Mix Tape #41 - Lunch Will Keep Us Together

Well hey there! This turned out really well. I hope you like it as much as I did.

Neil Sedaka has a delightful new children's album and that's where the name of this mix came from. It also features "Where the Toys Are" and "Waking Up Is Hard To Do." It does not feature this [super fucking creepy] song.

What else, what else?

- Oh. Thanks, Ben, for lending me this which is awesome. Congratulations on your nuptuals!

- Look, I'm not goofing around with that Neulander. It's my favorite Eurotrash album ever and I listened to that song in a loop while driving around aimlessly one very sad day in Cincinnati last year.

- That Red Sovine song is endearingly racist. I bet he was hell at family gatherings.

- "Strip Club" is my favorite cover. Ever.

- I'm sort of suddenly obsessed with Teddy Parker and...OMFG WATCH THIS:



Anyways, here's the list:

Side A
1. 1,000 Clowns - Kitty Kat Max
2. Brenda Holloway - A Favor For A Girl (With A Love Sick Heart)
3. The Grifters - Covered With Flies
4. Meic Stevens - Shw' mae? Shw' mae?
5. Disco Construction - Lady Bump
6. Quasimoto - 1994
7. The Quests - Georgy Girl
8. Neil Sedaka - Lunch Will Keep Us Together
9. Ron Warren Ganderton - Virgins Do
10. The Spotlights - Que Sera
11. Neulander - Sex, God & Money
12. Billy Preston - The Octopus
13. Wellwater Conspiracy - Teen Lambchop
14. AD 73 - Higher and Higher
15. Webb Pierce & Red Sovine - Little Rosa

Side B
1. Breaking Circus - Smoker's Paradise
2. Bratmobile - Girl Germs
3. Henny Vonk - You're Gonna Hear From Me
4. Teddy Parker - Nachtexpress Nach St. Tropez
5. Speech Debelle - Searching
6. Ed Wood (?) - A Pussycat Is Born To Be Whipped
7. The Mops - I'm Just a Mops
8. 5 Royales - Mohawk Squaw
9. 100 Flowers - Strip Club
10. The Monkees - Cuddly Toy
11. Snowpony - Easy Way Down
12. Freakwater - Your Goddamn Mouth
13. William De Vaughan - Be Thankful for What You Got
14. Sebadoh - Punch In The Nose

Here.

Mix Tape #40 - Chiapas! I MUST GO THERE!

Because of school and other things this got kind of Iron Chef in that I just threw a bunch of songs together. And I fear I made shrimp cakes with butt sauce.

But, still. There's some good stuff in here. I swear!

Three songs come from this. It's a weird little compilation of Turkish folks living in Germany and making Turkish-y music while singing in German. The combination is oddly endearing but the songs here are the only ones I really like. (Psst. I wouldn't buy it.)

Oh. And this is my second favorite music video ever:



Herbie Mann sure has a hairy chest.

And that Charles Wilp album is terrible. Don't buy that, either.

I'm not making you want to listen to this, am I?

Side A
1. Sender Freie Rakete - Istanbul Berlin
2. Wu Tang Clan - Fast Shadow
3. Gangsters of Love - Sorry
4. Flesheaters - The Wedding Dice
5. Turid - Välkomme Hus
6. Volkanik Man - Oriental Lady
7. Unknown - Istanbul
8. Karate - Diazapam
9. Ivan and Pricila - Mandu
10. Helium - Leon's Space Song
11. Herbie Mann - Push Push

Side B
1. Jackie-O Motherfucker - Chiapas! I MUST GO THERE !
2. Apache Indian - Boom Shack-A-Lak
3. Charles Wilp - Bunny
4. Cal Tjader and Charlie Byrd - My Cherie Amour
5. Damien Jurado - Texas To Ohio
6. Wesley Willis - Annie Vookman
7. Hot Snakes - Plenty For All
8. Ensaio de Escola - Welcome to Rio
9. Fresh Familee - Ahmet Gundez I
10. Cows - By The Throat
11. Telegraph Avenue - Tookie Tookie
12. Death In Vegas & Hope Sandoval - Help Yourself

Oh. Hey. Can you do me a favor? If you know what the instrument featured in that Ensaio de Escola song is called, could you email me? It's just about my favorite instrument, but I've been unsuccessful when trying to google image "Brazilian instrument that goes 'hoo-a-ha-ha.'"

