Showing posts with label weekly mix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekly mix. Show all posts

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #57


As I did last year, I will attempt an Irish mix in honour of St. Patrick's Day. The issue is that I usually find that I don't have too much Irish music in my collection. And then I have to pad it with someone like Van Morrison, someone that I never listen to. Nonetheless, I feel like I managed to cobble together a pretty decent mix this year. It ranges from the old (Virgin Prunes, The Pogues, The Stars of Heaven, Whipping Boy) to the new (The Japanese Popstars, Fight Like Apes, The Guggenheim Grotto, Halves, One Day International) to somewhere in between (Ash, The Frank and Walters, JJ72). JJ72's frontman, Mark Greaney, even makes a second appearance with his new band Concerto For Constantine.

This one's called Emerald Audiophile.

B.C.T.T. - The Japanese Popstars

Twenty Tens - Virgin Prunes

Wasps - Concerto For Constantine

Kung Fu - Ash

Jake Summers - Fight Like Apes

Forget Romance, Let's Dance - We Should Be Dead

The Sunnyside of the Street - The Pogues

After All - The Frank and Walters

What Else Could You Do? - The Stars of Heaven

Fee Da Da Dee - The Guggenheim Grotto

Blinded - Whipping Boy

Pride (In the Name of Love) - U2

Glimmer - JJ72

Blown A Wish - My Bloody Valentine

Kansas (Yellow Brick Road Mix) - The Hedge Schools

Little Death - One Day International

Lille - Lisa Hannigan

A Bear in the Hermitage - Sunken Foal

Medals - Halves

Hands Swollen With Grace - Dakota Suite

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #56


I realize St. David's Day was last weekend, but it's never too late for a Welsh mix tape. I've already explained my affinity for Wales and Welshness in the mix post last year. With perfect timing, the Comic Relief single featuring Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones from the brilliant Gavin & Stacey and Sir Tom Jones has just released - it's like Welsh overload (like a sugar rush, but it tastes more like cockles and leeks). I already ordered my copy from Amazon UK (curse international iTunes who won't let you purchase a download from another country). While I wait for it, I will watch the above video over and over again. And maybe that Comic Relief Robert Webb Flashdance performance...if you don't know what I mean, click here. Back to the Welsh theme, I would also recommend watching Rob Brydon's Identity Crisis, a documentary he made about being Welsh for the BBC last year (if you can't find it anywhere, I can upload it for you).

I'm featuring several of the same artists I did last year at this time, including McLusky, The Darling Buds, Gruff Rhys, Melys, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Tom Jones, Scritti Politti, Los Campesinos, and of course, the Manics. However, there are some new ones this time round with Helen Love, Hemme Fatale, The Hot Puppies, The Threatmantics, Sibrydion, Freur, Silver Gospel Runners, Sweet Baboo, Volenté and Cymbient. Also, as an extra special Welsh combo, James Dean Bradfield singing Ready For Drowning accompanied by John Cale. This one's called Bore Da.

Last Exit on Yesterday - Manic Street Preachers

Icarus Smicarus - Mclusky

Does Your Heart Go Booooooom - Helen Love

Extra Sexual Terrestrial - Hemme Fatale

King of England - The Hot Puppies

Sexbomb - Tom Jones and Mousse T.

You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing - Los Campesinos!

Little Bird - Threatmantics

Desperados - Sibrydion

Shame On You - The Darling Buds

Happiness - Freur

Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Ei Gilydd - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

Skank Bloc Bologna - Scritti Politti

Gwn Mi Wn - Gruff Rhys

Would You Settle For Less - Silver Gospel Runners

Tom Waits Rip Off - Sweet Baboo

Ready For Drowning - James Dean Bradfield with John Cale

Right Before You - Volenté

Y Dŵr Yn Y Môr - Melys

Time Away With You - Cymbient

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #55


I watched the Brit Awards a couple of weeks ago, and the only part that made it worth it was the finale with Pet Shop Boys; although, I could have done without the appearance of Lady Ga Ga and Brandon Flowers (the former looked like a blue willow china stripper with a broken arm, and the latter looked like an owl murderer). Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe still exude that aloof cool that elevates the potentially tacky and disposably popular into a higher art form (if you have any doubts, read Michael Bracewell). Their tenth studio album, Yes, will release later this month, so there will likely be a review post then. I also need to say that I would love to have a coat like Neil Tennant's.

In honour of the Pet Shop Boys stellar performance, this week's mix will be a synthpop one, the third one since this blog began. And it opens with the excellence of Suburbia. This one's called Run With the Dogs Tonight.

Suburbia - Pet Shop Boys

Enola Gay - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

M.A.G.I.C. - The Sound of Arrows

Another Day - Strawberry Switchblade

Quiet Life - Japan

Send Me an Angel '89 (Dance Mix) - Real Life

Be Near Me (Munich Disco Mix)- ABC

Sub-Culture (12" version) - New Order

Jump For Joy - The Passions

Don't Go (12" version) - Yazoo

Underpass - John Foxx

The Magician - Secession

Fang - Los Electricos

Sanctuary - New Musik

Love Action (I Believe in Love) - The Human League

The Ballad of Sexor - Tiga

I Wanted to Tell Her - Ministry

The Rules I Broke - Tim Scott

Doot Doot - Freur

Venus - Indochine

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #54


It's been awhile since I've posted a cover versions mix (and I've felt a little harried this week with both the volunteering and freelance work), so here's my rather lazy attempt. I would like to mention the War Child Heroes album since it's being touted as "The Ultimate Covers Album." As per usual, War Child is releasing an album with proceeds going to benefit children affected by war, but this year the idea was to get musical "heroes" to pick artists from the younger generation to cover a song from their back catalogue. I may not like all the tracks on the album, but there are some rather excellent ones, including TV on the Radio covering David Bowie's "Heroes," Scissor Sisters covering Roxy Music's Do the Strand, Rufus Wainwright covering Brian Wilson's Wonderful and Song For Children, Hot Chip covering Joy Division's Transmission, and Peaches covering Iggy Pop's Search and Destroy. You can find out how to order the UK version and how to pre-order the North American versions on the War Child MySpace.

