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MIX TAPE #1

Ever wanted to make your own super-cool mix tape or CD? Well now you can! Use my patented method, wear my vibrating heat-bead suit and down tons of crystal meth, and you too can make a great mix!

All right I'm just messing around (and stealing really obscure SNL material), but Cameron Crowe had this really cool idea on the DVD of Almost Famous. He explained how he makes mix tapes all the time, so that he can go back down the road years later, and see what was in his head, what he liked, as kind of a musical journal. I liked the idea so much I decided to steal it.

Below's a list of songs and artist, all purchased by me this academic year (2000-2001). Underneath is album name, and a description too, so you can get an idea what kind of music it is and whether you'll like it or not. And who knows, if it's a hit, I may even do this regularly.

Junior Year Mix Side 1: "Let's Go Away For A While"

1)Holiday by Weezer
From The Blue Album
--This year I got into Weezer in a big way. I love their sound, huge guitars with gorgeous harmonies. Like Zeppelin and The Beach Boys blended. This song I picked mostly for the start of the tape idea (The name of the side is a line in this song). Plus this a great song to get rid of the doldrums of a gray Syracuse winter afternoon.

2)Good Fortune by PJ Harvey
From Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
--PJ has an interesting sound, very rough rock and roll, but at times her voice becomes really sweet. This song I first saw on College Television Network (CTN). The video is her in this slinky black dress running around NYC at like 3 AM. Great video, great song.

3)Here Comes Your Man by The Pixies
From Death To The Pixies
--The Pixies are kind of having a second coming in the last year or so, thanks to Where Is My Mind, the song played at the end of Fight Club. While that is a great song, in my mind, their best song is this one, probably one of the catchiest, happiest pop songs I've ever heard. I can listen to it over and over and never get tired. That first guitar line gets me every time.

4)Wild World by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
From Blow In The Wind
--These guys are a side project, with members of NOFX, Foo Fighters, and a few other groups. They cover lots of songs, but punkify them. I love their version of this Cat Stevens classic, loud, pounding, and the guitar right after each line of the chorus is absolutely fabulous. A fun track to blast out your room at 2 AM.

5)Love's Old Song by David Gray
From Flesh
--Leave it to David Gray to turn me country. This track is off of his second, impossible-to-find cd Flesh. It's a bit DG's folk-pop, and a bit country. I don't know what it is about this song, but I like it. I think it's the intro, David's voice out of nowhere screaming "It's like this!"

6)Shiver by Coldplay
From Parachutes
--The first time I heard this song was like a revelation. I remember being astonished by the loud guitar, combined with Chris Martin's gorgeous vocals. While "Yellow" is the big track off this cd, my favorite will always be Shiver. "And all that I am/from the moment I wake/to the moment I sleep/I'll be there by your side/just you try and stop me."

7)Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley
From Grace
--This guy has flat out the most amazing voice I've heard in a long time. He can sing this wailing high parts with ridiculously perfect sounding vibratto. Last Goodbye was the first song on this cd I heard, and the one that made me buy it.

8)Balding Lycanthrope by Pitmonster
From Who Do You Want Me To Eat It?
--Emo indie rock, one of the coolest, happiest songs I've ever heard. And it's my roommate's band, and if I don't mention him he beats me in my sleep.

9)Lone by Swag
From Catch-All
--Another side project band, this one is like The Beatles and The Byrds combined. This song is an under-two minute pop gem. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

10)A Mirror In The Heart by Duncan Sheik
From Phantom Moon
--Duncan's one hit was "Barely Breathing" from his first album. Phantom Moon is his third, and he only wrote the music for someone else's poetry. This song is my favorite, probably because it sounds the most like his old stuff, smooth pop with folk influences.

11)Wild Honey by U2
From All That You Can't Leave Behind
--There are a lot of great songs I could have put on this tape from the new U2 album. Beautiful Day, Walk On, Elevation, Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of are all great tracks. But Wild Honey is just so damn happy. And whenever I hear it I have to bounce around the room like an idiot.

12)Cigarettes Will Kill You by Ben Lee
From Consult Your Electronic Minions
--Ben's got this cool David Gray vibe, but he's Australian. This song has a great techno drum line, and I love the final chorus at the end with the battling vocal parts. A toe tapper for sure.

13)Panic by The Smiths
From Best...I
--This one's all Pete's fault. My roommate had a rough period last year, and he survived on a healthy diet of depressing music, including The Smiths, who in the eighties combined springy pop melodies with bizarre lyrics about death and chicks in comas. This song is proof of the old saying, "Here something enough you start liking it." I didn't like The Smiths...for a while. But like a fungus they grew.

