Keith Pille's Weekly Shuffle

Every week, I will fire up the Shuffle Songs option on my iPod; the first song to come up, no matter what it is, will get an instant, unvarnished review. We're at the mercy of random chance and the limits of my digital music collection. Let's see where this takes us.

Allison's Starting to Happen
The Lemonheads, It's a Shame About Ray

Let's hear it for adequacy!

I mean that genuinely. There's enough rank shit in the world, and so many noble failures, that sometimes it's nice when something's just pretty good without getting crazy about it. And for a couple of albums at least, the Lemonheads were the definition of a very adequate alt-rock band. They didn't inspire anyone to go out and get a Lemonheads tattoo or follow them from city to city on tour (OK, I suppose at least one person probably did each of these things, but, well, they shouldn't have), but they reliably cranked out music that was fun to listen to. It wasn't the kind of music you'd stay up nights thinking about in the dark, but it was fun to play in the car with the windows down.

"Allison's Starting to Happen" is one of the Lemonheads' better songs, hovering well above the Adequate line. It's catchy and bouncy, and it's got the standard multitrack of Evan Dando being silky while delivering sorta-wry lyrics (Allison's growing a mohawk?). I suppose the song, going on about a girl growing into her personality and using it to enrapture a guy, panders to college-age kids. But I'm fine with that, given that I was roughly a college-age kid when it came out.

Pretty good song, all in all. It's not going to change your life, but it's good fun. And it's the official position of the Weekly Shuffle that good fun is a good thing.

Weekly Shuffle Scoreboard (Best to Worst):
1. "Rock N Roll Radio V2," Derailleur
2. "Back from Somewhere (live)," Husker Du
3. "The Ride of the Valkyries," Richard Wagner
4. "Powderfinger," Neil Young
5. "Sliver (live)," Nirvana
6. "Whiskey Bottle," Uncle Tupelo
7. "Don't Be Afraid of the Robot," Electric Six
8. "Allison's Starting to Happen," The Lemonheads
9. "Gassed & Stoked," Lou Reed
10. "Shooting Star," Golden Smog
11. "Wherever I Go," Steve Earle
12. "You Are the Everything," R.E.M.
13. "Nicotine & Gravy," Beck
14. "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (live)," Wilco
15. "The Calming Sea," Beachwood Sparks
16. "John, I'm Only Dancing," David Bowie
17. "Take It or Leave it," The Strokes
18. "Is It Too Late?", World Party
19. "P'twgs," The Honeydogs
20. "Monkey Dot," Money Mark
21. "I Wanted to Tell You," Matthew Sweet
22. "Dazed and Confused," Led Zeppelin
23. "Soldier's Joy," Mark O'Connor
24. "Blue-Eyed Soul," Wilco
25. "Masoko Tanga," The Police
26. "Scenery," Neil Young and Pearl Jam
27. "We Got The," The Beastie Boys
28. "The Big Foist," The Minutemen
29. "Climbing up the Walls," Radiohead
30. "That's When I Reach for My Revolver," Mission of Burma