November Mixtape: Sad Hulk's Car Jamz

HULK: HULK VULNERABLE! PUNY LADY SMASH HULK HEART! HULK MAKE MIX CD TO LET HEALING BEGIN! YOU COME ALONG FOR RIDE WHILE HULK VENT HURT FEELINGS! HULK'S SMARTCAR HAVE PLENTY OF ROOM! HULK SAVING PLANET! BUT WHO SAVE HULK?

Song #1: "Who Is The Silliest Rossi?" - Bird Nest Roys
HULK LOVE UPBEAT SONG. PUT HULK IN GOOD MOOD! LA LA LA LA!

Song #2: "Sea Of Heartbreak" - Don Gibson
Song #3: "Goodbye Baby" - Jack Scott
HULK NEED MOMENT. (SIGH) HULK LYING WHEN HULK SUGGEST HULK CAREFREE. HULK IN PAIN, PUNY HUMAN. HULK-SIZE PAIN.

Song #4: "Life's Little Ups and Downs" - Charlie Rich
Song #5: "Withered & Died" - Richard & Linda Thompson
HULK NEED HUG. BUT HULK CRUSH ALL WHO TRY TO HUG HULK. HULK FACING CONUNDRUM.

Song #6: "Please Don't Leave Me Lonely" - Kelly Hogan
Song #7: "Love Letters" - Ketty Lester
PUNY WOMAN NEVER LIKE HULK CALL HER PUNY. HURT HER PUNY FEELINGS. THEN SHE, SHE HURT HULK MIGHTY FEELINGS. NOW HULK PUNY! ONLY ON INSIDE! STILL MIGHTY ON OUTSIDE! HULK STILL MIGHTY HULK WHERE IT COUNT! NOT TALKING ABOUT PENIS!

Song #8: "I'll Always Know" - Merle Haggard
Song #9: "Who's Been Talking" - Howlin' Wolf
Song #10: "Crazy With Love" - George "Bongo Joe" Coleman
(SIGH) HULK NOTHING BUT FARCE. SONG TELL HULK ABOUT UNIVERSAL PAIN. HULK WANT TO SMASH! BUT HULK CANNOT SMASH WHAT IS WITHIN ALL OF US. HULK MAY READ 'DIANETICS.' HULK FRIEND THOR ALWAYS GOING ON ABOUT IT.

Song #11: "Bicycle Built For Two" - John Fahey
Song #12: "Fater" - Richard Buckner
HULK WEEP MIGHTY TEARS! NOT PUNY TEARS LIKE HUMAN! HULK NO CRY LIKE BABY! DON'T LOOK AT HULK RIGHT NOW!

Song #13: "Blue" - The Jayhawks
Song #14: "Revenge" - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse with The Flaming Lips
HULK REMEMBER WALKS ON BEACH, SWEET NOTHINGS AT BEDTIME. HULK THINK OF WORDS OF JAMES WRIGHT, WHOM HULK STUDY WHILE WORKING ON MASTER'S FROM NEW COLLEGE: "DEAD RICHES, DEAD HANDS, MOON/DARKENS,/AND I AM LOST IN BEAUTIFUL WHITE RUIN/OF AMERICA." HULK VERKLEMPT.

Song #15: "How Will You Love Me?" - Nina Nastasia & Jim White
HULK GROW WEARY OF WHINING. BUT HULK NOT READY TO HULK UP AND FACE REALITY. HULK WANT PUNY LADY BACK, BUT HULK ALSO WANT TO SMASH HER! BUT HULK NO WANT COURT-ORDERED AGGRESSION COUNSELING AGAIN!

Song #16: "Am I That Easy To Forget?" - Lee Hazlewood & Ann-Margret
AAAARGH! THIS SONG MAKE HULK ANGRY! HIT FAST-FORWARD BUTTON! YOU REALLY WOULDN'T LIKE HULK WHEN HULK ANGRY!

Song #17: "Isn't Life Strange?" - The Clientele
NOOOOOOOO! AAAAARGH!