Junior Year Mix Side 2: "Somewhere Far Away From Here"

1)Too Little Too Late by Barenaked Ladies
From Maroon
--The newest album from BNL was generally considered inferior to their previous one, Stunt. And I agreed after my first couple of listens. But within the last couple of weeks the songs from it have started creeping under my skin. Especially this one, with its great pop hook intro, and some catchy lines like "Couldn't play/after years of endless rewind/Yesterday/Wasn't half as tough as this time" The video's hilarious as well.

2)Northern Lites by Super Furry Animals
From Guerilla
An interesting blend of pop, carribean music, jazz, and some truly morose lyrics. And it will force you to dance along.

3)Strange Condition by Pete Yorn
From musicforthemorningafter
--Pete Yorn's a guy I heard for the first time working at WERW. A track off this cd, For Nancy, was a single one week, and I really dug it. Eventually I bought the cd (Available most places dirt cheap for ten bucks or less) and I really like his stuff. Singer/songwriter stuff, with influences ranging from Dylan, to Springsteen. And props for playing all the instruments himself. This song, a great slow number, was featured on the Me, Myself, & Irene soundtrack.

4)The Crystal Lake by Grandaddy
From The Sophtware Slump
--Another WERW song. This is a weird song, and a weird cd. These guys are arty, or something I dunno. Lots of Radiohead-esque technophobe rock. This track's a winner though, I love the fluttery keyboard in the background and some fun lyrics. "Should never have left the crystal lake/for parties full of folks who flake/italian leather winter games." I dunno what that means but it sounds good.

5)Sabotage by The Beastie Boys
From The Sounds of Science
--I'm not a hip hop fan. But there's something about The Beastie Boys that keeps me listening. It could be the fact that they are a couple of Jewish guys making rap records. Or maybe the way they use funk and soul in their music. Or the heavy guitar sound they have that is so great when you're in an angry mood. If this song doesn't make you bob your head, see a specialist, cause something's wrong.

6)Sonny by Paloalto
From Paloalto
--I wish I could tell you why I like bands that sound like Radiohead more than Radiohead itself. Who knows why, I just do. These guys have a Pablo Honey-sound, and this song is cool in the way it mixes loud and soft seamlessly.

7)Thank You by Dido
From No Angel
--You've probably heard this one, it's on every time I turn on the radio. It's catchy, no doubt about it. I love the harmonies, I love the drums, I love that weird background hooting. And I'll be seeing Dido and Travis together this summer live. Very exciting.

8)Going Places by Teenage Fanclub
From Grand Prix
--I went through a month or so this year where all I listened to was Teenage Fanclub. Kind of like Travis mixed with Beatles or maybe an 80s pop group, they've got great pop songs and terrific harmonies. This is one of their slower numbers, great intro, and harmonies that'll break your heart.

9)Something's Gonna Happen by Marshall Crenshaw
From This Is Easy...
--This guy is a freak. He's written some of the best Buddy Holly-esque rock since, well, Buddy Holly, and he's been doing it for decades. But no one's heard of him. That greatest hits collection of his really is a terrific cd, and this song starts off the disc with a bang. Great finger-snapping sing-along stuff. And a good song to lead us into the home stretch of the mix, picking up the pace after some slower tracks.

10)What A Fool Believes by Self
From Gizmodgery
--Oh Self, you crazy man. Self's just 1 guy, who records cds in Tennessee somewhere. His stuff is pop and rock mixed with hip hop and some techno, and on Gizmodgery, all the songs are played on toy instruments. The trippy highlight is this faithfully chipper cover of The Doobie Brothers "What a Fool Believes." It's so cheesy that it works.

11)What Would You Do by Deathray
From Deathray
--Perhaps my favorite song of the year. What a catchy tune. And I love the fact that it reminds me of that old Nickelodeon show with Marc Summers.

12)Chemistry by Semisonic
From All About Chemistry
--All right, I think I'm allowed one guilty pleasure. And they don't get any guiltier than Semisonic. I know I shouldn't like this song, but I do. And it's fun to play on guitar.

13)Suzanne by Weezer
From Soundtrack to the film Mallrats
--How does a song this good get relegated to the soundtrack of a movie that practically no one saw? It's a crime. Weezer has tons of great songs, but this one might be my favorite. The harmony on the first line is not typical, but it sounds amazing. Sappy love songs never sounded so rockin. And Suzanne is the perfect capper to just about any tape or mix cd, so here it is. The end.