Have A Good Friday – Have Some Good Music…

Sounds Good!

Regardless of whether you celebrate the religious element of Easter – it’s a holiday. We can all be grateful for that right? In New Zealand we’re free to drive about the place or fly domestically or jump on a boat. And there must be some lord of some sort to thank for that.

Siouxsie Wiles was recently awarded as one of the ‘lords’ that helped to ensure we could have our Easter getaways in 2021. Thanks Siouxsie!

I’m heading off on a road trip today. Probably gone by the time you read this. We’re getting up early and heading to the Bay – Hawke’s Bay that is. And by ‘we’ I mean our wee family. Me and Katy and Oscar. We are a good team. And we share some music taste – there are songs we all love, certainly. We even find whole albums by certain artists that we can all be on board with (er, actually, maybe its just the Beastie Boys and The Beatles actually).

We long ago worked out a clever workaround to stop the madness that was The Wiggles when road-trippin’ and now Oscar cringes at the mere mention of the band. He’s too cool for that school. Now it’s about rap music and hard rock as far as Osc is concerned. Those are his genres. He’s even into very heavy metal. Cookie Monster voices. Blast-beats on the drums. Hideous really. Definitely not good for a family car-trip.

So Katy thought up a brilliant plan!

And we’ve followed that plan ever since. Basically, each person gets to choose a set amount of songs. We work out, roughly, how long it is going to take us – and so for a four hour trip we might be allowed 20 songs each. I load them all up into a playlist, Oscar chooses his, Katy selects hers, I then add mine. When the engine starts, we hit shuffle.

The genres collide. The eras grind against each other. Oscar might curl his toes at some of my choices, but that’s fine – he gets to hear the same amount of music that he’s chosen. He just sometimes has to wait for three our four songs. Katy gets her favourites and might like some of my selections too. (I try to think of them both and pick a few for each of them as well as just a handful that realistically only I am going to like).

Here’s our selection for today.

I don’t think Oscar has thought of us at all. And he doesn’t have to – in this instance. He’s nine. And on a heavy Eminem kick. But I think we’ll cope. We’ve heard most of it before and there are worse things to have to hear. (And I’ve heard most of them too). Katy’s picked some songs I love and a couple I don’t really know. And I’ve got on some strange buzz with my selection today – but I’m going to enjoy most of them. And I think the other two in the car will tolerate and maybe even enjoy a few of the songs.

I recommend this method. If there are four of you in the car pick 10-15 songs each. If it’s just two of you go 50/50 of course and work out roughly how many songs based on the travel time by guestimate –  but always hit shuffle so that you have no knowledge of what’s coming next. Sometimes you’ll get three or four of your selections in a row. Is that what you want? Or will you prefer it to stockpile and be the person with the most left for the end of the trip. It’s a lottery. It creates several talking points. It feels like the most democratic way to share the music – and we’ve found it to be fun and that, if anything, it makes the time feel like it’s passing quickly. That’s impossible of course. Time goes at one speed. And somehow even slower with public holiday road-travel.

But hey, with the right music on…

So that’s what I wanted to share with you today. That idea. I’ve also shared our playlist – in its unshuffled state.

If you want brand new albums to check out I’m going to plug brand new releases – fresh out today – by Myele Manzanza (a Kiwi based in the UK) and Nils Frahm. You can hear those below.

But if you want something familiar I will say that The Cars’ Greatest Hits – the original version from 1985 (single disc) is an all-time favourite ‘car’ album for me; great for travel. And it doesn’t seem to get many complaints. So if all else fails – hit up that.

But, look, all else will not fail. Because I have got your back with the regular Friday bonus of a new Something For The Weekend playlist. (I’ve shared our travel playlist above, and you’re welcome to listen to it of course, bur really that’s just to show you the model, the example. You should really make your own one. And by all means share your one below if you’re brave).

So, lots for the long weekend here I hope. And I’ll have a few links and updates over Easter. And then back to the regular newsletter run next week. Have a great long weekend, hopefully you’re with the ones you love. Take care of each other. And share the stereo.

And any other ways you divide the stereo time and the DJ rights? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below. Happy Easter!