A couple of weeks ago my hard drive crashed. Although I am now up and running again, I am looking at rebuilding a library that was many years in the making.
Regardless, I had to make a mix for my good buddy Mitchell. I actually owe him at least three but that is another story. I was meeting him for lunch this week and I was not going in empty handed - dead computer or not.
In a way, it was kind of liberating to go back to the actual CDs (most still packed in boxes!) in my physical collection. The composition of this mix was closer to a feverish mixtape making session than anything I have attempted in a long time.
Here is what I came up with:
1) Huge Bats - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas snippet
2) Voyeur's Blues - Fifty Tons of Black Terror
3) Muff Control Unit - Evil Beaver
4) Didn't I Know You Once - Surgery
5) The Drug Cache - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas snippet
6) Move Over I'll Drive - The Family Cat
7) When I Get Back - Handsome Furs
8) Under The God - Tin Machine
9) The Guillotine - The Coup
10) In This City - Enon
11) Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold - Melt Banana
12) Biting My Nails - Renegade Soundwave
13) Christiansands - Tricky
14) Bein' Alive is like Vandalizin' - We Ragazzi
15) Another Ride - The Sexy Girls
16) ABC - Coco Solid
17) Dirt - Neneh Cherry & The Thing
18) Blame You - Edith Frost
When making a mix for Mitchell, I often try to make sure it is grimy, uncouth and sleazy. I want to make sure he can't pop it in the player when he is driving his wife and kids around. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Because I mostly only buy vinyl these days I wasn't able to put many 2012 releases on it. In fact, there are only two and that was in part because they included a cd copy of the record rather than a download card. They both come with my highest recommendations though...
The Coup - Guillotine, from their new release, "Sorry To Bother You". Saw these guys a couple weeks ago at Mayne Stage where they TORE. IT. UP. Boots Riley was fond of saying "Hello, Chicago! We're The Coup! We're from OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA! And we came for the CLASS WAR!" before playing another blast of funk rock agitprop.
Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Dirt (Stooges Cover) from their 2012 release "The Cherry Thing". This will definitely be the most inspired collaboration from two very diverse artist to make my end of the year list. I doubt they will ever come to the States to play so I make do with videos of live clips on Youtube like this one.
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After all that noisy nastiness I decided to give Mitchell a bit of a palate cleanser and ended with a stark and pensive tune. Edith Frost's Blame You is as haunting and plaintive today as when she first released it in 1996. There is no good explanation as to why Edith's work is not more widely known and enjoyed.
So imagine my surprise to find that someone had uploaded it to Youtube just earlier this year. I was the 49th person to listen to it and if you haven't heard it I encourage you to check it out!
Thanks for the mix, and I'm honored to be the subject of a blog entry on Tales from the Junk Drawer. You are one of a small group of I dare say "elite" people from whom I take music recommendations very seriously. If you say, "you've got to see these guys" - I know I'm going to like it.
ReplyDeleteAlso glad you found the bright side in what I would find to be a debilitating event (hard drive crash) and also impressed you used the word "agitprop".
Buddy, you are too kind. I like sharing music with you because you are sonically adventurous. Here is to 2013 being full of great shows!
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