Weeks 10 and 11

Due to a recent Springtime influx of visitors, my weekends, prime mixmaking time, have been otherwise occupied. Here are two mixes I’ve been working on, given to my good friend Lindsey upon her departure from the district last night.

Week 10: This is the Remix (remixes and mashups)

1) The Rickrollerz – Never Gonna Give You Up (House Mix)

2) DJ Tripp – Paper Rump (MIA vs Onyx)

3) Justice – Tthhee Ppaarrttyy

4) Girl Talk – Shut the Club Down

5) CSS – Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (Spank Rock Remix)

6) Justice – Never Be Alone (Justice vs Simian)

7) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Y Control (The Faint Remix)

Broken Social Scene – Almost Crimes (Radio Kills Remix)

9) MIA – Sunshowers (Diplo Remix)

10) Yelle – A Cause Des Garcons (TEPR Remix)

11) Uffie – Make it Hott (Crystal Castles vs Uffie)

12) Santogold – LES Artistes (XXXchange Mix)

13) Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT remix)

14) Death From Above 1979 – Romantic Rights (Marczech Makuziak remix)

15) The Faint – Worked Up So Sexual (Pole Mix)

16) Of Montreal – Id Engager (Mad Decent Remix)

17) Hercules and Love Affair – Blind (Hercules Club Mix)

18) Daft Punk – Aerodynamic (Daft Punk Mix)

And Week 11: Learn2Count

1) Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor

2) Interpol – Obstacle 2

3) The White Stripes – The Big Three Killed my Baby

4) Bright Eyes – Four Winds

5) Noah and the Whale – Five Years Time

6) The Hood Internet – Fuck that, I defy (Three 6 Mafia vs Joan As Policewoman)

7) The Kills – Dead Road 7

The Beatles – Eight Days a Week

9) Lady Sovereign – 9 to 5

10) Man Man – 10lb. Moustache

11) Mindless Self-Indulgence – Seven-Eleven

12) The Strokes – 12:51

13) The Pixies – Number 13, Baby

14) Death From Above 1979 – Dead Womb

15) Bright Eyes – Happy Birthday to Me (February 15)

16) The Decembrists – Sixteen Military Wives

17) Ratatat – Seventeen Years

18) Moby – 18

19) The Gorillaz – 19-2000

20) Tsunami Bomb – 20 Going on…

21) Ladytron – Seventeen

22) Lily Allen – 22

23) Blink 182 – What’s My Age Again?

Week 9: Modern day love letters

My dear friend recently blogged about love letters. So what did I do? I sent her a CD full of modern day love letters in the form of songs about love, all kinds (cheesy, weird, legitimately good). Ok, they’re all legitimately good, even the cheesy and weird ones.

1) The Magnetic Fields – Washington, DC

2) Regina Spektor – Buidings

3) Of Montreal – Gallery Piece

4) Super 8-Bit Brothers – 8-Bit Love Song

5) Wolf Parade – This Heart’s on Fire

6) Bright Eyes – First Day of My Life

7) MIA – Jimmy

The Cure – Friday, I’m in Love

9) Man Man – 10 Lb. Moustache

10) She and Him – I Was Made For You

11) Neutral Milk Hotel – Oh Comely

12) Noah and the Whale – Five Years Time

13) Tegan and Sara – I Know, I Know, I Know

14) Tom Waits – Alice

15) The Darkness – I Believe in a Thing Called Love

16) Daft Punk – Something About Us

17) Passion Pit – Smile Upon Me

18) Kate Nash – Birds

19) Interpol – Obstacle 2

20) Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You up

Week 8: It burns!

The theme this week is fire, both literal and figurative, though for the most part figurative. Fire, flames, burning, etc. I avoided gay jokes when making the list too, I’m proud of myself for that. Starting and ending the CD with two versions of the same song is an idea I’ve had for a while, especially when I end a CD with a Cardigans/Tom Jones duet. I could have used any song from Electric Six’s “Fire” cd, so named because each song on the cd includes some reference to fire.