This mix has got a fair bit of 80s covering going on, but it also includes Camera Obscura's excellent version of the most famous ode to a spotlight and Devendra Banhart's stripped-down re-working of Oasis (he actually makes it relatively palatable with his Marc Bolanesque bleat). This one's called Re-Make/Re-Model.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody - David Byrne (Original: Whitney Houston)

Do the Strand - Scissor Sisters (Original: Roxy Music)

Wig Wam Bam - Gavin Friday (Original: Sweet)

Johnny and Mary - Placebo (Original: Robert Palmer)

Mama Told Me Not to Come - The Wolfgang Press (Original: Eric Burdon & the Animals)

West End Girls - We Have Band (Original: Pet Shop Boys)

Love Hangover - The Associates (Original: Diana Ross)

Relax - The Dandy Warhols (Original: Frankie Goes to Hollywood)

Only You - Freezepop (Original: Yazoo)

All Tomorrow's Parties - Japan (Original: The Velvet Underground & Nico)

Jump - Aztec Camera (Original: Van Halen)

Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? - Sandie Shaw (Original: Lloyd Cole and the Commotions)

Jolene - Strawberry Switchblade (Original: Dolly Parton)

Das Model - The Cardigans (Original: Kraftwerk)

Womanizer - Ladyhawke (Original: Britney Spears)

Party Fears Two - Heaven 17 (Original: The Associates)

Super Trooper - Camera Obscura (Original: ABBA)

Hoppipolla - We Are Scientists (Original: Sigur Ros)

Playground Love - Phoenix (Original: Air)

Don't Look Back in Anger - Devendra Banhart (Original: Oasis)

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mixes #52 and #53


Because I missed last week's mix, I'm giving you two today. The first, a Valentine's/Anti-Valentine's Day compilation, would have been more effective last week, but as I generally forget about the day in question (see last year's post), it doesn't really matter. The first half of it takes a positive look at love while the second half does the opposite, although some of the songs lie somewhere in between. The second mix's theme is underdogs/outsiders/rebels in honour of the brand new provincial holiday here in Manitoba: Louis Riel Day. For those who don't know who Riel was, he was a Métis leader who led two major rebellions on the Canadian prairies in the late 19th century - these events bookended his exile in the States - and who negotiated the terms for Manitoba becoming its own province. From what I remember from my Grade 11 Canadian History class, Riel was a controversial figure who was initially seen as a crazy traitor, but who is now regarded somewhat as a hero (I also clearly remember that rather disturbing Heritage Minute video of his hanging). So, in honour of Monsieur Riel, most get a long weekend this weekend. And I've created a compilation of music for those outsider figures, who may rebel, who may be underdogs, who may be considered misfits by regular society. For anyone who said to him/herself, "I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo, I don't belong here." For anyone who feels that he/she is on the outside of society looking in. For anyone who gets the same weird looks he/she did in high school.

This first mix is called Love Me, Leave Me.

Be Mine - 120 Days

Valentine - The Moths

The Lovecats - The Cure

Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations

Casanova's Last Words - The Go-Betweens

Love You So What - Lloyd Cole

The Love Gang - The Raveonettes

Mansun's Only Love Song - Mansun

Fall in Love With Me - Japan

V - The Soda Stream

My Funny Valentine - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Love Games - The Mighty Boosh

Love Turns to Hate - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster

My Last Girlfriend - Snow Patrol

The State of Your Heart (Shit End of the Deal) - Apoptygma Bezerk

I Wanted Your Heart - Magazine

Kiss You Off - Scissor Sisters

Mass Romantic - The New Pornographers

Here Comes That Feeling - El Perro Del Mar

Anti-Valentine - The Very Sexuals

The Broken Paper-Hearts Club - Princess Niko



This one's called I Hope Jarvis Cocker is Right.

Strange Ones - Supergrass

Casual/Glam - Nicky Wire

Bruise Pristine - Placebo

Mis-Shapes - Pulp

All the English Devils - Luke Haines

Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads

Just For a Second - Orlando

(Here's One For You) Underdog - Bedroom Eyes

The Boy With the Thorn in His Side - The Smiths

Outsider - Chumbawamba

One With the Freaks - The Notwist

Susan's Strange - The Psychedelic Furs

Less Than Human - The Chameleons

Black Sheep - Sneaker Pimps

We Are the Pigs - Suede

You and I Are a Gang of Losers - The Dears

Single - Luxembourg

Spectators of Suicide (Heavenly Version) - Manic Street Preachers

"Heroes" - David Bowie

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #51




It's been at least four months since I received my Masters's Degree and I'm still unemployed. Despite the fact I've sent out A LOT of resumés and cover letters. Including to places I don't even really want to work at. I suppose it's the common plight of an overeducated, underexperienced job-seeker, but I would have thought that the fact I've held a few jobs, including a couple at universities, and the fact I have a "practical" Creative Communications diploma from a vocational college would have made me a little more viable than the average holder of a BA or MA. One of the biggest things that irks me is that I haven't even got one call for an interview. I suppose trying to find a career during a worldwide recession can be a bit of ill timing, but I'm starting to feel pariah-like.

The one thing that does keep me from cracking up completely is the fact I do $200/month freelance work and volunteer work for the Children's Museum, so technically, I'm not utterly idle. I guess I feel a little squirrely because I've never been out of work for this long since I started working eight years ago. The feeling probably also stems from the work ethic of someone whose family was never terribly well-off and whose youth was filled with the family's precarious finances. As for going back to retail (where I worked for five years - four of those years while at university), you can take those jobs and put them where the monkey put the nuts, so to speak. And I'm not brave nor artistically talented enough to go the starving artist route. All I can hope is that persistence will eventually pay off and that I'll get a career that will help me pay back student loans. Then I can complain about having to go to work.

However, the constant unemployment of New Zealand's fourth most popular digi-folk duo does cheer me up, especially the latest episode of the second series in which Jemaine decides to return to the world's oldest profession and be a male prostitute (see above video). This incident then inspires a Roxanne-type ska number called You Don't Have to Be a Prostitute. So, this week's mix is about both employed and unemployed frustration and malaise, and the trappings of a capitalistic modern life. And the Queen song, which doesn't quite fit, is self-explanatory. This one's called Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now.

We Are All Prostitutes - The Pop Group

Take This Job and Shove It - Dead Kennedys

Seventeen (I'm a Lazy Sod) - Sex Pistols

Working For the Yankee Dollar - The Skids

Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep) - The Rakes

Model Worker - Magazine

Welcome to the Working Week - Elvis Costello and The Attractions

Bright Future in Sales - Fountains of Wayne

Town Called Malice - The Jam

Career Opportunities - The Clash (Sandinista! version)

Frankly, Mr. Shankly - The Smiths

We Are All Bourgeois Now - McCarthy

Step Into My Office, Baby - Belle & Sebastian

I'm Going Slightly Mad - Queen

Businessman - Snog

Slave to the Wage - Placebo

Careful in Career - Simple Minds

I'm Not Working - Manic Street Preachers

Shangri-La - The Kinks

Ernold Same - Blur

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #50


In honour of the fact this mix is the fiftieth in the series, I decided its theme should be John Peel's Festive Fifty. Despite having never actually heard Peel's radio show, its legendary status has been with me and I've always respected Peel and what he stood for: namely, playing the music that he loved and championing the bands he loved even if no one else did. As significant as his radio show and Peel Sessions were, his yearly Festive Fifty remains a massive legacy that others copy the world over, and it has been continued in his honour since his passing in 2004 (most recently picked up by Internet radio station Dandylion Radio). In many ways, Peel is the godfather of music blogs.

