If Life Ain't Just A Joke, Then Why Are We Laughing?

If Life Ain't Just A Joke, Then Why Are We Laughing?

A fine collection of songs here. Though I used a picture from the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight, this mix has little to nothing to do with the film. Though, the titular track, "Dead" by My Chemical Romance, has a vaguely Joker-ish flair to it.

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So, let's get to it, shall we?

1. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Phenomenon
3. A Perfect Circle - Weak & Powerless
4. The Dears - Who Are You, Protectors of the Earth?
5. Bear vs. Shark - Baraga Embankment
6. Elliott Smith - Son of Sam
7. Dieselboy - Dear John
8. Flogging Molly - Old Beggar's Bush
9. Superdrag - Remain Yr Strange
10. The Apples in Stereo - Do You Understand?
11. 2 Skinnee Js - Sugar & Candy
12. The Beatles - She Said She Said
13. My Chemical Romance - Dead!
14. David Bowie - Afraid
15. Courtney Love - Mono
16. A - Better Off With Him
17. Reggie & The Full Effect - Your Boyfriend Sucks
18. Sarge - A Torch
19. No Use For A Name - June 19
20. Piebald - Long Nights
21. Alkaline Trio - If We Never Go Inside
22. Spacehog - Space is the Place
23. Imarobot - Creeping Me Out

Quick and easy, cause I'm running out of time.

The Hold Steady rock in a way few people do. Buy their record, Boys and Girls In America, you won't regret it.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs make fun, art-rock that doesn't sound pretentious. (Ok, maybe a little bit). Show Your Bones is endless fun.

A Perfect Circle = Tool - angsty maleness. 13th Step is underrated, and I don't know why.

The Dears are like Morrissey, if he joined an indie-rock band and was black. Gang of Losers is awesome, No Cities Left is way better.

Bear vs. Shark = Fugazi + At The Drive-In. RAAAR! Get Terrorhawk today!

If you don't own Figure 8 by Elliott Smith, you don't know what you're missing. "Son of Sam" is the most rock Elliott ever laid to tape.

Dieselboy, the sex-obsessed pop-punk group, not the hyperbolic DJ, wound up writing one of the better John Lennon tribute songs ever. Don't ask me, I have no idea how. From the album Sofa King Cool.

Flogging Molly are Irish, they love their roots and punk rock. It works wonders on Swagger and everything they've put out since.

This Superdrag song was written and sung by Rob Pollard of Guided by Voices. Might as well be a GBV song, since it sounds so similar. The rest of Last Call for Vitriol, except, "Baby Goes to 11" was actually written by the band proper.

Apples in Stereo are cotton candy for the ears! Velocity of Sound is their best record, so far.

Speaking of candy, 2 Skinnee Js rap about candy, contact lenses and hobos. Yes, this is par for the course for the album Volumizer.

The Beatles. 'Nuff said. Taken from Revolver, this trippy gem is dark as hell.

The aforementioned My Chemical Romance song, from Black Parade. Dark, twisted and a lot of fun to shout along with.

David Bowie has been getting better as the years go by. This track from Heathen proves it.

Courtney Love, on the other hand, continues to go downhill. "Mono" from her solo record America's Sweetheart is about the only good thing she's done since "Violet"

British band A (yes, the vowel) are hard to find on Google. But they're worth the search, especially their album Teen Dance Ordinance.

Reggie & The Full Effect is a emo "supergroup" - members come from The Get Up Kids, The New Amsterdams and others. The album Greatest Hits 1984-1987 is well worth the purchase, considering the re-release has the "Lord of the Bling" trilogy on it.

Sarge are no longer around, but their album A Glass Intact was a template for other women-fronted punk bands in the Midwest.

No Use For A Name are still around and still making soulful punk rock, which sounds like an oxymoron. Hard Rock Bottom came out to literally no notice whatsoever. It's a great record, though.

Piebald just finished touring with MC Chris. And if that's not enough nerd cred, one of the albums is called If It Wasn't For Venetian Blinds, It'd Be Curtains For Us All. This song comes from the record We're The Only Friends That We Have and is one of the best on there.

Alkaline Trio make dark punk music for the goth kid who hates Peter Murphy, but loves the Misfits. This song is from Good Mourning, still considered one of their better albums.

Spacehog got overlooked in the 90s because of their tasty jam "In The Meantime." People bought Resident Alien expecting more of the same and they didn't get it. Songs like "Space is the Place" really rock and can not be ignored.

Ima Robot make fun, drugged-out music that's funny and very often self-depricating (see the line, "Well, there must be a mistake / Girl, you're way too hot / You could make a million dollars with the face you got / Don't you know my last album was a flop?") Monument To The Masses is a slice of pure awesome.

whew. That still took forever.....

The Lonesome Electric Turkey Tapes (Part 1)

It was 14 years ago this Tuesday that the world lost one of the greater musicians of the 20th century, Frank Zappa. Today, Weekend Mix Tape offers up a slice of some of the better tracks from his many albums, entitled "The Lonesome Electric Turkey Tapes"

If you're new to FZ, or even if you're an FZ fanatic, enjoy the selections here. This collection is by no means comprehensive, but is a cross-section of albums the author enjoys.



The Lonesome Electric Turkey Tapes Part 1

1. I Could Be A Star Now!
2. My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama (Live)
3. Harry, You're A Beast
4. Baby Snakes
5. Uncle Remus
6. Keep It Greasy Part 1
7. Joe's Garage
8. Rudy Wants to Buy Yez A Drink
9. Suicide Chump
10. Titties And Beer (Baby Snakes Version)
11. St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast
12. Father O'Blivion
13. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes
14. Who Needs The Peace Corps?
15. Cheap Thrills
16. Disco Boy (Live)
17. Absolutely Free
18. Dirty Love
19. City of Tiny Lites
20. The Groupie Routine
21. Dong Work For Yuda
22. Be In My Video
23. Bobby Brown Goes Down
24. Fembot In A Wet T-shirt
25. Lonesome Electric Turkey (edit)


We begin with a goofy bit of dialogue from Zappa's bizarre-o movie "200 Motels" where a member of Frank's backing band, The Mothers, laments his lack of fame.

First up, a delightful bit of rock entitled "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama", the epitome of youthful rebellion and angsty teenage love. Ike Willis, as usual, on backup vocals gives this live version a bit more punch.

Next, a selection from the first FZ album I ever heard, We're Only In It For The Money. "Harry, You're A Beast" is a vicious swipe at proto-feminists and "American womanhood" in general. The backmasking on the last bit of the song was a fine bit of censorship, concealing the prayer of women everywhere. I'll let you figure out what they're really saying.

