People Fall Off Buildings Presents: An Introduction to... Smog

"Anyone who's ever had a hole in the heart / Knows how hard it is to start a new day."

"Well, you're a wild horse / On a collision course / With the sun."

"I'll never be a Bowie / I'll never be an Eno / I'll only ever be a Gary Numan / I'll never be a rock and roll saint."

"When I was seven / My father said to me / 'But you can't swim' / And I've never dreamed of the sea again."

"Prince alone in the studio / It's three a.m. / Prince hasn't eaten in eighteen hours / Dinner's burned on the stove / But Prince / He doesn't even know."

"Well I rode out to the ocean / And the water looked like tarnished gold / I rode out on a broken horse / Who told me she'd never felt so old."

"All your bridges and bras / Your cotton / And gauze / All your buckles and straps / Releases and traps / All your screws / And false nails / Oriental winks / And Egyptian veils."

"What cries home / Where cries from / A blood red bird lies in the woods / Weeping into dead leaves / With wing torn and jutting bone."

"Jean jacket and tie / Feel like such a lie / When I go to your house / I feel like I'm / Casing the joint / In the grocery store / In line behind a mother and a child / I'm going to take take that child."

"I lay back in the tall grass / And let the ants cover me / I let the jets fly / Not wishing for their destruction / Born to black in a perfect blue sky."

"And I swore I'd never lay like a log / Bark like a dog / I was a teenage smog / Sewn to the sky."

"I was raised in a pit of snakes / Blink your eyes / I was raised on cake / I couldn't memorize a century of slang / Or learn to tell the same story again and again and again."

"I route for the underdog / No matter who they are / Like the bank-robber / In the getaway car."

"And when winter comes / We'll borrow some / From the nearest washing line / And when summer comes / It's almost impossible / Not to have a good time."

"Oh god, can you feel the sun on your back? / Oh god, can you see your shadow, inky black / On the sand? / Oh god, can you hear the saltwater drying on your skin? / Oh god, can you feel my heart beating in my tongue?"

"We are far from flowers / Cut and dried / So let us thrive, let us thrive / Let us thrive, let us thrive / Just like the weeds / We curse sometimes."

"I saw a gold ring / At the bottom of the river / Glinting at my foolish heart / So my foolish heart / Had to go diving / Diving, diving, diving / Into the murk."

Here's the track-list:

01. Hole in the Heart
02. Chosen One
03. A Hit
04. Bathysphere
05. Prince Alone in the Studio
06. I Break Horses
07. All Your Women Things
08. Blood Red Bird
09. Ex-Con
10. Held
11. Teenage Spaceship
12. Hit the Ground Running
13. Justice Aversion
14. The Hard Road
15. Permanent Smile
16. Our Anniversary
17. Rock Bottom Riser

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VJQKZ1CJ

Enjoy (and share).

To the Harbormaster

I wanted to be sure to reach you;

though my ship was on the way it got caught

in some moorings. I am always tying up

and then deciding to depart. In storms and

at sunset, with the metallic coils of the tide

around my fathomless arms, I am unable

to understand the forms of my vanity

or I am hard alee with my Polish rudder

in my hand and the sun sinking. To

you I offer my hull and the tattered cordage

of my will. The terrible channels where

the wind drives me against the brown lips

of the reeds are not all behind me. Yet

I trust the sanity of my vessel; and

if it sinks, it may well be in answer

to the reasoning of the eternal voices,

the waves which have kept me from reaching you.

- Frank O'Hara

Zoe 2 [December 2006]

This is by far the oldest mix I've posted so far. It's also one of my favourites. Like my friend Jesse (whose Jesse 5 mix I posted a while back), Zoe is the other person I make birthday mix CDs for instead of giving actual gifts. Not that I think either of them mind. In fact, mix CDs aside, I can be a pretty mediocre gift-giver, so it's really a win-win for everyone involved.

That being said, if you want to be added to the birthday-mix-in-lieu-of-real-present list, just let me know. I'm more than happy to accommodate.

What I actually remember most about this mix is that, not long after I gave it to her, she requested another copy. Why? Because she lent it to a friend who, the story goes, loved it so much that she refused to return it. Which, despite being kind of a shitty thing to do friend-wise, was a pretty nice compliment for me.

Listening to it now, I'm mostly happy with it, though I'm not certain why I thought putting a "Love Will Tear Us Apart" cover on there was good idea (even one performed by a decent band like Calexico). Note to aspiring mix-masters: covers are cool (the weirder/rarer the better), covers of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (and, while we're on it, "Hallelujah") are, well... considerably less cool.

Also: remember Peter, Bjorn and John? Me neither. But they were pretty popular for about a minute there. I actually saw them open for Depeche Mode a few years ago (how I ended up there is a story for another blog-post).

One final note: I have never heard any other songs by Bound Stems but I think "Western Biographic" is pretty damn sweet.