Song #18: "Bright Side" - The Soft Pack
Song #19: "Touch Senstitive" - The Fall

Banner: Hey, I'm Bruce Banner. That whiny bitch Hulk still going on about what's-her-face? What a pussy, huh? What's he playing here, his mix tape of crybaby shit? Big green pussy-whipped bitch. I swear, one day I'm going to toss this thing and load this stereo up with some real music. By which I mean hair metal from the 80s. 'Cause, who doesn't love a power ballad, am I right? Jesus, listen to this shit. Hulk is such a Pitchfork wussyboy.

Song #20: "Love Goes On!" - The Go-Betweens
Song #21: "How Can You Be So Beautiful?" - Club Wig

Anyway, my plan is to hit all the right clubs to get into some strange tonight. You ready for the nonstop action that comes with being my wingman? I have picked up a few tips on how to make the ladies go crazy for you from that tv show about how to make the ladies go crazy for guys. Only one rule! But it's a firm one: no fucking Arabs. I hate those terrorist camel-lovers, am I right? We should have let Cheney bomb that place back to the Stone Age when we had a chance! Ha! That would have been totally awesome. Hey, I heard this hilarious fucking joke about wetbacks on Jeff Dunham the other nigh---- AAARGHH, NO! NOT YET! NOOOOOOOO!

Song #22: "I Remember Me" - Silver Jews
Song #23: "Can You Whoop It?" - The Dexateens
HULK: HULK SORRY ABOUT THAT! BANNER GO CRAZY AFTER 9/11. WATCH FOX NEWS ALL DAY AND BUY GIRLS GONE WILD VIDEOS! HULK FEEL SORRY FOR BANNER! BUT HULK ALSO HATE BANNER! BANNER RACIST! CALL HULK 'BOOGER JOCKEY'! WHAT THAT ABOUT? HULK NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!

Song #24: "Love, Love, Love (Everyone)" - Akron/Family
HULK TREAT HEARTBREAK AS LEARNING EXPERIENCE. HULK FRIEND CAPTAIN AMERICA SAY WHAT DON'T KILL HULK MAKE HULK MORE MIGHTY. NOTHING KILL HULK! THAT WHY HULK MIGHTIEST OF ALL! HULK SMASH PUNY FEELINGS!

Song #25: "Bein' Green" - Rowlff The Dog
WHY HULK END WITH THIS SONG? IT SADDEST SONG OF ALL! HULK SO STUPID SOMETIMES! WHY HULK HOOK UP WITH PUNY HUMAN LADY IN FIRST PLACE? HULK NO NEED WOMEN TO BE ANGRY-HAPPY! HULK JUST NEED SUMMER DAY AND PUNY THINGS TO SMASH! HULK PERSPECTIVE ALL SKEWED! THIS MAKE HULK ANGRY! HULK SMASH PUNY SMARTCAR! HULK SMASH PUNY MIXTAPE! HULK--- AAAAAARGH! NOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOO!

Banner: Hey, I'm back! And I brought spray-on tan for everyone!

Bonus disc: SAD HULK'S BONG HITS

1. "Message" - Boris
2. "Divinations" - Mastodon
3. "Godspeed (Edit)" - Earthless
4. "Holy Tears" - Isis
5. "Death Goes To The Winner" - Harvey Milk
6. "Rise To Glory" - Earth
7. "Sun Stoned" - Spirit Caravan
8. "Spaceship Broken-Parts Needed" - Pelican
9. "Healer" - Torche
10. "Holy Mountain" - Sleep
11. "Bhimas' Theme" - Om
12. "On Form And Growth" - Turing Machine
13. "Wailing Wintry Wind" - Baroness

Muxtape

Here's a delightful site that allows users to upload mixtapes of their own devising for listeners to enjoy. I think we may have another day or two before the RIAA sues it out of existence.

Some kind soul, who may or may not be yours truly, has created this offering. Enjoy!

