Help me make a playlist to power my remaining PhD lab work!

February 20, 2020 5:39 PM

I have 2 months to finish my PhD lab work, and I want a varied playlist to keep me entertained while I'm doing mindless repetition. Have any suggestions?

I'm having a lot of... emotions, trying to finish up this degree. I'm overall feeling very DONE, sick of my dumb thesis, and desperately looking forward to being done. At the same time, I'm also proud of what I've scraped together these few years, and still love science generally and my topic specifically (water/wastewater, and monitoring pathogens within it). To sum all of these contrasts together, I'm making a playlist. Here's some themes and examples:

Frustration/Apathy/Boredom:
- Peter Bjorn and John: Breaking Point
- Chastity Belt: Drone
- BB King: The Thrill is Gone
- Pet Shop Boys: Being Boring

Looking toward the future:
- My Bloody Valentine: Soon
- Timbuk3: The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

Science!:
- Oingo Boingo: Weird Science
- Blackalicious: Chemical Calistenics
- Bjork: Virus
- The Standells: Dirty Water

It's completely fine if the actual subject matter of the song doesn't match my exact emotional tenor, I'm mostly looking for good tunes that will amuse me together on a playlist (which is public on Spotify. Also totally open to a better name for the playlist). I like most genres of music, and would be happy to have some more variety!

Thanks all!

posted by Paper rabies to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Pretty sure no one's written a song about apathy and boredom that comes close to Green Day's Longview, but even if they had, that seems the type of song that would both amuse add some variety. If you don't mind some melodic hardcore, there's also A Wilhelm Scream's The Soft Sell.
posted by General Malaise at 5:52 PM on February 20, 2020

Ahhh, my anthem for a similar thesis finishing time was "Ways to go" by Grouplove. Very catchy tune and the lyrics get at the "working on something that feels interminable but I'm almost done" feel that I was having.
posted by permiechickie at 6:00 PM on February 20, 2020

Guided by Voices - I Am a Scientist is good for the science section.
posted by outfielder at 6:22 PM on February 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fKPn0t7j6Y always gets me going
posted by one4themoment at 6:35 PM on February 20, 2020

I Am a Scientist

See also the song of the same name by the Dandy Warhols.

For cathartic weapons grade academic burnout, which is possibly not what you're looking for, The Descendents' Tack.
posted by zamboni at 7:43 PM on February 20, 2020

The Flaming Lips' 1999 album The Soft Bulletin is my #1 choice for listening straight through while having mixed feelings about science but being happy to listen to something slightly too on the nose about lab work as a discipline. The opening track literally begins with the acutely earnest lines "two scientists were racing for the good of all mankind, both of them side by side, so determined," but by mid-album at The Spark That Bled the lyrics circle around whether any perceived results are real, and whether everything you're working on is meaningless to literally everyone else, which is pure PhD grind in a jam.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:04 PM on February 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

How mindless and how repetitious?

I went big on audiobooks when I was stuck in the "microscope cave" 4 hours at a time weekdays and Sundays and 8 during the day on Saturday for months on end.

I mostly went with light, funny scifi/ fantasy.
posted by porpoise at 8:52 PM on February 20, 2020

Future:
Truckin' (The Greatful Dead) - What a long strange trip its been..
Dunkelheit (Burzum) - Life has new meaning..
Who is going to be the one (Jinjer) -"I'm going to be the one!"

Frustration..:
Glass walls of limbo, Dance Mix (Type O Negative)
Existence Is Punishment (Crowbar) "I've found the truth inside myself, But I am still doing time, Opened my eyes to what is real.." This band should be relevant to your thesis since they are many times included in a genre called "Sludge".
posted by 445supermag at 6:38 AM on February 21, 2020

John k Samson - Postdoc blues
posted by Poldo at 12:26 PM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]