Earlier this week on Politico, we saw this amusing list of Judge Sotomayor-themed ringtones. Since we were getting tired of that annoying doorbell ring on our own phone anyway, we took mobile music site mSpot up on their offer to pull together an Infrastructurist-appropriate list.
As a traffic flow phenomenon, gridlock sucks. As a Pogues song, it just might be the kind of thing you want more of in your life.
“Crumbling Land” by Pink Floyd
Sample lyric: “The Ford production line, then a man appearing like a mirage on the sand, In his hand a moving picture of the crumbling land”
“Potholes” by Randy Newman
Sample lyric: “God bless the potholes down on memory lane”
“Gridlock” by The Pogues
Instrumental
“Concrete Jungle” by Black Label Society
Sample lyric: “In the concrete jungle, it’s the well of the damned…”
“Freeway” by Porno for Pyros
“Reach across the seat? Push the bucket back all the way, Driving around with her”
“Chasing Pavement” by Adele
“Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavement even if it leads nowhere?”
“Under Construction” by Drew Copeland
“I’m under construction and I’m willing to see what kind of man you can make out of me”
“Fix You” by Coldplay
“Lights will guide you home, and ignore your bones, and I will try to fix you…”
“Built to Last” by the Grateful Dead
“You can take a lot of wrecking, but you can’t take it all”
“Take the A Train” by Duke Ellington
“If you missed the A train, you’ll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem”
*
But, seriously, if anyone asks? You just like the song.
June 4th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Do they have the Magnetic Fields’ “Fear of Trains”?
June 4th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
‘One piece at a time’ by Johnny cash!
“Well I left Kentucky back in 49 went to Detroit workin an assembly line…”
June 4th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
How can you leave off Big Yellow Taxi
“They paved paradise And put up a parking lot”
June 4th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
No “Downtown Train” by Rod Stewart(original by Tom Waits)?
Or “Love Train” by the O-Jays?
June 4th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
We’re clearly going to have to do a follow-up to this. The peeps at mSpot actually made these selections. But we’ll go back to the well sometime soon.
If you have requests (serious or not), leave ‘em here.
-Jebediah
June 5th, 2009 at 2:11 am
The Replacements: “Kiss Me on the Bus” and “Skyway”
Both totally lovable songs. If either was your ringtone, I (as a pretty girl) would be impressed.
June 5th, 2009 at 6:19 am
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:09 am
C’mon - “long line of cars” by Cake has to be there
June 5th, 2009 at 10:39 am
“Walking in LA”
NOBODY WALKS IN LA
June 5th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I had too much fun with this….some that come to mind:
Arcade Fire, “No Cars Go”
Soul Asylum, “Runaway Train”
Cream, “Crossroads”
Radiohead, “Killer Cars”
Led Zeppelin, “When the Levee Breaks”
Modest Mouse, “Interstate 8″
OK, I’ll stop now.
June 5th, 2009 at 11:22 am
OK, wait a minute. I’ve got the perfect one: AC/DC, “Highway to Hell.” Jeb, I’m gonna venture a guess that this ringtone post will become the infrastructurist’s most popular. Also, a shout out to Lauren, who apparently is a pretty girl who loves infrastructure.
On that note, there really should be a transportation/infrastructure related dating website. You could call it “tunneloflove.com,” or “subwaysingles.org.”
June 5th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Crosstown Traffic - Jimi Hendrix
The Passenger - Iggy Pop
Trans Europe Express - Kraftwerk
Crazy Train - Ozzy
5:15 - The Who
Sixteen Tons - “Tennessee” Ernie Ford
Take This Job & Shove It - Johnny Paycheque
June 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Ken,
Subway singles is a great idea if it doesn’t already exist. The subway is funny, because it’s basically like a bar where everyone scopes out everyone else, except nobody ever actually talks. But I suspect there would be users for a site where you could search by train line for that cute girl/guy who commutes at the same time. Streetcarsingles.com could be the sister site.
Sadly, the good people at mSpot don’t have Highway to Hell — it would be perfect though. And “Big Yellow Taxi” was an egregious omission.
Jeb
June 8th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Gary Numan - “Cars”
June 8th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I wonder if they have solution-based infrastructure ringtones like Leo Kottke’s and Mike Gordon’s “The Grid” ??