I tried to take a track from each year's Festive Fifty from 1976 to 2003, and while running through all these lists, I realized just how much brilliant music Peel championed, and I also noticed how faithful a fan he was. For most years, he had no qualms about picking several tracks from the same bands, and of course, The Fall made the most appearances - that unabashed love of music, in the face of bandwagon jumping, hype machines and arty posing, is something that really connects with me. Not to mention running through all of the Festive Fifty lists is like getting a panoramic snapshot of the music scene through three decades, encompassing punk, post-punk, electronic music, C86, shoegaze, Britpop and even grunge. For the most part, I owned a large chunk of the music featured on each year's Festive Fifty, but the exceptions came in for the late 90s for some reason and for Peel's favourite The Fall - I've never really taken to The Fall, and thus don't own any of their albums; regardless, I figured it wouldn't be a true tribute to John Peel without a track by them, so I included one that I happened to have on a Peel compilation album. Unlike most mixes I make, this one will follow a semi-chronological order rather than be based on some sort of subjective system. As a side note, I've included the Unknown Pleasures version of She's Lost Control as opposed to the later re-released single version. This mix is called Long Live Peel.

Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who

Complete Control - The Clash

Boredom - Buzzcocks

Are Friends Electric? - Gary Numan and The Tubeway Army

She's Lost Control - Joy Division

O Superman - Laurie Anderson

Requiem - Killing Joke

Eat Y'self Fitter - The Fall

This Charming Man - The Smiths

Kangaroo - This Mortal Coil

Never Understand - The Jesus and Mary Chain

Frans Hals - McCarthy

Suedehead - Morrissey

Kennedy - The Wedding Present

Therese - The Bodines

Sexuality - Billy Bragg

French Disko - Stereolab

Babies - Pulp

If Fingers Were Xylophones - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

Abba on the Jukebox - Trembling Blue Stars

Windowlicker - Aphex Twin

Painting and Kissing - Hefner

Chinese Whispers - Melys

Green Grass of Tunnel - Mùm

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #49


While basing an entire mix on song titles with colours in them may seem like a cop-out, I would like to offer a little more commentary than pointing out that many bands put colours into their band names and song titles. In fact, I'm quite fascinated by the involuntary neurological phenomena of colour synesthesia in which a person can see colours in response to aural stimuli, most often music. I first heard about this phenomena via an episode of QI, and I was a little surprised when I, too, saw the "correct" colour associated with the musical tone provided. I know I likely don't have the actual condition in which colours involuntarily flash before my eyes while listening to music, but I feel like I may experience some sort of sensory crossover, and you may have noted some of this visual, colourful aspect creeping into my music reviews and descriptions. I, myself, hadn't thought about it too much, but in looking back, it seems I do insert colour imagery into how I experience music; of course this may also just be part of painting pictures with words, a feature of my writing that has always been there. Or maybe I watched too much Fantasia as a child.

I've also always been interested in the idea of colour as both a formative influence and an illusion. As children, we are led to believe that there's something pretty fundamental about colours - along with shapes, they form much of our first experiences of the world around us. A lot of our first bits of language relate to colour as it becomes one of the most important categories of adjectives as though colour were something concrete. (Useless personal trivia: I was very attached to a particular magenta Crayola crayon as a small child despite it not being my favourite colour...although not as odd as the kid who used to eat crayons and shoelaces only to regurgitate them.) However, what's more interesting to me is the fact there would be no colour without light nor without the appartus of our own human eyes, and sometimes I like to scare myself a little by thinking of the world as being no particular colour at all.

In fact, in my first year of university, I wrote a short story about a boy who appeared relatively blind most of the time, but upon further investigation, actually saw the world the way bees did - in essence, he saw things in a spectrum humans couldn't, including ultraviolet and what is called "bee purple," a mixture of ultraviolet and yellow. While the story itself wasn't terribly well-crafted, it still interests me as an idea and reminds me of how humans impose their own perceptions on the world around them. I like to marvel about exceptional things like colour blindness and a spectrum extending beyond my own perception; the environment outside my body isn't absolute, and in many ways, my eyes' translation of light as colour is the same as my brain's translation of objects into language. Oddly enough, though we use colour to describe objects, many colours take their name from objects, including coral, plum, ruby, and sepia.

Colours take on evocative characteristics that are somehow irrational yet innately human, making the majority of people see Monday as blue, loading goth clothing with semantic weight and imbuing rainbows with magic. It's also the reason that films with hyperreal colours like Amelie and La Double Vie de Veronique actually feel different from films like Metropolis or The Maltese Falcon, and why a film like Wings of Desire can convey the split narrative it does so poignantly. In effect, colours can be music.

At any rate, this mix features songs with connections to colour in their titles - there was definitely plenty to choose from. I would like to add that I've included the original version of The Psychedelic Furs' Pretty in Pink rather than the commercialized version from the John Hughes' movie of the same name, which completely missed the point of the song. I've also included a bonus track that doesn't quite fit the mix proper, the ever-popular Rainbow Connection by Kermit (a song that I will forever associate with my high school Chemistry teacher, a man with a glass eye and a steely manner, but who one day wordlessly propped up a photo of Kermit with his banjo, began playing Rainbow Connection and launched into a gracefully timed performance in which he transformed chemicals into the various colours of the rainbow and then back to clear again within the parameters of the song - so utterly brilliant that sometimes I think I dreamt it). This one is called Synesthesiac.

Colours - Calvin Harris

She's a Colour Scientist - Robots in Disguise

Red Paint - The Sound

Turquoise Days - Echo & the Bunnymen

Indigo Eyes - Peter Murphy

Mr. Brown - Puressence

Red Sleeping Beauty - McCarthy

Grey Streets - Felt

Blue - Kicker

Orange Car - Mary Go Round

Silver Sands - Stereolab

Blackout - David Bowie

Tell Me When My Light Turns Green - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Gold Against the Soul - Manic Street Preachers

Purple Haze - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Pretty in Pink - The Psychedelic Furs

Black White - The Raveonettes

Start Wearing Purple - Gogol Bordello

The Monochrome Set - The Monochrome Set

Silicone on Sapphire - The Clash

Blue Girls - Pulp

Saffron, Beautiful and Brown-Eyed - Trembling Blue Stars

Rainbow - Boris featuring Michio Kurihara

Bonus Track:

Rainbow Connection - Kermit the Frog

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #48


I realized recently that I missed having a weekly mix in honour of St. Andrew's Day in the midst of the year-end wrap-up hullabaloo, and since I did ones for both St. David's Day and St. Patrick's Day last year, I figure it's only fair to compile a Scottish mix for this week in a belated fashion. At the very least, this was one of the easiest compilations I've ever made because a large percentage of the music I own is Scottish - it's been a natural gravitation towards both Scottish music and Scottish people. Several people that I consider my friends live in Scotland; in fact, I think they're the second largest group after friends in my home city.

