Comments on: Music for the impatient.

Music for the impatient.

holloway — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:28:00 -0800

Could you fit 100 songs onto a single CD?

By: sid

sid — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:32:14 -0800

This person's going to get some nasty bills from his hosting company.

By: oog

oog — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:39:24 -0800

joseph racaille and patricia portella nearly do this anyways. 30-40 tracks, 30 minutes or so. many of the songs less than 30 seconds. and yes, they're legit pop/piano tunes. very playful. so yes, it's doable. i won't be the one to do it, though.

By: sid

sid — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:44:36 -0800

I just grabbed the tracklisting, and this looks like something that would actually be very fun to listen to. Too bad it'll probably be down by the time I can download the tracks.

By: holloway

holloway — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:49:23 -0800

Ah, tracklisting for the impatient.

By: milovoo

milovoo — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:50:23 -0800

"I CAN'T BELIEVE - BIG BLACK Shorter than "L Dopa"." from the tracklisting Hmm, the shortest big black song. Who knew? Quite a few of the songs are actually good, it's an interesting idea.

By: rafter

rafter — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:59:50 -0800

Short Music For Short People, circa five years ago. 101 songs.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:13:22 -0800

I want you to know how serious I am about you, Internet.... While other filesystems may come and go, you're the only one for me. Please, Internet, tell me you'll stay forever. Just so you'd know how my heart feels, I made you something special... ...It's a mix session...

By: mr.marx

mr.marx — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:19:25 -0800

I love this.

By: skwm

skwm — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:24:04 -0800

The record holder for song density has got to be the "'Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!' 7" from Slap-A-Ham records. 84 songs on a single 7" record....

By: spartacusroosevelt

spartacusroosevelt — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:26:41 -0800

Thus Spake Jello Biafra: "Rick Wakeman Eat your heart out....I like short songs (Repeat 16 times)

Though I prefer longer songs (just ask anyone in one of my MefiSwap sets) some CDs of short songs are great. Naked City's Torture Garden(NSFW due to nipples and swear words) is one of my favorite headache inducers, 42 songs in 26 minutes. In one of my old bands we squeezed 26 tracks into 42 minutes. People would come see us, we would do a 35 minutes set and play 20 something songs. Freaking exhausting.

By: ascullion

ascullion — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:40:00 -0800

There's just too many novelty and punk songs here.. that's the problem with short songs. And no Chinese Bombs by Blur. And nothing by Melt Banana. Oversights... Still fun though. Points for the Ramones version of 'Happy Birthday Mr Burns'!

By: malocchio

malocchio — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:43:33 -0800

Reminds me of the Miniatures project from 1980; 51 songs on one LP. Some good, some...not.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:53:29 -0800

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:58:32 -0800

rafter beat me to it.

By: mookieproof

mookieproof — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 15:59:46 -0800

missing some Minutemen, though

By: thebabelfish

thebabelfish — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:08:06 -0800

17. DENY EVERYTHING - CIRCLE JERKS Excellent legal advice you can pogo to. Heh.

By: rhapsodie

rhapsodie — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:09:12 -0800

rafter beat me to it, as well.

By: toddst

toddst — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:11:48 -0800

Yeah, Rafter beat me too. Short Music for Short People is one of my favorite comps. Out of 101 songs, I think that there are only 5 that I don't like.

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:12:52 -0800

let's hear some more nominations! I submit "nic fit" by sonic youth.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:17:19 -0800

The problem with Short Music for Short People is that some of the songs are way too good for only 30 seconds. It's like verse, chorus, end.

By: Dick Paris

Dick Paris — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:21:09 -0800

What?! No They Might Be Giants? Kings of the short song?! Speaking of short love songs... my favorite: "I Hear the Wind Blow". 0:10 from Apollo 18. I sing it to my wife all the time. If we have "a song", this is it. (Hope our marriage is more enduring ;-) Maybe the short TMBG tracks don't fit the criteria. But I love 'em anyway.