1) Talking Heads-Burning down the House

2) Muse-Sunburn

3) Franz Ferdinand-This Fire

4) Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Mr., You’re on Fire, Mr.

5) Wolf Parade-This Heart’s on Fire

6) VHS or Beta-Night on Fire

7) Nicole Atkins-Brooklyn’s on Fire

Bloodhound Gang-Fire Water Burn

9) MIA-Fire Fire

10) Daft Punk-Burnin

11) Destroyer-Blue Flower/Blue Flame

12) Kings of Leon-Pistol of Fire

13) John Lee Hooker-Burning Hell

14) Prodigy-Firestarter

15) Electric Six-Electric Demons in Love

16) Interpol-All Fired up

17) Johnny Cash-Ring of Fire

18) The Black Keys-The Flame

19) Cut Copy-Hearts on Fire

20) The Cardigans f/ Tom Jones-Burning Down the House

Week 7: Songs about girls

This week’s mix is so big I had to put it on two CDs! Partly because the subject matter is so vast (songs with girls names in them, usually in the title, but not always) and partly because of the mix-related history I have with this week’s recipient, Miss Shorskirt. It also allows me to break my “one artist per mix” rule to include two songs by Joanna Newsom, The White Stripes, Motion City Soundtrack, The Beatles and Kate Nash.

I almost included “Hey There, Delilah” on this mix, too, but I figured the joke had gone stale. So enjoy!

Disc 1:

1) Outkast-Roses

2) Cake-Daria

3) Joanna Newsom-Sadie

4) CSS-Alala

5) The Black Kids-Hurricane Jane

6) Of Montreal-Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider

7) My Chemical Romance-Helena

Kate Nash-Caroline’s a Victim

9) Man Man-Poor Jackie

10) Mark Ronson f/ Amy Winehouse-Valerie

11) Gellieman-Aicha

12) Motion City Soundtrack-The Future Freaks Me out

13) The White Stripes-Jolene

14) Beck-Debra

15) Say Anything-Every Man Has a Molly

16) The Beatles-Elenor Rigby

Disc 2

1) Cursive-Dorothy at Forty

2) Neil Diamond-Sweet Caroline

3) Tom Wait-Alice

4) Kate Nash-Mariella

5) The Anniversary-Sweet Marie

6) Joanna Newsom-Emily

7) Santogold-Anne

Hot Hot Heat-Aveda

9) The Killers-Jenny Was a Friend of Mine

10) The Beatles-Sexy Sadie

11) Motion City Soundtrack-Mary Without Sound

12) The White Stripes-Now Mary

13) Scissor Sisters-Mary

14) Barenaked Ladies-Jane

15) Reggie and the Full Effect-Megan 2K

16) The Spill Canvas-Natalie Marie and 1cc

17) Alien Ant Farm-Tia Lupe

18) The Beach Boys-Ballad of Ol’ Betsy

19) Hellogoodbye-Jesse Buy Nothing…Go to Prom Anyway

Week 6: The Zoo Crew

No letter this time around, mix went to my friend Stef for her 24th birthday. The party was a great success, as was the other mix I made her (this one was not dance-friendly enough to play at a party of such magnitude.) It’s songs by bands with an animal in their name because, frankly, who doesn’t like animals.

1) Bumblebeez 81-Step Back

2) Minus the Bear-The Fix

3) Animal Collective-Chores

4) Fox N Wolf-Youth Alcoholic

5) Simian Mobile Disco-Hustler

6) The Beatles-Happiness is a Warm Gun

7) New Young Pony Club-Ice Cream

Noah and the Whale-Five Years Time

9) Modest Mouse-The View

10) Le Tigre-This Island

11) Elefant-Misfit

12) Thunderbirds Are Now!-Not Witherspoon, but Silverstone

13) Wolf Parade-Modern World

14) Dr. Dog-The Ark

15) Finch-Letters to You

16) The Bird and the Bee-Polite Dance Song

17) T-Rex-Jeepster

18) The Gorillaz-19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)