Of course in my many travels overseas, I've managed to visit Scotland twice - the first time was in 2000 when my friends and I did a day trip to Edinburgh while living in Teeside and the second time was three years later on my backpacking trip when my friend and I spent a couple of days in Glasgow. On the latter trip, despite being in the midst of a raging sinus infection that had nearly taken me out whilst in Ireland, I still only have good memories of Scotland. These good memories include two brilliant acts of kindness. The first came when we disembarked from the ferry in Stranraer and didn't have a clue where our hostel was. When we asked one of the guys that worked on the ferry, he offered to walk with us into town and help us find it; in the end, he wasn't sure himself and ended up paying for our taxi there. Then when we were in Glasgow, I finally opted to see a doctor to ensure that my infection didn't get worse. Though it should have cost me a fair bit to see the doctor, the clinic ended up waiving the fee and I went on my merry way to get my antibiotics. There are two possible explanations for these events: either Scottish people are some of the nicest people in the world or I looked so downtrodden and homeless by this point that they pitied me. My guess is it's a bit of both.

I was further inspired to put together this mix because iamchemist, a Scottish musician that is one of those friends I mentioned earlier, was kind enough to send me links to watch a BBC documentary called Caledonia Dreamin', which tracks the development of the Scottish music scene from Postcard to the present and can be watched starting here. Many of the bands featured in the documentary crop up here, but considering bands like Deacon Blue and Wet Wet Wet give me the willies, there won't be any of that sort here. Postcard heroes Orange Juice, Josef K, and Aztec Camera sit alongside post-punk like Simple Minds, Cocteau Twins and The Associates, C86 bands like The Vaselines, Close Lobsters, and The Pastels, and the newest slew of bands continuing the impressive Scottish tradition, including Frightened Rabbit, Camera Obscura, and Sons and Daughters. This one's called The Sound of Young Scotland.

I Travel - Simple Minds

Burning Libraries - Stroszek

Blood In Your Eyes - The Retrosexuals

Number One - Salon Boris

Just Like Honey - The Jesus and Mary Chain

In the Gold Dust Rush - Cocteau Twins

Party Fears Two - The Associates

Sweet Suburbia - The Skids

The Greys - Frightened Rabbit

Blue Boy - Orange Juice

Sorry For Laughing - Josef K

Gunpowderkeg - Close Lobsters

Profit in Your Poetry - Butcher Boy

Broken Bones - Sons & Daughters

These Wooden Ideas - Idlewild

Pillar to Post - Aztec Camera

Candyskin - The Fire Engines

Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying - Belle & Sebastian

Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? - Lloyd Cole & the Commotions

Maybe I Should Drive - Trash Can Sinatras

Fields of Fire - Big Country

All the Rage - The Royal We

Son of a Gun - The Vaselines

The Sun on His Back - Camera Obscura

Sidewinder - Teenage Fanclub

Breaking Lines - The Pastels

Real Toys - Altered Images

Cherubs - Arab Strap

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #47


After a small break, here's both the first post of 2009 and the first weekly mix of 2009. Because the last mix was a New Year's firecracker, this week's compilation is more about catching up on sleep after the holidays and the partying (okay, maybe I didn't exactly fill my holidays with partying, but I definitely stayed up late watching my A Bit of Fry and Laurie box set for several nights). This mix can be the antidote for your credit hangover headaches, or hangover headaches of the more conventional kind. Or this mix can act as a cure for those of you out there who are insomniacs. Although, when the temperature dips to -34 Celsius (which it is at the time of writing this), sometimes all you want to do is slow your heart rate to that of one comatose and hibernate until spring.

This mix takes in several mellow, dream-inducing genres like shoegaze, twee and ambient, and it encompasses the tinkling music box sounds that begin this compilation, including M83, Emilie Simon and soundtrack work from both Yann Tiersen and Trevor Jones; the light acoustics from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Brett Anderson and Lanterns on the Lake; the soothing, twee pop of The Brunettes, The Bridal Shop and Camera Obscura; and the semi-aquatic murmurs of The Daysleepers, Japan, and Mazzy Star. This one is called Lullaby. Sweet dreams.

Violet Tree - M83

Chanson de Toile - Emilie Simon

La Valse d'Amelie (Orchestra Version) - Yann Tiersen

Sarah - Trevor Jones

Stay Awake - Asobi Seksu

Somewhere Around Here - Chairlift

Hope, You Know - Celestial

Chinese Whispers - Brett Anderson

Leave My Dreaming - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

I Love You, Sleepyhead - Lanterns on the Lake

Wall Poster Star - The Brunettes

Marine Thing - The Bridal Shop

A Sister's Social Agony - Camera Obscura

Twilight At Carbon Lake - Deerhunter

Pink Shadow - Mary Goes Round

Falling Sky - Autumn's Grey Solace

Space Whale Migration - The Daysleepers

The Experience of Swimming - Japan

Nothing Ever Dies - The Starlets

Andvari - Sigur Ros

Coast is Clear - Windermere

Not a Number - Apparat

Umbilical - Mazzy Star

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Year-End Round-Up Part 2


Here's Part 2 of the Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love Year-End Round-Up. If you've just joined us, I'm putting up the my weekly mixes of 2008 for download, which will be available for about a month. This group of mixes' themes include Mother's Day, drugs, more cover versions, summer, psychedelia/fantasy, Father's Day, road trips, Canada, childhood/adolescence, France, more robots, Britain, synthpop and songs about love/lust. Next Sunday will feature the last of the year's weekly mixes.

Monday - No and the Maybes

Monday Morning - Pulp

Weekly Mix #16 – For Audrey Download

1. Daughter Like Mother – Nathan Larson
2. 23 – Blonde Redhead
3. Song to the Siren – This Mortal Coil
4. Lush (What Becomes You) – Soundpool
5. Apres l’orage – Peppermoon
6. Skating – Melys
7. Mother Stands For Comfort – Kate Bush
8. Frou Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires – Cocteau Twins
9. Chinaberry Tree – Mew
10. Surfing on a Rocket – Air
11. Over Over – Dejesus
12. Are Mothers Saints – Manic Street Preachers
13. Sun Dew – Fern Knight
14. Heaven is Inside You – I Monster
15. Scattered Blacks and Whites – Elbow
16. Hoppipolla – Sigur Ros
17. Yoga Means Union – Ambulance Ltd
18. Mansfield and Cyclops – Espers

