At Least I've Got Options....

Diagrams: "Antelope"

Cool.

Tally Ho!

I shall dispense with all self-effacing modesty. This is the best mix I've ever made.

NW021.

01. Heavy Metal Drummer/WILCO
02. Space/THE BETA BAND
03. Looks Like Dark To Me/TIMBUK 3
04. Antelope/DIAGRAMS
05. A Little Bit Of Rain/AMBITIOUS LOVERS
06. Drive Me To The Center/THE SEEDY SEEDS
07. Basic Space/THE xx
08. El Salvador/ATHLETE
09. Up On The North Shore/THE SEA AND CAKE
10. Whirring/THE JOY FORMIDABLE
11. Tale From Black/TUNNG
12. Buffalo/THE PHOENIX FOUNDATION
13. Tensile/THE CLEAN
14. Black And White Town/DOVES
15. Symmetry/ERIC VOEKS
16. Billoddity/MOJAVE 3
17. Cape Canaveral/CONOR OBERST
18. Alone Again Or/CALEXICO
19. Wet Gold/THE OCTOPUS PROJECT
20. Apple Of My Eye/ED HARCOURT
21. The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply/THE MINUS 5
22. Periodically Double Or Triple/YO LA TENGO
23. Whippin' Piccadilly/GOMEZ

This wasn’t the mix that I was supposed to be making.

I’ve been working on a mix for the past few months that seemed to fall apart every time I got close to completing it. I’d get a fantastic run of songs going, then go back and listen and something always went wrong: usually a single song just wouldn’t fit and I’d end up dismantling the whole playlist to try to work it out. When I last worked on it (almost a month ago), I left it as twenty-some-odd songs that I finally threw my hands up and walked away (or, more literally, drove away, as we left for vacation).

Upon my return, I tried to give it another stab, by looking at other songs by some of the same artists. What (relatively) quickly emerged was this: a sort of alternate-reality version of the mix that’s been a bugaboo for me of late. Most came together quite naturally, some songs were no-brainers, some required some digging into the “my music” folder, some I serendipitously stumbled upon around the Internet (thanks sammyg123 for turning me on to the Summer Camp track), some came from recent purchases at the local Borders that was shuttering its doors.

So will that other mix ever see the light of day? I hope so, but I’m not worrying about that now. Just give me my headphones and a comfy chair and let me enjoy the breeze….

NW020.

01. Don't Stop/THE STONE ROSES
02. Listening Wind/TALKING HEADS
03. Today I Started Celebrating Again/BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY
04. Ghost Train/SUMMER CAMP
05. Don't Look Down Or Back/TUNNG
06. 2012 Breakdown/60 WATT KID
07. Glory/RADICAL FACE
08. Kids/MGMT
09. Tell Me Now/MAZZY STAR
10. (i'll name you) The Flame That Cries/GUIDED BY VOICES
11. loch (dub)/I AM KLOOT
12. Battery In Your Leg/BLUR
13. Super Glider/DRUGSTORE
14. By Some Miracle/PHILIP SELWAY
15. ZYX/GOMEZ
16. Gloomy Planets/THE NOTWIST
17. Hallucinists/THE OCTOPUS PROJECT
18. Dry The Rain/THE BETA BAND

Don't Sit Down....

New song from Arctic Monkeys: goofy lyrics, dirty riff....

Options

Greeted with much excitement by me....

Hit

Still amazing after, oh, twenty years....

The Octopus Project: "Hallucinists"

Absolutely gorgeous....

Hallucinists from Wiley Wiggins on Vimeo.

The Boys In Bandages

Crazy-fun band offering up some freebies. Always a good thing....

It's Not Just A Dream....

This is what happens when, on rare occasion, I have some free time on a Saturday afternoon and inspiration strikes....

"Spaceman" had been in my head for a few days, prior, and stayed there as I was able to sit down at my laptop last Saturday, blowing off housework while my wife had taken our oldest daughter to her soccer match, the boys were heavy into an afternoon of Lego Rock Band, and our youngest took a nap. I sat, I surfed, I facebooked, and I started to assemble a playlist....

What evolved over the next hour or so was a mix that has left me scratching my head. Songs I've had around that I've tried, unsuccessfully, to put into other mixes. Transitions that I wouldn't ordinarily dare attempting. Genre and era hopping in exelsis. In short, a mix that somehow works. It's not a "sleep" mix, by any means, but I think it has a certain surreal, stream of consciousness about it that led to both the inclusion of the coda and the title....

Some revision was done throughout the week, including some minor changes to the running order, but for the most part, its the mix I put together last Saturday. A note about one of the songs: The Five Embers were a doo wop group from the late 50's which operated out of Owensboro, KY. I learned about them a few weeks ago from my friend, Marc, who posted on facebook that his dad had been a member of the group, as well as a link to this song. Pretty cool tidbit I learned from a friend I've had now for over twenty years, and a nice little addition to this, well, whatever it is....

NW018.

01. Spaceman/MC 900 FT JESUS WITH DJ ZERO
02. Sycamore Trees/LITTLE JIMMY SCOTT
03. Beat Box (diversion one)/THE ART OF NOISE
04. White Flag/GORILLAZ featuring BASHY and KANO
05. You Monopolise Me/THE OGYANTANAA SHOW BAND
06. Michael Jackson/NEGATIVLAND
07. Shambala/BEASTIE BOYS
08. Heaven Can Wait (nosaj thing remix)/CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG
09. From The Air (dan the automator remix)/LAURIE ANDERSON
10. 100 Days, 100 Nights/SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS
11. My Fragile Heart/THE FIVE EMBERS
12. Move With Me (dub)/NENEH CHERRY
13. It's In Our Hands (c-level remix)/BJORK
14. Paradise Circus (gui boratto remix)/MASSIVE ATTACK featuring HOPE SANDOVAL
15. Sleepwalk/SANTO & JOHNNY
16. Siberian Breaks/MGMT
17. Not Just A Dream/UNKNOWN