The shuffler: Comedian-actor David Cross, co-creator and star of Mr. Show; angrily heartfelt stand-up; Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development, and the man who gets Larry The Cable Guy all riled up. Oh, and one of the funniest people ever.
OutKast, "?"
David Cross: What's this? I know he's saying "What can make a nigger do something." Oh, this is a good song! This is the "drinkin' again" song, where all the alcohol is being poured. Oh yeah, it's the question mark! That's the name. The title is the question mark.
Supergrass, "Moving"
DC: My feelings? I guess this makes me feel humble, and proud. Plaintive, ummm… Strong. Full of hope and pussy-whipped at the same time.
Crooked Fingers, "Doctors Of Deliverance"
DC: Absolutely one of my all-time favorite albums [Bring On The Snakes] ever. I wrote a screenplay that never got made—it got close, but ultimately never happened—and I wanted [Crooked Fingers' Eric Bachmann] to score it. It was kind of about unrequited love quadrangles and trying desperately to belong. It was funny; you would've laughed a lot, but it wasn't necessarily what you'd call a comedy. Poignant slice-of-lifeness.
Björk, "Hunter"
DC: Another good one. I got fucking awesome taste in music, as the first four of my 3,497 songs that came up on shuffle will dictate. I've gone on a couple of killing sprees—this is off the record—but this is the song I always listen to.
R.E.M., "We Walk"
DC: Anything from Murmur is very evocative of my youth and kind of becoming a person, y'know? The idea of not fitting in and trying to fit in is pretty much the summation of my youth in Georgia. When I was kinda coming of age and that whole Atlanta/Athens music scene was happening, I had friends who were in bands and I had my fake ID and I'd go into shows at 688 and The Bistro. That's a feeling that I never really got over.
DJ Shadow, "Changeling"
DC: God, what a fucking great… I have amazing taste in music! This album is unbelievable, fucking great, not one bad second on there. If you played it now for people that are doing stuff influenced by DJ Shadow, it's still better than that stuff.
Air, "Remember"
DC: I'm kinda over this particular song, actually. They've got that vocoder thing going. I think they should re-release it without that vocoder effect and give it another couple years of shelf life.
The Streets, "Who Dares Wins"
DC: Another great album. I'm so excited for his next album. Have you ever seen The Streets live? That kid is a spitfire! Bundle of English energy!
AVC: His accent sounds fake.
DC: That's because you were brought up on shitty movies.
Guided By Voices, "Buzzards And Dreadful Crows"
DC: [Bee Thousand] was the first Guided By Voices CD that I had. I got it, listened to it, and didn't really think about it or care about it either way. Then I had a gig in Irvine, and I was running late and grabbed a bunch of CDs and threw 'em in my car—that was one of 'em. I was playing it on the way back from the gig, and I was like, "Holy shit, this is amazing!" I had to look at the cover, like, "Who is this? This is great!" Then I became a huge fan. Same thing kinda happened with the first Pavement record. I bought some stuff for a drive down the PCH, from San Francisco back to L.A., and my little tradition when I was up there working… I would come back down and get really high and jacked-up on coffee and get a bunch of CDs. I bought that one and listened to it and was like, "This sucks! What the fuck is this?" I was angry. And then it came back around on my disc changer and I heard it that second time, and it was genius. Pure genius.
The Who, "Hall Of The Mountain King"
DC: They were my first favorite band, and I even went so far as to dress kinda mod-ish in high school—porkpie hat with buttons. I'd spray-paint "The Who" everywhere. I probably saw The Kids Are Alright 15 times, Quadrophenia 10 times… I went and saw them when I was 18, took a road trip because they didn't go to Atlanta, and then bribed a guy who worked at their hotel to get me a passkey. To get on the top floor, you had to put your key in the elevator, and there was a security guard. So I flashed him the key, went up there, actually opened up Pete Townshend's room—prior to that, John Entwistle held the elevator for me, and I was shitting my pants the whole time—then I got scared and ran away. I could see [Townshend's] leg and hand, and the TV was on.