Episode 7: Playing God

In this episode we discuss another neglected aspect of music: album sequencing.  When you're making an album, what goes first and what goes last?  Obviously you should put the worst song first!

Bonus All-Time Great album word cloud: Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd!

Categories covered:

• 20 great song which is the shortest one on a sub-40 minute album
• Turner: Breaking Glass - David Bowie - Low
• Jon: Intro - Bad Brains - Bad Brains
• 51 & 52: Best one-two punch on an album (consecutive songs that just hit you hard)
• Jon: While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Happiness is a Warm Gun - The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album)
• Turner: Love -> Building on Fire and Memories Can't Wait - Talking Heads - The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
• 59 song that gets much worse when taken out of its album context
• Turner: Fitter Happier - Radiohead - OK Computer
• Jon: Eclipse - Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

Cultural reference links:

• Even though Stylus is dead, they still provide an archive of their old postings.  Here's the column 'Playing God', which inspired and named this episode.
• Dramatic structure, which is Turner's archetypal method of sequencing albums.
• The lyrics to Fitter Happier, because they're just so cool and full of anticapitalist ennui 
• And speaking of anticapitalism, we mentioned Naomi Klein and her book No Logo, which was a big influence on Radiohead during the recording of OK Computer.

Episode 6: Steve Albini For President

Production is a vital but infrequently discussed aspect of making music.  We aim to fix that, so we're spending a whole episode on various aspects of production!

For listening at your convenience, a direct download is HERE and a torrent download can be found HERE.

Your weekly All-Time Great Album word cloud: Let it Be by The Replacements!


Categories covered:

• 14 Rap song where the beat is much better than the rapping
• Turner: POWER - Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
• Jon: The Breaks - Kurtis Blow - The Breaks
• 15 rap song where the lyrics are much better than the beat
• Turner: Follow the Leader - Erik B. and Rakim - Follow the Leader
• Jon: I Ain't No Joke - Erik B. and Rakim - Paid in Full
• 87 song that benefits from bad recording/production
• Turner: The Truly Great Thing - Sebadoh - III
• Jon: Androgynous - The Replacements - Let it Be 
• 88 song that is harmed by good recording/production
• Turner: Calgary - Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
• Jon: Bastards of Young - The Replacements - Tim

Cultural reference links:

• Steve Albini, the person for whom the episode is named, has produced an insane amount of music
• A way we didn't mention that production can harm not only a single song but whole genres of music: The Loudness War
• Info about lizard people from a reputable source
• And a disreputable one
• More about voting for 'lizard people'

Episode 5: I Am A Scientist

It's time to apply the scientific method to our musical taste and try to frankly assess some songs we have never heard before or didn't like in the past.

For your listening convenience, a direct download and a torrent download of this episode.

Your weekly bonus All-Time Great Album word cloud: Ágætis byrjun by Sigur Ros!  Obviously this one is not in English.


Categories covered:

• 34 Your most-played song in the last year that I have not heard
• Turner: The Vowels Pt. 2 - Why? - Alopecia
• Jon: Emma's House - The Field Mice - Where'd You Learn to Kiss That Way?
• 57 song you've never listened to (don't listen to it while picking)
• Turner: Hold it in - Jukebox the Ghost - Live and Let Ghosts
• Jon: A Stare Like Yours - The Thermals - Fuckin' A
• 66 song you totally hated until you didn't
• Turner: Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl - Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
• Jon: Svefn-g-englar - Sigur Ros - Ágætis byrjun

Cultural reference links:

• Required 'reading' for budding musical scientists
• 'I Am A Scientist' music video, for which this episode is titled
• Last.fm, the only musical statistics site you should ever need
• Turner's Last.fm
• Jon's Last.fm

Episode 4: The Anxiety of Influence

Turner and I rip apart some remixes, covers and mashups as a means to discuss the way musicians use the influences of artists and styles that came before them.

Because we love our listeners and want you to take The Eternal Playlist with you wherever you go, here's a direct download and a torrent download of the episode.

Your bonus All-Time Great Album word cloud: The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips!


Categories covered:

• 5 cover/mashup which improves on the original
• Turner: Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
• Jon: Ceremony - Galaxie 500 - Blue Thunder EP
• 10 remix that totally ruins the original
• Turner: Romantic Rights (The Phones Lovers Remix) - Death from Above 1979 - Romance Bloody Romance
• Jon: Satisfaction - The Residents - Third Reich and Roll
• 11 remix that does NOTHING to the original
• Turner: Killer Mirror (Mysplice the Third Remix) - Arcade Fire, The Killers, Mysplice the Third - Stereogum & team9 Present...Mysplice III
• Jon: Waitin' For A Superman - The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
• 37 Song where the remix is better
• Jon: Ignition (Remix) - R. Kelly - Chocolate Factory
• Turner: Money Folder (Four Tet Remix) - Madvillain and Four Tet - Four Tet: The Madvillain Remixes

Cultural reference links:

• Wikipedia on The Anxiety of Influence by Harold Bloom
• Or you could buy his boring book!
• Jangle Pop!
• The Hype Machine, for all the mediocre remixes of modern Indie music that you can stand!
• Sigur Ros pronunciation guide, because not everyone wants to eat word salad.

Episode 3: Loud, Fast, Slow, Sad: Key Qualities in Music

In this episode we discuss the key qualities that music can have: volume, speed and emotive content.

Take The Eternal Playlist on the road with you: a direct download and a torrent download of this episode is only a click away.