This version of "Baby Snakes" is taken from the soundtrack to the movie of the same name, instead of the album Sheik Yerbuti. I still don't know what the hell they're talking about, but rest assured that it's probably sex related - though why something sexual would follow the code of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is beyond me. The inimitable future porn star Warren Cuccurullo is featured on high-pitched vocals.

Apostrophe is one of the greater mid-period Zappa records, featuring his biggest hit "Nanook Rubs It" and a ton of stellar songs, like this somber, piano-driven mid-tempo number, "Uncle Remus", which invites people to "[knock] the little jockeys off the rich peoples' lawns."

Sometimes FZ would go on a tangent that seemed almost irredeemable. In the case of Joe's Garage, a three-part rock opera that mocks totalitarian governments, small town "crew sluts", self-important musicians, wet t-shirt contests and all manner of other real-life phenomena. In the case of "Keep It Greasy," the second half of the song devolves into a 5 minute jam. While usually awesome, in this mix, I was pressed for time and didn't want to cut anything. So, the first 3 minutes of the song are presented here, minus the last 5.

Taken from the superior live album series You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, this version of "Joe's Garage" cuts right to the heart of why the song is timeless - everyone has been in some dumb band, playing some dumb song that you think is the best thing in the world.

"Ruby Wants to Buy Yez A Drink" is yet another music industry stab, courtesy of the album Chunga's Revenge. Lead vocal duties here are filled by Mark Volman and Kaylan Howard, known as 'Flo & Eddie'. Which is actually short for 'The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie'. Don't ask me, I don't really know why.

Only FZ could make suicide, or suicide attempts, funny. Somehow, "Suicide Chump" from You Are What You Is, works. Featuring, once again, Ike Willis as the goofy stereotypical black singer, telling the lead vocalist that his pronunciation of "appropriate" is funny and goofing on the lyrics.

"Titties and Beer" was never recorded in a studio and every performance featured improvised dialogue. Taken from the soundtrack to the movie Baby Snakes, this concert version features drummer Terry Bozzio as the devil, asking Frank if he thinks he's bad enough to get into hell. Frank replies, "I have been it!I have seen it! It has happened to me! Remember, I was signed with Warner Brothers for eight fuckin' years!" One of the most bitter moments in Frank's feud with WB, and it stands as one of the best performances of this song (though the one on Zappa In New York is a touch funnier.)

The next two songs follow each other in sequential order on Apostrophe, making the first half almost a song suite. The songs "St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast" and "Father O'Blivion" tell the tale of Church of St. Alphonzo, home of the finest pancakes in the town and home to Father Livion O'Blivion, head chef. And something about leprichauns, bingo cards, stealing butter, abusing sausage patties and Father O'Blivion's massive member, which "rip[s] right through his sock."

A trend that started happening as Zappa's touring schedule ramped up in the late 70s and early 80s was the use of live tracks as album material. One of the best songs to come out of this period, "Broken Hearts Are For Assholes", changed every night. So Frank set about recording the best version he could. What came out was this. From the album Sheik Yerbuti, this song is just ... vulgar. Somehow it goes from being a song about broken hearts to being about fisting. One of the funniest FZ songs on record.

Also from We're Only In It For The Money, "Who Needs The Peace Corps?" is one of the finer anti-hippie songs ever recorded, mocking "phony hippies" and the bourgeois kids who move to San Francisco and want to pretend at rebellion.

Somewhere along the line, Zappa got into Doo-Wop. Yes, it's as weird as it sounds. From the classic record Cruisin' With Rueben and the Jets, "Cheap Thrills" takes you back to the 50s, complete with thinly-veiled sexual material and "cretin simple" music.

I realize now that a lot of my favorite live tracks come from the soundtrack to Baby Snakes. It was, admittedly, the first Zappa movie I ever saw, so that probably has a lot to do with it. This version of "Disco Boy" includes an audience member yelling into Frank's microphone that "they stole my poodle from me!", referring to the opening of the show where FZ and crew explained the origins of the poodle. The song itself is a vicious dig on the disco music scene and the goobers who inhibited it.

Some saw We're Only In It For The Money as the flipside of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which it was, to an extent. But the rest of the album is actually just FZ and crew goofing on pop culture, the San Francisco scene and the world around them. "Absolutely Free" at first seems like a hippie anthem, but then it turns nasty. The song did teach me a new word, "discorporate", which means "to leave your body."

"Dirty Love" is another excuisite cut from Overnite Sensation, with its horrible double-entendres and it's mixed metaphors. "I'll ignore your cheap aroma and your Little Bo Peep diploma. I'll just put you in a coma with some dirty love". Ewww.

Adrian Belew returns again as the lead vocalist and bass player on "City of Tiny Lites" another from Sheik Yerbuti.

OK, the reason I put "The Groupie Routine" on here is pretty simple. It's funny. But it also showcases Frank's band and their willingness to do crazy/stupid things onstage to amuse the audience. Here, one of the members, playing a touring rock star, tries to convince another to sleep with him, only to be rebuffed. "We only like musicians for friends." There's no point to this, other than to show that the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore records are pinnacles of musical improv.

Joe's Garage features the all-knowing voice of The Central Scrutinizer, a being from the future who warns the audience that music leads to big trouble. At this point in the story, the titular character Joe gets sent to jail for being a musician and meets Bald-Headed John, played on the record by Terry Bozzio, but based on the real-life speech patterns of one John Smothers. "Dong Work For Yuda" is full of these Smothers-isms, making it one of the funnier tracks on side 2 of the album.

If there's anyone qualified to bitch-slap hair metal bands for their ridiculous videos, it's FZ and crew. On this track from Them and Us, the singer of a band, presumably Angel, who FZ riffed on quite a bit, is imploring a Tawny Kittean-esque girl to "Be In My Video". The video as described in the song sounds exactly like the tripe that came out at the time - bondage, midgets, limousines, fake nuclear blasts and "danc[ing] the blues", whatever that means.

The epic tale of "Bobby Brown Goes Down", taken from Sheik Yerbuti, tells of an All-American boy who becomes an S&M fanatic. Ah, that old chestnut.

Joe's Garage takes aim at a lot of pop culture conventions, but one that never gets old is FZ's riffing on strip clubs and wet t-shirt contests. "Fembot In A Wet T-Shirt" is a hilarious and audacious track featuring Ike Willis singing about boobs and Frank as the MC at The Brasserie ("home of the tits").

Since I wanted the album to bookend nicely with the second volume, I decided to end this on an instrumental note. And, the titular track. "Lonesome Electric Turkey" is a swirling mess of guitars and keyboards, taken from the album Fillmore East 1971, easily one of the finer live performances of that time period. NOTE : The song does cut off about 30 seconds early, due to time constraints - the CD was too long, so cuts had to be made in the original file.


