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july 2008 mix
I forget who was originally responsible for discovering them between us, but I’m willing to give Freed credit for turning me on to Blue States. This was probably in 2002, right around the time that a song of their found its way into the soundtrack for 28 Days Later. At the time they were recording pretty downtempo/electroinca-type stuff, so it hit me by total surprise when, after an apparent breakup and regrouping, their 2004 album, The Soundings, turned out to be a sort of M83-like take at guitar driven indie rock. It wasn’t well received (I don’t think it ever got a U.S. release…), but I loved it.
june 2008 mix
It seems that every 6 months I have to play catch up with songs I’ve been meaning to include on a mix for a while, just to clear the queue. This is one of those months. It also marks a year of doing these mixes, or maybe last month did that… look, this is a blog, don’t expect any fancy arithmetic out of me. Or simple addition.
may 2008 mix
For those that are keeping track, April was quite possibly the month of quality releases this year. And I’m lucky for that because the new releases will hopefully be my saving grace after doing this mix last minute. I hope you’ll forgive me for doing a quick roll call of the included bands, because it’s getting late and I ‘m tired like I’m in the center seat on a red-eye flight and the 2 guys flanking me are named “Sneezy” and “Dopey.”
april 2008 mix
Where’s the empty dance floor? We own those Tuesday nights. Raise my glass for a cheer; this time all the tears came out. I’m starting this one off casually with Brian Eno’s “The Big Ship,” which has been forever changed for me since the song was featured in the intro/build-up of Adam Curtis‘ The Power Of Nightmares BBC series. If you haven’t seen it and have never really understood what the hell is going on in the world, take some time and let him connect the dots for you. I still get goosebumps every time I listen to it. Evan Voytas sent me a few tracks last week and I can’t stop listening to “The Yellow World Of ‘83.” I have no idea what the idea behind the title is, but I do know what a healthy amount of 90s-style reverb is and this one serves it up a la Helium. Then there’s PWRFL POWER, a project by Kazutaka Nomura that Catbird released recently. His simple, but unexpected lyrics (”You are not that attractive / But something makes me feel that you are going to be my girl”) have a cute feel that might pique the interest of Moldy Peaches’ fans. I especially like his slight Japanese accent and inflection (note his pronunciation of “boobs”). A Mad & Faithful Telling’s “New World” is among the most epic DeVotchKa tracks to date, complete with a “How It Ends” feel, without really sounding formulaic. OK, maybe just a little bit. It is the album closer and probably would have made sense to close out this month’s mix, but I saved that spot for The Van Pelt this week.
march 2008 mix
I don’t know if it comes off to anyone reading, but I obsess over the selections for these monthly mixes. Since my posting is pretty haphazard, it is often the only way I end up recommending music, and my aspirations for the mixes are always a lot more lofty than 10 tracks will really allow. But I like the constraint of being succinct. I was pretty sure this month was lining up to be a disaster. There are so many songs that have been building up in the backlog… Meanwhile there are all these new albums; I don’t want the mixes to fall too far on either side of vintage or new. And then out of nowhere Frightened Rabbit came in to save the day with their brand new single.
february 2008 mix
With releases this month from my favorite underrated bands, some February selections were inevitable. Dirty On Purpose’s new EP, Like Bees is great, a couple reworkings of early demos, the cover that they were playing on their first cross-country tour, and two new songs, one of which is featured here, “Audience In The Room.” The other big news is the first track from Frightened Rabbit’s next LP, “The Modern Leper,” which has been revamped from the original demo they had placed on various give-away EPs over the past couple years. My love of the track is well documented. I’ve been meaning to put some Eccentric Soul one of the mixes for a while now, and “Knockin’ At The Wrong Door,” from last year’s The Outskirts Of Deep City is one of my favorites from the whole series. Dolorean is the other artist that is relatively recent to me… the title track from their 2007 album only barely missed my tracks of the year list. “Beachcomber Blues” is a fantastically sweet yet somber track, winding along with little touches of Dylan in the background organs.
january 2008 mix
A couple days late but no worse for the wear, we’re kicking off the year with Comet Gain’s ode to musical time capsules. I recently unearthed a bunch of awesome old mixtapes, mostly copies of ones I had made for others back in high school, as well as some hip-hop mix cd’s I made for myself that carry no tracklisting and are simply labeled by number (”twelve” + “thirteen” to be exact). I love coming back to these and remembering bands that would otherwise fall by the wayside. Hopefully this month’s mix draws on that. And though I’m still so drained from the new year that I don’t have the capacity to write-up all of the selections, I just wanted to note that I’m really liking the Clear Tigers‘ album, Brutal. It is super catchy and really doesn’t fit the current Brooklyn Zeitgeist… I feel like it is 2007’s Ambulance LTD (I mean that in a good way).
december mix
I don’t think I’m going to make a holiday mix this year. Sorry, Jesus.
In case anyone has noticed, I’ve always liked the idea of making the mixes more diverse in terms of period that other sites and on the radio, and usually have an unwritten rule of 1/3 new, 1/3 2000-2006, and 1/3 older stuff. While I appreciate the new music they throw at you, if there is one thing that really bothers me about KCRW/Morning Becomes Eclectic , its the way all of the music they play seems to be tied into its commercial availability. I prefer college radio that is more individual to the DJ’s taste and is simply a selection of good songs that you may or may not have ever heard. I love it when tracks from 20, 40, 60 years ago are thrown in, but on their merits rather than because they made it on to the most recent Wes Andersen soundtrack.
november mix
A new month and a new mix. I’ve been wanting to incorporate a bunch of these for some time, especially Murder Mystery and the Radio Free Silverlake recommended, Saturday Looks Good To Me. “Lift Me Up” is totally a revamp of “You Can’t Hurry Love” and I love it for that. This Miracle Fortress song that Freed recommended has a similar 50s/60s feel that I’m really digging. Deer Tick is on here again because he is amazing and Pitchfork is so wrong, you’d think Bill Kristol wrote the review.
october mix
This month’s mix is up, and goes out to our friend and hospitalized KXLU DJ, Octavius. If anyone finds his Suzuki-riding assailant, make a Tom Hanks-style citizen’s arrest. Its weird, because I distinctly remember when I started pulling these selections together that I was worried that it was too folksy. As it turned out it is straight pop. Well maybe not straight pop, but there is a lot of electronica stuff in there and it is more pop than usual.