Here's the track-list:

01. Swan Lake - "The Freedom"
02. TV on the Radio - "Snakes and Martyrs"
03. Band of Horses - "The Funeral"
04. Spoon - "Don't Let It Get You Down"
05. Joanna Newsom - "Peach, Plum, Pear"
06. Califone - "Our Kitten Sees Ghosts"
07. Bound Stems - "Western Biographic"
08. Modest Mouse - "Black Cadillacs"
09. Calexico - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
10. Herman Dune- "When the Water Gets Cold & Freezes on the Lake"
11. The Hold Steady - "You Can Make Him Like You"
12. Sleater-Kinney - "Entertain"
13. The Thermals - "I Hold the Sound"
14. Sunset Rubdown - "The Empty Threats of Little Lord"
15. Peter, Bjorn and John - "Objects of My Affection"

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U26PIO47

Enjoy (and share).

People Fall Off Buildings Presents: An Introduction to... Silver Jews

"On the last day of your life / Don't forget to die."

"There is a house in New Orleans / Not the one you've heard about / I'm talking about another house."

"O Dallas you shine with an evil light / Don't you know that God stays up all night?"

"Boy wants a car from his Dad / Dad says, first you gotta cut that hair / Boy says, hey Dad Jesus had long hair / And Dad says / That's right son but Jesus walked everywhere."

"All houses dream in blueprints / Our houses dream so hard / Outside you can see my shoeprints / I've been dreaming in your yard."

"So if you don't want me / I promise not to linger / But before I go I gotta ask you dear about the tan line on your ring finger."

"I've got two tickets to a midnight execution / We'll hitchhike our way from Odessa to Houston / And when they turn on the chair / Something's added to the air / When they turn on the chair / Something's added to the air / Forever."

"Sometimes I feel like I'm watching the world / And the world isn't watching me back / But when I see you, I know I'm in it too / The waves come in and the waves go back / The kids in the corner all covered in dirt / Caught trespassing under the moon / My father came in from wherever he'd been / And kicked my shit all over the room."

"Grass grows in the icebox / The year ends in the next room / It is autumn and my camouflage is dying / Instead of time there will be lateness / And let forever be delayed."

"And if we're like plug-in reindeer / Whose cords can't stretch far enough to fly."

"He bought a little land with the money from the settlement / And he even bought the truck that had hit him that day / He touched the part where the metal was bent / And if you were there you would hear him say."

"You know Louisville is death / We've got to up and move / Because the dead do not improve."

"When I was summoned to the phone / I knew in my bones that you had died alone."

"I'm gonna change the pattern of the stars / I'd like to horsewhip all these VCRs / Screw the soft rock and the salad bars / Let's turn our backs on all the movie stars."

"So you wanna build an altar on a summer night / You wanna smoke the gel off a fentanyl patch / Aincha heard the news / Adam and Eve were Jews / And I always loved you to the max."

"I've been working at the airport bar / It's like Christmas in a submarine."

"I saw God's shadow on this world"

"You got Tennessee tendencies / And chemical dependencies / You make the same old jokes and malaprops on cue."

Here's the track-list:

01. Advice to the Graduate
02. New Orleans
03. Dallas
04. The Frontier Index
05. Pretty Eyes
06. Random Rules
07. Smith & Jones Forever
08. Blue Arrangements
09. The Wild Kindness
10. Room Games & Diamond Rain
11. I Remember Me
12. Tennessee
13. Death of an Heir of Sorrows
14. Long Long Gone
15. Punks in the Beerlight
16. I'm Getting Back into Getting Back into You
17. There Is a Place
18. Suffering Jukebox

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TMLQKWAU

Enjoy (and share).

Theology

"No, the serpent did not
Seduce Eve to the apple.
All that's simply
Corruption of the facts.

Adam ate the apple.
Eve ate Adam.
The serpent ate Eve.
This is the dark intestine.

The serpent, meanwhile,
Sleeps his meal off in Paradise -
Smiling to hear
God's querulous calling."

- Ted Hughes

James' Best Songs Of 2007

Since my recent blog revival (and subsequent return to music-blog stardom), I've spent a lot of time trolling through bulky CD binders (remember those?), scouring hard drives (both internal and external) and raiding my friend's personal collections, all in search of old (and, in some cases, long forgotten) James-mixes. I've found some interesting stuff---much of which I will be posting in the near-future---but the real treat has been going back and re-listening to mix CDs I made years ago, even if some of them have aged better than others.

Another plus: I get to create brand new iPod-ready artwork for all my pre-2008 mixes. Because, really, who wants to stare at those damned beamed quarter notes?

Today I'm posting what is probably my personal favourite of the James' Best Songs of year-end mixes, James Best Songs of 2007. Why's it so great? Well, even though I'm not a believer in "bad" years when it comes to music (name me any year post-1964 and I'll name you ten great record from it), I do think that, for whatever reason, some years wind up being better than others (subjectively speaking, of course). Perhaps it's luck, or maybe some kind of karmic convergence, or possibly a large-scale record industry conspiracy... who knows?