ROCK OVER LONDON. ROCK OVER CHICAGO.

Mix Tape #39 - Am I A Fuck Up?

It's probably not going to sound like it, but this mix came from two places:

1.

There's this Stephen Crane poem I really like. Here it is:

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never — "
"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

I think I like it for the wrong reason. I'm pretty sure that Stephen Crane is the "I" and that he doesn't approve (or want us to approve) of the runner's actions.

But, see, I like the runner. A lot.

2.

There's a scene in that Away Me Go movie where the wife asks, "Are we fuck ups?" And the husband says that they're not. But the scene ends with her saying, "I think we're fuck ups."

I kind of feel like a huge fuck up lately. Need to tend to that.


But you didn't need to know any of that. What you need to know is that this sounds good. Really!

Notes:

- Two absolutely huge favorites here: "Make it Betta" and "The Dawn of Understanding." The Angel made film music, I guess, and then a great album. The Long Goodbye were a one-off project featuring Melissa Farris from Tuscadero. I need to make a mix of the axis of awesome that was Melissa Farris, Margaret McCartney and Evelyn Hurley. Imma do that in the next two weeks.

- Noel Harrison's shade of pale is really, really white.

- I kinda wanted to upload that Bebe and Serge album, but I think it's still for sale. Worth getting.

- When I heard Nicole Atkins, I thought, "Do we really need someone else who sounds like Regina Spektor?" And then I thought, "Yep."

- What the hell is going on in that Spencer Davis Group song? Who's looking at whom? Who is "he"? Why's he looking at them? Am I dumb? I so don't get what's going on.

- Oh neat. The video for Big Stick's "Drag Racing":



Anyway, here's the list:

Side A
1. Co Real Artists - What About You (In The World Today)
2. The Angel - Make it Betta
3. The Tiffany Shade - Come Softly to Me
4. The Long Goodbye - Dawn Of Understanding
5. I Gres - Sweet Steel
6. Francesco De Gregori - Pablo
7. Big Stick - I Look Like Shit
8. Noel Harrison - A Whiter Shade of Pale
9. Some Russian Guy - Some Russian Song
10. Neil Young - Fuckin' Up
11. Bebe & Serge - Surfin' In Space
12. Ann Margaret - It's A Nice World To Visit (But Not To Live In)
13. Straw Dogs - Tie Your Mother Down

Side B
1. Nicole Atkins - Brooklyn's On Fire!
2. Lesley Gore - I Don't Wanna Be A Loser
3. Hazel - Mr. Magazine Man
4. Bakersfield Boogie Boys - Okie from Muskogee
5. Buzzcocks - I Dont Know What To Do With My Life
6. The Spencer Davis Group - Looking Back
7. Bullet LaVolta - Before I Fall
8. Kim Fowley - I Hate You
9. Deltron 3030 - Love Story
10. Kirk Douglas (I Think) - A Whale Of A Tale
11. The Impossibles - Sarika Ha Khu
12. Os Brazoes - Espiral
13. 50 Foot Wave - Petal
14. Lou Reed - Bottoming Out

Here.

Mix Tape #38 - No Plans, No Projects

Dig Mos Def, rockin' the Selda sample. Yeah! That whole album's great.

Wim Mertens is a crazy Belgian who sings in a language he made up. That track sums up where I'm at right now, in tone and title.

The metaphorical curtain is calling for me. I'm glad it's on its way up and not down, but it's still terrifying. I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my life and soon.

But. Until then, hopefully there'll be more of this:



Fair warning: the next two weeks are going to SUH-HUH-UCK school-wise, so expect either flakiness or a complete disappearance. I'll be back, though.

