[Note: the links are for iTunes, except for the stuff that’s not on iTunes. I’d put everything online myself but I don’t have the space/don’t want to get hassled by the RIAA.]
1. Evan Dando, Waking Up - I wanted to put It’s A Shame About Ray on but that’s way too well-known and loved and would have interrupted the mixflow. Then I rememberd reading on Kate Sullivan’s blog that she saw him live and his new material was great, and so I got a copy of his new album and it’s solid but this track leapt out at me like a sprung tiger. Beatles versus the Talking Heads and Evan sings like Hayden because he just ‘woke up.’
2. Bloc Party, Positive Tension - I know nothing about Bloc Party except they have a great record and everyone is listening to it. This track just grabbed me.
3. The Unicorns, Emasculate The Masculine - I know this could almost pass for Wheezer, but listen to the words.
4. The Rapture, Alabama Sunshine - The Rapture get French Kick-y on the break, whether they know it or not. Otherwise I love it because it reminds me of the 3-2-1 Contact theme song.
5. The Kills, At The Back Of The Shell - This song came to me via Skeet On Mischa and Fluxblog. It’s so dirty, I love it and plan to nab the first bar for my mashup record.
6. French Kicks, Piano - This is from their Young Lawyer EP and was distributed on the European version of One Time Bells. The Kicks are one of my favorite bands, period.
7. Bright Eyes, Take It Easy (Love Nothing) - Bright Eyes, Litwack? Digital Ash For A Digital Urn has some fantastic songs on it. Basically, this is what I wanted from Steven Merrit instead of that stupid I album.
8. Annie, Heartbeat - This is Pitchfork’s Single of The Year for 2004. Anniemal is what we get instead of a good Saint Eteinne record ever again. I like to think this song is sung to Annie’s dead boyfriend.
9. Arthur Russell, Make 1, 2 - This sounds like something Jeff Magnum would have recorded if he’d been 26 in the 70s on Quaaludes all the time and pals with Giorgio Moroder and Stevie Wonder. ‘One time you call me up but I don’t even have a phone’ - yeah!
10. Junior Boys, High Come Down - Thank you, Pitchfork. The term IDM kind of makes me sick now - sorry, if it doesn’t make me dance alone in my room it’s not dance music - but this is Intelligent Dance versus the best lessons of 80s pop and everybody wins. The album itself is a super heavy two caret diamond, go get it.
11. McLusky, There Ain’t No Fool In Ferguson - I like to think this song is about LA. It could also well be about the Urkrane.
12. Spoon, I Summon You - An acoustic demo off their forthcoming album. Cannot wait.
13. The Arcade Fire, No Cars Go - The only song I like off their first EP. The hype about them would be justified if every song on their album was as good as the first track. Worth keeping an eye on, anyway.
14. RJD2 feat. Ric Ocasek, Through The Walls - The last Cars song. RJ keeps his schitk under control and does it big.
15. Bill Cosby, Half Man - Just an intro.
16. Ol’ Dirty Bastard, High in the Clouds - Everybody loved Dirty except the federal government and what kills me about this track is how he says ‘now it gets serious’ at the beginning and it’s clear that he was trying to pull it together for Roc-A-Fella. Rest in peace, baby.
17. T. Rex, Mambo Sun - Phoneix put this song on a mixtape on wearephoenix.com and as I worship at their altar I checked it out. Solid gold. They say on oldies radio stations that ‘they’re not making any new oldies’ which is complete bullshit because there are always old songs that fit new moods and this is one of them. Fucking killer.
18. The Clean, Secret Place - John sent me the complete Clean and this is my pic. I love you John! Anyway, they were a New Zealand punk/new wave band who spun off some members into The Bats, which is the other New Zealand band that people know but sucks compared.
19. Leonard Cohen, There Is A War - There is a war. Not in the Middle East. The other one, our war.
20. Carlos Santana, Mahavishnu, John McLaughlin, Meditation - I don’t know why the fuck Santana went pop, I really don’t.