ramalho
“Alone,” Celine Dion
“Come the Wild Wild Weather,” Sutton Foster

On the flight home from Italy, I watched the DVD of Bahman Ghobadi’s No One Knows About Persian Cats, a fascinating feature about the underground music scene in Tehran, where recording or giving concerts requires some kind of permit from notoriously quixotic government officials. It centers on a boy-girl songwriting team trying to patch together a band for a concert to raise money to leave the country. As this nerdy duo wanders around meeting other scrappy musicians rehearsing in cow barns and jerry-rigged rooftop bunkers, they are frequently asked what kind of music they like, and they always say “indie rock,” and everyone nods sagely, as if that were an extremely precise genre. I dunno, maybe it is, but the music we hear in the film ranges from Kimya Dawson-like acoustic solos to rap to crunchy guitar-driven stuff.

The new Apple operating system updates iTunes in such a way that, without my choosing it, I got a “genius mix” of “Adult Alternative Rock” — not a genre I would ever have selected myself, but what came up was pretty good, and not unlike the range in Persian Cats. Well, maybe Sarah Vaughan is a little outside the range, but there are no Kurdish folksingers banging frame drums on this playlist, either:

“Old Enough,” Rickie Lee Jones
“Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie,” Sufjan Stevens
“Flightless Bird, American Mouth,” Iron & Wine
“Dirty White,” Inara George
“Good Goodnight,” Aqualung
“Vomit,” Girls
“The Midnight Sun Will Never Set,” Sarah Vaughan
“In These Arms,” the Swell Season
“Ooh La La,” Goldfrapp
“Move On,” Mouth Music
“Boys of Melody,” the Hidden Cameras
“It Takes Love,” Edie Brickell
“The Boys Are Back in Heaven [Pixies vs. Thin Lizzy],” Phil RetroSpector
“Exquisite Whiteness,” David Byrne
“Don’t Let It Get You,” Inara George
“Fractales, Pt. 1,” Apparat
“Don’t Let Your Hair Grow Too Long,” Oren Lavie

“The Airman,” Brian Eno
“Pump It Up,” Paul Oakenfold
“All Washed Up,” Tea Leaf Green
“Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way,” Carl Smith
“Laurel Canyon Blvd.,” Van Dyke Parks
“For,” Final Fantasy
“Jean,” Tindersticks
“Gold in the Air of Summer,” Kings of Convenience
“He Gives Speeches,” the Beach Boys
“She’s a Rejector,” Of Montreal
“A Familiar Taste,” Trent Rznor & Atticus Ross (The Social Network OS)
“Family Tree,” Inara George
“Been So Good,” Edie Brickell
“In the Flesh,” Blondie
“Heavenly Joy,” Dechen Shak-Dagsay
“Echoes,” Washed Out
“I Like It So Much Better When You’re Naked,” Ida Maria
“The Only Recycled Intro,” Prefuse 73

“He Miss Road,” Fela Kuti
“Cymbal Rush,” Thom Yorke
“Spell [Live],” Patti Smith
“Gypsy Biker,” Bruce Springsteen
“Miss Alissa,” Eagles of Death Metal
“Dream Brother,” Jeff Buckley
“Acorn Factory,” the Dodos
“Campfire,” Grizzly Bear
“Attack on the Pharmacy,” Tindersticks (White Material OS)
“The Storms Are on the Ocean,” Richard Shindell
“Life Dream,” Budi Siebert
“I Love You So Much It Hurts,” Jimmy Wakely
“Last Request,” Paolo Nutini

“Sandman’s Coming,” Linda Ronstadt
“Goodbye Sweet Dreams,” Roky Erickson & Okkervil River
“7 Keys,” Aqualung

“Dust,” Gang Gang Dance
“My Oklahoma Home,” Tea Leaf Green
“I Thought I Was a Child,” Bonnie Raitt
“Albatross,” Rufus Wainwright
“I’m Gone,” Alison Kraus
“Everyday America,” Sugarland
“Rock That Body,” Black Eyed Peas
“Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box,” Radiohead
“Summerboy,” Lady Gaga
“George Square,” David Berkeley
“Code Monkey (Kirsten Shirts mix),” Jonathan Coulton
“Frankenstein,” Aimee Mann
“Please Please Please, Let Me Get What I Want,” She & Him
“Goodnite,” Melody Gardot
“Feelin’ Better,” the Gaddabouts
“Hung Up,” Madonna
“Comes Love,” Helen Merrill
“Hazel,” Cocteau Twins
“I’m Old Fashioned,” Chet Baker
“Keep This Party Going,” the B-52’s
“I’ll Remember April,” the Four Freshmen
“Refuge of the Roads,” Joni Mitchell
“Suffer for Fashion,” Of Montreal
“Get It On My Mind (Marvin Gaye v. the Pixies),” DJ Zebra
“Change of Time,” Josh Ritter
“Pray for Rain,” Massive Attack
“Zombie,” Fela Kuti
“World of Trouble,” Norah Jones
“The Leaden Echo,” Stephen Emmer
“Out of Reach,” Cities of Foam

I love how the shuffle feature gives me the opportunity to congratulate myself on the extreme eclecticism of my music library……

6/20/11:

“Introduction to Romeo,” Craig Armstrong (William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet OST)
“Mercy Street,” Richard Shindell
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” Hank Williams
“Don’t Gonna Work It Out,” Fitz and the Tantrums
“I Don’t Know What to Do,” Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johnasson
“Corridors of Power,” Grails

“Talk to Me Like the Sea,” Everything but the Girl
“Campfire (Hisham Bharoocha & Rusty Santos remix),” Grizzly Bear
“Right As Wrong,” Inara George
“Girl I Love You (She Is Danger remix),” Massive Attack
“Undo,” Bjork
“Tko Se Bregom Sece,” Braca Kapugi Tamburica Orchestrar I Pjevacki Zbor
“It’s in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song),” Linda Lewis
“Taxi Cab,” Vampire Weekend
“Ich Atmet Einen Linden Duft,” Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
“I’ve Grown Accustomed to His Face,” Diana Krall