19) Sparklehorse-Piano Fire

20) The Dear Hunter-Smiling Swine (Remix)

21) The Wombats-Kill the Director

22) The Unicorns-Jellybones

Week 5: Catchin’ some Zs

For some, sleeping and music go hand in hand. There are, of course, the lullabies we are sung as children. Some sleep better with headphones in their ears. I personally have found that I can fall asleep much easier if I’m listening to something relaxing along the lines of perhaps a City and Colour or Joanna Newsom right before I put my head down. Likewise, plenty of songs have been written about sleeping, or dreaming or not sleeping or not dreaming.
Some of them are literal, such as No Sleep Til Brooklyn, The District Sleeps Alone Tonight and Busby Berkley Dreams, while others are less so such as Teenage Dream. And I just had to include the orchestral version of the classical piece used, most notably and extensively, in Requiem for a Dream, which isn’t about sleeping at all and which, I imagine, could actually interfere with a person’s ability to sleep if watched directly preceeding one’s bedtime.

1) Passion Pit-Sleepyhead

2) The Magnetic Fields-Busby Berkley Dreams

3) Of Montreal-I Was a Landscape in Your Dream

4) Ludacris-Go 2 Sleep

5) Clint Mansell-Requiem for a Dream

6) Beastie Boys-No Sleep til Brooklyn

7) Cake-When You Sleep

T Rex-Teenage Dream

9) Alkaline Trio-Sleepyhead

10) Jeff Buckley-Dream Brother

11) The Dandy Warhols-Sleep

12) Simian Mobile Disco-Sleep Deprivation

13) Franz Ferdinand-Lucid Dreams

14) Cursive-Dorothy Dreams of Tornado

15) The Postal Service-The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

16) Weezer-Only in Dreams

Weeks three and four

I’ve always believed better late than never.

So here we are, marvelously late, but to catch up, I sent out week three and four at the same time. Fairly confident that they have reached their chosen destination (I have one of two confirmations) I present to you week three and week four of My mixed up week.

Week three: Same Name (As presented to Bis)

Many say that there’s no originality left in music today, and, at least as far as titles go, this cd proves it. The worst part is that there are plenty of songs I had to leave out, plenty of songs with the same name that were both pretty decent, but not good enough.

As far as inspiration goes, I’ll admit that I got the title idea from Thriller off Fall Out Boy’s “Infinity on High”, so I pretty much had to include those songs. The end of the CD, with the two versions of “When the Lights Go out” couldn’t be any more different, though unless you’re a Black Keys fan or have seen Black Snake Moan, you’re probably more familiar with the second, more iconic (or ironic) song.

This CD also made me break my first rule, not to include two songs from the same band on one CD, thanks to the titular unoriginality of Death From Above 1979.

1) Reggie and the Full Effect-From Me 2U

2) The Beatles-From Me to You

3) Death from Above 1979-Too Much Love

4) LCD Soundsystem-Too Much Love

5) Dizzee Rascal f/ Marga Man-Girls

6) The Beastie Boys-Girls

7) The Darkness-Friday Night

Lily Allen-Friday Night

9) The Black Keys-Evil

10) Interpol-Evil

11) Fall Out Boy-Thriller

12) Michael Jackson-Thriller

13) Guster-Amsterdam

14) Peter, Bjorn and John-Amsterdam

15) New Found Glory-Better off Dead

16) Death from Above 1979-Better of Dead

17) The Blow-Pardon Me

18) Incubus-Pardon Me

19) Matt and Kim-Someday

20) The Strokes-Someday

21) The Black Keys-When the Lights Go Out

22) 5ive-When the Lights Go Out

And, as presented to http://mibredclaimer.wordpress.com/,

Week 4: New York, I Love You, but You’re Bringing Me down

1) Belle and Sebastian-Piazza, New York Catcher

2) Beastie Boys-No Sleep Til Brooklyn

3) Newsies Soundtrack-I’m the King of New York

4) Head Automatica-Brooklyn is Burning

5) Tom Waits-Downtown Train

6) Cocoa Brovaz-Super Brooklyn

7) Plain White T’s-Hey there Deliliah (Sorry! I couldn’t resist!)

