april 2002 - the themeless mix
If you're here, you must have a copy of my April mix. Please leave your comment on the mix -- what you liked, what you didn't -- at the bottom of the page.
1. Caring is Creepy / The Shins. I feel safe in saying they're the best band to ever come out of New Mexico.
2. Joey's Pez / The Minders. Part of the Elephant 6 collective, from the very fine Hooray for Tuesday.
3. Glenda / Billy Mahonie. It's a band, not a guy, and they do great Tortoise-esque instrumentals.
4. Milky Teeth / Tindersticks. Their first two albums, both named Tindersticks, are just absolute genius. It's been downhill since then, unfortunately.
5. I Want It All / Trans Am. Krautrock meets punk, from a maddeningly inconsistent band (I hear their new CD is just awful).
6. Bipolar Summer / Jonathan Fire Eater. The Strokes before the Strokes were the Strokes. Most of the members are now reformed as the Walkmen, and their new disc is getting a nice buzz.
7. Be Sweet / Afghan Whigs. From 1993's brilliant Gentlemen, probably the best concept album indie rock has ever produced. (It only seems misogynistic -- it's really just misanthropic. A friend of mine once said this album was the theme album of a relationship he once had. The relationship failed, which makes sense, since the whole album's about self-loathing.)
8. Ariadne / Geek Love. Ultra-rare! Geek Love was a college band some friends of mine were in in Connecticut. Two of the members are now in Brooklyn-based Sea Ray, soon to be hitting the ears of those tuned into indie buzz. From a 1997 7".
9. Amelia Earhart / The Inbreds. An Ontario bass-and-drums-only duo. (Note: bass-and-drums, but not drum 'n' bass.) Released originally on Sloan's Murderecords label.
10. Come Into / Enon. The new band of John Schmersal, ex-Brainiac. See these guys live if you ever get a chance -- they're absolutely mind-blowing, and just seeing 98-pound Schmersal prance around stage like a seventh-grade Mick Jagger is fun. From their excellent last disc Believo!; their new disc is coming out on Touch & Go in June.
11. No Tan Lines / Pavement. From the Shady Lane EP.
12. Bum Leg / Joe Pernice. From his Big Tobacco project -- less wonderful than his records with the (more Beach Boys-y) Pernice Brothers or the (more alt-country) Scud Mountain Boys, but nicely spare.
13. One Hundred Years From Now / Velvet Crush. A Gram Parsons cover B-side from the Hold Me Up single. Rik Menck and Co. made one okay record (In the Presence of Greatness) and one great one (Teenage Symphonies to God) -- shame it's been all downhill since. The recent live archival release Rock Concert is good, though.
14. Cocaine Blues / Johnny Cash. From the famed Folsom Prison live record. After I burned a few copies of this mix, I realized this and the Whigs track earlier didn't make it particularly woman-friendly. Sorry 'bout that.
15. Caroline / Robbie Fulks. I wish he'd decide whether he wants to be alt-country's clown prince or a more serious musician -- he's got the chops to do the latter, but he seems to want the former a bit more.
16. Raspberry Beret / Hindu Love Gods. Any good mix has to have a Prince cover once in a while. The Gods were a one-off band with Warren Zevon on vocals and all of R.E.M. (minus Stipey) backing.
17. The Truth / Handsome Boy Modeling School. The album -- a collab between genius Prince Paul, overrated Dan the Automator, and a endless list of guests -- is inconsistent but fun, sort of a proto-Gorillaz. Love this track, though. The vocalist is Roisin Murphy from Moloko; the rapper's J-Live (not to be confused with the J-Five).
18. Brown Paper Bag (Full Vocal Mix) / Roni Size and Reprazent. The original's on the bouncy New Forms.
19. Believe / Macha Loves Bedhead. The absolute king of the Cher-songs-played-on-a-touchtone-phone genre. Bedhead was a great if sleepy band from Dallas; Macha was a Florida band whose members were friends of theirs. This is from the weird EP they assembled after Bedhead officially broke up. (The Bedhead braintrust is now in the excellent The New Year.)