Watch this space for "Lonesome Electric Turkey Tapes Part 2" coming soon!

Smash Your Head Part 2

Smash Your Head Part 2

1. Saul Williams (featuring Trent Reznor) - "Convict Colony"
2. Queens of The Stone Age - "Battery Acid"
3. The White Stripes - "Conquest"
4. Belle & Sebastian - "The Blues Are Still Blue"
5. Kings of Leon - "Charmer"
6. Cobra Starship - "The Church of Hot Addiction"
7. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - "A Bottle of Buckie"
8. The (International) Noise Conspiracy - "The Subversive Sound"
9. Regina Spektor - "On The Radio"
10. Heartless Bastards - "New Resolution"
11. Bad Religion - "New Dark Ages"
12. Bayside - "Thankfully"
13. Tegan and Sara - "Back In Your Head"
14. Ambulance Ltd. - "Heavy Lifting"
15. Dinosaur Jr. - "Been There All The Time"
16. Arctic Monkeys - "Cigarette Smoker Fiona"
17. Hot Hot Heat - "My Best Friend"
18. Tapes n Tapes - "Crazy Eights"
19. Silversun Pickups - "Well Thought Out Twinkles"
20. Prince - "Guitar"
21. The Secret Machines - "Lighting Blue Eyes"
22. Radiohead - "Bodysnatchers"
23. The Arcade Fire - "The Well and The Lighthouse"

This mix is either early or late depending on your perspective. Early for the week of 11/23, but late for the week of 11/16....

But it's here and you'll enjoy, promise. This is the second disc of a two-disc set and features some new stuff to the weekendmixtape collection, new songs from artists we haven't covered yet and some new stuff from old favorites.

So let's begin.

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Saul Williams released an album, produced by and featuring Trent Reznor called The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust. Full of Saul's trademark wit and Trent's trademark digital destruction, the album bores into your brain like a powerdrill. "Convict Colony", one of the first tracks, does not disappoint in this regard. Great way to start a mix.

Era Vulgaris, the new Queens of the Stone Age record, translates to "Common Era" and not "Vulgar Era", as I originally thought. Either way, it's a brash, bad-ass album full of punishing cuts like "Battery Acid" - all stomping drums, fat bass and raw guitar noise.

The song "Conquest" from The White Stripes' album Icky Thump sounds like the theme to a Grindhouse-era spaghetti western - horn stabs, tango beat and Zepplin-esque guitar included. It's Sergio Leone meets George Romero in a barroom brawl and it's the second best song on this album.

For a year or so, I ignored the new Belle & Sebastian album, The Life Pursuit, because it wasn't quite the same B&S I was used to. But songs like "The Blues are Still Blue" still have the lyrical barbs and the charming twee-pop sound, just with more guitar. And I always say nothing beats adding guitar.

I know it's the second or third time I've featuring Kings of Leon on a mix for this site, but seriously, Because of the Times is a contender for Album Of The Year. Songs like the chugging, bass-driven "Charmer" and many others on the album, stake out new territory for these former southern-rock-by-way-of-The-Strokes revivalists. Instead of slick New York cool, the lead singer screeches and howls, the bass player takes the fuzz to 11.5 and the record takes off.

You can't deny the pure pop-punk energy of Cobra Starship. Seriously. "Church of Hot Addiction" from the album While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets is a blast of fun - chant-along choruses, references to GHB, slick beats - that I can't stop playing in my car.

Ted Leo of Ted Leo & The Pharmacists loves him some Cheap Trick. Most of his songs from the oxymoronicly titled album Living With The Living pay a direct homage to his favorite rock band. However, this cut, "A Bottle of Buckie" goes all Irish on us with its acoustic guitars, mandolins and other references to his family history. An overlooked classic on an album filled with classics.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy, the reformed version of Refused, minus all the screaming metalness that made Refused awesome, is actually pretty damned cool in its own right. "The Subversive Sound" from their album Survival Sickness stomps and rocks, as it should.

Russian chanteuse Regina Spektor has been a favorite of many for years, but it took my friend Steffy to really push her into my consciousness. Now I'm regretting not listening for so long. I finally caught up, just as "Fidelity" hit the radio and took off. The album Begin to Hope is a funny, freaky collection of songs like "On The Radio", which seem to have no direction other than to tell silly stories or to experiment with sound. Which is just fine with me.

I can't remember who introduced me to Heartless Bastards, but I thank them. I'm kinda tired of the Karen O-esque ladies and the Liz Phair pop queens and the L7 screamers that dominate most female-fronted bands. But Heartless Bastards' Erika Wennerstrom is a woman who sounds like she's not aping someone else's style. "New Resolution" comes from their first album, Stairs and Elevators.

Bad Religion rule you. 25+ years as punk rock gods and they're still going strong. New Maps of Hell is a fireball of an album, almost as bristling and furious as their first. "New Dark Ages" is a typical polemical rant against the status quo, warning against the Apocalypse. How can you complain when they have been doing the same thing just as well for decades?

I always thought Bayside were like Alkaline Trio meets Smoking Popes. And on their third album The Walking Wounded, they prove my hypothesis again - mixing up emo songs like "Thankfully" with a vat of pure dark imagery.

The return of Tegan and Sara was a great thing for me. I had nearly worn myself out on their previous album, So Jealous, so when The Con came out I jumped on it doublequick. And it doesn't disappoint one bit. "Back In Your Head" is a fine example of T&S' style, twin vocals, pop instrumentation and lyrics that stick.

The Ambulance LTD album LP has been sitting around collecting dust and I don't know why. I love indie rock and these guys do it well, with swelling songs like "Heavy Lifting" and many others filling their ouvre I can't see why they would give up the game anytime soon.

First the Pixies got back together, but just for a tour. Then, my real heroes Dinosaur Jr announced their re-formation. Then, they put a new album out! Yeah, Beyond, is no Where You Been?, but it's a hell of a good try. Songs like "Been There All The Time" approach the 1994-era sound as closely as they possibly can

The hype machine was all over Artic Monkeys for a year or so. I finally took the plunge and found strong songs with good hooks and hella lyrics. I took a cut from their first album, appropriately titled Who The Fuck Are The Artic Monkeys?, "Cigarette Smoker Fiona". Sample lyrics - "Well-to-do girls in stilletos aren't something to fear."

Hot Hot Heat were top of my list for a long time. And then they put out Happiness Ltd... Not a bad album, but not all that great by their own standards. "My Best Friend" sits atop the best of this middling record.

Another critical darling, Tapes n Tapes, was another that I slept on. The Loon is filled with songs like "Crazy Eights", Pixies-esque numbers with indie rock cred written all over. Their praise in this case is well deserved.