Vampire Weekend-M79

9) The Cure-Subway Song

10) Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Yeah! New York

11) Bumblebeez 81-Brooklyn

12) Frank Sinatra-New York, New York

13) Andrew W K-I Love NYC

14) Something Corporate-I Woke up in a Car

15) T Rex-New York City

16) The Strokes-New York City Cops

17) Nicole Atkins-Brooklyn’s on Fire

18) Mindless Self Indulgence-Brooklyn Hype (Part One)

19) Interpol-NYC

20) The Wombats-Moving to New York

21) The Black Keys-Brooklyn Bound

22) Of Montreal-Girl from NYC (Named Julia)

23) LCD Soundsystem-New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me down

Week two: Crimes

When someone first suggested this theme to me, I thought “oh great, it’s going to end up all country songs and gangsta rap”.
But once I thought about it, it turns out there are a bunch of decent, better than decent, songs about breaking the law, usually murder, which is actually kind of scary, but you know, whatevs.
I did, as you can see, include two country songs, and since I don’t know a lot of gangster rap, I included two rap songs by Brittish rappers because, quite frankly, I tend to like foreign rappers better than stupid American ones. Yes, Paper Planes has hit it big here in the colonies, but let’s not forget that the song has been around for a lot longer and the hipsters laid claim to it months before it showed up in The Pineapple Express commercials.
The scariest and saddest song on the cd, John Wayne Gacy, Jr., is, as the title may suggest, written about John Wayne Gacy. Sufjan’s sometimes sickeningly sweet voice comes off as creepy in this song, which is maybe why it’s my favorite of his songs.
Oppositely, I included a song which may have inspired a few crimes, Helter Skelter by the Beatles. It’s my second favorite Beatles song, does that mean that one day I’m going to go on a murder spree and write the title all over some walls? Only time will tell.
I was torn about including “Already Dead” on the mix, but decided, against my better musical judgment, to do so. It’s one of those silly little screamo songs I listened to in college, yes, BUT it’s the angriest song on the CD and you can’t have a CD with a crime theme without including an angry song. I’ll also contend that as far as screamo songs go, it’s not THAT bad. It’s also funny, kind of unintentionally, admittedly.
I don’t necessarily prefer the Alien Ant Farm cover of Smooth Criminal to the original, but the cd flowed better with this version. Plus, I wanted to take you back in time, as listening to the song again took me back in time. I associate it with band camp, who knows what kind of memories I may be dragging up in YOUR head!
And I thought it was necessary, as a fan of literary techniques, to include some metaphorical songs that aren’t ACTUALLY about crimes or the legal process, but are extended metaphors. Criminal is another song that’s going to take you back (remember that risqué video?) and maybe you’ve never heard Lovers Need Lawyers, but it’s a goodie, I promise.
There were even plenty of good songs I had to leave off this cd, there are just too many good songs about breaking the law! Who would have thought!
Anyway, I hope this cd inspires you in the best of ways and again, I apologize about the Silverstein song.

Without further ado…

1) The Faint-Violent

2) Sufjan Stevens-John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

3) MSTRKRFT-Street Justice

4) MIA-Paper Planes

5) Alien Ant Farm-Smooth Criminal

6) The Killers-Jenny was a Friend of Mine

7) Pacific Gas and Electric-Staggolee

Silverstein-Already Dead

9) Johnny Cash-Folsom Prison Blues

10) Talking Heads-Psycho Killer

11) Dizzee Rascal-Sirens

12) Nancy Sinatra-Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)

13) Cold War Kids-Saint John

14) The Receiving End of Sirens-Planning a Prison Break

15) The Beatles-Helter Skelter

16) The Good Life-Lovers Need Lawyers

17) Garth Brooks-The Thunder Rolls

18)The Kills-Sweet Cloud

19) Fiona Apple-Criminal

Intermission

First off, week 2 CD should be up Monday. I think I’m going to do these on Mondays instead, it just works better.

