post #100: megaposting muxtapes and other goodies!

Dear Friends,
Thank you for being here. To the four of you who read this blog from time to time, I'd like to give you a treat. It was meant to be my Christmas present to everyone, but it's super late. Hopefully, you can still find the time to enjoy it a little bit.

I can't believe I've kept this blog going for as long as I have without getting too bored. It's been over a year of spotty posting and hopefully some of the content has been meaningful.

Anyways, I just did a major muxtape update and here are the tracklistings (with a few comments, of course):


MUXTAPE #6: noise pop (04.17.08)
this one was based around all those cool laser snare hits in the gbv song.

1. darker my love - "opening" (darker my love)
2. mark lanegan band - "head" (bubblegum)
3. dinosaur jr. - "sludgefeast" (you're living all over me)
4. skywave - "here she comes" (synthstatic)
5. guided by voices - "i'll replace you with machines" (earthquake glue)
6. no age - "sleeper hold" (nouns)
7. the raveonettes - "attack of the ghost riders" (whip it on)
8. sonic youth - "youth against fascism" (dirty)
9. medicine - "defective" (shot forth self living)

MUXTAPE #11: ryan adams is a golden god (05.16.08)
ryan adams plays the hits. 48 hours would have been his best album, but it never came out. now we'll never know how good he really could be (since he's quitting). i'm looking forward to his book though.

1. ryan adams - "damn, sam (i love a woman that rains)" (heartbreaker)
2. whiskeytown - "yesterday's news" (stranger's almanac)
3. ryan adams - "hallelujah" (48 hours, but this version is from demolition)
4. whiskeytown - "crazy about you" (pneumonia)
5. ryan adams - "my winding wheel" (heartbreaker)
6. ryan adams - "la cienega just smiled" (suicide handbook)
7. whiskeytown - "don't wanna know why (demo)" (forever valentine)
8. ryan adams - "chin up, cheer up" (48 hours, but this version is from demolition)
9. ryan adams - "dear chicago" (demolition)

MUXTAPE #27: carl newman's greatest hits (sort of) (12.07.08)
this one was made in anticipation of ac newman's new solo album, which isn't all that good. some great new pornographers stuff here, including a neko case song that has the newman charm all over it, as well as burt bacharach and a zombies covers.

1. ac newman - "miracle drug" (the slow wonder)
2. zumpano - "i dig you" (look what the rookie did)
3. the new pornographers - "the electric version" (electric version)
4. ac newman - "drink to me" (the slow wonder)
5. zumpano - "what the world needs now (live)" (live on cbc, 1999)
6. the new pornographers - "letter from an occupant" (mass romantic)
7. ac newman - "on the table" (the slow wonder)
8. zumpano - "changes" (b-side)
9. the new pornographers - "the bleeding heart show" (twin cinema)

MUXTAPE #29: christmas 1997 (12.30.08)
i was listening to a bunch of emo from 1997 and realized a bunch of it was sort of seasonally appropriate. contained: one of my favorite jimmy eat world songs, one of my favorite get up kids songs (REUNION) and a song by boysnightout, a canadian band that could have been as big as my chemical romance, had they played their cards right.

1. the promise ring - "b is for bethlehem" (nothing feels good)
2. paris, texas - "cadillac of high hair" (so, you think it's hot here?)
3. texas is the reason - "johnny on the spot" (do you know who you are?)
4. jimmy eat world - "christmas card" (singles)
5. algernon cadwallader - "katie's conscience" (some kind of cadwallader)
6. spitalfield - "you can't stop" (remember right now)
7. hey mercedes - "quality revenge at last" (loses control)
8. the get up kids - "one year later" (red letter day ep)
9. boysnightout - "punched in the nose (demo)" (demo)

MUXTAPE #30: post-everything (01.07.09)
i got really stoked on post-hardcore one day and just went for it. contained: rose for bohdan, whose album was given away for free by deathbombarc as well as an at the drive-in b-side and a new abe vigoda song that sounds like the 80s.

1. abe vigoda - "house" (reviver ep)
2. frodus - "there will be no more sun" (and we washed our weapons in the sea)
3. at the drive-in - "incetardis" (this station is non-operational)
4. fugazi - "facet squared" (in on the kill taker)
5. the nation of ulysses - "s.s. exploder" (plays pretty for baby)
6. the plot to blow up the eiffel tower - "attached to the hip" (dissertation, honey)
7. milemarker - "frigid forms sell you warmth" (frigid forms sell)
8. rose for bohdan - "go to your grave" (there it is, the creeping moral decay of the past thousand years)
9. refused - "the deadly rhythm" (the shape of punk to come)

MUXTAPE #31: it's all downtempo from here (01.15.09)
i really used to like "IDM" but always thought it had such a stupid name. i love stuff that's glitchy and dark. i thought jimmy tamborello was the only one doing it, but then i realized that locust guy had been doing it for like 15 years or something before dntel.

