Project Playlist in effect: Public Enemy Edition…yeah, boyyyeeee

Project Playlist is in full gear!  I’ve been listening….and listening.  If you recall, I’ve pledged to listen to the 6,400 tracks on my iPod that have gone unlistened to in the last year and a half.  I’ve created a Smart Playlist in iTunes to keep a rotating list of music on my iPod that hasn’t been played yet. So that includes brand new music, and music that’s been sitting stagnant.

quote (from last week):

I’m gonna get started and I’m hoping to keep updating my tally every couple of weeks. Hopefully we’ll see progress! I’m feeling a small victory already.

5947
5946
5945 unlistened to tracks to go…..

WELL, I’m pleased to report some progress. I’m currently jammin’ out to :

some unlistened to Allman Brothers’ Eat A Peach (I skipped Mountain Jam…cuz it’s fuggin loooong)

a couple of Pixies Surfer Rosa and Live in Newport RI tracks

Porter Wagoner – Wagonmaster (2 tracks)

and some Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet (so good…)

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Public Enemy – 03 911 Is A Joke.mp3

Public Enemy – 04 Incident at 666FM.mp3

Public Enemy – 05 Welcome To The Terrordome.mp3

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So, for this week, my Project Playlist count rests at…..

5656…
5655….
5654

(5654 of 12142 = 46.6 %)

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Project Playlist : The Unplayed Chronicles Chapter 1

I’ve recently realized that of the 12,000 songs that I maintain in iTunes, six thousand have gone unlistened to in the two years since I’ve installed the program. I’ve dedicated a few months to ‘fixing’ this injustice. I’m proposing to downsize my unplayed songs by listening to as many of them as I can. Ready, set, GO!

Right now, California Waiting, by the Kings Of Leon is playing as I type, from their excellent debut Youth and Young Manhood

Actually, the problem was worse. When I started tackling the issue, the offense list was over 6,400 tracks. As of this writing it has been reduced to 5,966 in two weeks. And counting. You see, there are so many amazing songs to listen to. Songs that for one reason or another, just haven’t seen the light of day recently. It’s not their fault, really…well, most of them. They’re not all gems…but some are 5 star songs…

cue…Lucinda Williams – Are You Alright? from West

It’s important to quantify the scope of my project here. I believe that this journey is a dare that my brain is making to my ears. It is a challenge that is both pointless and futile at the same time. It is at once, ephemeral and static, endless and exhausting. I stand to gain nothing from this. As it stands, I’m adding several hundred tracks to my digital library, weekly (some new and some old archived stuff) so the INFLUX of new material into my life is practically erasing the progress that I will be making on the list.

M. Ward – I’ll Be Yr. Bird from Transistor Radio

Also, I would also like to note that my digital library is vastly distinct from my iTunes library. I have an 80G iPod Classic, (silver if you must know), and for reasons I’m unsure of, I’ve limited the amount of material in iTunes to 80G as well. What’s in iTunes, goes on my iPod, plain and simple. Approximately 12,000 tracks and a buttload of podcasts that have gone unlisten to (hey, another project?). Since I haven’t dared fuss with smart playlists yet, the music that is sitting in my library is on the A-list. I have 6,000 songs that are on the proverbial red carpet, and haven’t been photographed yet.

Neil Young – Falling Off The Face Of The Earth from Prairie Wind

Some of the music that has been unplayed in iTunes, is, in my opinion, Apple’s fault. I mean come on. Let’s take the current song that’s playing, by Mr. Young. I’ve listened to it at least ten times in the past. Why is it that if I remove a song (or album in this particular case) from iTunes, none of the mp3′s ratings, play counts, or anything follow it? That, to me, is asinine! So now that I’ve reintroduced the track or album into iTunes, it appears like I’ve never listened to the song before. That drives me nuts. I wish there was a way for Apple to make this a global attribute. This way, the ratings that I apply to a track in Itunes would carry over to Windows MediaPlayer if I so desired to use that hunk of crap program. That brings me to my next topic….

Wilco – Misunderstood from Being There

Clearly, I’ve listened to this song before….just wanted to say that.

I keep my entire library of music in Windows Media Player. That’s 32,000 tracks of everything I’ve ever come across. Media Player allows me to house all of the tracks, but it’s just a free for all. The program is not very capable of doing ANYTHING. Most often, it makes me want to bang my head against my keyboard, but for reasons soley built around necessity (I need both my keyboard and my head to be fully functional, after all). It serves it’s funtion as a previewer of music for me, a staging area where I can listen to something without tossing it into Itunes (unless I want to take it on the go, of course. Then it gets the iTunes treatment.).

What WMP doesn’t do well is allow me to easily edit metadata. I’m a neat freak when it comes down to my music files. Dirty Id3 tags to me are not unlike dirty dishes for some. I can’t deal with them! WMP doesn’t help me in this manner. No help. It crashes all the time, and the interface of the program is terrible. I can’t stand it, therefore I can’t use this program for more than the previewing of music.

Bright Eyes – Train Underwater from I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

Come on. Seriously? I know every word of this song…

So to start this project, I’ve created my first “Smart Playlist” in iTunes. I’ve asked it to take all of the songs with a play count of “0″, and put them in a playlist, and I’ve checked the box that says “live update”, so the files will automatically get booted off of the list. And any new tracks I import into Itunes will be added to the list as well. In one door and out the other, so to speak…

Approximately 200 of the songs with zero plays already have assigned ratings. For the first couple of days of this undertaking, I’ve structured my playlist in such a way that these higher-rated tracks would play first, at least for the duration of my writing. Some Beatles tracks have popped up, a couple of Pet Sounds tracks that haven’t been played, Dylan, Marley, Zeppelin, and the Dead.

Bob Marley and the Wailers – No Sympathy from Burnin’

I plan on devoting a couple of hours a week to the project. I think my ultimate goal is to cut the total number of unlistened tracks in half, or to around three thousand. Anything less would be incredibly ridiculous and I would like the goal to be attainable, after all. AND while maintaining some sort of SANITY….

Red House Painters – Take Me Out from S/T [1993]

I’m expecting to listen to a lot of average music, and I’ve accepted that, of course…. but I’m also expecting to be acquainted and reacquainted with a lot of really good music. Like this song, for instance. I don’t remember rating it…but I’ve listened to it before and, at any rate, this is a fantastic song. And I bet I have 30 more songs by the Red House Painters (and even more by lead singer Mark Kozelek) to dig thru.

I’m gonna get started and I’m hoping to keep updating my tally every couple of weeks. Hopefully we’ll see progress! I’m feeling a small victory already.

5947
5946
5945 unlistened to tracks to go…..

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