Holistic Mix 2007: Heads In The Cloudz

Our holistic mixes were built around the idea of Songs That Took You By Surprise. As defined by Leonard Pierce, "This can mean a song with a surprising or unexpected moment, a false start or a false ending, songs you discovered you liked by an artist you generally dislike, songs you like in a genre or style you don't generally care for, songs you'd never heard that came out of nowhere and completely enthralled you so that you immediately sought out the artist, songs with shocking lyrics, or even songs that start out poorly and then get really good."

1. Danielson – “Headz In The Cloudz” (A Prayer For Every Hour, 1996)

A delicious acoustic guitar drone anchored by straightforward drumming and punctuated by Daniel Smith’s squeaky vocals. This is from the Danielson Famile’s first album, which was also Smith’s senior art thesis project at Rutgers. It’s interesting to me that he roped all of his younger siblings into this project, which features a lot of avant-garde noise-pop and highly personal, explicitly Christian lyrics. There’s a charming video for this song, too, with crude artwork of cloud-headed cartoony Daniel Smith flying through the sky mixed with the real Daniel Smith wearing a silly cloud-head hat as he wanders through a large city. I was introduced to this song through the Danielson Famile documentary, which I rented as a lark. I’d previously heard a few Danielson songs and found them offputting, but the movie won me over to his viewpoint, and I consider myself a fan now. Anyway, how many surprises here? The vocals? The structure (drone-y A part/strange B part/mostly a capella C refrain/back to A for a few minutes)? Just an altogether weird song, but somehow it rocks.



2. Andrew Bird – “Simple X” (Armchair Apocrypha, 2007)

I’ll go ahead and admit that I’ve tried to populate this mix with recent music as often as possible. This Andrew Bird track is a collaboration with drummer/keyboardist Martin Dosh, who wrote the music, and it stuck out on the album as a surprisingly oddball tune on an album full of oddball sounds. I don’t think the lyrics mean anything literal (just another apocalyptic love song, to my read), but the melody is gorgeous.



3. cLOUDDEAD – “The Velvet Ant” (Ten, 2004)

Catchy! With a rectangle iris! What the fuck does this mean? Why is it so catchy? Seriously, what the fuck?

STREAMING AUDIO AT LAST.FM

4. Wooden Shjips – “We Ask You To Ride” (Wooden Shjips, 2007)

I originally drafted this song for the particular mix as the one that doesn't change throughout, but then I realized that it had a few minor variations, so it didn't work. Still, when that brutal electric guitar comes out of nowhere, I almost jumped the first time I heard the song.



5. Grizzly Bear – “Little Brother (Electric)” (Friend EP, 2007)

This is a pleasantly unpredictable song. It's a re-recording of a mostly acoustic track from Grizzly Bear's 2006 album Yellow House, and it's pretty much a three-piece band, until a 2nd guitar joins near the end. The singing is immaculate, the guitar line clean and creative, and the structure all over the map.



6. Akron/Family – “There’s So Many Colors” (Love Is Simple, 2007)

Speaking of unpredictable structures, this one defies all logic. It starts with a chorus of voices singing "there's so many colors without the dirty windows" for about a minute-and-a-half. Then there's two-to-three guitars playing the main theme followed by a section of clean, bluesy licks with feedback and shakers and tambourines. This takes us to about the 3:30 mark. Then, there's a folksy verse section, complete with banjo, leading into an electric guitar-driven choral refrain, followed by crazy multi-guitar soloing. Then, everything drops down to a sweetly sung, acoustic-picked section about "that chemical mountain chaser." That's some avant-garde bliss-hippie weirdness right there. I love it.



LINK TO MP3 (which is somewhat different from live version)

7. Cardinal – “Public Melody #1” (Cardinal, 1994)

Little musical interlude. The first time I heard the Cardinal disc, I was thinking, "did they just put a baroque instrumental someone on this rock album?" The answer was yes.

MP3 ON RHAPSODY

8. Joanna Newsom – “Cosmia (Live)” (Joanna Newsom And The Ys Street Band EP, 2007)

Here's where we stretch out a bit. I know there's some Newsom-hatas out there, but I figured I'd give y'all a chance to hear her at her most ambitious and passionate. Her singing and playing is usually a bit cool, but here, when she reaches the final chorus, she gives it her all, and the band joins her. It's a revelation. Then there's a fade-out accompanied by bowed saw. Yes, indeed.