By: milovoo

milovoo — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:22:39 -0800

Surf rock always has short songs, try a search for "surf" in the iTunes store and there are at least 30 songs that clock in at under 2 minutes.

By: wsg

wsg — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:25:46 -0800

I kept waiting to see The Beatles' "Her Majesty," but it ain't there. That's gotta be the shortest Beatle song, at least that I can think of.

By: Quartermass

Quartermass — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:29:43 -0800

Lots of GBV! Awesome. Any fans of short songs would be advised to find "Alien Lanes," filled to the brim with 90 second goodness.

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:33:03 -0800

Ok, just listened to it its not nearly as good as short music for short people

By: gimonca

gimonca — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:52:31 -0800

I immediately thought of K-Tel. "100 GREAT HITS!!!"...each edited down to about 25 seconds.

By: graventy

graventy — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 17:00:02 -0800

So, uh...if anyone could possibly show me where I could find this short people CD...or maybe.....*cough* torrent *cough*.....

By: jammer

jammer — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 17:13:53 -0800

Incomplete without Bad Religion's "The Positive Aspects of Negative Thinking".

By: reklaw

reklaw — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 17:23:12 -0800

That's really neat. And the download still seems to be up and fast, amazingly enough.

By: mindless progress

mindless progress — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 17:36:00 -0800

wsg: Check out track 63.

By: pxe2000

pxe2000 — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 18:15:56 -0800

don't know if it counts as music... but there's that urban legend about aphex twin compressing a lemonheads song to a tenth of a second and using it as a drumbeat. apparently dando asked aphex twin to produce an album, and aphex was less than obliged.

By: pxe2000

pxe2000 — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 18:18:01 -0800

richard james versus evan d., and only one will survive!

By: ChrisTN

ChrisTN — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 19:46:50 -0800

What?! No They Might Be Giants? Kings of the short song?! Yeah, my TMBG nomination is "Minimum Wage" (Hee-yah!) from Flood. A relatively long-ish 0:47, but a classic, nonetheless.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:10:22 -0800

The Residents Commercial Album is an excellent 1980 album consisting of 40 one minute long songs. It's not a novelty album at all, many of the songs are quite good. Amber (RealAudio) is one of my favourites. Beat me to it, so I'll just add that when I am very drunk I put "The Talk of Creatures" on repeat play and then listen until I either pass out or have a psychotic break. S' fun!

By: glenwood

glenwood — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:13:43 -0800

let's hear some more nominations! I submit "nic fit" by sonic youth. ummm. that would actually be 'nic fit' by untouchables, circa 1981, covered much, much later by sonic youth.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:13:51 -0800

Good to see a couple of Bonzo Dog Band classics in there, though "Narcissus" must be chosen only as a palate-cleanser in the midst of a lot of more-or-less loud and fast numbers. I would've argued for "Cool Britania," the first track off their first album, instead. It's only about :57, but the last twenty seconds or so is just silly sound effects. So, uh, maybe that was why. Also: Another vote for SMFSP.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:37:33 -0800

And another vote for "Minimum Wage". Now it's in my head.

By: mkhall

mkhall — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:42:39 -0800

I can't believe two people got to The Commercial Album before me! (Soon to be a DVD filled with 60 second music videos.)

By: abcde

abcde — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 21:04:11 -0800

All the "Fingertips" songs from Apollo 11 are great, yep. I like "(I'm having a) Heart Attack" best.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 21:32:11 -0800

was there ever an Alf soundtrack? I know it wasnt short but boy was it jammin'

By: dobbs

dobbs — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 22:59:20 -0800

I nominate Low's "Dark" and Sky Blue by Death by Chocolate.

By: wsg

wsg — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 01:31:14 -0800

Thanks, mindless progress, I guess I scanned too fast. It's pretty funny that I figured it should be on there though, huh? Nevermind...I'm embarrassed.