Hooray for the return of fuzzed-out spacey rock jams! Silversun Pickups rock in the classic My Bloody Valentine/Starflyer 59 style (aka "Shoegaze"). The album Carnanvas is a blast to listen to. Catch them live at The Pageant in St. Louis with my friends Stella Mora this Christmas! Oh, and enjoy "Well Thought Out Twinkles" too.

People called Planet Earth Prince's "return". Which confused me, because the same people gave favorable reviews for Musicology and 3121, which came well before... But I guess what they mean is "return to form", which is very true of this album. Grinding rock songs fill the gaps between funk jams and dance numbers, making this a very 1999-era Prince album. "Guitar" is a loving ode to the newfound instrument of choice, wherein he tells his lady, "I love you baby/ But not like I love my guitar" before launching into another smoking solo. P, I think she'll understand.

Since they brought the retro-rock a couple of years before Wolfmother, I tend to give The Secret Machines more credit. Their second album, Ten Silver Drops, is not getting a lot of ink and it's a damn shame. It's filled with great songs like "Lightening Blue Eyes" and should not be overlooked.

In Rainbows got industry tongues wagging because of Radiohead's unique retail strategy. But what should have turned heads is their daring experimentation. They also bring their guitars back for rock burners like "Bodysnatchers", easily their heaviest song since "Electioneering" off of Ok Computer. Adding guitar noise to their already heady audio soup makes for a bristling experience not to be missed.

The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible is also a contender for Album of The Year. Pretty pop songs like "The Well and The Lighthouse" (among many many others) bring the classic E-street-era Springstein jam and the freaky folk rock of Neutral Milk Hotel together at last. Pop bands of the world, take notes.

Smash Your Head Part 1

1.Girl Talk - “Smash Your Head”
2.My Chemical Romance - “How I Disappear”
3.The Strokes - “Red Light”
4.OK Go - “A Million Ways”
5.The Apples In Stereo - “Sunndal Song”
6.Veruca Salt - “Save You”
7.Timbaland & The Hives - “Throw It On Me”
8.+44 - “Baby Come On”
9.Social Distortion - “It Coulda Been Me”
10.The Pipettes - “One Night Stand”
11.Pedro The Lion - “Discretion”
12.Living Things - “Monsters of Man”
13.No Knife - “The Red Bedroom”
14.Linkin Park - “Bleed It Out”
15.The Automatic - “Monster”
16.Rev. Horton Heat - “Revival”
17.The Start - “Blood On My Hands”
18.The Grates - “19-20-20”
19.The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - “Don't Know How to Party”
20.Broken Social Scene - “Fire Eye'd Boy”
21.Glue - “Beat Beat Beat”
22.Feist - “I Feel It All”
23.Flogging Molly - “Seven Deadly Sins”
24.Tori Amos - “Teenage Hustling”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

A relatively new mix, with some new songs by old favorites. This is part one of a two-part mix, because I haven't made a "recent additions" mix in quite some time. There was originally going to be a third disc, but I threw most of those songs out.

We start with Girl Talk, a DJ with mad skills and deep crates who just wants us to have some fun. Welding Fall Out Boy to MC Lyte, Elton John to Notorious BIG and many many more, Girl Talk's semi-legal album Night Ripper is bound to be the Grey Album of 2007. The kicking Nirvana sample (from "Scentless Apprentice") lends the entire drum scheme for the second half of "Smash Your Head" - appropriate as Girl Talk have been known to cover the song at live shows.

The Black Parade is an exemplary album for emo stalwarts My Chemical Romance, who managed to not only avoid the sophomore slump after Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, but managed to outshine their previous release. "How I Disappear" is but one of many examples of this - all rock guitars, Freddy Mercury vocal acrobatics and dark lyrics.

People, including myself until recently, overlooked The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth. Maybe it was the over-cooked single "Juicebox", maybe it was the weird style changes... or maybe their audience had grown fickle. Either way, the record is stacked with songs like "Red Light", which have the classic Strokes sound plus a little something extra.

Those treadmill-dancing maniacs in OK Go do one thing they do it well : they craft rocking pop songs that have hooks to spare. "A Million Ways", which also has a choreographed dance video, is a sultry, sexy tune that slinks along on that tender bassline and the sparse jangle of them guitars. The rest of Oh No is as good, if not better than this.

No one changes styles like The Apples In Stereo. They manage to keep themselves full of hooks and pop charm on the album New Magnetic Wonder, which trades The Velocity of Sound's fuzzy punk for a more art-rock approach. "Sunndal Song" sounds old and new at the same time, just like the record as a whole.

After Nina Gordon left Veruca Salt for her solo career, things got mighty heavy. "Save You", from the EP Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things, manages to bridge the gap between old and new Veruca Salt. Which is harder than it sounds, with half the creative team behind the songs now gone.

Fewer people have had years as good as Timbaland is having on 07. Huge hits from his produced acts, Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, encouraged him to release a record full of one-offs and oddball gems entitled Shock Value. "Throw It On Me", a collaboration with Swedish rockers The Hives, is one such track - a driving guitar anthem buried in Timba's production with a thrusting chorus and goofy raps for verses.

When Blink 182 split up, the two bands that emerged, Box Car Racer (now Angels and Airwaves) and +44. The better of the two, +44, fill their songs with lyrical barbs and sharp hooks. From the album When Your Heart Stops Beating, "Baby, Come On" starts soft and ends heavy, like all good songs.

I haven't seen Social Distortion in about 10 years, but I remember each and every time they came through St. Louis. The release of Social Distortion in 1990 is a big deal to me, because without that record, who knows where I would have ended up. "It Coulda Been Me", with the laundry list of possible outcomes for people - prison, marriage, drug addiction, suicide - was a spiritual kindred to Jim Carroll's "People Who Died", both potent songs about the times.

The Pipettes are a charming trio of English ladies who use old-school pop music to deliver modern ideas. In "One Night Stand", and all over We Are The Pipettes, they sing girl-group songs that The Supremes wouldn't have ever dreamt of.

It's funny that Achille's Heel, the most recent album from Pedro The Lion, may be his own Achilles Heel. Songs like "Discretion" take the Pedro template and add more guitars, pop song structure and a bit more verve, making something fresh.

A lot of ink was spilled on Living Things, a St. Louis band who got dropped from a big name label for their anti-Bush stage antics. But few were really ready for the album, Ahead of The Lions. It's a blast of Iggy Pop and Motorhead, full-throttle old school rock. "Monsters of Man" is one of the fuzziest, grungiest examples. (There is a horn, buried somewhere in there...)

I had totally forgotten about No Knife, until I found my copy of Riot For Romance buried in a desk drawer. And I'm really glad I did. These guys have hooks to spare, lyrics that cut and arrangements that are often rivaling those of art-rock gods Minus The Bear. They've been around for 10+ years (1995 was their first cd, Drunk On The Moon.) and you should most definitely check them out - starting with "The Red Bedroom".

