A Dumpster Diver's Playlist.

Alright, fair warning. MOST of these jams are gonna be aiming for an audiospace that fits the politic and the aesthetic.

But I'm starting off this list with a jam that doesn't really fit either politic or aesthetic. But still, it could as well be the Dumpster Divers National Anthem.

"I Like" by Rubi Rose.

I'll explain why it works for our lead in.

This song is about liking what you like, even when someone else says you shouldn't.

Her lyrics definitely convey a sense of going against the grain, and refusing to be ashamed of your own satisfaction:

You wanna know what I like?

Mm-hm, yes, tell us, absolutely

You're sure you wanna know what I like?

Absolutely, tell us, dear

Part of her chorus fits especially well, because of one specific word:

I'm a hood bitch, I like it nasty

Nasty. That's a great word, packed with so much weight. Such clear connotations. I mean, in the context of her song, she obviously meant nasty in a sexy, scandalous way.

But aside from sex-heavy slang-- nasty also means: gross, unpleasant, nauseating. And while dumpster diving isn't really nasty at all, the stereotype attached to diving and divers is a dirty one. It feels good to dive in the face of all that social stigma and be like, "Yeah. I like dumpster diving. I like it nasty."

It's the difference between hiding your hobbies out of shame, and straight up flaunting them because they fucking rock.

Now that you've listened to this one, you know Rubi is bad as fuck. She sounds sexy as hell-- and ya know what? That fits too, because dumpster divers are also sexy as hell :)

Right?

Someone just smile and nod so I can keep going.

What's next? You know how I was saying people think dumpster diving is nasty, but it's not actually gross, unpleasant, or nauseating.

Well, I was telling the truth-- the hobby isn't gross, unpleasant or nauseating. Dumpster divers are not yucky people-- people who dive pay mind to safety and hygiene.

HOWEVER. DUMPSTERS themselves are... sometimes pretty gross. They range from oddly clean rust buckets to absolutely festering rot-heaps.

And generally, they aren't ya know.... pretty.

So let's get into the aesthetic a bit. We're looking at grime folks. We're looking at sludge. And Crud and filth.

In other words, we're gonna listen to some grunge, motherfuckers.

(and some other genres, if we have to. I guess.)

Gonna hit ya with a mostly uninterrupted chunk of music-- maybe I'll add a few words here and there, but really the focus is the "Dirt".

Crank this shit up guys and girls. Trashcan music is always better loud.

Maybe close your eyes and let the grittiness of the sound scrub ya raw.

Imagine yourself, geared up-- gloves, work boots, sturdy clothes. You've got your dumpster diving gear-- you're protected. There's a big line of dumpsters before you. Some are rusty, some are new. Some hold nothing but rubbish. Others hold treasures-- things you can quickly scrub and sanitize, or easily repair and put to use. In any event, you're on a mission: to save some useful shit from premature waste-- give these items another breath of life instead of letting them clutter up a landfill somewhere.

Now-- some of these dumpsters before you are gonna be rancid.

Some of them will be putrid and vile.

Some legitimately valuable treasures might be caked with unknowns.

BUT remember. You're ready. You're geared up, you're protected.

You're smart, you're gonna dive safe and you're not gonna chicken out .... because you're not a pussy.

Anyway: that's the vibe I'm going for here. Dumpster aesthetic AND a strategy-- ready for the filth. Have a listen and keep an eye out for the next section. I'll give you another lead in before we get there.

The Day I Tried to Live by Soundgarden

Bleed the Freak by Alice in Chains

Outshined by Soundgarden

Burning Too by Fugazi

Would by Alice in Chains

Dumb by Nirvana

Now. We're gonna shift gears, but only a little bit. We're gonna take a step towards feeling. Because when you see the absolutely maddening shit that people throw away-- perfectly good food, perfectly good clothes, tools, building materials, etc... When you see perfectly good shit discarded when it could have been given to people in need?

That shit is frustrating.

Oh, that shit? it fucking rankles to the max.

So the next section of this playlist is gonna be themed around one thing: Righteous Fucking Anger. Sometimes it's more than okay to get mad. Sometimes it's fucking correct to rage.

So these next few songs will still satisfy the soundscape concerns around dumpster aesthetic. But they'll also get to looking at our politics. They'll reflect the frustration I feel-- the frustration we should all be feeling-- if we're looking at the abused state of our natural and social worlds.

Our economic system is fucking bullshit. Profit machines use people for cogs, only to shit out stupid excesses of crap, which everybody gobbles up in order to flex some sense of affluence.

But these days affluence and effluence look an awful lot alike. Stem the flow of capitalist diarrhea.

Dam that river and damn it too.

Dumpster Diving isn't gonna save the world, but each thing you save from a landfill and put to use or clean up and donate to a good cause-- that's an action.

You're saying "no" to disposability. You're saying "no" to spend-happy addictions. You're saying "no" to planned obsolescence. You're saying "No" to some fat-fuck CEO who wants you to buy that shit instead of finding it for free.

You're saying "Yes" to the environment and the Nature's needs. You're saying "yes" to your poorest neighbors. You're saying "Yes" to Earth's most defenseless creatures.

You're saying yes to action.

And when things around us are this broken, any action for good is a good fucking thing. So get mad enough to go out and make a difference. Do a good job even if it's a little job.

If you dumpster dive or do anything else that's against the grain and all for an ethic-- you're saying "Yes" to a localized revolution, the kind that's staged in your heart.

Dumpster Diving is one easy way to powerfully rejection a few truly rancid norms. The norms of overproduction, overconsumption, and hyper-disposal. Dumpster diving is countercultural and radical, but in a way that harms no-one and does no violence.

Hell yeah!

So if you're mad, and ready to dive: let yer ears get a load of these:

Institutionalized Suicidal Tendencies

Gacked on Anger by Amyl and the Sniffers

Sludge Factory by Alice in Chains

Testify by Rage Against the Machine

Ænema by tool

The Party's Over by Propthets of Rage

Pissing in a River by Patti Smith

That last one doesn't sound like super duper anger to me. But it caps out the progression of righteous anger the other songs seems to carry forward. This last gives a sense of a resigned, sturdy approach to a big, grand, ongoing problem. To me it feels like a reminder that little battles and victories are always worth chasing. Even if none of us will ever fix any of the sweeping problems our world faces, we can do our parts to make things a little better and lesson our own guilty footprints.

Well. That's how I feel.

By the way, we're not quite done.

Does anyone here really enjoy thinking about survival in a post apocalyptic wasteland?

Me too. And another cool thing about dumpster diving-- aside from it being good for the community and the environment-- is, it's fun!

It's like playing Fallout but in real life. Or something.

Digging through a wasteland looking for useful shit? That's so RPG, but it's real life.

Legit.

So I'm gonna round out this playlist by winding it down, with some gradually more chill (But always apocalyptic sounding) music. Just imagine yourself scavenging cracked and ruined alleyways and city streets choked by ashes and natural succession.

Gimme Shelter by Merry Clayton

You Know You're Right by Nirvana

Cities in Ashes by Garbage:

Dirt by Iggy and the Stooges

The End by the Doors

Big Dreams by Amyl and the Sniffers

Fleetwood Trash, by Fuzzrod

Panoramic, by Atticus Ross, from Book of Eli

And that's about it.

Thanks for listening! Got any good recs? I'd love to add some new songs to my dumpster diving playlist so lemme know!

Also, if you wanna read some more dumpster-adjacent content from me, you can skip to any link that has the 🗑️ emoji from my previous post.

Oh, wait! before we say goodbye, a bonus track:

Garbageman by the Cramps