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No Contest

“Music for the People” – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
“Okei San” – Natsumi Abe
“Wonderwall” – The Mike Flowers Pops
“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” – Danny Welton
[Fitter Happier tease]
“Koibitomo inainoni” – S. Ichii & Y. Nakazawa
“Forever and Ever Amen” – Randy Travis
“Heaven (Candlelight Mix)” – DJ Sammy
“Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)” – Roxette
“In Time” – Robbie Robb
“Hawaiian Melody Mix” – Morning Musume

Hey.  It’s April Fools Day and I like my humor dry.  So instead of using this platform to Rick Roll you, I’d like to present you with a picture of Mitt Romney, accompanied by this aural array of equally cornball stuff.  If you have guests tonight, I highly suggest this mix for your background accompaniment.

You might even feel better about your life if you can make it the whole way through once.

…or you may kill yourself, of course.

woman tamer

“I Wanna Be You” – Paul McCartney
“All Your Life” – Blur
“Happy Flower” – Nellie McKay & The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra
“Fresh Hex” – Tobacco & Beck
“I Feel Ya Strutter” – of Montreal
“Silent Bell” – Radiohead vs. KT Tunstall vs. Overdub
“Fin” – Pavement
“Forever Again” – Eric’s Trip
“Enemy Gene” – Kevin Barnes

Love can be so sordid.  It makes sense and then it doesn’t and it drips all over the floor and messes up your life.  Everyone involved just wants a safe boat on the sea, but can you drop all expectation from your shipmates?  How far does unconditional love really go, anyway?

The title of this mix is meant to be somewhat ambiguous, but ultimately pertaining to the trial and error of any worthwhile relationship.  The most likely association is that of a woman being tamed.  Like a lion tamer, but taming a woman.  The lion connotation also works well considering the  astrological influence for this mix.  (Leo.)  On the other side, the title can also be interpreted as a woman who tames.  I know there are a lot of them out there, and many of them are Leos also.

So yeah.  It’s still the beginning of August.  We’re in the lioness’s den and we all just have to deal with that until the asshole Virgos (love you guys!) take the crown.  Until then, I guess this mix is for all those lovely Leo ladies out there.    Thanks for the strange depth.

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aural catharsis

“Run, Don’t Walk” – Matt Sparks
“Why Can’t I Believe in You?” – Beck
“Give up the Ghost” – Radiohead
“The Hard Way” – Pat Donohue & The Shoe Band
“You Don’t Miss Your Water” – Otis Redding
“Night-Time Intermission” – Charlotte Gainsbourg
“Sidi Infi” – Cracker
“If You Leave Me, Leave Me Running” – Chicros
“No Conclusion” – of Montreal
“Spread Your Cause” – Beck vs. Flying White Dots
“Cold Heart of Stone” – Frank Black & The Catholics
“Glad It’s Over” – Wilco
“You’re Breakin’ My Heart” – Harry Nilsson

Hey!  It’s a break up mix!  Maybe it’s a tad late, depending on how long it takes to dispossess another soul from their own.  We all know these things come in groups so surely someone out there can use it.

I’m in that number, so this mix came easy and out well.  Ideally, I’m hoping it will serve as a cathartic tool for anyone that needs it.  For no, my friends, these are not all songs of sadness or despair.  Each song feels naturally in its place within the progression.  If a person could submerge oneself into this mix, then perhaps it could live up to its title and provide a truly cathartic experience to the listener.

So though my particular situation is not quite resolved, I can say that I definitely learned at least one thing from it so far:  Your friends really don’t want to hear about this shit.

Fair enough…but everyone likes a mix tape!

Click to download as a continuous mp3:

the end of advertising

“Libera Me, Domine” – Ernst Reijseger And Mola Sylla
“In Excelsior Vaginalistic” – The Flaming Lips
“Night Sight” – Air
“Section 20 (Together We’re Heavy” – The Polyphonic Spree
“Subterraneans” – David Bowie
“Doll’s Polyphony” – Geinoh Yamashirogumi
“Pure Bug Beauty” – Wilco
“Chemtrails (acoustic)” – Beck
“Prophecies” – Philip Glass
“Vanities” – Charlotte Gainsbourg
“Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” – Radiohead
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” – Bob Dylan

The rapture is supposed to happen tomorrow, so say some fringe Christians who have managed to bring this idea to mainstream America (and possibly beyond).  If it actually does happen, and 144,000 of God’s closest friends and lovers  get a free ride to heaven, then I think this would be a fitting soundtrack.  For them in their ascent, of course, but also those of us who may be left behind…until we start killing each other for drugs or whatever.

