I owe the powers that be a great big thank you for my broken iPod screen. Normally, this would be the bane of my existence, forcing me to turn on the clicker so that I can discern where I am in my list of artists. But lately it has been better at figuring out the perfect tunes for whatever mood I might be in than I am.
For instance, today I got on the number six bus, in a hurry, hoping to get to Johnson Street in time to catch the 80 over to Social Sciences. I left the house listening to Motion City Soundtrack-a left over from my lonely Valentine's Day playlist-but it really wasn't doing anything for me. So I started flipping through my iPod, looking for the Hold Steady, when I stopped on Lit.
If you aren't aware, Lit was an alternative rock band in the '90s, and a damn good one at that. The song "My Own Worst Enemy" was a mainstay of the local Top 40 station when I was a kid, and my babysitter often played the CD in her car. I don't think I've put this album on of my own volition in months, but today, it was exactly what I needed.
Music is weird like that. It seems that there's always some melody that will brighten my mood, even if I don't know myself what it is.
That's the beauty of my broken iPod: It brings me music choices I've all but forgotten about. The bad part is when I find something I like I can't just flip over to the next album or artist I want to without a ton of clicks. It is especially tiresome to try to figure out what's playing from the first few seconds of whatever I alight on.
For someone who has as much music as I do, there is a ton that I don't recognize on the first few notes. Bands whose albums I picked up solely on the strength of a single, bands I listened to perhaps on the recommendation of a friend and bands that I end up coming across months later and being pleasantly surprised by all make their way through shuffle to my headphones.
Most recently I accidentally listened to Cheap Girls, a band I found through the website Punknews.org. The strength of their single "Ft. Lauderdale" was what made me pick up My Roaring 20s, the band's latest effort. It was a great complement to the cold weather outside and empty bank account staring back at me from my computer screen.
The band is an indie punk band from Lansing, Mich. who sound an awful lot like the Hold Steady, but carry a little more of an edge. It's that whiny hipster vibe mixed with the working class punk sentiment that makes this band such a perfect fit for a college audience.
The broken iPod that I can't afford to replace has helped change my music taste quite a bit, and I'm pleased with that. My college budget has pushed me to discover new music and rediscover old music through sheer coincidence more than once.
It's been two years since my screen initially broke and in those two years I've heard a lot of music that I didn't initially intend on listening to. I don't even know if I really want to fix the screen or get a new one. I don't know how I'd feel if I had to actually pick out my own music.
Have your own cast-away technology love stories? Holla at Jeremy jgartzke@dailycardinal.com.