9. Boris – “Naki Kyoku” (Akuma No Uta, 2005)

Some of y'all may think I'm mad to follow the feyest of my favorite current artists with one of most muscular. But, as you may hear, the Newsom flows into the Boris almost seemlessly. And the Boris track starts from a quiet beginning (justifying the cover art of the album, which mirror's Nick Drake's Bryter Layter) into a blistering psychedelic middle into a furious final section. When I first heard this album, I was digging Akuma No Uta up to this point, when it became one of my favorite things ever.



STREAMING AUDIO AT LAST.FM

10. Sparklehorse – “Spirit Ditch” (vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, 1995)

I was working in a record store in Tuscaloosa, Alabama when this album came out. I'd read a little about Sparklehorse in No Depression magazine, so I was expecting a slightly psychedelic country-rock album. What I heard instead was this lunatic folk-rock album like nothing I'd ever heard. I remember that I was alone in the store when this song came on, and when I heard the quiet spoken voice at the point where most bands would have put the guitar solo, I cranked the store stereo. The voice, an answering machine message about a nightmare the artist's mother had about him, thoroughly creeped my shit out. It's still one of my favorite albums.



11. My Morning Jacket – “Phone Went West” (At Dawn, 2001)

Most of y'all probably have heard this one, but let me just point out that this song starts out as a reggae track by bona fide hippies, and that before it is over, it will even have a dub-ish section. Let me then draw your attention to the fact that this song is pretty awesome, a beautiful, poignant track that I can't help but love. Surprise!



STREAMING AUDIO AT LAST.FM

12. Espers – “Flaming Telepaths” (The Weed Tree EP, 2005)

Hey, how's about a Blue Oyster Cult cover by a psych-folk band that emulates 60s British band The Pentangle? Why sure, we can throw in a four-minute guitar freakout! You want the song to stop abruptly in the middle of a phrase? Why, I think we can manage that!

STREAMING AUDIO AT LAST.FM

13. Mekons – “The Building” (Punk Rock, 2004)

Ending with an a capella melody-less song about oppression in a totalitarian state. Good times! The original is a single by the Mekons from the late 70s which I first read about in a Greil Marcus essay. Despite this, I was completely unprepared for actually hearing this song, which is like a fascist koan.

(Can't find this one online, sorry.)

Particular Mix 2007: Prisons and Math

Some friends and I made two mixes at the end of last year and beginning of this one. This is the particular mix, wherein each song must match a specific category. I specifically also tried to incorporate songs from as many of my favorite 2007 releases as possible.

1. The last thing you'll ever hear:
Akron/Family - “Don’t Be Afraid, You’re Already Dead” (Love Is Simple, 2007)
Featuring a lovely melody and words of comfort (all lyrics: "Don't be afraid, it's only love/love is simple/don't be afraid, you're already dead/love is simple/la da didi da da didi dum"), this is the song I want playing in my head on my deathbed.



2. Song about a body part:
My Teenage Stride - “Ears Like Golden Bats” (Ears Like Golden Bats, 2007)
I wrote elsewhere about how My Teenage Stride channels kiwi-pop (New Zealand indie rock, I mean) near perfectly, and that even though they're basically no different from any number of garage revivalists, I don't give a damn. This song may sound like 1991, but I love it. I especially dig all the guitar tones and the killer bass line.

3. Cover better than the original:
Sparklehorse & The Flaming Lips - “Go” (The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered, 2004)
Elegaic and crammed with noisy psych-junk, this cover of Daniel Johnston's "Go" moves me like a sad ballad should. Let me say that I love Daniel Johnston, but almost always find his music more affecting when played by an artist possessed of more talent. Johnston has the rare ability to write songs where the sophistication is not immediately apparent in his version. This song, for instance, is pretty simple structurally, but the way it turns on the bridge is masterful.



4. No vocals:
Pelican - “Far From Fields” (City of Echoes, 2007)
This track is more post-rock than metal, but Pelican is more closely associated with the indie-metal scene. Who needs vocals when you have guitar interplay this intricate?