Righteous handclaps? Check. Vitriolic rhymes? Double check. "Bleed It Out" from Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight continues to impress - their style gets flipped on its hygenic head for this raw clap-along rock number.

Apparently, a song my band does sounds like the intro to "Monster" by The Automatic. Thanks to Chad for hooking me up with this record, Not Accepted Anywhere. Their songs are excellent rock numbers with a dense echo-ey guitar and a disco beat. Awesome.

2007 was the year of the Return of the Reverend. Horton Heat, that is. The appropriately titled Revival continues the Rev. Horton Heat legend, filled with great tunes and plenty of rockabilly attitude. The title track, "Revival" chugs along on its own energy and smolders in its own ashes towards the end. Classic Rev.

My friend Ken introduced me to The Start in 1999, but I had since forgotten about them. Then I saw the cover art for the album Ciao, Baby! and it came back to me. "Blood On My Hands" is a great example of the dance-y rock songs that make The Start so excellent.

The Grates, lead by elastic-voiced charmer Patience Hodgson, is fun, bouncy music with shades of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and other New York bands. On Gravity Won't Get You High, the guitars are sharp and angular, the vocals are yelped, moaned and squealed, the songs are ridiculous and the overall result is amusing rock music - songs like "19-20-20" included.

A lot of people I know hate on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones for their successful albums and pop radio hits. They completely ignore the fact that these ska-core devils pre-date alot of their contemporaries and have been crafting ska/rock songs for decades. Including "Don't Know How to Party" from the EP of the same name.

Falling victim to the dreaded Sophomore Slump, Broken Social Scene's second record, Broken Social Scene, is doing miserably on the charts while getting excellent reviews. And those reviewers couldn't be more right. "Fire Eye'd Boy" and a handful of others from the album, deserve to be revered for the messy pop gems that they are.

Chicago hip-hop has been and remains my favorite strain. Adeem, now part of the 3-piece called Glue, is a breathless, big-brained flow maniac. On songs like "Beat Beat Beat" he crams words in like he's going to die any minute. It's that urgency that drives the album Catch as Catch Can and their previous record Seconds Away.

Canadian pop singers don't come any better than Feist. Pretty songs with delicate vocals are the norm on Feist's second album The Reminder and on songs like "I Feel It All". RIYL Regina Spektor, Cat Power.

How do you resist a raucous pirate-themed anthem from Irish punks Flogging Molly? You can't, you won't, just give up and rock out to "Seven Deadly Sins". The newest from Flogging Molly's massive Miles From Home, a solid slab of traditional Irish music wrapped in punk rock's tattered rags.

Tori Amos once said, "I guess you go too far, when pianos try to be guitars." It's appropriate then that "Teenage Hustling" features a real guitar and Tori's signature piano. Rock songs about on Ms. Amos' new record, American Doll Posse, each sung from a fractured perspective. This one from the vantage point of a reformed teenage ho, slinks and slides all over the place with its grinding guitar, stomping chorus and Tori's jagged glass vocals.

School's In

1. Sparta - Hiss The Villain
2. Spoon - Johnathan Fisk
3. The Impossibles - Connecticut
4. Jawbreaker - I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both
5. Me First & The Gimme Gimmes - Save The Best For Last
6. Thrice - All That's Left
7. Saves The Day - Anywhere With You
8. Adair - Alone In The City of Robots
9. The Get Up Kids - Martyr Me
10. Cursive - A Gentleman Caller
11. Ryan Adams - Wish You Were Here
12. Vinnie & The Stardust - Quesadilla/Walk Around Naked
13. Rhett Miller - World Inside The World
14. Glassjaw - Trailer Park Jesus
15. Prince - Dear Mr. Man
16. Elliott Smith - Single File
17. Kenna - Sunday After You
18. Le Tigre - Eau de Bedroom Dancing
19. Self - Rusted & Used
20. Metric - Siamese Cities
21. The Black Box - The Art of Driving
22. Beastie Boys - Hey F*** You!
23. J. Live - School's In

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

An old mix from about 2004, showcasing some of the "new" sounds I was into then. A nice time capsule from that period - Prince's Musicology had just come out, Glassjaw hadn't quite broken up yet, Self was still going to release Ornament and Crime, Elliott Smith had just died ... these things happen, I guess.

Sparta!! The brawny rock side to The Mars Volta's proggy freakouts, Texas rock band Sparta start us off with one of the best tracks on Porcelain, their 2nd album.

An unreleased Spoon track, via a b-side for a single that didn't go anywhere, "Johnathan Fisk" pumps along at a chugging pace, with wicked little lyrical barbs like, "religion don't mean a thing / it's just another way to be right wing"

The Impossibles used to be the 2nd cousin to Voodoo Glow Skulls. Then, on their 2nd album, Enter/Return, they decided they wanted to be Weezer instead. Not a bad idea, as tracks like "Connecticut" prove - they've got the chops and the 'tude.

Emo legends Jawbreaker were on my mind at the time, having just heard Dear You for the first time. "I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both" is one of the greatest songs about a love/hate relationship written in the 90s.

Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, the world's best cover band, take on Vanessa Williams' tepid ballad by throttling up the guitars and jokingly opening with a Sex Pistols riff. "Save The Best For Last" was a huge radio hit when I was a teen and I'm glad someone had the balls to fulfill its potential. Off the album Take A Break, their collection of songs written by black folks.

I was really impressed when I first saw Thrice, opening for Dashboard Confessional (?). The hype was big at the time and the album The Artist In The Ambulance did some huge numbers for their 2nd or 3rd record. "All That's Left" is proof that sometimes hype is right on the money.

Saves The Day had just delivered a sub-par CD, In Reverie, whose songs were blander, but more adult than their previous 2 albums, Through Being Cool and Stay What You Are. But the lead off track, "Anywhere With You" still rocks the house.

Adair used to be Disturbing The Peace, before Ludacris' lawyers got a hold of them. Turns out Luda and friends wanted to start a rap clique called Disturbing Tha Peace, so the St. Louis natives were shit out of luck. They released their first EP,The Permanent Bruise, which features 5 awesome tracks, including "Alone In The City Of The Robots".

The Get-Up Kids had just released Guilt Show, what would become their final album. People who loved the 16-year-old teens who wrote Four Minute Mile were out of touch with the adults who wrote this album and songs like "Martyr Me." Which is a damn shame. As far as final albums go, it's a killer.

Omaha, NE had been blowing up lately : The Faint got to tour with No Doubt, Bright Eyes was being touted as the next Dylan, Rilo Kiley were getting national props. Cursive refined their Fugazi-meets-Jawbreaker aesthetic by adding classical instrumentation like pianos, violins and cellos to their album The Ugly Organ. "A Gentleman Caller", whose title refers to a section in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie", is a noisy blast of angst.