By: ciderwoman

ciderwoman — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 02:09:34 -0800

What, no Napalm Death? But in the meantime the wonderful Where it's at is where you are records, home (at times) to the wonderful Sportique, DJ Downfall and the odd comet gain record, will soon be releasing an album of specially written one minute songs. I think there's about sixty of them. I know this because we at the Sunnyvale noise etc were asked to provide a track, and so gave them one of our usual piss-poor creations (only shorter). I saw the track listing for this up coming record and it looks rather lovely, though I have no idea when the good Mr Jervis of WIAIWYA records will see fit to unleash it upon the general public.

By: etc

etc — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 03:19:53 -0800

I did something similar myself about 13 years ago... of course back then recordable CDs were up there with food in pill form and hovercars as things of the future so it was all on good old-fashioned cassette. My self-imposed limit was 2 minutes. The only tracks I can remember are 'History of Rock and Roll' by XTC (from the aforementioned 'Miniatures' compilation), 'sweet times' by the Chills, 'Death at one's elbow' by the Smiths, 'Worms' by the Pogues, (again, aforementioned) 'Minimum Wage', probably a few Wire tracks.. I'm struggling now. I've probably still got it somewhere...

By: dodgygeezer

dodgygeezer — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 04:30:27 -0800

I love TMBG's Fingertips, great stuff. They said they got the idea from those music compilation ads, "Buy Eighties Power Love Movie Ballads Volume 1 and get Eighties Power Love Movie Ballads Volumes 2 and 3 free... Turn around bright eyes... featuring Bonnie Tyler... Take these broken wings... Mr Mister... I am a man who will fight for your honour... Pete Cetera and many many more. Call now." My music making days are over now, but I always fancied doing a cover of those adverts. I always found them quite catchy

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 06:24:50 -0800

Hey, dodgy, that's a good idea...

By: knutmo

knutmo — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 06:33:58 -0800

[this is good]

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 06:46:08 -0800

etc., that XTC "History of Rock & Roll" track is exactly the kind of pointless, tuneless novelty item this guy is arguing against. If you're going all the way to 1:59, what about "Traffic Light Rock"? Or even shorter, "New Town Animal in a Furnished Cage" (heh - that's "Neutered," of course, in a bit of self-referential censorship)?

By: Scoo

Scoo — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 07:06:53 -0800

I too am disappointed by the lack of The Residents Commercial Album tracks. My personal faves are Picnic Boy and Moisture.

By: etc

etc — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 07:37:22 -0800

etc., that XTC "History of Rock & Roll" track is exactly the kind of pointless, tuneless novelty item this guy is arguing against. Oh, I'm not saying it should have been on this one, just that it's what I put on the tape when I did it. Actually, I guess a lot of the stuff on the tape was pointless, tuneless novelty items...

By: dydecker

dydecker — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 09:26:58 -0800

Well, plowing through that lot of annoying, shambling novelty songs has officially turned me off white music for life.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 09:55:33 -0800

"Her Majesty" is there, wsg. Sad to see no Stormtroopers of Death. Truly sad.

By: shepd

shepd — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 12:35:38 -0800

Could you fit 100 songs onto a single CD? Technically no, the audio CD standard permits a maximum of 99 tracks on a CD. I can look it up for the interested. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but one of them has to be two songs squozed into one (I love that word).

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 12:47:31 -0800

Downloaded and burned this to play in the car on the way to London yesterday. It 'feels' much longer than the hour and twenty minutes it is. Definitely enjoyed it though.. choice moments for me were the Billy Corgan car keys song and the Tampax ad song. A couple of the tracks sounded like adverts though, like the I Love Horses bit.

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 01:05:35 -0800

The record holder for song density has got to be the "'Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!' 7" from Slap-A-Ham records. 84 songs on a single 7" record.... I think I've got you beat. There was an avant-garde release, RRR 500, which crams 500 tracks onto one LP by using a concentric series of locked circular grooves. The LP was a sequel to RRR 100, which crammed 100 songs on to the side of a 7".