Either way, it's hard to deny that 2007 ruled hard.

Hell, I can still remember the child-like euphoria I felt waking up at 4am on a Wednesday morning to download and listen to In Rainbows (which also meant having to skip my 9:30am class). I can't recall ever being so excited for a record (or as blown away by how said record was distributed, with only ten days notice, no less) and, as groggy and sleep-deprived as I was, I was not disappointed. The quality of the album also made me feel a lot better about dropping £40 on the deluxe discbox edition (which, of course, I chose to pre-order before listening to the record).

Kudos, Radiohead, kudos.

If that wasn't enough, "All My Friends" and "Paper Planes" were released, easily two of the greatest songs of the decade. Add to that great records from The National (whom I first heard in 2007 and who have since become mega-famous), Spoon, Arcade Fire, Iron & Wine and Liars, and you've got a year in music which is tough to beat.

That doesn't mean, of course, that 2008, 2009, and 2010 weren't also, musically-speaking, great years (not to mention great year-end mixes); they absolutely were.

But 2007? Forget about it.

Here's the track-list:

01. LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends" [from Sound of Silver]
02. Arcade Fire - "Keep the Car Running" [from Neon Bible]
03. Joanna Newsom - "Colleen" [from Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band]
04. Battles - "Atlas" [from Mirrored]
05. Spoon - "The Ghost of You Lingers" [from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga]
06. Kanye West - "Can't Tell Me Nothing" [from Graduation]
07. Feist - "I Feel It All" [from The Reminder]
08. Sunset Rubdown - "The Taming of the Hands That Came back to Life" [from Random Spirit Lover]
09. Justice - "D.A.N.C.E." [from †]
10. Black Lips - "Veni Vidi Vicious" [from Good Bad Not Evil]
11. Burial - "Archangel" [from Burial]
12. The National - "Mistaken for Strangers" [from Boxer]
13. Animal Collective - "Peacebone" [from Strawberry Jam]
14. M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" [from Kala]
15. Liars - "Sailing to Byzantium" [from Liars]
16. Iron & Wine - "Boy with a Coin" [from The Shepherd's Dog]
17. Radiohead - "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" [from In Rainbows]

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F4K1ZMTY

Enjoy (and share).

MDMA Mix [March 2010]

I admit it, this mix probably doesn't work all that well as a soundtrack to an MDMA-trip. It's not that I'm against chemicals or anything---I know lots of people who use drugs for recreation without ruining their lives, becoming addicts or committing heinous crimes; I just feel that I'm much better suited to making mixes for drugs I'm actually partial to (like my previously posted Stoner Night Mix, for example).

Which isn't to say that the songs on here are bad, either. They are, quite obviously, wicked. Again, they're just maybe not that well-suited to an MDMA-trip, which is more of an uptempo, optimistic (and, usually, just plain sappy) affair. So, for those of you who dig the MDMA-vibe, I'm sorry if I got your hopes up (but don't worry, my club-ready New Order introductory mix is coming soon). I did honestly set out without the intent of making an MDMA-friendly mix (after being asked to do so by some friends) but, looking back on it now, I think it got away from me.

Oh well.

For the rest of my loyal readers (all seven of you!), here's another James-approved (and, it must therefore be reasoned, totally great) collections of songs.

Here's the track-list:

01. Slint - "Breadcrumb Trail"
02. Spoon - "The Beast and Dragon, Adored"
03. Neil Young - "Danger Bird"
04. Portishead - "The Rip"
05. TV on the Radio - "King Eternal"
06. Bob Dylan - "Jim Jones"
07. Frog Eyes - "One in Six Children Will Flee in Boats"
08. Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Heaven Can Wait (ft. Beck)"
09. Smog - "The Hard Road"
10. Sonic Youth - "Pipeline/Kill Time"
11. Destroyer - "The Bad Arts"
12. New Order - "The Him"
13. The Walkmen - "Wake Up"
14. The Futureheads - "Hounds of Love"
15. Woods - "Born to Lose"
16. Bob Dylan - "Talkin' World War III Blues"
17. Built To Spill - "Distopian Dream Girl"
18. Gil Scott-Heron - "New York is Killing Me"
19. The National - "Theory of the Crows"
20. Joy Division - "Atmosphere"
21. Rock Plaza Central - "Dear Don, There are Two Eight O'clocks in the Course of a Day"
22. Radiohead - "Talk Show Host"
23. Love - "You Set The Scene"
24. The Mountain Goats - "Pale Green Things"
25. Anne Sexton - "All My Pretty Ones"
26. Dead Man's Bones - "Pa Pa Power"
27. Guided by Voices - "Always Crush Me"
28. Liars - "Goodnight Everything"
29. Dinosaur Jr. - "Tarpit"
30. Johnny Cash - "Let the Train Blow the Whistle"
31. Lifter Puller - "La Quereria"
32. Modest Mouse - "Whenever You Breathe Out, I Breathe In (Positive/Negative)"

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L18UHWRC

Enjoy (and share).