The album lloR n kcoR (known to some as Rock n Roll) had just been put out and Ryan Adams was on everyone's mind. "Wish You Were Here" is a simple, foul-mouthed rock number - count the times he says "fuck" - with a heart of gold.

I had just re-discovered the joy of the bargain bin. For a mere $5, I picked up the first (and only, I believe) album from Vinnie and The Stardusters, Novelty Music For Casual Sex. At the time, I described them as the "punk-rock Weird Al", which may or may not be true. What is true is that, "Quesadilla/Walk Around Naked", this riffing on the timeless "Que Sera Sera" and The Beatles' minor hit "Paperback Writer", is a goofy, fun sing-along.

Apparently, Rhett Miller wasn't writing the songs he wanted to write. As lead singer of alt-country stalwarts Old 97s, Rhett crafted pretty, heartbreaking songs of lust and remorse. Strangely enough, on his first solo album The Instigator, he does exactly the same thing. Weird, huh? "World Inside The World" is one of the only songs I know of to reference Dom DeLilo's genius novel "Underworld".

I had seen Glassjaw a few years previous with Deftones. Even though the mic was cutting out, lead singer Daryl Palumbo was a ball of furious anger - whipping himself with the microphone at one point. But what I didn't realize is the doped-out flipside to that energy. There's a few tracks on their 2nd album Worship and Tribute that sound like this : heavy, dripping with atmosphere and lyrical barbs.


Musicology was on everyone's Top 10 lists in '03 and for reasons like this. Prince was enjoying his re-naming after the many years of being The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, his popularity was at an upswing and his last tour had just sold out every date. True to form, nothing could stop him, not even figuring out how to make an anti-war song funky as hell. "Dear Mr. Man" is just that song, boiling hot guitar solo and all.

Elliott Smith had died the year before and mix tapes were constantly referencing his catalog. This exemplary track comes from Elliott Smith, one of my favorite albums and the first I'd ever bought. "Single File" is his condemnation of the 'normal' people that he felt apart from.

My friend Ken told me that Kenna would be huge. It still hasn't happened yet, but his debut album is a riot of sound. Produced by members of hitmakers The Neptunes, it should have been a huge smash. Legal troubles, label politics and many other problems plagued the album until it was all but forgotten by the music press. Which is a shame because New Sacred Cow is a revelation. "Sunday After You" with its squeaky beat and funky sound is a distillation of that album's feel.

Ah, electroclash. A movement that never went anywhere, with the exception of Peaches, who just had a guest spot on a Pink album... For Kathleen Hanna bouncing from hardcore riotgrrl punk (Bikini Kill) to electroclash (Le Tigre) may not seem like a logical step, but it is. Something about electroclash was totally DIY and right up a young punk's alley. The self-titled debut on Hanna's own label, Mr. Lady, is a bouncy, thrashy funhouse. "Eau De Bedroom Dancing" is the archetype of the Le Tigre sound.

Comin' straight outta Tennessee, Matt Mahaffey, A.K.A. Self, is a one-man music machine. He creates these bizarre pop tunes out of things that should not be pop music. An unreleased single, "Rusted & Used" comes to us from his fansite (which used to be selfies.net, but is now mattmahaffey.com).


Someone please give Emily Haines a medal for being awesome. As lead singer for Metric, she belts out these wicked songs that grab you and take your brains through your ears. Lyrically, she's all that & some chips, too. Sample lyric from "Siamese Cities" : "When you walk, you move like Moses / When you look, you look like Red Roses." This comes via an early EP called Static Anonymity.

I don't remember who Black Box Recorder (listed on the enclosed CoverArt files, incorrectly, as The Black Box) are, but someone told me if I liked Human League that I would love them. I do like Human League (almost to a fault), but they never scored any points with me. With one exception - this, the bracingly tender "The Art of Driving" from the album The Facts of Life.

[Note : Sometimes songs appear on a list I wrote by hand a handful of years ago and so it goes on the website "as is". I make no guarantees to accuracy until I start writing the track-by-track reviews/overviews. Be warned!]

From the 5 Boroughs, the second New York namecheck album from The Beastie Boys didn't quite take off like Paul's Boutique did. But that's OK, because their goofy rhymes and funky sounds make for a delicious standard - their rapping, especially on "Hey Fuck You", is like Mac N Cheese, which is not the most complex or tasty dish, but it's comforting and dependable. (I also am in love with the cringe-worthy line "Which one of you schnooks took my rhyme book?")

J. Live is rap's Rodney Dangerfield. He can't seem to get respect from the backpackers, who think he's too thug and he can't get no props from the thugs who think he's holier-than-thou. The split is readily apparent on "School's In" the last half of the first disk in the 2-part collection Always Has Been/Always Will Be, which is a genius blending of the two sub-cultures in hip-hop. Sure, he writes some cheeseball lines ("write a jam that you can swerve ta / over tracks so fat the nickname Big Bertha") but he also delivers some real zingers ("cuz when a mouthfull don't equal an eyefull, an earfull sound awful") that make you wonder... what if?

You're So Contagious

The download link won't be ready for this one until Friday, sorry for the inconvenience.




1. Chromeo - Momma's Boy
2. Nellie McKay - Mother of Pearl
3. The Fratellis - Flathead
4. Afghan Whigs - My Enemy
5. Motion City Soundtrack - Last Night
6. Dashboard Confessional - Fever Dreams
7. Stars - Bitches In Tokyo
8. Against Me! - Stop!
9. Aesop Rock - Coffee (feat. John Darnelle of the Mountain Goats)
10. Rilo Kiley - The Moneymaker
11. Minus The Bear - Knights
12. Men, Women & Children - Vowels (AEIOU Nothing)
13. Better Than Ezra - r3wind
14. The Sounds - Ego
15. Amy Winehouse - Me & Mr. Jones
16. Styles of Beyond - Be Your Dog
17. Spoon - You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
18. Mika - Grace Kelly
19. Flyleaf - Cassie
20. Elvis Costello - 20% Amnesia
21. Lawrence Arms - Overheated
22. Plastilina Mosh - Millionare
23. Straylight Run - The Miracle That Never Came
24. Pink - Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)
25. They Might Be Giants - The Cap'm


Whew. A 25 track mix that took quite some trimming, might I add. It was originally 2 discs... I don't like uploading that much at once, so some songs had to go. I tried to make the mix live up to its name : each song had to be infectious and memorable. Also, I placed a limit : each song had to be uploaded into my iTunes from the last 2 months. Here's what I came out with...

We kick things off with Canadian weirdos Chromeo and a song about Oedipal obsessions (and Elektra obessions, too...). On the album Fancy Footwork, these guys really bring the 80s back in the worst and best ways.

