Over the weekend I picked up a second generation iPod shuffle — an orange one. Having a respectably large digital music library — not to mention a collector’s zeal about completion — the shuffle had always seemed a largely unnecessary addition to the iPod lineup. Hell! It seemed contrary to the entire damn point of the iPod, which I had seen the sheer volume of storage available. Why on earth would I ever want to buy a screenless player with a fraction of the storage, no matter how tiny?

That was before I joined a gym. Faced with the prospect of listening to the drone of equipment over the blaring whatever pumped out of the speakers a very small device that did the one thing I needed — to play music — seemed pretty good. Wouldn’t you know it? The damned thing is good!

Owning this new shuffle has made me think about the entire iPod brand as a whole. Now, I don’t have sales figures on hand with unequivocal proof that iPod shuffles sell very well, but I’ve got a pretty good hunch that they do. And it’s funny, because Apple has essentially taken the MP3 player back to its roots, so to speak. Meaning the iPod shuffle is essentially the same device that Rio and others introduced back in the late 1990s, albeit smaller.

The shuffle is a great example of how Apple has built the iPod brand down from the top with great success. I think, again without any data to prove it, that the iPod line has made significantly more money by continuing to introduce iPods with less features. Adding more and more only appeals to a certain segment of the population: the geeks, the early adopters, and the gadget-crazed. By exploring the way people actually use these products Apple is able to find customers in the actual people who buy 90% of everything and not just the analysts screaming for more space, wireless headphones, and the handful of other unnecessary crap you might read certain folks asking for. A less confident company might give in, try to add all of the features people think they want, and watch their product collapse under its own weight.

So, yeah, I like my tiny iPod shuffle. I’m also quite fond of the new earbuds. They don’t look much different at first, but after 30 sweaty minutes of cardio mine were still firmly in my ears. I doubt the old ones would have been. Were I not going to a gym, I might not have bothered. That’s just the thing though, the shuffle fits at the gym, and so I bought one.

While at work last night — technically early morning — I had some free time on my hands. I filled this free time with the bounty of the Internets and managed to find myself at The Onion AV Club a site I always enjoy visiting but only remember to do so every couple of months. The AV Club has a feature called Random Rules wherein a person of some fame is asked to set their iPod or whatever to shuffle and comment on the first few tracks he or she hears. I thought this was such a great idea I decided to steal it.

Sometime around 3:00 last night I set my iPod up on shuffle and set to making a comment on what it selected for my listening enjoyment. I can’t promise that my insights are as funny as anything from the AV Club’s participants, but then again I’m not paid for my wit.

On with the shuffling!

The Devil’s Workday by Modest Mouse from Good News for People Who Love Bad News

I’ll admit. I never knowlingly listened to a Modest Mouse track until Float On exploded and I couldn’t stop listening to it. This CD spent many weeks in my car’s CD player during the summer of ’04 and listening to it is very evocative of that particular time. I had just moved to Charleston, SC to live on my own. I had my first real job. I bought my first car (after my parent’s hand-me-down Dodge Caravan destroyed its second transmission). It was a very monumental sort of a time for me. I still don’t feel all that comfortable with Modest Mouse on account of that lingering rape charge so I don’t really care if you have more indie cred than I for liking them forever.

Cotton Crown by Elf Power from Nothing’s Going to Happen

Honestly I’ve never listened to this particular track before. I used to love Elf Power back when I lived in Athens, GA and was totally, totally into the whole local scene but especially the gonzo dreamy Elephant 6 crowd. The lead singer of Elf Power had a sort of a thing for a friend of mine some time after I moved away. She wasn’t all that impressed.

I Still Miss Someone by Johnny Cash from At San Quentin

Johnny Cash: the country star it’s cool to like even if you hate country music. I wonder if the movie has taken away some of the cool factor now that he’s kind of mainstream again.

Miss Molly by Old 97’s from Hitchhike to Rhome

Hey, thanks for the clever segue iPod! The Old 97’s got their name from a Johnny Cash song The Wreck of the Old 97 which just happens to be on the At San Quentin album. I have problems with the poppiness of the later Old 97’s albums, but I can’t deny how great Rhett Miller’s voice is. A great live band. I regret I’ve only been able to see them in person once. This is from their first release, which is not the one I’ve listened to the most but it’s still pretty darned good and very country.

Veronica Fever by The Raveonettes from Whip It On

Whatever happened to The Raveonettes? I’m sure they’ve released something since 2004 but I seem to have missed it. I saw them once at a all-ages club in Pittsburgh. The sound was absolutely terrible and to get to the beer you had to go into this little cage at the back of the room.

Trombone Dixie by The Beach Boys from Pet Sounds

What a great album. This is the track I never paid attention to before. I still don’t have a lot to say about it. Instrumental filler.

Fiction Reprise by Belle & Sebastian from Storytelling

I keep watching Todd Solondz movies and they stick with me visually and viscerally but I can’t say that I’m really a better person for having watched them. The Belle & Sebastian soundtrack is the best thing about this one. These tracks are among my most listened to in iTunes (or they would have been had I not completely fucked my iTunes library not too long ago in a misguided attempt to consolidate two onto a removable hard drive). When I was in Charleston interviewing for my job I brought along my PowerBook thinking the hotel might have some sort of internet connection. It didn’t, but I used it as a crummy stereo and listened to this soundtrack several times.

Rebellion (Lies) by The Arcade Fire from Funeral

Some time ago a friend of mine sent me a burned CD that had 20-some odd track of McGruff the Crime Hound singing songs about saying no to drugs and other criminal behavior, one very long answering machine message, and a copy of the Arcade Fire EP that came out before this album. He didn’t tell me what it was and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out who it was until Staci asked me what I thought about Arcade Fire and I listened to Funeral and absolutely freaked the hell out because Winn’s voice is so distinctive but I couldn’t figure out from where. And then I figured it out and bought Funeral

Sing For Me by The Fiery Furnaces from EP

Oops! I’ll fill this in later. Work to do.

Lay Low for the Letdown by Beulah from Handsome Western States

Here’s another album I’ve listened to enough times to wear it out if you could wear out mp3s. The last time I saw them live John Vanderslice opened for them. I can’t understand why everyone seems to think he has and scrap of talent as a songwriter because I spent most of his set shaking my head in disbelief with a look on my face that said “I think I might be sick to my stomach, not literally, but figuratively because this is some terrible shit.” Then Beulah came one with their trumpets and my friends and I concurred that those trumpets blew the taste of shitty indie rock right out of our mouth (ears).