5. What instrument is that?:
Animal Collective - “Derek” (Strawberry Jam, 2007)
I went back and forth on this category for a while, but I finally decided on Animal Collective for their bold oddness. The song only has two parts, a guitar-driven part A, and drum loop-driven part B. But the weirdness that provides depth to the song is a mystery. Some of it ws created by a synth, yes, and some is sampling, but most of the sound is just so bizarre that I can't imagine what created it.



6. Duo:
Nina Nastasia & Jim White - “I've Been Out Walking” (You Follow Me, 2007)
Jim White's drumming is so rich that I have to remind myself when listening to this album that there's only two instruments: drums and a finger-picked guitar. Nina Nastasia's songwriting helps by building tension on a bass melody, like Mother Maybelle covering P.J. Harvey.



7. No chorus, no bridge: the song follows the same structure throughout:
Mekons - “Dickie Chalkie and Nobby” (Natural, 2007)
Jon Langford has written countless two-chord songs that sound like more than they are. It's a neat hat trick when it works, although he occasionally falls on his face. Maybe you have to be a socialist to know how to work with that sort of economy.

STREAMING AUDIO FROM PITCHFORK

8. No verse, no chorus, all bridge: the song has unrepeated (or minimally repeated) movements rather than a verse-chorus structure:
Fiery Furnaces - “Automatic Husband” (Widow City, 2007)
The first few times I heard this song, the intro made me think it was going to be a hip-hop track. Anyway, I flubbed this category. The structure goes: A/B/C/A/B/D/E/B. That's a lot of repetition of the B part (which is instrumental), not to mention two instance of the A verse. Oh well, sorry. I think it's cool that the FFs fit so much into a two-minute track.

STREAMING AUDIO FROM THE HYPE MACHINE

9. Spooooooooooky:
Bela Lugosi - “Beware” (mp3 download, 1953)
Wait! Pull the string! Pull the string!



10. About space travel and/or aliens:
Deerhunter - “Strange Lights” (Cryptograms, 2007)
Arguably about space travel with the "we walk into the sun" refrain and the lines about "In space all things are slow/the sound of speakers blown/the silence fits the scene". It could be about a particularly spacey acid trip, yes. If this doesn't work for you, substitute Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" instead, because although it's not about space travel, it's one of the few songs we've deliberately shot through space.



11. Perfect road song:
Laurie Anderson - “Lighting Out For The Territories” (United States Live, 1984)
I'm funning with y'all a little bit on this, the closing track from Laurie Anderson's four-disc epic United States Live, which is not a perfect song for driving on the road, although it is a perfect analogy. Drawing on a repeated metaphor of life as a darkened road and people as lost cars, the radio signals a symbol of the difficulty of communication, this song offers a chilly breath of hope: "You've been on this road before/You can read the signs/You can feel the way/You can do this in your sleep".

STREAMING AUDIO FROM RHAPSODY

12. Voice on loan from god:
The National - “Fake Empire” (Boxer, 2007)
I don't know how this guy's deep moany voice channels the voice of god, but man, it's just right for this message - also from god - "we're half awake in a fake empire." Yeah, we are. I like how well the message works with Laurie Anderson's. I love the competing horns towards the end, after the song quits being a ballad shortly past the halfway mark. I love that the guitars don't appear until 2:31 into the song and then they disappate just as quickly by 2:54. I don't know why I'm such a sucker for this band. I don't like Springsteen or U2, but I can't resist the National's big sweeping rock songs.



13. Song that makes you wish you didn't know the language it's being sung in:
British Sea Power - “Straight Down The Line” (Krankenhaus? EP, 2007)
I blew it with this one, too. The lyrics sound so dumb at first that I didn't try to parse them all the way through until after I'd burnt the discs. Then I realized that later verses indicate it's about a captured POW being tortured for information. Geez. I mean, that's horrible and maybe I wish I didn't know this, but certainly a worthy topic for a song.

