january 2003
Happy new year! 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 can keep the mix club going.
Here are the disc's liner notes in PDF (230k), if you want to see things in color.
1. The Song Remains the Same / Led Zeppelin. On Houses of the Holy (1973). Give me one good reason why not! I've moved past many of my high school musical obsessions (Jethro Tull, for one), but there's still room for Zep in any well-curated collection. This may be the greatest air guitar song of all time.
2. River, Sea, Ocean / Badly Drawn Boy. On About a Boy (2002). Damon Gough, on the soundtrack of the Hugh Grant movie. Happily winsome.
3. The Seed (2.0) / The Roots. On Phrenology (2002). My favorite from the new Roots disc, which I highly recommend -- it doesn't have the sort of academic overhead that their previous discs did for me. This is actually a collaboration with Cody ChestnuTT, a man so egocentric he (a) capitalizes the end of his last name, (b) names his debut album "The Headphone Masterpiece", and (c) makes it a double album. (The 1.0 version of this song is on ChestnuTT's disc.)
4. Another Morning Stoner / And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. On Source Tags and Codes (2002). Austin's loudest and most intriguingly named band. An album worth picking up.
5. Risingsun / Massive Attack. On Mezzanine (1998). Isn't it about damned time for another Massive Attack album? It has been five years, after all. (Luckily, the Massives have heard my plaintive cries; it'll only be a couple more weeks.) If you ever find yourself needing to seduce a heroin addict, this is the perfect background music.
6. Do You Believe Her / The Raveonettes. On Whip It On (2002). They're getting hyped as the new White Stripes (guy + gal + loud distorted guitars = marketing magic!). The album (more of an EP, really) is inconsistent, but I like the whole surf guitar vs. Jesus and Mary Chain tension.
7. The Sun Surrounds Me / Beachwood Sparks. On Once We Were Trees (2001). The album should have been called "Once, We Were The Byrds," but that'd be too honest. Sure, there aren't any original thoughts here, but the recycled ones are pretty good. I listened to this nonstop while covering the Salt Lake City Olympics, so I'm probably the only person alive who associates the Sparks' psychedelic country with ski slopes.
8. Action / Saint Etienne. On Finisterre (2002). I was disappointed by the dry Teutonicness of their last album; this is back to the Europop form of their earlier stuff. Saw them in a great CMJ show back in '94 or so (the bill: Soul Coughing, Grant Lee Buffalo, American Music Club, Saint Etienne). My biggest conclusion from that night: Sarah Cracknell's hot.
9. Good Shit / Cornershop. On When I was Born for the 7th Time (1997). Remember those six months in 1997, when you couldn't walk five feet without hearing some radio blaring "Brimful of Asha" from this album? ("Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow," indeed.) This disc got named Spin's Album of the Year; I'm not sure about that, but it's still plenty fun.
10. Si Sabes Bailar Mi Son / Eliades Ochoa. On Tribute to the Cuarteto Patria (2000). Repeat traders will notice I've been on a foreign language kick of late (only three non-English tracks this time around). Of course, Ochoa was one of the stars of the Buena Vista Social Club-inspired revival of Cubanismo.
11. Around the Way Girl / Travis Morrison. Recorded live at KEXP Seattle, November 8, 2002. Morrison's the lead singer of the Dismemberment Plan, and this is a solo acoustic cover of the LL Cool J song (from the Mama Said Knock You Out years). Sadly, the D-Plan broke up this month, so expect more Travis solo in the future.
12. Les Flammes d'Enfer / Richard Thompson. On Evangeline Made (2002). Richard Thompson inspires more fanatical fan behavior than a lot of artists; me, I never got it. But I can't deny the man can play guitar. This is a cover of the Cajun traditional ("The Flames of Hell"), from Evangeline Made, a south Louisiana tribute album arranged by Cajun chanteuse Anne Savoy. Austin Pitre wrote the original; if you're ever in the area, stop by the Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Eunice, La. -- Austin's widow helps run the place.
13. Valse de Balfa / The Red Stick Ramblers. On The Red Stick Ramblers (2002). The Red Stick Ramblers are a terrific young Louisiana band performing, in their words, "a mixture of Cajun fiddle tunes, Western Swing, [and] traditional jazz of the 1920s and 1930s." In other words, a little Django Reinhardt, a little Boozoo Chavis. It's great stuff, and their album's terrific. (This is the most traditional Cajun track on the disc, originally written by Cajun music pioneer Dewey Balfa.) Plus, I went to high school with the mandolin player. Trivia: fiddler Joel Savoy is the son of Anne Savoy, mentioned above, and renowned accordian artisan Marc Savoy.)
14. Did You Wonder / The Black Heart Procession. On Amore Del Tropico (2002). The album's only so-so, but I love the nervous guitar energy of this track.
15. Buddy / De La Soul. On 3 Feet High and Rising (1989). I've got to admit I wouldn't have minded if hip hop never progressed past 1990-era De La Soul and the rest of the Native Tongues crew. This track features the earliest pan-Tongues collaboration, with the Jungle Brothers and Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest guesting.
16. Oh! / Sleater-Kinney. On One Beat (2002). Their latest disc is easily my favorite. I've got a huge crush on the drummer, Janet Weiss. (On the right.)
17. Falling Away / Preston School of Industry. On All This Sounds Gas (2001). PSI is the new project of Spiral Stairs, a.k.a. Scott Kannberg, a.k.a the guy who used to write some of Pavement's songs before Stephen Malkmus started writing them all. This sounds very summer-of-1995 to me, very carefree.
18. Waiting to Hit / Lift to Experience. On The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (2001). What a strange album: a sort of grimy, indie Christian apocalyptic double concept album from Denton, Texas. Oddly compelling, but still hella weird.
19. Which Side Are You On, Colonel? / Quasi. On Colonel Jeffrey Pumpernickel (2001). Did I mention I had a crush on Janet Weiss? She's also the drummer/singer of Quasi, along with her ex-hubby Sam Coomes. Their last album was mighty fine, but this is from the bizzaro Colonel Jeffrey Pumpernickel project, a indie comp/concept album about the aforementioned colonel. The disc, worth getting from a used bin near you, features former CDMOM acts Guided by Voices, Mr. Malkmus, Grandaddy, Black Heart Procession, Macha, and the Minders.
20. Make You Feel That Way / Blackalicious. On Blazing Arrow (2002). If you like hip hop even a little bit, you need this album. It's great great great, in a way not many rap albums can claim. This is a nice laid-back number. Gift of Gab's a hell of a rapper.
