Top Played Music

“Don’t you get bored driving all the time?” That’s one of the most common questions I’ve been asked to this point. Well, I don’t get bored too often. The best thing is I haven’t taken any of these drives in my life before; it’s all brand new territory. It’s not like I’m taking the same ol’ route again and again. And usually I’m so excited to get to my next destination that it goes by pretty fast. And… there is always stuff to pull over and photography on the drive to break up the trip. And then there is the obvious answer, music! I haven’t been listening to as much news as I should, but a few podcasts here and there. My iPod is adding up the tracks being played. So let’s take a look at the 10 top played songs.

Top 10 Played Songs

1. “Heartbeats” by Jose Gonzalez — This could likely be my favorite song of all time now. I was originally aware of the version by The Knife where I heard it in a snowboarding film. I first heard the Jose Gonzalez version when downloading commercials online (yes, that’s what someone does with an advertising degree). It was a Sony TV commercial with thousands of neon bouncy balls that were thrown down a street, only a few blocks away from where Christina lives in San Francisco.
2. “Here & Now” by RJD2 — This song moved up the list very fast. I grabbed a bite to eat at a Quizno’s while I was in Seattle. I was blown away by the music that was playing while eating my BLT. Before leaving I made sure to ask the guys working who it was playing. From there I went back to Nicole’s and downloaded an RJD2 album on iTunes immediately.
3. “Bhindi Bhagee” by Jose Strummer & The Mescaleros — Most of my favorite music is highly inspired from skateboarding and snowboarding videos. This one comes from a skateboard film and is one of those songs that always cheers me up. It’s one of the happiest, most stoked on life songs I have. And of course any song I pick up from a snowboard or skateboard film automatically brings me to that feeling of the snowboard and skateboard freedom.
4. “All I Need” by Air — Another song from a snowboard film soundtrack. There are lots of them!
5. “Motion Picture Soundtrack” by Christopher O’Riley — This is one of the most beautiful songs in my collection. All piano! O’Riley did an all piano cover album of Radiohead, which is one of the most listened to albums I have. They are absolutely beautiful piano compositions.
6. “Magnet” in some Nike commercial — It took forever to find this song, and it was only made for a commercial sadly. It’s from a popular Nike commercial starring Lance Armstrong biking all over the country. I used to listen to this short song every morning to wake up, get me going, and put me in a great mood to get out there and live life.
7. “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum — Yup, another snowboard film song. This song just gets me stoked, if it comes on when I’m driving you can bet that I’m belting out the lyrics with my terrible singing voice, but it’s the spirit that matters.
8. “Slam Harder” by Onyx — This is the only rap song in the top ten and by far the most hardcore song in the top ten. It’s also from another snowboard film soundtrack, but a song that always gets me fired up and pumps some energy back into me.
9. “Clubbed to Death” by Rob D — This song is mostly known for being in the Matrix soundtrack. To me it’s famous for being in Rodney Mullen vs. Daewon Song, my favorite skateboard film. I always think of skateboarding and snowboarding in sync to this song.
10. “1979” by The Smashing Pumpkins — I’m surprised that this song only sneaks in at 10. This song is one of the best ever written as far as I’m concerned. “1979” is the epitome of driving on an open road, and especially driving downtown in a city, coming up to a red light downtown, with no traffic around, and dropping the windows down and cruising.

Other notes:
“Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley is probably the song I’ve heard most overall, between radio, at someone’s house, or out on the town.
“Over My Head” by The Fray is a close second (who knows, maybe first) that I’ve heard all over the place.
“How Bizarre” by OMC is a song I’ve heard all over, and that really is bizarre!

Up and coming:
Dayton Hicks: He’s the older brother of Teddy, who I stayed with in Boise. Dayton has got a great original sound with beautiful lyrics. There are two particular songs of his that mean a lot to me and will be played lots because I heard them so much while in Boise.
“Golden Brown” by The Stranglers
“Catch my Disease” by Ben Lee
“Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler (yes, I admit that I love this song)
“Hallowed be thy Name” by Iron Maiden
“Exit Music (For a Film)” by Radiohead
“Ariel Ramirez” by Richard Buckner
“Dry Your Eyes Mate” by The Streets
“Genetic World” by Telepopmusik
“Goof Luck” by Basement Jaxx (featuring Lisa Kekaula)
“Going Nowhere” by Cut Copy

There’s a pretty good taste of what I’ve been listening to and keeping me entertained. So now we’ll see how much this changes in a couple months! Thanks for the iTunes certificate John!