In the meantime, to satiate my few fans, or people who are even the slightest bit interested, here’s my best of 2008 mix. It’s a week late because

1) For a second I forgot Rabbit Habbits came out this year. I’ve been listening to it so much since it came out that it seems like way longer.

2) I decided last minute (once the mix was already compiled) to include DiscoBitch for an added French flavor.

3) My celebrity crush on Zooey Deschanel and some urging in mix tape form from Miss_Shorskirt convinced me to listen to She and Him and, well I’ve been listening all week and decided I couldn’t NOT include one of their songs on here.

So…le voila

1) MGMT-Kids

2) Flight of the Conchords-If you’re Into It

3) Man Man-Easy Eats or Dirty Doctor Galapagos

4) Discobitch-C’est Baeu la Bourgeoisie

5) Lil Wayne f/Bobby Valentino-Mrs. Officer

6) She and Him-This is not a Test

7) N.E.R.D.-Everyone Nose

The Black Kids-Hurricane Jane

9) Girl Talk-Shut the Club Down

10) The Raconteurs-Many Shades of Black

11) The BPA-Toe Jam

12) Vampire Weekend-A-Punk

13) Los Campesinos-You!Me!Dancing!

14) Passion Pit-Sleepyhead

15) Noah and the Whale-Five Years Time

16) Crystal Castles-Crimewave

17) The Do-On My Shoulders

18) The Ting Tings-Shut up and Let Me Go

19) Of Montreal-Gallery Piece

20) Hercules and Love Affair-Blind

21) The Lonely Island-Jizz in my Pants

Here are some added awards

Video of the year

Novelty song of the year:

Most anticipated album of 09(Tie)

Best remix of a song I normally wouldn’t even bother listening to

Week one: Alphabet Soup

With my first MMuW cd properly distributed, I can safely post the track listing. Enjoy!

CD 1: Alphabet Soup (One song starting with (or featuring prominently, in some cases) each letter in the alphabet.)

1. Vampire Weekend – A Punk

2. Electric Six – Be My Dark Angel

3. Islands – Creeper

4. Justice – D.A.N.C.E.

5. The White Stripes – Expecting

6. Tom Waits: Fawn

7. Of Montreal – Galler Piece

8. Mindless Self Indulgence – Harry Truman

9. John Lee Hooker – I Need Some Money

10. Incredibad – Just Two Guyz

11. MGMT – Kids

12. Tegan and Sara – Living Room

13. Brand New – Moshi Moshi

14. Cake – Never There

15. The Hives – Outsmarted

16. Black Kids – Partie Traumatic

17. The Magnetic Fields – Queen of the Savages

18. Mad Caddies – Road Rash

19. M.I.A. – Sunshowers

20. The Strokes – Take it or Leave it

21. The Blow – The Big U

22. Reggie and the Full Effect – Happy V-Day

23. Girl Talk – What it’s All About

24. The Bens – X-Fire

25. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Y Control

26. Man Man – Zebra

I started with the CD which seemed like it would be the easiest to make. After all, there was no defined theme, just letters, I have at least 100 songs starting with each letter, maybe 500 Ts or something, but then came the real problem, fitting 26 songs on one CD, which, as we all know, carries an 80 minute limit. Some simple math shows that this leaves an average of three minutes and four seconds for each song, and when I made the decision to include my favorite song of 2008 (“Kids” by MGMT) which clocks in at over 5 minutes, well I dug myself quite a whole. BUT, like a child playing with blocks, I examined the problem and, after over an hour of deliberating, trying out songs and removing them, I was able to come up with this mix. Of course, I also had to make sure the music flowed from one song to the next (the most important part of a mix) and that there weren’t too many similar songs. Although I love “Zebra” by Man Man, I normally wouldn’t include it on a mix, since it’s weird and kind of depressing, but when it got to Z, my options were, as you can guess, probably pretty limited (what Z songs can you think of?) and as weird and depressing as it is, it’s still good. Fave Five tracks: 1, 3, 7, 11, 21