Weekly Mix #17 – More Tracks Than a Heroin Addict Download

1. Vegas – Calvin Harris
2. Idiot Drugs – White Rose Movement
3. Special K – Placebo
4. Junkie Slip – The Clash
5. Drug Drug Druggy – Manic Street Preachers
6. I Wanna Be Sedated – The Ramones
7. Caught By the Fuzz – Supergrass
8. There She Goes – The La’s
9. Heroin – The Indelicates
10. Golden Brown – The Stranglers
11. Mother’s Little Helper – The Rolling Stones
12. I’m Waiting For the Man – The Velvet Underground
13. Ashes to Ashes – David Bowie
14. Sorted for E’s and Wizz – Pulp
15. Horse Pills – The Dandy Warhols
16. Kisses Like Heroin – Cupcake
17. Days Without Paracetamol – Snow Patrol
18. Heroine – Suede
19. Never Let Me Down Again – Depeche Mode
20. Sugar Pill – Ambulance Ltd

Weekly Mix #18 – It’s Never Over Yet Download

1. Dancing With Myself – Nouvelle Vague (Original: Billy Idol)
2. I Don’t Wanna Grow Up – Cold War Kids (Original: Tom Waits)
3. Like a Virgin – Ryan Adams (Original: Madonna)
4. You Will – Snow Patrol (Original: Bright Eyes)
5. It’s Not Over Yet – Goldfrapp (Original: Grace)
6. I Wanna Be Your Dog – Emilie Simon (Original: Iggy and the Stooges)
7. Gimme Shelter – Patti Smith (Original: The Rolling Stones)
8. Here Comes the Sun – Nina Simone (Original: The Beatles)
9. Dear Prudence – Siouxsie and the Banshees (Original: The Beatles)
10. Sunday Morning – James (Original: The Velvet Underground)
11. I Just Came to Tell You I’m Going – Jarvis Cocker and Kid Loco (Original: Serge Gainsbourg) 12. The Headmaster Ritual – Radiohead (Original: The Smiths)
13. Ceremony – Galaxie 500 (Original: New Order)
14. All My Friends – John Cale (Original: LCD Soundsystem)
15. Only Love Can Break Your Heart – Saint Etienne (Original: Neil Young)
16. Frontwards – Los Campesinos! (Original: Pavement)
17. Get It On (Bang a Gong) – The Power Station (Original: T.Rex)
18. Let’s Get Physical – The Black Ghosts (Original: Olivia Newton-John)
19. Always on My Mind – Pet Shop Boys (Original: Elvis Presley)
20. Sunglasses at Night – Tiga (Original: Corey Hart)

Weekly Mix #19 – Summer of ‘08 Download

1. Another Sunny Day – Belle & Sebastian
2. Summershine – Strawberry Whiplash
3. Summer Swirl – Bouquet
4. Summer Days – Phoenix
5. British Summer Time – The Boyfriends
6. Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks
7. Mr. Blue Sky – ELO
8. A Summer Chill – This is Ivy League
9. Le soleil est pres de moi – Air
10. Swim – Ambulance Ltd.
11. Summer Babe (Winter Version) – Pavement
12. Holiday Hymn – Orange Juice
13. Beach Bum – Flowers Forever
14. Pool Side Music – Bridge
15. Pacific Palisades – Ash
16. White Palms – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
17. Noisy Summer – The Raveonettes
18. Hot in the City – Billy Idol
19. Summer Party – Breakbot
20. Heatwave – IAMX

Weekly Mix #20 – Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk Download

1. Fire – Arthur Brown
2. Runaway – Super Furry Animals
3. Higher and Higher – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
4. Underwater Moonlight – The Soft Boys
5. Lichtenstein Painting – Television Personalities
6. The Village Green Preservation Society – The Kinks
7. Penny Lane – The Beatles
8. Arnold Layne – Pink Floyd
9. Ride a White Swan – Tyrannosaurus Rex
10. Sunshine Superman – Donovan
11. Zig Zag Wanderer – Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
12. You’re Gonna Miss Me – 13th Floor Elevators
13. The Hedgehog Song – The Incredible String Band
14. The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke – Queen
15. Baby Lemonade – Syd Barrett
16. Seahorse – Devendra Banhart
17. Loch Na Fooey – Fern Knight
18. Storybook Love – Willy DeVille

Weekly Mix #21 – For Harald Download

1. Hero – Neu!
2. Nach Haus – Abwaerts
3. Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen – Nina Hagen
4. Abstieg & Zerfall – Einstruzende Neubauten
5. Trans-Europe Express – Kraftwerk
6. Verschwende deine Jugend – DAF
7. Father Cannot Yell – Can
8. J’ai mal aux dents – Faust
9. After the Fall – Klaus Nomi
10. 99 Luftballons – Nena
11. Einer – Kettcar
12. Nur Ein Wort – Wir Sind Helden
13. Pick Up the Phone – The Notwist
14. Arcadia – Apparat
15. Pogo – Digitalism
16. Vogue (12” mix ) – KMFDM
17. Night Falls – Booka Shade
18. Discosau – Siriusmo
19. Vergiftet – Boys Noize
20. Fly – Tiefschwarz

Weekly Mix #22 – Obligatory Road Mix Download

1. Here Comes Alice – The Jesus and Mary Chain
2. Get Away – 120 Days
3. We Rise – Chris Corner
4. Piccadilly in Sepia – Nemo
5. An Honest Mistake – The Bravery
6. Autobahn Music Box – Cut Copy
7. Burning Up – Ladytron
8. Sex City – Van She
9. Hungry Like the Wolf – Duran Duran
10. Little Red Corvette – Prince
11. Like a Motorway – Saint Etienne
12. The Cutter – Echo and the Bunnymen
13. 19-2000 – Gorillaz
14. Cars – Gary Numan
15. My Sharona – The Knack
16. Car Jamming – The Clash
17. Chase – The Cinematics
18. A Trip Out – British Sea Power
19. Motorcycle Daydream – Bedroom Eyes
20. Obligatory Road Song – The Brunettes
21. Let’s Get Out of This Country – Camera Obscura

Weekly Mix #23 – Canadian Content Download

1. I Was a Pre-Teen McCarthyist – Propagandhi
2. Blood on Our Hands – Death From Above 1979
3. Monster Hospital – Metric
4. Black Flag (Juan Maclean Remix) – Duchess Says
5. Teacher Teacher – Dragonette
6. The Looks – MSTRKRFT
7. In the End It’s Your Friends – Shout Out Out Out Out
8. Call Me Up – Chromeo
9. You’re a Hologram – Hexes & Ohs
10. Dacha – Montag
11. Neighbourhood #4 (7 Kettles) – The Arcade Fire
12. My Radio (FM Mix) - Stars
13. Falling Through Your Clothes – The New Pornographers
14. Lola Stars and Stripes – The Stills
15. Fine Young Cannibals – Wolf Parade
16. Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961) – The Weakerthans
17. Still Life – The Russian Futurists
18. Drifters – Patrick Watson
19. You and I Are a Gang of Losers – The Dears
20. Shampoo Suicide – Broken Social Scene
21. Present of Future End – The Most Serene Republic