This was actually something of a commissioned mix.  Aaron Shugart-Brown had asked me to make a mix of instrumental, easy going music for his shop, Unarmed Merchants, in Knoxville.  It’s not totally instrumental, but I feel all vocals here are light and well served enough to not get in the way.

If nothing else, you might be able to meditate or something.

photo by Maurita Roman

Katherine Xoe and the Talking Shoe

“My Kingdom” – Echo and the Bunnymen
“Le Temps De L’ Amour” – Francoise Hardy
“You’ve Been Flirting Again” – Evangelicals
“Smokey Fire” – Smokey Robinson vs. Arcade Fire vs. team9
“Transport is Arranged” – Pavement
“How Are You?” – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim with Nellie McKay
“Lose This Skin” – The Clash
“Kelly Watch the Hole” – ccc & ill chemist vs. The Beatles vs. Air
“Need You Tonight” – Beck, St. Vincent, Os Mutantes & Liars
“Movies of Myself” – Rufus Wainwright
“15 Stepz” – Amplive & Codany Holiday vs. Radiohead
“Welcome to the Jungle (808 Remix)” – Freedom Dub

Today is St. Valentine’s Day once again and I have the loveliest of all Valentines, to be certain.  So I made this mix for her, prior to this day.  Now that she has digested it alone, I am sharing it here as a St. Valentine’s day mix for all.  What kind of love would I be spreading if I didn’t?

“Creep” (Radiohead cover)
“Move Her Aside”
“House of Satan”
“Translucent Corpses”

The instrumental tracks border on uplifting, as we continue down the experimental path we carved out in the last session.  The two with lyrics run kind of dark.  I almost thought about calling this session Apocalypse Light but I didn’t want the word “light” to diminish the gravity of “House of Satan.”

Katie is not on this session, as she was still visiting Peru at the time.  However, we were able to rope in contributions from Augustin Brally and DJ Modifi.  We also tackled a new cover song, but you can read all about that stuff below…

“Creep” – Ah.  Radiohead’s classic breakout jam.  It worked pretty well when I recorded it with David Davis.  So we got to talking about it and decided to give it a try in this arrangement.  Dane played bass.  Megan played the omni.  I trashed out my guitar.  Rachel sang, of course.  The beats come to us courtesy of DJ Modifi.  He wasn’t at the session, but he was the composer of those beats.

“Move Her Aside” – This one is well paced.  Punk rock stoner rock or something.

“House of Satan” – A song about the devil having a heavy heart, spilling it to you in the wee hours of the morning, after a night of partying with him.  The lyrics were complete improvisation, yet I think it came out perfect, but for one line.  I won’t say which, but it will be changed on subsequent recordings, most likely.  For the most part, this song sits very heavy.  The creepy theremin is being played by Georgia inhabitant, Augustin Bralley.  He also does a wee bit of knob turning around some of the synth effects.  This sounds like the song you play as the city you are in is burning.

“Translucent Corpses” – This was the pretty much immediate follow up to “House of Satan.”  It really let’s the air back in, thankfully.  I like the idea of translucent corpses following the devil’s moments of…uh…darkness.  This song is like a spaceship out of all that mess.

Megan Driscoll –  flute, omnichord
Dane Hill – drums, bass
Rachel Jae – vocals, auxillary percussion, omnichord
Arrison Kirby – guitar, beats, vocals
Augustin Bralley – theramin, effects
DJ Modifi – beat composition

Click to download as a continuous mp3:

Universal Rejector

“Face Your Doom” – Daniel Johnston & His Hyperjinx Tricycle
“Stealing Home” – Shivaree
“Beauty” – Linda Thompson
“Nude” – Radiohead
“Cat Faces” – Ugly Cassanova
“Black Wave” – The Shins
“Go or Go Ahead” – Rufus Wainwright
“I Was a Landscape in Your Dream (Grizzly Bear Remix)” – Of Montreal
“Caramel” – Blur
“Safari Love” – The Beatles vs. The Pixies vs. Aretha Franklin vs. Loo & Placido
“I Lose” – Daniel Johnston

Holiday time again.  The weather in Knoxville right now is pretty damned nice.  Later tonight, though, on the eve of Christmas, we’re supposed to get some snowy snow.  That sounds alright to me.  As for you, you might want to wait until then to listen to this mix.