Bonus All-Time Great Album word cloud: Illmatic by Nas


Categories covered:

• 38 "Loudest" song
• Jon: Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell - Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power (Iggy Pop Mix)
• Turner: 0078h - M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
• 39 "Fastest" song (not to be confused with shortest)
• Turner: Playing with Pink Noise - Kaki King - Legs to Make Us Longer
• Jon: N.Y. State of Mind - Nas - Illmatic
• 40  "Slowest" song
• Turner: Maggot Brain - Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
• Jon: Words - Low - I Could Live in Hope
• 41 Saddest, most depressing, soul-crushing song
• Turner: John Wayne Gacey Jr. - Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
• Jon: The Eternal - Joy Division - Closer
• 42 A song of fragile beauty that makes you feel contemplative
• Turner: A Stone - Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
• Jon: Nightswimming - R.E.M. - Automatic for the People

Cultural reference links:

• Just so you can keep all the various mixes of Raw Power straight in your mind
• The just-noticeable difference explains why your music is always too loud when you turn the car on.
• Because it deserves a complete guide, here's Rapgenius's guide to Illmatic by Nas
• Someone even wrote an academic examination of Illmatic!
• The Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop is a book about how rap lyrics are structured, as we mentioned when talking about Nas and Rakim
• What is slowcore?
• What are some slowcore artists?
• James K. Polk.  When the Democrats ran Franklin Pierce a few years later they used the slogan "We Polked you in '44, We shall Pierce you in '52"
• John Wayne Gacy Jr.
• The book Turner read about serial killers

Episode 2: Who Needs Lyrics in Rock Music Anyway?

In this episode we talk about the place of lyrics in modern music.  Are good lyrics required?  Optional? Totally pointless because no one cares about them anyway?  Join us as we settle this important question for all eternity.

Take The Eternal Playlist with you: download this episode directly or by torrent.

Bonus All-Time Great Album word cloud: Graceland by Paul Simon


Categories covered:

•  32 Best-written lyrics
• Jon: It's All Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home
• Turner: The Splendor of the Bender - The Deadly Gentlemen - The Bastard Masterpiece
• 45 Song with great instrumentation but terrible lyrics
• Jon: Live Forever - Oasis - Definitely Maybe
• Turner: Goldie - A$AP Rocky - Long. Live. A$AP
• 69 best vocals that aren't saying any words (ululations and such)
• Jon: Homeless - Paul Simon - Graceland
• Turner: The Hounds of Love - The Futureheads - The Futureheads

Cultural Reference Links:

• P.D. Eastman, worker of miracles with simple language.

Episode 1: You May Manipulate the Prompt

In our first ever episode, we discuss what the scavenger hunt playlist is and why it's so damn much fun.  Join us, won't you?
For those who don't want to listen via this site, here's a direct download and a torrent download of this episode.

Bonus All-Time Great Album word cloud: Bee Thousand by Guided by Voices!

Categories Covered:

• 70 best misdirection of the listener
• Turner: Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground - Loaded
• Jon: Smoke it the Pot - Gene Marshall - I Like Yellow Things: MSR Madness Vol. 5
• 77 song that reveals a weird obsession of the author
• Turner: Lust for Life - Girls - Album
• Jon: No More Hot Dogs - Hasil Adkins - Out to Hunch
• 90 song about a murder
• Turner: Buzzards and Dreadful Crows - Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
• Jon: Video Killed the Radio Star - The Buggles - Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80's
• 106 song that incorrectly describes science or natural processes
• Turner: Buggin' Out - A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
• Jon: Miracles - Insane Clown Posse - Bang Pow Boom

Cultural Reference Links:

• Off the Charts: The Song Poem Story
• The video for Miracles by Insane Clown Posse, so you have some idea what all the fuss is about.  You're only about two years late.
• Can you believe that 'Smoke it the Pot' by Gene Marshall is available for free at WFMU's Beware of the Blog?  I couldn't either!
• The Internet Archive isn't just for hosting this podcast, it also includes topical public domain material such as Reefer Madness.

Required Reading: The Scavenger Hunt Master List

Jon and I are constantly making reference to the numbers of prompts and telling everyone to do their own scavenger hunt.  Well I never want to let anybody down, so here it is:
The Master List!  

This will be updated from time to time as the number of prompts grows.

As you can see the prompts are arranged in a totally nonsensical order - #1 has nothing to do with #2 and so on.  That's because we just kept adding more and more categories and never tried to group them in any sensible way until I came up with the idea of doing just a few songs per episode.  You'll notice that our prompts get more intricate as we go on, mainly because we've used up most of the obvious good ones.

This is a test post, to test the posting.

Hello World!

...And so a brand new baby blog is born!  Welcome one and all.

We are Turner and Jon Scavenger Hunt, a duo of professional music lovers and strictly non-professional music critics.  We're here to share our opinions on the marketplace of ideas so that you, the listener, can disagree with them.

Some Logistics:

• Schedule: There is no schedule.  New episodes come out whenever I record and finish them, which probably means in groups of two or three at a time.
• Legal: All clips of songs in the podcasts are property of their respective owners.  Turner and Jon own only their own voices.  Because we are doing critical analysis of the songs featured, the clips of copyrighted material we use come under the Fair Use exception.
• Copyright: All episodes are under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.  This means:
• You may remix, edit or repost any episode so long as you attribute the original to us
• You may NOT use any remix, edit, repost etc. for commercial purposes
• Any work derived from any of our episodes must be distributed under the same Creative Commons license that we used