Weekly Mix #24 – I Don’t Wanna Grow Up Download

1. Eanie Meanie – Jim Noir
2. Childhood Memories – British Sea Power
3. Pumpkin Soup – Patrick Wolf
4. Sixteen – The Indelicates
5. Pretty Young Thing – Blondfire
6. So Young – Suede
7. One More Lie In – The Delays
8. Time to Pretend – MGMT
9. Baba O’Riley – The Who
10. Teenage Lust – The Jesus and Mary Chain
11. Stay Beautiful – Manic Street Preachers
12. The Prayer – Bloc Party
13. Antmusic – Adam and the Ants
14. You Were Young – The Associates
15. Once and Never Again – The Long Blondes
16. Alright – Supergrass
17. You! Me! Dancing! – Los Campesinos!
18. Burn Baby Burn – Ash
19. Teenage Thunder – Sigue Sigue Sputnik
20. Rebel Yell – Billy Idol

Weekly Mix #25 – Ecoutez Download

1. Game and Performance – Deux
2. Poney, Pt.2 – Vitalic
3. Waters of Nazareth – Justice
4. One More Time – Daft Punk
5. Peach – Louis La Roche
6. Danceteria – Indochine
7. Couleurs – M83
8. Once Upon a Time – Air
9. One of These Days – Pix
10. Desert – Emilie Simon
11. Laisse-moi – Chantal Goya
12. Nos ballades – Peppermoon
13. La valse des vieux os – Yann Tiersen
14. Je t’aime moi non plus – Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin
15. Voir un ami pleurer – Jacques Brel
16. Psyche – Nouvelle Vague
17. Mary’s Garden – Mary Goes Round
18. No Directions – Rhesus
19. Alphabetical – Phoenix
20. Foux du Fafa – Flight of the Conchords

Weekly Mix #26 – More Than Meets the Ear Download

1. Arcade Robot – Boys Noize
2. Kicking and Screaming – The Presets
3. The Lake – Muscles
4. Robot Love – Ganymed
5. Robot High School – My Robot Friend
6. The Anthem – Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya
7. Mr. Roboto – Styx
8. Robots – Flight of the Conchords
9. Too Many People (iamchemist Plus One Remix) – The Retrosexuals
10. Disko Eskimo – Salon Music
11. Professional Suicide – Ladyhawke
12. Bunny – Zeigeist
13. Wow (MSTRKRFT Remix) – Kylie Minogue
14. Neue Strassen – Metropakt
15. Heartbeats – The Knife
16. Someone Like You – Revl9n
17. Girl – Robots in Disguise
18. We Are Rebels – Alice in Videoland featuring Maja
19. The Negative Sex (US Version) – IAMX

Weekly Mix #27 – The UK Made Me Download

1. Six – Mansun
2. Vendetta – Adorable
3. All the People I Like Are Those That Are Dead – Felt
4. Chinese Bakery – The Auteurs
5. She Said – The Longpigs
6. Obscurity Knocks – Trashcan Sinatras
7. Calliope! – The Veils
8. I Feel Better – Frightened Rabbit
9. You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve – Johnny Boy
10. We Hate the Kids – The Indelicates
11. Kill Everyone – Codename Sparrow
12. Don’t Forget to Remember – Puressence
13. Total Recall – The Sound
14. Hey Bunny – The Cherubs
15. Bloodbeat – Patrick Wolf
16. The Novelist’s Wife – frYars
17. The Far Too Simple Beauty – Trembling Blue Stars
18. England Made Me – Black Box Recorder
19. The Campaign For Real Rock – Edwyn Collins

Weekly Mix #28 – Luftwaffle Download

1. Does Your Mother Know – Ash (Original: ABBA)
2. Ballroom Blitz – The Damned (Original: Sweet)
3. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Devo (Original: The Rolling Stones)
4. All the Young Dudes – The Skids (Original: Mott the Hoople/David Bowie)
5. Magic Dance – Kelley Polar (Original: David Bowie)
6. Heaven – Lorraine (Original: The Psychedelic Furs)
7. Love is the Drug – Kylie Minogue (Original: Roxy Music)
8. 1234 – Bikini (Original: Feist)
9. The Boys Are Back in Town – The Cardigans (Original: Thin Lizzy)
10. The Man Who Sold the World – Ed Kuepper (Original: David Bowie)
11. Zombie – Ephraim Uzomechina Nzeka (Original: Fela Kuti)
12. She’s Lost Control – The Raveonettes (Original: Joy Division)
13. Sand – Einsturzende Neubauten (Original: Lee Hazelwood)
14. Drive – The Veils (Original: REM)
15. Crown of Love – This is Ivy League (Original: The Arcade Fire)
16. Everybody Hurts – Bodies of Water (Original: REM)
17. Late Night – This Mortal Coil (Original: Syd Barrett)
18. A Forest – Bat For Lashes (Original: The Cure)
19. All Cats Are Grey – Band in Box (Original: The Cure)

Weekly Mix #29 – Spin Me Right Round With Tears In My Eyes Download

1. More to Lose (12” Extended Mix) – Seona Dancing
2. If You Leave (12” Spiral Mix) – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
3. The Sun Always Shines on TV – a-ha
4. We Run – Strange Advance
5. Just Can’t Get Enough – Depeche Mode
6. Take Me Home – Don Juan Dracula
7. It’s a Sin (Disco Mix) – Pet Shop Boys
8. A Little Respect (Extended Mix) – Erasure
9. Tangiers – The Screaming Trees
10. Big Blue World – Paul Haig
11. No Stars – Figures on a Beach
12. Pale Shelter – Tears for Fears
13. Deep Blue – Ladytron
14. The Color of Love – Beborn Beton
15. Face to Face – Heart to Heart – Twins
16. Brilliant Mind – Furniture
17. Fade to Grey – Visage
18. Newsreel – Fad Gadget
19. Last Goodbye – Screaming for Emily
20. The Chauffeur – Duran Duran
21. Ghosts – Japan

Weekly Mix #30 – My Kingdom For a Kiss on the Shoulder Download

1. I Would Die 4 U – Prince
2. Protege Moi – Placebo
3. No I in Threesome – Interpol
4. M’aidez (Acoustic Version) – Sneaker Pimps
5. Pictures of You – The Cure
6. Forest Fire – Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
7. L.O.V.E. – Orange Juice
8. Friends & Lovers – Bernard Butler
9. The Saturday Boy – Billy Bragg
10. Letter to Hermione – David Bowie
11. Alison – Elvis Costello
12. Fistful of Love (featuring Lou Reed) – Antony & the Johnsons
13. Foolish Love – Rufus Wainwright
14. Lover, You Should Have Come Over – Jeff Buckley
15. The Man With the Child in His Eyes – Kate Bush
16. Baby, I’m Not Sure This is Love – Club 8
17. Heart – Stars
18. Beyond Love – The The
19. You’re the Conversation (I’m the Game) – Chris Corner and Sue Denim

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #46



Here's the last weekly mix of the year - not including the next three Sundays' weekly mix round-ups of course. It's also the fifth and last collection of cover versions for 2008. It's hard to believe this is number 46 already.

