Margaret [Early 2007]

My friend Margaret isn't really that into pop music. She's a composer, so she's more into compositions and string quartets and atonality and other weird things like that. You know, highbrow stuff. I seem to recall her thinking that James' Best Songs of 2007 was a good workout mix but, generally speaking, we're both into fairly different music. She can write a mean string arrangement, though, which might come in handy (for me) somewhere down the line. And, even though she's friendly and nice, she writes some scary-sounding stuff, which also works out well for me, given my recent fondness for minor-keys and drone notes.

This is mix I made for her a few years ago---I'm guessing around early 2007, but I can't really remember. Margaret makes me mixes sometimes too. Mostly experimental compositions, sound collages, bird noises, treated instruments. Stuff like that. I actually hope to post one or two of them in the future (with her as-of-yet unreceived permission, of course). I think it's a good idea for artists to step away from what they know and explore other, less-familiar styles and ideas. I imagine Margaret feels the same way, at least to some extent. I doubt either of us will be switching teams anytime soon, though.

Rock and roll forever.

Here's the tracklist:

01. TV on the Radio - "Tonight"
02. Modest Mouse - "Lives"
03. Bright Eyes - "Hot Knives"
04. Liars - "Drum Gets a Glimpse"
05. Bloc Party - "Compliments"
06. Deerhoof - "Matchbook Seeks Maniac"
07. Spoon - "Chicago at Night"
08. Bjork - "Alarm Call"
09. Herman Dune - "My Friends Kill My Folks"
10. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Roberta C"
11. David Bowie - "Everyone Says 'Hi'"
12. Thom Yorke - "Harrowdown Hill"
13. Broken Social Scene - "I'm Still Your Fag"
14. Xiu Xiu - "Ceremony"
15. Pink Floyd - "Brain Damage"
16. Frog Eyes - "Bushels"
17. Rock Plaza Central - "We've Got a Lot to Be Glad For"

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=P35LSHR2

Enjoy (and share).

Stray Marvels: Operation Ivy - "Missionary"

Back in September, I went to a wedding in Timmins (hometown of country-pop superstar Shania Twain) with my girlfriend and her parents. I hadn't met any of this side of the family before (including the soon-to-be married couple) but all were very pleasant and welcoming. To make a long story short: the service went well, the food was good, and before I knew it we were back in the car for our 9-hour return trip to Toronto.

Fast forward to a week or two ago when we received a letter informing us that the recently married couple was intending to sell off all their possessions, leave their comforts and dedicate their lives to spreading the word of God in Mali (an African country where the population is already 90% Muslim). The letter ends by asking for donations to help support the trek.

When I heard the news this song immediately popped into my head. It sort of sums up my problems with missionary work more eloquently than I ever could.

Operation Ivy - "Missionary"

Enjoy.

Video Void: Portishead - "Only You" [Dir. Chris Cunningham]

If I were to make a list of the music video directors I would most like to work with, Chris Cunningham would definitely rank highly. Granted, his style probably wouldn't mesh too well with my more upbeat, lyric-heavy alt-country-folk-rock band, but I know for certain he would be a good match for my other, darker pursuits.

Ah, the dreams we dream...

Cunningham has made some great videos over the years. In fact, this probably isn't even my favourite clip of his. Which isn't to say that I don't think it's stunning, I do, only that he has several videos of equal or greater genius. Still, the underwater effect employed here is such an incredible idea, and really compliments the haunted nature of Portishead's sound. Apparently he had Beth Gibbons sing the song in a water tank, slowed the whole thing down, and then digitally inserted the shots into a darkened alley, adding a surreal and sinister overtone to an already suffocating clip.

Plus: creepy dancing boy.

Enjoy.

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).