The Fall: 18 Songs For Autumn
The experimental Pushmepullyou mix
Beauty Beauty Beauty, 22 Songs Of Varying Fancy-ness
Things That Are More Like It:
30 spring songs, available for download right the heck here:
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1. Soul ‘69 - A-Ko
Favorite wake-up song of the past three months. A-Ko’s production leaves a question of how much is good mixing and how much is good hunting, but either way, Soul ‘69 is an orange-and-brown funk masterpiece.
2. Other Girls - Eux Autres
Lacking the pop shine of Sambassadeur, and some of the lyrical poignancy of similar-but-lesser songs, Other Girls somehow kills me every time, especially when she gets to the “unshakeable” bit. Headphones oddly add a lot more to this song than you’d think; the tight studio space can be heard throughout.
3. Rough Gem - Islands
Islands are ex-Unicorns (the first ten seconds should tip you off), but with a little more pop maturity and (I thought) weaker production, at least until I heard Rough Gem. Here, the pure tones and slightly-more-repetitive melody conjures more Mark Mothersbaugh than Mates Of State. After a few listens, Rough Gem gets its cute little hooks in you and never lets go.
4. C’est La Mort - Stereo Total
I’d never heard of this French band until Mele gave me a couple tracks. Something about the crisp instruments and flat spaces takes a Le Tigre sound and both ages and cartoonifies it at once.
5. Rhode Island Is Famous For You - Blossom Dearie
Not Blossom’s most romantic song by far, but my favorite for its sheer, filthy cuteness. The song’s cloying sweetness reaches critical mass about midway, and after that, you’re either a fan or you’re skipping to the next track.
6. April & May - David Fridlund
Without any sort of real narrative, Fridlund conveys such an urgency and exhaustion with just a piano and a tiny sneer. The bombastic final chorus makes the whole song.
7. Decatur - Sufjan Stevens
Hard to pick a track off of Illinoise as the best example, so instead of the warmth of Casimir Pulaski or chill of John Wayne Gacy, I give you the song that’s been stuck in my head for a month or so. In one sense, it’s nothing more than a mash of Illinois facts, but the ties between them and obvious affection behind the work turn schoolbook text into another one of Sufjan’s incredible audio murals.
8. Turn My Brain Off - DAT Politics
A pretty heavy nod to the Polysics, Turn My Brain Off is somehow both more structured and spastic than a lot of its influences. The result is more danceable, but still absolutely insane.
9. Verve Off Your Sholder - Jay-Z and The Verve
That’s not the track name or the actual mash-up artist….I’ve been unable to find either. But seeing that this is a rather unartful mashup (Jay-Z’s work has seen such clever, hard-won mergings with other tracks), I suppose it doesn’t matter. As promised: Here’s Dirt Off Your Shoulder over Bittersweet Symphony, and it actually sounds pretty great.
10. Faded From The Winter - Iron & Wine
Man, it took me forever to like these guys. Faded is the song that won me over.
11. Hey…Ok! - Sarah Hepburn
The rock-out song of my entire Colorado vacation, Hey…Ok! is a quick little fiend that knows how to build and build off of what was already a great idea. Sarah could’ve left this thing at the first chorus, but her ability to run with it for so long and let it snowball so much makes me anxious to hear more of her work.
12. Stereo - Pavement
Classic Pavement. Not at catchy or random as some, but it’s a lot more accessible, and features my favorite Pavement line. Listen, and guess which one it is.
13. Sing Me Spanish Techno - The New Pornographers
God, why can’t every New Pornographers song be like this? I mean, they’re all great, I love the whole body of work, but Spanish Techno is like a huge fireball of everything good about TNP (shut up, I’ll call’em what I want), packed into one song’s space.
14. Avril 14th - Alarm Will Sound (covering Aphex Twin)
Odd to get someone to play a piano cover of, well, a song originally played on a single piano. Anyhow, Alarm Will Sound’s clear version is certainly less atmospheric, resting more weight on the musical quality of the original piece, which, thankfully, holds up perfectly.
15. You Are A Runner And I Am My Father’s Son - Wolf Parade
I can’t even explain what makes this one of the greatest songs of last year.
“I’ll draw three figures - on your heart,
One of them will be me as a boy,
One of them will be me,
One of them will be me - watching you run.”
You have to stand in awe of someone who can pull off Wolf Parade’s ambitious melodies and murky lyrics and make it all sound like the deepest stuff ever.
16. Strange Ways - Madvillain
A year before Dangerdoom, MF Doom put out a much better album with Madlib. Songs ended on time, rhymes and themes were sharper, and the underwater-vinyl production put a flawlessly weathered sound under Doom’s new, lower vocals and cross-measure rhymes. “What’s the difference? (BEAT) All you get is lost children while the bosses sit up behind their desk, (BEAT) it costs billions to blast humans in half, (BEAT) into calves and arms, (BEAT) only one side is allowed to have bombs.”
17. Sometimes A Pony Gets Depressed - Silver Jews
Pavement’s biggest fans turn out something just as fun. Pony, for some reason, has attained some kind of iconic quality in my life…even the briefest recitation of lyrics cheers me up instantly. Please, let me know if there’s nothing actually magical about this silly song.
18. Ha Ha - Mates of State
Dear Eb,
This Mates Of State song you gave me is by far my favorite. Thanks.
19. Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt - We Are Scientists
I’d have more criticism of the Scientists’ general lack of innovation on this track, if I didn’t rock out so damn hard to it. Also, the video was directed by Lonely Island’s Akiva, and features three guys getting chased by a bear. It’s awesome.
20. Magoo Opening - Cornelius
I hate to tell you how to listen to music, but when you hear Magoo Opening, you’re supposed to be imagining a movie preview set to it. And then, you’re supposed to help me write that movie.