Genius songstress Nellie McKay returns to form with an intro to a musical that never came to be, entitled Obligatory Villagers. "Mother of Pearl" is a sarcastic bitchslap to proto-feminist detractors who didn't care for McKay's first album and it's blatant misogyny.

My friend Amy introduced me to the old-school sound of The Fratellis and I thank her for that. The album Costello Music is full of the shout-along kind of music The Faces and The Kinks used to make.

Listening to Afghan Whigs' Black Love almost 13 years after its release doesn't lessen its power. I was initially going to review this for my other music blog, but I left it in the hands of a new member. But the album returned to my iTunes and I've gotten obsessed again. "My Enemy" is but one hook-laden example of the Whigs' musical style.

Continuing their neo-emo/new-wave journey with the album Even If It Kills Me, Motion City Soundtrack lay down some wild tracks into musical territory they haven't yet covered. "Last Night" follows some of the old MCS formula, but pushes the boundaries.

Dashboard Confessional had a bad two years. Dusk and Summer proved too emo for the hardcore fans (like me). So they return to their acoustic guitar, one-man act with the new album The Shade of Poison Trees. Glorious sing-alongs like "Fever Dreams" punctuate the classic Dashboard style.

Stars are from Canada. They are weird. This is not abnormal for Canadian bands. The last 2 albums, Heart and Set Yourself On Fire were critical successes, but were a bit byzantine for some music fans (unlike me). In Your Bedroom After The War brings things to a more pop-based stance, which suits them well.


Against Me! make use of punctuation in their name, but came way before Panic! At The Disco and right after Godspeed! You Black Emperor. Their album New Wave is getting huge critical love and is at the top of many critics' "Best of '07" lists. And rightly so. Classic stomping songs like "Stop!" and others bring the punk excitement of their live show to the record.


John Darnelle is the name of the guy who calls himself Mountain Goats. Aesop Rock is... well, Aesop Rock. Together, they mash out one of the best (and last) tracks on Aes' exemplary None Shall Pass album. "Coffee" is a paranoid mess, perfect for Monday mornings.

At first, I was going to make a Fleetwood Mac about Rilo Kiley, but then I realized that several magazines had already done it. But that doesn't make it any less true. Under The Blacklight, the new album, ditches the tried-and-true Rilo Kiley sound, which buried itself in alt-country twang, and replaces it with pop music. Quite a turnaround, but somehow it works. "The Moneymaker" shines above the rest as an instant classic.

One of my favorites from 2005, Minus The Bear return with their new album Planet of Ice. They've ditched the goofy song titles and stick to their guitar/keyboard tricks. "Knights" has the clicky awesomeness of a Thom Yorke solo track but with the trademark Minus The Bear swelling guitars. Classic.

Men Women & Children are a disco/new-wave band from New York (though Nick is from St. Louis!). My band, The Orbz, opened for them at Pop's in St. Louis and I went out the next day to buy their self-titled album. "Vowels" is an awesome song, the last one on the album and it includes the best shout-along chorus on this whole mix.

Taking myself on a trip back to 1998, when my Mazda 323's tape deck was all I had. I had 3 tapes, Less Than Jake's Losing Streak, Paul Simon's Graceland and Better Than Ezra's Friction, Baby. This song, "r3wind", rocks in a way Better Than Ezra haven't done in a while. Annoying that they went pop and got a hit and then never returned to the guitar-based jangle that makes songs like this work.

Swedish new-wavers The Sounds can't decide wether they want to ABBA or Blondie. Splitting the difference between the two, "Ego" from the album Dying To Say This To You, brings it all home.

Ah, Amy Winehouse. What can be said about her fucked up personal life that hasn't been splashed across the tabloids already? Aside from her coked-out nightmare life, her album is an amazing neo-soul discovery. I hope she stays alive long enough to make another album like Back to Black and another song like "Me & Mr. Jones"

Linkin Park rapper Mike Shinoda, via his hip-hop alter ego Fort Minor, introduced me to Styles of Beyond. He's a quality rapper with one hell of a flow and a big musical background. "Be Your Dog" (which samples The Stooges song of the same name) from the album Megadef is a monster track that demands your head-nodding attention.

Spoon! No longer just the battle cry of comic book superhero The Tick, Spoon the band became huge this past year after the soundtrack to the film "Stranger Than Fiction", which contained instrumental versions of Spoon tracks, was released. The new album, titled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, shows off Spoon's wide musical talents. On "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb", they rock a straightforward number into the ground.

The spiritual cousin to neo-disco artists like Scissor Sisters (even going so far as to open for them on their US tour), Mika flashes and flairs his way through his debut, Life In Cartoon Motion with awesome songs like the lead-off "Grace Kelly"

My co-worker Matt had been blasting Flyleaf's self-titled debut album for weeks before I realized they were more than an Evanescence rip-off. "Cassie" is especially banging, a bass-heavy metal song that grabs your ears, due to the unique verbal mannerism of their lead singer.

Of the many hats Elvis Costello has worn over the years, none fits better than aggravated rocker. On Brutal Youth, an early-90s record, he brings the heat on songs like "20 % Amnesia" ... a seemingly direct response to peoples' hatred of his more experimental albums.

Chicago punk rockers Lawrence Arms are often overlooked in favor of scene stalwarts like Alkaline Trio and Fall Out Boy, but they do the same rockin' job. "Overheated", with its drink-up chorus, echoes similar sentiments that are all over the album Cocktails & Dreams.

Ok, what the christ is up with Plastilina Mosh? I've had their album Tasty for only a month or so now, but I'm still trying to figure out exactly what they are. Half-singing, half-rapping, half-English, half-Spanish ... bizarre-o stuff, brothers. "Millionare" is one of the more straight-forward tracks contained therein.

Straylight Run, named after a chapter in a William Gibson novel, are the side project of a guy from Taking Back Sunday. Replacing the bracing grit and emo screams of that band with piano ballads and beautiful songs, The Needles, The Space, their 2nd album, makes pretty music out of desperation. "The Miracle That Never Came" is an up-tempo example of this phenomenon.

Don't hate on me because I like Pink. Her songwriters are good, her songs have pop venom and her lyrics are funny. "Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)" from I'm Not Dead is just another example of why I'm digging it. Take it or leave it, this song will bury itself in your brain.

And finally, They Might Be Giants suddenly foudn themselves rocking like the John Henry days on their new album The Else. "The Cap'm" brings the usual; goofy lyrics, high-energy songs and lots of fun.

Declare IndepenDANCE

The first mix I present to you, the people is one that I'm very fond of.



