december 2002
If you've heard this month's mix, please leave a comment -- what you liked, what you didn't -- at the bottom of the page. Album links are to Amazon; if you like something, consider buying via that link so I get a cut and keep the mix club going.
Here are the disc's liner notes in PDF (71k), if you want to see things in color.
1. Crooked Road and the Briar / Calexico. On Even My Sure Things Fall Through (2001). I'm a well established Calexico fan (they also popped up on the October mix). This was originally on the tour-only Aerocalexico CD, which I've never been able to locate despite my best efforts. (Anyone who wants to send me a copy along with next month's trade gets a free mix.) Saw them play here in Dallas a couple months ago, complete with a drunken Richard Buckner climbing up on stage halfway through.
2. I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite / The Young Fresh Fellows. On Because We Hate You (2001). The Young Fresh Fellows are one of Scott McCaughey's bands. The other's The Minus 5, and this CD is only available paired with the 5's release Let the War Against Music Begin. They've got marginally different line-ups, but they sound the same to me. This song's a cover of the Boyce and Hart original; Boyce and Hart, besides having a mediocre 1970s recording career of their own, were the best songwriters behind the Monkees. (They wrote "Last Train to Clarksville," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," and the theme of the Monkee's TV show.)
3. Modern Painters / Destroyer. On This Night (2002). Vancouver's Dan Bejar's in charge here. The album's inconsistent; I like his work as one of the New Pornographers better.
4. The Freed Pig / Sebadoh. On Sebadoh III (1992). One of the greatest hate songs of indie rock history. This is the track Sebadoh's Lou Barlow wrote after leaving Dinosaur Jr, about that band's leader J Mascis. "You were right / I was battling you, trying to prove myself / I tried to bury you with guilt; I wanted to prove you wrong / I’ve got nothing better to do than pay too much attention to you." And "Now you will be free / With no sick people tugging on your sleeve / Your big head has that "more room to grow" / A glory I will never know." J fired Lou from the group by telling him the group was breaking up; he reformed the band without Lou the next day.
5. This Charming Man / Death Cab for Cutie. On You Can Play These Songs With Chords (2002). If it's the CD Mix of the Month, it's got to be Death Cab! A cover of the Smiths' original, of course. Originally recorded in 1996, now included on the Chords reissue. Ben Gibbard gets quite a few the lyrics wrong, if you listen close.
6. Hand in Your Head / Money Mark. On Push the Button (1998). Loopy goodness from the Beastie Boys' occasional keyboardist/carpenter.
7. My Martini / Girls Against Boys. On Cruise Yourself (1994). GVSB is one of those bands I love, but every time I try to put one of their songs on a mix, it doesn't fit. Hmm.
8. When You Sleep / My Bloody Valentine. On Loveless (1991). Same with MBV -- this is an epic, wonderful album, one of the all-time classics, but none of the tracks really work outside the whole. Maybe this does.
9. Nick Drake Tape / Clem Snide. On You Were a Diamond (1998). My Clem Snide addiction grows larger by the day. Their early work (this album and Your Favorite Music, which followed it) is drop-dead beautiful. I like how this zine writer put it, describing this song: "The cello works with modest, staccato insistence while Barzelay narrates an interlude of no great drama. Guy and girl are listening to Nick Drake. Her dad calls to wish her happy birthday. The guy says there’s room next to him on the floor. He suggests she go to sleep. But the details imply more. He feels 'romance in the air'; he looks in her eyes and finds 'that medicated stare.' Darkness circles just outside the action. The bad is left unsaid. It’s late, they’re tired, but not desperate. They hear something good: 'That Nick Drake tape you love / Tonight it sounds so good / As brown as leaves can get.' For as long as they play that Nick Drake tape, the leaves seem browner, their mundane evening seems poetic. And for as long as you play that Clem Snide CD, you know what they mean."
10. Fearless / M. Ward. On Come On Beautiful: The Songs of American Music Club (2000). Don't know much about M. Ward, but this is the best track on this AMC tribute album. Unfortunately, the covers on the album are almost universally comatose -- this track is about as lively as it gets. (I like this version a lot, but "lively" wouldn't be used by most to describe it.)
11. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas / Coldplay. On Maybe This Christmas (2002). Just lead singer Chris Martin and a piano.
12. Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy / David Bowie and Bing Crosby. On The Time-Life Treasury of Christmas Music: Holiday Memories (2002). The all-time classic Christmas pairing, recorded for Bing's holiday TV special in 1977, just a month or so before Bing shuffled off this mortal coil. Here's the forced stage patter that immediately preceded the song.
13. Everybody is Happy / Legendary Crystal Chandelier. On Beyond Indifference (2001). A good Dallas-area band, now (wisely?) calling themselves the LCC.
14. Resistance is Futile / Jets to Brazil. On Orange Rhyming Dictionary (1998). Here begins the international portion of this month's mix. Yeah, sure, Jets to Brazil's from Brooklyn, but hey, they've got Brazil in their name!
15. Au Banquet Au Chausseurs / Java. On Cuisine Non-Stop (2002). Some real international stuff. This and a few of the next tracks are from Cuisine Non-Stop, a new comp of "French neo-realist" acts from Luaka Bop, David Byrne's label. (Aside: "French neo-realist"? Wouldn't that be a great job, to work for Luaka Bop and get paid to come up with utterly bogus genre names for interesting music? I want that job.) Listen closely -- this song is entirely about mad cow disease and related food safety issues. "English beef -- deguelasse! Poulet Belge -- deguelasse! Salmonelle -- deguelasse!"
16. Baji Larabat / Lo'Jo. On Cuisine Non-Stop (2002). Also from the Luaka Bop comp. This is the most gypsy-sounding, world-music-sounding track on the mix. It's the one you'd most expect to find on a Luaka Bop compilation.
17. Arrivederci / Moreno Veloso. On Music Typewriter (2001). A trip south to Brazil (and not those fake Jets, either). Moreno is son of Brazilian music legend Caetano Veloso. I've seen this track described as "funked-up Antonio Carlos Jobim." Sexy and strong.
18. Rene Bouteille / La Tordue. On Cuisine Non-Stop (2002). The closest to the old French chanson post-war tradition. This is the kind of song you can imagine Serge Gainsbourg rebelling against.
19. 1985 / The French Kicks. On One Time Bells (2002). From French music to the French Kicks, another Brooklyn band. This song's also on the interesting two-disc Brooklyn comp This is Next Year.
20. Ship of Fools / World Party. On Private Revolution (1987). This CD's been something of a world party these last few tracks, no? Get it? Ha! Anyway, I remember loving this song in 1987. Then again, I also remember loving Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987.
21. The Ballad of Bjorn Borg / The Pernice Brothers. On The World Won't End (2001). You can't go wrong with the Pernice Brothers. And Bjorn Borg, being a Swede, keeps the international theme going one track more.
22. Blue Christmas / Elvis Presley. On Elvis' Christmas Album (1990). The King. Not having this album is a crime in some states.