Max Tundra, at his craziest, has nothing on Cornelius’s occasional spazzfests. This one’s off the amazing Fantasma; a modern masterpiece of Epcot-Center Planet-Of-The-Apes Japanese surfpop.
21. Waters of Nazareth - Justice
This is why I think Justice has a career beyond the incredible remixes they’ve been doing. It’s a perfectly distilled modern electronica sound, and I mustttttt havvvvveeee morrrrre. Crunch crunch, BANG.
22. Trouble Trouble - The Ponys
I can’t tell most Ponys songs apart, but I always recognize Trouble Trouble, because it’s just better than the other ones. PROVE ME WRONG. The opening is quite possibly the most rock you can squeeze from three chords and a bunch of clop-clop-clopping.
23. A Distinctive Sound - Gotye
A chilled-out mix of some late-century retro stuff, A Distinctive Sound reminds me of The Avalanches just enough to stay on my five-star list. Of course, it’s nowhere close to Since I Left You, one of the greatest albums ever recorded (shut up, it is): Avalanches, I know where you live, and you need to make another damn album. You have four months before I get plane tickts and pay a little visit.
24. Church On White - Stephen Malkmus
Who would’ve thought Stephen Malkmus, the guy yelling “Lies and betray’ls, fruit-covered nails!” at us back when Nirvana was peaking would grow up to turn out such a pretty (yet, still nonsensical) song as Church On White? Something about the drifting Pixie-riff on that guitar gets me every time.
25. Freestyle From Villa 65 - Wu-Tang Clan
A quick little studio-freestyle from 1993. Decent performances from everyone, a cute little mistake by Deck, but the ending is the kicker: more evidence that O.D.B. was the fiercest, sharpest member of the group. “Emcee I’m burn-I’m burnin’ up!”
26. You Take My Breath Away - Knife
I’m still hooked on this sound. The steel drum hasn’t been used this well since The Microphones’ Glow Pt. 2. Is You Take My Breath Away as good as Heartbeats? No, but it’s all we have. Let’s enjoy it.
27. Hate - Cat Power
I never really got into Cat Power. Every once in a while, I’ll hear a song of hers come on and really connect with it, just for a second, but I never seem to recreate that feeling on a second listen. Hate is the exception, staring me down with that cold, glazed look for all 270 seconds.
28. Apply Some Pressure - Maximo Park
I think the opening on this song is really weak for the eventual pop-punk perfection it achieves, which might explain the number of times I deleted it and redownloaded it before classifying it as five stars. It’s no Emily Kane (suggestion: Download Art Brut’s Emily Kane immediately. I can’t believe I forgot it on this mix.), but it’s less well-known, so here you go.
29. Sad Pony Guerilla Girl - Xiu Xiu
In an age of so many bands, genres, subgenres, and imitators, how can Xiu Xiu sound totally unique in every note, every word, every waver of James’ tight voice? Maybe it’s simple: Xiu Xiu just goes farther than anyone else does regarding their ideas and challenges. The brave choices they make on production, lyrics, and song structure put them in the same class as the current Radiohead.
Hey Doug! You crazy man! What are you up to! Do you know that we just spent 6 month right down the road from each other, and when I finally look up up its a week after I moved to WA!! Email me or if you see this call me 214-783-4582! MIKE BURNS FROM UTAH STREET You have my dog on you freakin web blog! Unbelievable!!!!! I’d really like to say hi!
I’m leaving several comments so nxt time you check your BLOG you’ll be intrigued enough to look.
That’s the least you could do after over a decade of not hearing from each other. BTW- I’m going to Iraq soon so don’t wait too long to say hey!
Another thought- if anyone views this who knows Doug enough to have his email or phone, do me a favor and tell him long lost buddy is ready to strangle him for posting copious amounts of information about himself on web with know easy way of contacting him(most likely for his own safety?) : )
Holy mother of crap. We were just talking about you guys last week, no one’s heard from you in forever. Yeah, I’ll call this week!
Also, good point, I’m at dougunderscorenelson@gmail.com
I do know how to spell- I think thats enough posting- see you man!
Hey call me right now MAN!
Well, I don’t know if you have sprint PCS or just have limited phone capability, but I’ll still be up a little bit. Thx for the email address! Good Man!
A+ #1 PLAYLIST!!
Some o’ these take me back to my radio station days (Xiu Xiu, Mates of State, Cat Power). Well done, you!
Verve Off Your Sholder - Jay-Z and The Verve
It’s actually called Bittersweet Dirt Off Your Shoulder, buts thats nothing to worry about.
…But this was: “But seeing that this is a rather unartful mashup (Jay-Z’s work has seen such clever, hard-won mergings with other tracks)”
Aww, I think I was a little unfair. Since the posting of this entry, I have listened to that track some thirty times. Sorry about that, I will update.
I got the name wrong because I found it while randomly searching some fileshare stuff, and it’s pretty much impossible to track down mashups.
Hi Doug
Last time I posted I was hot under the collar about Hold Up. I’ve since mined through your older lists and have had the best time. I have lots of the music you mix up but the playlists are artful (I don’t have the gift). I took two to a party on Saturday and we only finished up at 6.30am. I hold you directly responsible. I also think I have a date with a neuroscientist from Oxford. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing but thanks!
Your blog seems to be mostly friends so hope you don’t mind a Londoner dropping in. I’ve linked to my blog on this comment - it’s reviews of all the shows I see in London (when I get round to it, there’s a backlog…). I want to post tracks on my blog, any suggestions on hosting?
End epic comment,
Jane
Oh yes I also meant to say where’s the hidden 30th track??