Without really thinking, this compilation turned out to lean about 50% into the post-punk/new wave direction (I guess that the odds are that it would with my type of music collection). Several of the artists covered and doing the covering in this mix are post-punk/new wave with exceptions like Dragonette's version of ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man, Bjork's version of the Bond tune You Only Live Twice, Chromatics' version of Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire, and Kate Bush's version of Elton John's Rocket Man. This one's called Something Borrowed. Check back here next Sunday for the first part of the Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love Year-End Round-Up (it's lucky I don't have to create a banner for that).

My Sharona - Polysics (Original: The Knack)

Heart of Glass - The Associates (Original: Blondie)

Sharp Dressed Man - Dragonette (Original: ZZ Top)

I'm On Fire - Chromatics (Original: Bruce Springsteen)

It's Oh So Quiet - No Age (Original: Bjork)

No Love Lost - LCD Soundsystem (Original: Joy Division)

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - Magazine (Original: Sly & the Family Stone)

Call Me - The Dandy Warhols (Original: Blondie)

People Are Strange - Echo & the Bunnymen (Original: The Doors)

John, I'm Only Dancing - The Chameleons (Original: David Bowie)

Heaven - Voxtrot (Original: Talking Heads)

I Think We're Alone Now - Lene Lovich (Original: Tommy James and the Shondells)

Wouldn't It Be Good - Soulwax (Original: Nik Kershaw)

Third Uncle - Bauhaus (Original: Brian Eno)

Paint It Black - Marc Almond (Original: The Rolling Stones)

You Only Live Twice - Bjork (Original: Nancy Sinatra)

Faith - The Boy Least Likely To (Original: George Michael)

Think I'll Run Away - Euros Childs (Original: The Turtles)

The One I Love - Sufjan Stevens (Original: REM)

Rocket Man - Kate Bush (Original: Elton John)

If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - David Usher (Original: Manic Street Preachers)

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #45



I really don't enjoy Christmas and haven't done for about fifteen years. It's pretty much one long capitalistic wank, and considering I only usually buy gifts for my immediate family, I avoid the whole shopping mall extravaganza as much as possible. Sure, there's all that supposed "Christmas spirit" about, making people do and think things they don't for the rest of the entire year. And there's that fantastic family time where you are forced to hang out with relatives who don't really know you at all and don't care to, and who inevitably have nothing to talk about. The only part of Christmas I tend to enjoy is watching the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but without fail, I miss it on TV every year, which only serves to make me more grumpy. I should just get a proper copy of it and be done with the whole thing. (My family has also created a Christmas tradition of searching for our copy of the Claymation Christmas special with the California Raisins, camels in sneakers and bells with faces - we swear we taped a copy, but we have never found it. Again we should just get a new copy, but no one can be bothered.)

One of the most abysmal things about Christmas, though (aside from fruitcake) is the music on offer. When I worked retail for five years, I heard the same loop of Christmas songs for two months out of each year until I wanted to stab my eyes out with candlesticks. The particularly horrendous one that still makes me twitch to this very day is that Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime song from Paul McCartney. It's difficult to find decent Christmas music - I generally grin and bear the traditional family Christmas music like Boney M and Mannheim Steamroller (we usually only play it during our four-Sundays-before-Christmas-German-advent tradition when we light another candle on the wreath each Sunday evening leading up to Christmas). The only Christmas music I have ever purchased is Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Sufjan Stevens' four-disc set. However, over the years, I've built up a small collection of songs that I find bearable and I've assembled a chunk of them here for the weekly mix. So, when you have to do Christmassy tasks of any sort (wrapping gifts, decorating the tree, baking cookies, running people over in the parking lot), you can have something to listen to. There will be no Band Aid, no Elvis, no Frank Sinatra, and definitely no *twitch* Paul McCartney.

As with my Halloween mix, I've only provided links to every second track, but the full mix is available to download at the very bottom. The mix kicks off with a little rock, including the brilliantly satirical Christmas Number One from last year done by the geniuses of Black Box Recorder and Art Brut. Then there's a little bit of electronic with The Knife and Dandy Warhols before you eventually hit some retro Spectorish songs by The Raveonettes, The Long Blondes, The Hives and Cyndi Lauper, and of course The Ronettes themselves. I've included Stars' cover of The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl classic because I had already used the original Fairytale of New York for a duet mix earlier this year - don't fear, the Stars version is pretty great. Then it goes rather gentle into the good night with Kate Bush, Goldfrapp, Mogwai, Momus, Okkervil River and that duet with David Bowie and Bing Crosby, which must be included - despite its awkward bit of cringe-inducing dialogue - because I love David Bowie. It all finishes up with Kermit the Frog because I love Muppets as much as David Bowie (which explains why my favourite film is Labyrinth). Also, as an exercise in craziness and kicks, I would suggest you take a look at the Last Christmas Web site, where all known covers of George Michael's contemporary classic are gathered. I stumbled across it last year when I started realizing just how many covers of that song I had come across - apparently someone else had already beaten me to the wondering and took that one extra step toward OCD. For this mix you'll get the Manics version from an appearance on TFI Friday (much better than the strange Christmas Ghost song they came up with last year). So, this mix is called Better Than Fruitcake. Bah, humbug!


Christmas Number One - The Black Arts

Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) - The Ramones

Father Christmas - The Kinks

We Three Kings - Reverend Horton Heat

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Bright Eyes

Little Drummer Boy - The Dandy Warhols

Christmas Reindeer - The Knife

Can You Hear What I Hear? - Bodies of Water

Frosty the Snowman - Cocteau Twins

Christmas Fire - The Deer Tracks

She Came Home For Christmas - Mew

Put the Lights on the Tree - Sufjan Stevens

Child's Christmas in Wales - John Cale

Fairytale of New York - Stars

The Christmas Song - The Raveonettes

Christmas is Cancelled - The Long Blondes

A Christmas Duel - The Hives and Cyndi Lauper

White Christmas - The Pipettes

Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes

Baby, It's Cold Outside - Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews

It's Christmas Time - Yo La Tengo

Carol of the Bells - The Polyphonic Spree

December Will Be Magic Again - Kate Bush

Winter Wonderland - Goldfrapp

Christmas and Train Trips and Things - Trembling Blue Stars

It's Xmas So We'll Stop - Frightened Rabbit

Merry Christmas (I Love You) - Hawksley Workman

Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmas - Okkervil River

Last Christmas - Manic Street Preachers

Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby and David Bowie

Christmas Song - Mogwai

Christmas on Earth - Momus

The Christmas Wish - Kermit the Frog


Weekly Mix #45 (Megaupload)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #44


As promised, this week's mix is of songs from 2008. There are hundreds and hundreds of songs I could have picked for this compilation, but I was also trying to keep track of the songs I want to include throughout my countdown of top 2008 albums beginning this Friday (like the music addict that I am, I ended up expanding my list to a top 35 albums rather than a top 25). So, if you don't see particular tracks here, there's a high probability they will show up at a later date. My brain is becoming a little overtaxed as I compile the list of this year's releases, major labels and not-so-major labels, and I still have a fair bit of work listening and deliberating. It's gotten to the point where I've assumed albums released in January were actually from last year. I've become a bit like the Stasi of music.

