A Nibble of Music by Matt McGann '00

Welcome back Mitra!

I spent all day yesterday reading applications at home, as I’ll do today. I really do enjoy reading your applications. When reading, I’m most likely to be listening to a specific album — the coherence of an album keeps me focused. But yesterday, in honor of Daniel‘s recent post, I decided to set my iTunes on random and see what happened. But instead of the first 10 (decimal is so ordinary!), I decided to provide the first 10 base 16, since hex is the way to go.

• 0x0. Lonestar, My Front Porch Looking In. Yes, the first one is country! Country isn’t my favorite, but I do like it, so I asked my friend Beverly (somewhat of a country evangelist) to make me a mix CD of her favorite stuff. I have to admit, I do like this song (sippy cup and all).
• 0x1. REM, Ignoreland. REM is my all-time favorite band. They were pretty rockin’ when they came through Boston this October.
• 0x2. Harry Connick, Jr., Save the Last Dance For Me. I must say that I do like the crooners. (Michael Buble’s new album is due out just before Valentine’s Day)
• 0x3. Abhijeet, Badi Mushkil Hai (from Anjaam). Like Devdas, Anjaam stars Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit; unlike Devdas, I’ve never seen it. Another one from a mix CD (thanks Vijay).
• 0x4. Radiohead, Backdrifts. Ah, Radiohead. This is a band I’m going to have to explain to my kids so they can understand just how incredible they were.
• 0x5. Bon Jovi, Livin’ on a Prayer. Maybe the best “turn up the radio real loud while driving” song ever. But don’t try to karaoke this one, unless you really can hit those high notes. Even JBJ himself can’t do it anymore.
• 0x6. Cherry Filter, [I can’t read Korean, but it’s track 11 on The Third Eye]. Cherry Filter is one of my favorite K-Pop bands, and this is one of my favorite songs off this album.
• 0x7. Weezer, El Scorcho. Weezer really rocks; I hope they tour to promote their forthcoming album. Their show was pretty awesome the last time they came through these parts almost 3 years ago…
• 0x8. The Sichuan Opera, The Legend Of The White Snake, Scene 5: The Yellow Wine. Chinese Opera is something I enjoy, and I’m happy that I’ve seen some Cantonese Opera here in Boston. I love the costuming, the movements, and of course the music.
• 0x9. Dr. Dre, Let’s Get High. Yeah, I’ve liked Dre/Snoop-style G-Funk since 1992’s The Chronic.
• 0xA. Udit Narayan, Alga Yagnik & Sukwinder Singh, Mitwa (from Lagaan). “Mitwa” was the theme of last year’s South Asian Cultural Show (a huge event in Kresge Auditorium) at MIT; of course, a big reason for the it being named that, aside from the popularity of Lagaan, was that Mitwa begins with M-I-T.
• 0xB. Marvin Gaye, Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler). Thanks to my dad who helped me really appreciate Marvin.
• 0xC. Lata Mangeshkar & Roop Kumar Rathod, Tere Liye (from Veer-Zaara). You already know I like Bollywood…
• 0xD. REM, Near Wild Heaven. …and that I like REM.
• 0xE. Huey Lewis & The News, 100 Years from Now. This was one of those CDs (“Time Flies.. The Best of Huey Lewis & The News”) that I needed to have on the spur of the moment one day… I got one song (probably “The Power of Love”) stuck in my head, then another Huey song stuck in my head, and before I knew it, it was off to Virgin Megastore on Newbury Street.
• 0xF. Hyolee (Hyori), This One Jazz Bar. A freshman yelled at me this year for supporting women singers who have had plastic surgery by buying this album. I do see her point — I wish people could have a positive self image and didn’t feel they had to measure up to manufactured standards of beauty.

There you have it, 10₁₆ random songs from Matt’s iTunes.