I know the title is bleak, but I wanted to throw something up for these winter holidays.  This is good, quietish, atmospheric mix that seems to sound good  on cold nights.  Plus holidays are kind of bleak anymore anyway, aren’t they?  Everybody bitching about which is the best one while trying to sell you shit you don’t need so that you can give it to someone else who also doesn’t need it and they can, in turn, give you something else you don’t need.   Everyone keeping it up because it’s traditional or something.

But hey!  I’m no Scrooge.  Not entirely.  The sad desolation of winter is strangely pacifying if one can immerse fully in the death and coldness going on around him or her.  Those things make you appreciate the living much more.  So plastic aside, it is good that there is something that changes our routine as the holidays tend to do.

For all that somberness, and warmth inside of the cold, there is this mix.

photo by McKenzie Michaels

“Creep” (Radiohead cover) – David Davis & Arrison Kirby

David Davis (the red cloud, Mar) has been hanging out around the studio recently.  We haven’t really pushed a session yet, though we did end up shitting out this cover of the Radiohead standard.   We did use the session set up to record it.  Unfortunately, so much usual pre mixing was neglected because of the spontaneity of this track.  The iffy result is a few vocal lines mixed a bit too quietly.  (We can’t fix it because it’s mic’d with the omni.)  It’s especially evident at the beginning, but the projection increases into form by the end of the song.  All in all, it’s a tolerable flaw.

David is singing and playing guitar.  I’m accompanying on Katie’s omni.  It was my first time actually joining in on a full song with the omnichord.

David Davis – vocals, guitar
Arrison Kirby – omnichord

One for the Brothers

“Superlangalang” – MIA vs. Super Mario Bros. vs. Johnny 180
“Underground” – Curtis Mayfield
“Wanna Be a Baller” – Li’l Troy
“Coinsequences” – Public Enemy feat. Paris
“Battle (Remix)” – Blur vs. UNKLE
“Flip Flop (Rock and Roll)” – Outkast vs. Prodigy vs. DJ Murder
“Styrofoam Boots / It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright” – Modest Mouse
“Haterz Everywhere” – B.O.B.
“Rapperfection” – Radiohead vs. Edan feat. Mr. Lif
“Swing” – Savage
“Bombs Over Bagdad (Remix)” – Outkast vs. Rage Against the Machine
“Super Terminator Sunshine” – Public Enemy vs. Super Mario Bros.

I made this mix quite a while back.  I was working as a sports bar DJ at the time and that influence bleeds through here.

Generally, I like to have a fitting reason to post a mix.  Something in time, or at least the air, that seems to fit with the music.  This one, however, is simply a good time with a little bit of aggression.  So if nothing else, let this represent some hopeful anger at the recent republican victories in the American midterm elections.

Yeah.  That works.  The accompanying picture was taken of two attendees at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally for Sanity and/or Fear.  Considering what it is and where it was taken, I think that actually ties the whole thing together fairly well.

So I dunno.  Maybe the Mario Brothers can save us from all these corporatists.  Maybe they will be listening to rap music when they do it.  That’s ultimately what this mix is about.

lowdowndownlow

“Gotta Get Down With the Passing of Time” – Damon Albarn
“Box Elder (live) ” – Pavement
“In Asking Land” – Talking Heads
“Inside Out” – Beck
“The Old Plantation” – The Minus 5
“There There (live acoustic)” – Radiohead
“My Death (live)” – David Bowie
“Runners Dial Zero” – Beck
“Blasting Fonda” – Wilco
“Lifeline” – Harry Nilsson
“Did You See Me” – Ween
“Riding to Vanity Fair” – Paul McCartney
“Sunset Coming On” – Damon Albarn, Toumani Diabate, Afel Bocoum, Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia
“I Love My Car” – Belle and Sebastian

This past week had a lot of emotion in it.  I blame the movement out of the ever emotional Cancer into Leo.  It seemed to result in misunderstanding and mini crises…and not just for myself.  It’s something like the air of a funeral where such intense emotions may act in kind.  A funeral for Cancer, if you will.

Now, though, it seems these weekend wounds have healed or are healing.  Today, in Knoxville, in particular, we had this wonderfully cloud covered, sunny day.  The evening capped by a stellar performance downtown by Wu Tang’s Killah Priest.  A small reward for working through the darkness of Cancer.

I made this mix a few years back.  I did not feel any kind of darkness in my life at the time, but wanted to make a saddish, emotionally driven mix.  This was the result.  It does not carry a negative message (except maybe the Paul McCartney song), but certainly expresses loss and learning while sounding “summery.”  I think it’s perfectly fitting for this time of year.