First the tracklist :

1. Bjork / Delcare Independence (4:40)
2. Brand New / I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Light (3:57)
3. Morrissey / You Have Killed Me (3:08)
4. Marilyn Manson / Putting Holes In Happiness (4:31)
5. The Honorary Title / Radiate (3:04)
6. Nine Inch Nails / The Great Destroyer (3:17)
7. MC Frontalot / Livin' at the corner of Dude and Catastrophe (3:44)
8. Underoath / There Could Be Nothing After This (3:26)
9. Linkin Park / Given Up (3:11)
10. Wired All Wrong / 15 Minutes (2:54)
11. Bloc Party / Waiting For The 7.18 (4:15)
12. The Rakes / We Danced Together (3:53)
13. The Streets / Lets Push Things Forward (3:51)
14. The Pillows / Advice (2:15)
15. Kings Of Leon / On Call (3:21)
16. Clann Zu / Crashing to the Floor (3:44)
17. Modest Mouse / We've Got Everything (3:42)
18. Various - Elliott Smith / All Cleaned Out (2:57)
19. Pretty Girls Make Graves / Pyrite Pedestal (3:28)
20. Ima Robot / The Beat (3:37)
21. The Shins / Phantom Limb (4:50)
22. Electric Six / Pink Flamingos (2:42)

Then the download link : CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Then, the analysis.

We start with a whopper of a track, a new Bjork song called "Declare Independence" off the album Volta, probably her best work since Homogenic.

Then it's on to a sweeping emo track from Brand New. I didn't care for them at first, but their lyrics stick like barbs and the songs just plain rock.

Morrissey is up next, with a song from his most recent record Ringleader of the Tormentors, "You Have Killed Me." Classic Mozz with some really awesome string arrangements and beautiful guitars.

And then, comes Mr. Manson out of nowhere. The new album Eat Me, Drink Me, with its Lewis Carroll-referencing title, peons to love, both lost and newfound. T. Rex-esque rock numbers and distinct style is a big, huge honking departure from Manson's previous record, Golden Age of Grotesque. "Putting Holes In Happiness", I read in a magazine, is about Rachel Evan Wood, Manson's current paramour. Yummy.

The Honorary Title had a great first record and a mediocre follow-up. This is from that album, Scream and Light Up The Sky, but it sounds like it belongs on Anything But The Truth, their awesome debut. This is about the best song on this middling disk. Tsk, tsk.

Trent Reznor (aka Nine Inch Nails) returns to the dark side with Year Zero, a concept album about... something. Does the concept behind the album really matter when NIN returns to dark, deadly form with songs like "The Great Destroyer"? Watch for the digital drum breakdown that dissolves into ear-splitting noise at the finale. Classic NIN.

And now for something completely different : Jokester rapper MC Frontalot teams up with "one-man band" Brad Sucks for "Living At The Corner Of Dude and Catastrophe" from the genius sophomore disc Secrets From The Future. This song was written for a Songfight, a weekly competition wherein participants are given a song title and then write a song within 7 days. It won, obviously.

Underoath make screamy bad-ass music. That is all. Pick up They're Only Chasing Safety and Define The Great Line. I usually don't go in for scream-o or any thing ending with -o or starting with scream... but these guys are kickin'

Linkin Park really surprised me with Minutes After Midnight... It was a very real departure for them and I think it really works in their favor. You can only make so many versions of Hybrid Theory or Meteora... "Given Up" is the first track (after the obligatory "intro" track they like to throw in) on this very different album.

"Supergroup" is a term that gets used too often, although in this case it might actually apply. Wired All Wrong is composed of Self and God Lives Underwater, both one-man-bands... And it shows. Their album Break Out The Battletapes is filled with stuttering guitars, fat beats and desperate songs about the price of fame, like this number "15 Minutes".

Brit rockers Bloc Party took their 2nd album and came up with more somber meditative songs than on their debut, Silent Alarms. Weekend In The City, the follow-up, is jammed with a mix of those high-energy jams and slow build-ups like this track "Waiting For The 7.18"

These other Brits, The Rakes, rule your American asses with their sharp, angular dance-punk. Ten New Messages, their second album, is filled with poppy, dancy numbers like "We Danced Together"

It seems I'm on a British theme, eh? British "rapper" (and I use that term very loosely) The Streets speaks over beats on "Let's Push Things Forward" from Original Pirate Material.

Now we travel way across the sea to the land of Japan, where The Pillows have been rocking for decades. Their albums do moderate business, but I first heard of them as the soundtrack for the anime "FLCL" (pronounced 'Fooly Kooly'). This version of "Advice" is from the record Happy Bivouac.

Kings of Leon have changed in a big, huge way since their first two albums, Youth & Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak. They've gotten better, deeper and more ... interesting, to say the least. "On Call" is from the new album Because Of The Times and exemplifies their new style, less flashy Strokes-esque noise, more everything else.

Clann Zu broke up after the album Black Flags and Bandages, but their songs still resonate. The chilling "Crashing To The Floor" rings with acoustic guitars, violins and crushing drums.

People hate on the new Modest Mouse album, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, even though, or because, it features Johnny Marr from The Smiths on guitar... To me, a long time Modest Mouse fan, it's so surprise that Mr. Brock & company continue on the same musical groove started on Moon & Antarctica and continuing on through this song, "We've Got Everything".

"All Cleaned Out" by Elliott Smith comes from the posthumous release New Moon .This recently unearthed gem reveals another facet of the many that we know already about the late Elliott Smith.

Like a few other bands on this mix, Pretty Girls Make Graves have done some major overhauls to their style. In their case, most of the songs on Elan Vital don't quite click, but this one, "Pyrite Pedestal" and a few others hit the sweet spot.

Ima Robot are the most fun you can have without being legally drunk. Monument To The Masses is a jump up, shout out blast of musical fun. "The Beat" is no exception.

There's that scene in "Garden State" where Natalie Portman tells Zach Brapf that The Shins will change his life. I don't necessarily think they're that good, but their albums kill, especially Wincing The Night Away. "Phantom Limb" chugs along on a buzzing bassline and pretty sweeping guitars that provide a nice perch for the vocals to grab ahold of.

Electric Six have put out 2 fantastic records in the past 2 years - the underrated Senor Smoke and the over-rated Switzerland. "Pink Flamingos" is from the latter, one of the less offensive tracks - other song titles include "I Buy The Drugs" and "Chocolate Pope"...

And that wraps it up. Hope you enjoy.

Hello.

My name is Jason and I love mixtapes/CDs.

This blog exists for 2 reasons : 1.) it didn't quite fit in with Desert Island Records, my other music blog and 2.) because i feel like it.

Every weekend (or even more often than that) we will post a mix CD playlist, usually with an accompanying Mp3 download link. The mixes are available free of charge and will come with printable cover art.

Stay tuned for our first mix.