Soundtracking the NBA Finals (an iPod shuffle experiment)

Because I’m a master multitasker, and because I don’t have a TV that actually gets channels, last night I timed my trip to gym to correspond with the last hour of Game 4 of the NBA Finals. (Unfortunately, I screwed up the timing a bit and ended up doing like 90 minutes of cardio, which I’ll admit is a little excessive.) I had my iPod on shuffle, and after a while I realized lots of the songs were matching up in weird/funny ways (and sometimes in cheesily obvious ways, like “Don’t Let Me Down,” for instance – how sappy can you get, iPod?). So these are some of the highlights (with a couple mp3s!), partly recorded while taking a between-quarter break and huddling with my laptop in the gym corner like the biggest nerd that’s ever walked/treadmilled the earth. Enjoy! Go Celtics!
Liars, “Leather Prowler”
The album version totally pales in comparison to when they play it live, but with the game on it sounds kind of awesomely futuristic. Like: In the future, there will be no war, only basketball. (And why hasn’t anyone thought of that before?)
Ministry, “N.W.O.”
Basically the exact same effect as “Leather Prowler,” just five times scarier/more psycho-sounding.

Ice Cube, “Wicked”
This was cool because it came on right before they showed a shot of Flea in the crowd. (Flea, you were in the “Wicked” video, remember? That ruled! Now, please go on and re-band your disbanded band. Thank you, you’re my favorite, EVER.)
Franz Ferdinand, “Cheating on You”
This is the part when the Celtics are down by A LOT and I start to wonder, “Hmmm, who’s my home team again?” (Just kidding, Celtics! I only have eyes for you. And maybe also for Sasha Vujacic.)
The Ramones, “Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?”
And this is the part when the Celtics come back and everything’s really happy again. (Also, if I were in a band and we were playing some nationally televised sporting event, I’d find us a really boss high-school marching band to play back-up on a super-percussion-heavy cover of this song, making sure that the majorettes did that thing of holding their batons way up high with both hands on the last verse. That would kill, right?)
Neil Young, “Ordinary People”
This one came on right as the Celtics took the lead, at which point my emotional investment went from healthily spirited to maybe slightly meshuga. Like, a few times I had to surreptitiously throw shade at the dude who kept going “whoo!” whenevs Paul Pierce missed a free throw. And then a little later I went to punch the air, but chickened out halfway through and pretended to be scratching my nose. The song’s 18-damn-minutes-long, and for the first time I listened all the way through, and it was so good.
Electric Six, “Danger! High Voltage”
For the win, yall! And when it was over I un-shuffled and went to “Bounce That” by Girl Talk, which is the best thing ever for doing your sweaty little Celtics-victory dance down Vine Street, especially when the Stevie Winwood sample comes up. I’m sure everyone at the Kentucky Fried Chicken drive-thru was charmed as hell.