Having dispensed with that preamble, I will move on to the mix itself. I tried to take into account some singles that I couldn't shake from my head, including the raspy, yelpy perfection of Kings of Leon's Sex On Fire, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' rather excalamatory Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, and Supergrass's White Stripesesque Diamond Hoo Ha Man. A few of the songs on this mix are from some of my top albums of the year, but you'll have to wait to find out which ones they may be (not to mention they could always change anyway). For the most part, I kept to songs from more major artists (of course in my blog bubble world, I start to lose perspective and many of the artists I think are wildly popular and too obvious are apparently...not, and I'm left looking rather ovine). Consider this mix to be a mere appetizer in an eight-course meal and a small reminder of some of the songs released in 2008. This mix is called Mini Quiche.

Girls & Boys - The Subways

Up All Night - The Young Knives

The Beginning of the Twist - The Futureheads

Diamond Hoo Ha Man - Supergrass

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon

Being Here - The Stills

Paris - Friendly Fires

Kids - MGMT

Paris is Burning - Ladyhawke

You Cross My Path - The Charlatans

Paper Planes - M.I.A.

Olive Eyes - frYars

Little Bit - Lykke Li

Caravan Girl - Goldfrapp

Rockist Part 4 - School of Language

An Eluardian Instance - Of Montreal

Galaxy of the Lost - Lightspeed Champion

Chemtrails - Beck

Shiller - Ratatat

Death Take Your Fiddle - Spiritualized

Magic Doors - Portishead

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #43


What constitutes celebrity? I suppose fame is the main element because there are plenty of famous people who didn't do anything noteworthy or particularly unique, but still managed to enter the world's consciousness. It seems that as long as lots of other people have an interest in what you do or wear on a daily basis, you're a celebrity.

I had always been aware of those celebrity tabloid magazines like Star, US, etc. because my mom bought them occasionally, and then I saw them all the time when I started working at a bookstore. It got to the point where I was physically revolted by them and hated the piles of them accumulating in the staff room. I haven't looked at one, let alone opened one, for several years because I'm just completely uninterested and I can't possibly treat it as harmless junk food for the mind anymore. The same goes for entertainment news shows - 99% of the stories they report are NOT news. I have a limited capacity for brain space, so I don't intend to fill it with scraps of useless information about vapid people that have overstayed their fifteen minutes by several years. That goes for all those horrible shows which, predicated on schadenfreude, bring back celebrities that everybody forgot about a long time ago.

Rant over. This mix features celebrities of several types: musicians, politicians, artists, actors/actresses, television presenters, photographers, and even one magician. My favourite track of them all is the tongue-in-cheek Andrew Ridgeley by Black Box Recorder, an ode to the ill-fated half of Wham who is pretty much famous for not being famous. The fact Andrew Ridgeley is then connected to the collapse of the Tories is a rather brilliant layer to the song. Also, just to clarify, I'm including The Smiths' William, It Was Really Nothing on the basis that one rumour dictates it may have been about Billy Mackenzie of The Associates. (TRIVIA: The Cure's Cut Here is about Mackenzie's suicide.) This mix is called Andy Warhol Grossly Underestimated.

Buddy Holly - Weezer

Paul Simon - The Russian Futurists

Bowie Eyes - The Very Sexuals

Prince Harry - Soho Dolls

Down With Prince - Hot Chip

Michael Douglas - Neon Neon

Richard Nixon Died Today - Negativland

Johnny Cash - Sons & Daughters

Elvis - These New Puritans

Man Ray - The Futureheads

When Tom Cruise Cries - The Rakes

Lighten Up, Morrissey - Sparks

Kevin Carter - Manic Street Preachers

Andrew Ridgeley - Black Box Recorder

Molly Ringwald - Strawberry Story

William, It Was Really Nothing - The Smiths

Where's Bill Grundy Now? - Television Personalities

Whatever Happened to Corey Haim? - The Thrills

Andy Warhol - David Bowie

Levi Stubbs' Tears - Billy Bragg

Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz

Dietrich/Fondyke (A Brief History of Movie Music) - Jobriath

Houdini - Kate Bush

2HB - Roxy Music

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #42


After a crazy, balmy, 18°C day at the beginning of last week, the week ended with a classic Winnipeg twist: rain, sleet and snow. There's now no doubt that it's winter again. I am also currently typing this post with nine fingers because I sprained one of them whilst helping my parents shovel out our entire townhouse condo complex (a job they take on most years for extra cash). I suppose it was the chipping away at layers of ice beneath the snow that did it. Fortunately, the finger I can't bend right now is one of my middle ones.

Canada, and Winterpeg specifically, gets quite the reputation for being cold, but if anything, it just makes us stronger. I discovered this fact when I was living in Ontario last winter - as others scurried around like the world was ending when the temperature dropped to -28°C, I walked calmly to school. To someone who used to wait for the bus in -50°C (with the wind chill factor), it was business as usual. And while other cities shut down when too much snow falls, we all dig ourselves out and continue. It takes a fair bit to get things to shut down here. Don't get me wrong. I still don't like winter and could do without it for the six months it resides here. And most of the winter, I hibernate next to the fireplace with a hot chocolate and a book. My days of tobogganing, snow fort construction, snowshoeing, skiing and ice skating are long over. Instead, I will make music mixes. This one's called Big Black Scissor Bite. And as an additional note, I edited the Manics' Winterlovers so that the pesky Working Class Hero hidden track isn't attached to it.

Tundra Rap - The Mighty Boosh

What the Snowman Learned About Love - Stars

Out There On the Ice - Cut Copy

Winter's Memory of Summer - The Delays

Iceblink Luck - Cocteau Twins

L'heure d'hiver - Little Nemo

Snow Showers - Trembling Blue Stars

Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire

January's Little Joke - Trashcan Sinatras

Snowflake - Mew

White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes

The Throat of Winter - T.Rex

The Fox in the Snow - Belle & Sebastian

Song For the Winter Sun - The Loom

Wait For the Wintertime - Yeasayer

Winter's Coming - Temposhark

Winterlovers - Manic Street Preachers

Under Ice - Kate Bush

Coma - Bella Koshka

Other Cars Go - It Hugs Back

Winter - The Sound

In the Cold I'm Standing - M83

Glosoli - Sigur Ros