STREAMING AUDIO FROM LAST.FM

14. Killer guitar solo/Should be in Guitar Hero:
Marnie Stern - “This American Life” (In Advance Of The Broken Arm, 2007)
Shredderrific art-rock! This would kick ass in Guitar Hero.

15. Song that makes you laugh (or includes laughter):
16. Song that makes you cry (or includes weeping):
17. Song you'd like to see made into a movie:
Jens Lekman - “A Postcard To Nina” (Night Falls On Kortedala, 2007)
Lekman is a pop songwriter with the left-curve emotional chops of Jonathan Richman and Stephin Merritt. This song's about Lekman pretending to be the boyfriend of a lesbian friend afraid of her intolerant father. Lekman plays it for laughs until suddenly, everything flips around and it's just so beautiful and poignant that it brings me to tears. I should tell y'all that I was originally going to put Chocolate Genius's "My Mom" in the weeping category because it's just wrenching, but I had to cut it for room. Anyway, I'm throwing this in the movie category, too, although I'm not sure I'd want to see that movie. Hollywood would probably read it as a Meet The Parents-type script and cast Ben Stiller, but if handled right, it seems that it could both be funny and quite a bit subversive.



18. Music from Before 1950:
Blind Willie Johnson - “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground” (1927-1930)
As I hinted at before (and as most of y'all probably know), this song (among a handful of others) was included on the Voyager spacecraft sent skyward in 1977. No words, just moaning about the lord, but it's as good of an example of what the human race is capable as anything.



19. Song you're sure nobody else in the group has:
Skeletons and The Kings Of All Cities - “Sickness” (LUCAS, 2007)
Someone else may have this, yes. Some of the tracks from this album were free eMusic downloads at some point in the last year. I liked what I heard enough to download the whole thing, but the album altogether is a little long and pushy. This track, though, with the afropop Rhodes and weird rhythms and splashy keyboards and call-and-response, works for me.



20. The greatest song ever made, according to your sixteen-year-old-self:
Pixies - “Broken Face” (Surfer Rosa, 1988)
This one doesn't need an introduction. I loved the Pixies when I was 16. In the interest of full disclosure, I also considered Jane's Addiction's "The Mountain Song," The Cult's "Love Removal Machine," Sonic Youth's "Total Trash," and several other Pixies songs.



21. Song about about wild - or at least, non-domesticated - animals:
Menomena - “Evil Bee” (Friend and Foe, 2007)
OK, this song is not really about an animal so much as it's using the beehive as a metaphor. But the song both rocks and reveals the inner workings of rock. It starts and stops often. Instruments float in and out of the music, as do the drums. Man, what a great song.



22. Title longer than 8 words:
Arthur Russell - “You Did The Right Thing When You Put That Skylight In” (Let's Go Swimming EP, 1986)
Avant-noise disco built around heavily distorted cello. Russell was a goddamn visionary.



23. Title with 3 or fewer letters:
Deerhoof - “+81” (Friend Opportunity, 2007)
One of the more catchy tracks from Deerhoof's overly proggy 2007 album. Typical nonsensical chorus, horn loops, hooks galore, odd time changes: yes, it's Deerhoof.



24. Song recorded before the artist became even remotely popular:
Lou Reed and The Primitives - “The Ostrich” (mp3 download, 1964)
Get down on your face, man! This is Lou's famous first single performed on the ostrich guitar (where every string has been tuned to D and all the frets removed). From hence comes the Velvet Underground.

LINK FROM WFMU

25. Song about death:
Low - “Death of A Salesman” (The Great Destroyer, 2005)
So I took my guitar and I threw down some chords and some words I could sing without shame. And I soon had a song. I played it around for some friends, but they all said the same. They said, music's for fools. You should go back to school. The future is prisons and math. So I did what they said. Now my children are fed, 'cause they pay me to do what I'm asked. I forgot all my songs. The words now are wrong. And I burned my guitar in a rage. I wish the song stopped right there, but Low went a verse too far, trying to pull back from the darkness. C'mon, Willie Loman didn't have any such assurances. Still, right up to that point, the song's a killer.