1. ratatat - "one" (9 beats)
2. YACHT - "the magic beat (instrumental)" (instrumentals 2007)
3. four tet - "ribbons" (ringer)
4. slowdive - "shine (splendiferous locust mix)" (souvlaki demos)
5. the books - "it never changes to stop" (lost and safe)
6. new order - "ceremony" (substance)
7. m83 - "run into flowers" (dead cities, red seas & lost ghosts)
8. dntel - "(this is) the dream of evan and chan" (life is full of possibilities)
9. statistics - "mr. nathan" (leave your name)

MUXTAPE #32: achievement (01.15.09)
this one started out as three different tape ideas: one was supposed to be a power pop muxtape, one was going to be a talking heads inspired muxtape and the other one was going to be a lo-fi muxtape, but then the songs all came together so well, especially the talking heads section with the new david byrne/dirty projectors song, which is as brilliant as the new prince song.

1. clap your hands say yeah - "underwater (you and me) (demo)" (demo)
2. lilys - "a diana's diana" (everything wrong is imaginary)
3. dirty projectors - "knotty pine (with david byrne)" (dark was the night)
4. handsome furs - "all we want, baby, is everything" (face control)
5. guided by voices - "i am a scientist" (bee thousand)
6. teenage fanclub - "i don't know" (bandwagonesque)
7. prince - "crimson and clover/wild thing" (demo)
8. the three o'clock - "with a cantaloupe girlfriend" (baroque hoedown)
9. gentleman jesse and his men - "you don't have to (if you don't want to)" (gentleman jesse and his men)

Dear 2009,

What will you bring us?

Hipster Runoff just posted his first mp3 of 2009 ("searching for ‘the next relevant sound’ to align my personal brand with") and it makes me think about what this year will bring for each of us. As I'm typing this, I hear Vampire Weekend on a Grey's Anatomy preview; think about where those guys were this time last year. They were probably six or seven months out of Columbia, in the middle of recording what would become their first album. Did they think that they were going to be this year's Beirut? Well, maybe, but you know what I mean.

Something seems different about this year. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just time for indie rock to die again or maybe it's where I am in my life, but it's time for a change (OBAMA FTW BANNED WORD KTHX). Maybe this isn't all about the music; I guess it really never was.

My 2nd Annual Christmas Address (on Patience)

Ed: So here's the deal. I am often reminded about how patience is largely ignored. I'm sitting at my grandparents' house, trying to boot Windows XP from a disc and do a complete System Restore. I've been ignoring the part of my brain that tells me to be patient. You don't always get what you want exactly when you want it. I don't know exactly what it is I've been looking for, but I certainly wasn't going to get it overnight. I have had a rough few weeks and I've been really bad about answering my phone. If you've tried to call me, sorry about that. I will explain in full when I see you all in person, if I haven't already talked to you. Anyways, this was the original Christmas Eve entry. It is unfinished and unedited and presented for your consideration. Expect an email with my Christmas gift.



You know, it seems like every year, I miss Thanksgiving. I know it's coming and I gladly participate in it, but I really miss it. What I mean by this is that I seem to forget its purpose. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm still in the middle of my semester at school and not being capable of thinking of much else, but every time Christmas rolls around, I snap back into a real place of reflection. Last year, my address came on December 13, my last night of studying for finals. This year, I'm writing this on Christmas night; I've been home for almost two weeks and I feel like I've wasted so many of those days, working towards nothing important.

It seems like every year, I'm given the same revelation over and over. I look back and tell myself that "this was the hardest year EVAR" or some such nonsense without really thinking about it. I quickly recover and realize that everything I complain about is what the rest of you people call "life." The only difference from before is that the challenges are different; as I get older, the problems get harder and harder, but this is only fair as I'm given more and more capacity to handle things as the years go on. I'm no different from any of you, however I seem to have an abnormal fascination with thinking that my circumstances are "so harsh." I really don't know if this is suburban affective disorder, what comes with being 22 or just something that is a lot more common than I think.

As with every year, I've had challenges and victories, both big and small. Some of you were there with me and the rest of you I missed dearly. I deeply appreciate the support I get from every single one of you and hope that I can return the favor twentyfold.