Anyway, here's the list:

Side A
1. Peter Thomas Sound Orchstera - Raumpatrouille
2. The Curbs - Pinball Junkie
3. Erma Franklin - I Dont Want No Mammas Boy
4. Joe "Fingers" Carr - Portugese Washerwomen
5. The Inner Thumb - Soul Ecstasy
6. Jonathan Fire Eater - When the Curtain Calls for You
7. Adjeef the Poet - Iekk!....I'm A Freak
8. Cookies - Don't Say Nothing Bad About My Baby
9. Cabaret Voltaire - Nag, Nag, Nag
10. Scott Baio - What Am I Suppossed To Do
11. Thee Headcoats - I'm An Idiot
12. Kamal Ahmed feat. Noor Jehan - I Am Very Sorry
13. Couch Flambeau - Dogshow

Side B
1. Bob Colbert - Tuning Up
2. She Trinity - He Fought The Law
3. White Flag - Shattered Badge
4. B.J. Ward - Keep It To Yourself
5. Mos Def - Supermagic
6. Steve Kuhn - Time To Go
7. Unknown - Yogi
8. Jimmy McGriff - Miss Poopie
9. Queen Esther - I Dont Want You To Hurt Me
10. Shellac - Spoke
11. Sisters of St. Francis with Lenny Rich - In Heaven There Is No Beer
12. Swell Maps - Let's Build a Car
13. Reg Tilsley - Sexy Sox
14. Slickers - Johnny Too Bad
15. The What Four - I'm Gonna Destroy That Boy
16. Wim Mertens - No Plans, No Projects

Here.

Mix Tape #37 - All of These Songs Were Important at One Time or Another

If you haven't visited Zen Running Order, it's a really nice place. Lots of folks who love music putting together great mixes.

They're having a mixathon and the theme is "Autobiography." So I got my self-absorption on and coughed this up. All of these songs were, at one time or another, really important.

You know what my favorite music video of all time is? This one:



Here's the list and some notes:

Side A
1. Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City (First album I bought)
2. Squirrel Bait - Kid Dynamite (Closest thing to a theme song)
3. Big Black - Kerosene (Wayward youth/nascent Albini obsession)
4. DRI - Couch Slouch (Doin' crimes)
5. Thelonious Monster - Yes Yes No (High school ended very very badly.)
6. The Pixies - Brick Is Red ("Oh hey, I can listen to something other than hardcore...")
7. Scrawl - Remember That Day (They've gotten me through so much, really)
8. LL Cool J - Kanday (Christy)
9. Nirvana - School (I need to start writing Lara)
10. Helios Creed - I'm Your Spaceman (The Union's jukebox)
11. The Fluid - Cold Outside ("After hours at my place.")
12. Madonna - Bad Girl (Laura)
13. Pavement - Summer Babe (Katie/Eric)
14. Unknown - Sehnsucht (Thanks for all of those letters and drawings.)
15. Unknown - Some Chinese Song That Rips Off The Stooges' "Dirt" (Taiwan was the best thing that ever happened)
16. The Cynics - Erica (Erica)

Side B
1. Tricky - Ponderosa (So many trips to Cleveland)
2. Codeine - New Year's (Jolie)
3. Royal Trux - Sewers of Mars (Grad school sucked...)
4. The Palace Brothers - I Tried to Stay Healthy for You (...but the music got better)
5. Silver Jews - Dallas (Dallas is a shithole)
6. Acetone - Wonderful World (Working at UW almost killed me)
7. Stereo Total - Holiday Innn (Driving to Vancouver on 9/11)
8. Madvillain - All Caps ("Oh hey. I like this.")
9. Songs: Ohia - Farewell Transmission (I lost so many years...)
10. The Mountain Goats - No Children (Thanks for trying to make me think it was all my fault)
11. McLusky - The World Loves Us and Is Our Bitch (Ok, let's light this up...)
12. The Blue Hearts - Linda Linda (Damn you, Marsha)
13. Knock Down Ginger - Fool (Same to you, Christine, with your $500 skirts and your Silly Strawberry)
14. Ananda Shankar - Jumpin' Jack Flash (I do often miss you)
15. Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 - Wichita Lineman (RIP Mom and Dad)
16. Cal Tjader - Gimme Shelter (I stop listening to new music)
17. Quickspace - Quickspace Happy Song #1 (Sorry for the repeat...it's really where my head is at right now)

Of course, this violates time constraints. Nostalgia > rules.

Here.