Bling Bling 2 : The Blingening

Bling Bling Part 2 : The Blingening

The title requires some explaining. Back in the day, before I started doing this mixtape thing on the internet, in public, I would arrive at my friend Ken's house with a new CD, we'd drive around, smoke cheap cigarettes and just hang.

One of my favorite mixes was called Bling Bling -- which itself was a relatively new phenomenon in rap music at the time. I found that CD and was amazed at how dated some of the stuff on it sounded, so I gave it an upgrade. For example, the Toadies had just put out their second album, Hell Below Stars Above, when I first made the original Bling Bling...

Recently, they put out their third album. It's been that long.

So, this is Part 2. I hardly ever do that, but this mix is that good.

So on with it, eh?





1. Ian Moore - The Literary Kind
2. Phantom Planet - Too Much Too Often
3. Stereo MCs - Sun
4. Toadies - So Long, Lovely Eyes
5. The Cramps - Two-Headed Sex Change
6. Katy Perry - One Of The Boys
7. Dashboard Confessional - Little Bombs
8. Descendants - ALL-O-Gistics
9. Phish - Free
10. Nada Surf - Deeper Well
11. Deftones - KimDracula
12. Gnarls Barkley - Going On
13. Guns N Roses - Garden Of Eden
14. Hot Hot Heat - Conversation
15. Ike & Tina Turner - I Want To Take You Higher
16. The Mountain Goats - How To Embrace A Swamp Creature
17. Pretty Girls Make Graves - The Teeth Collector
18. The Breeders - German Studies
19. Ol' Dirty Bastard - Lift Ya Skirt (Feat. Missy Elliott)
20. Omar Rodriguez Lopez - La Tirania De La Tradicion
21. The Apples In Stereo - Winter Must Be Cold
22. Blink182 - Stockholm Syndrome
23. Thursday - Telegraph Avenue Kiss
24. Smashing Pumpkins - Starz

DOWNLOAD HERE.

I'm really really glad I have friends who want to share music with me. Without my friend Jeremy, I wouldn't have heard of Ian Moore and his elegant, literate pop music. "Literary Kind" is a more straight-forward rocker and it comes from the album To Be Loved.

Phantom Planet are a weird group. Every album they change styles so drastically, it's almost hard to recognize them. They are finding something very close to a genuine voice (though I really loved the previous incarnation, which was a Strokes-meets-Elvis-Costello blend) on Raise The Dead. A prime example is "Too Much Too Often."

"Connected" was the huge mega-hit for England's Stereo MCs in the mid-90s. Then, nothing happened. The 2005 album Paradise shows us what's been going on... not much. And that's a good thing. Jams like "Sun" don't come around from changing the formula.

As mentioned earlier in the post, the Toadies were the inspiration for bringing back Bling Bling, so it's off to the barn-burner "So Long, Lovely Eyes" from the exceptional third album No Deliverance. They bring the southern-fried rock like no other, save maybe Kings of Leon.

If you wanna talk sleazy rockabilly you really have to start with The Cramps. They've been at this a while and they show no signs of stopping. "Two-Headed Sex Change" is a Cramps template - bizarro lyrics, surf-rock-meets-punk-rock guitars and freaky vocals from 'Lux Interior. This comes from the album Look Ma! No Head!

I know by now that some people really hate Katy Perry. Most of them are just tired of "I Kissed A Girl" which is turning out to be a huge hit. Well, I enjoy it. So there. The album One Of The Boys (and, by extension, the title track, featured here) is a girl-power-pop grab-bag and I really dig it.

Wow. I haven't had Dashboard Confessional on a mix in a while. It's about time to feature another song from The Shade of Poison Trees, "Little Bombs" which would not sound out of place with DC's earlier work. Which is a compliment. After going the full-band route for two albums, they're returning to the singer/songwriter arrangements that made them a hit.

This one might turn some people off, but I love it. It's a Descendents track, but not your usual 2-minute punk blast. No, "ALL-o-Gistics" is the exploration of what they mean by "Worshippers of the Mighty ALL." And no, I don't really know what it means. But it's a funny, goofy track that shows off their sense of humor. It appears on the album -- get this -- called ALL.

People who know me, know that I have contempt for jam bands. Serious, hardcore rage. But the thing is, it's not the music that I dislike. It's the fans. So, in an effort to expose myself (and, by extension, you) to more music without prejudice, here's Phish doing "Free" from the album Billy Breathes. I'm actually digging it. Who'dathunkit?

I really need to invest in more Nada Surf albums. After hearing a bit of High/Low, which gives us the rockin' "Deeper Well" (and the one-off hit "Popular") I was hooked. It's the combination of art-rock guitars with satisfying lyrics and songs that move you to rock out. I guess I'm a sucker for it.

I don't know what happened to the Deftones. Or I should say, their fans. After releasing the critically-panned hit The White Pony, they came out with a mediocre self-titled album. People were calling them done and sorta gave up. But then, Saturday Night Wrist comes out... "KimDracula" is from that record, which balances White Pony-era experimentation with Around The Fur-era bombast.

Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Green are Gnarls Barkley, the Wonder Twins of pop music. On "Going On," from the latest album The Odd Couple, they take the form of a neo-soul groove and Al Green vocals. A nice mix, indebted as they are with old soul music, pop records from the 60s and psychadelic music.

Since Chinese Democracy may never come out, here's a deliciously rocking cut from Guns N Roses' under-rated double-album Use Your Illusion. "Garden of Eden" is everything that is right and wrong about GNR - whip-stinging guitar licks, hyperbolic apocalyptic prose and furious production.

"No need to hesitate" opens Hot Hot Heat's "Conversation" from their last album Happiness LTD. And that's the sentiment the album seeks to bring forth - urgent and undeniable. They do that, for the most part, slowing down only a few times for dramatic effect. Moving indie pop with killer production.

Ike & Tina used to be the killer duo behind hit after hit. Here's a classic from the glory days, "I Wanna Take You Higher" from the recently-released career retrospective Proud Mary: The Best Of Ike & Tina Turner. A funky, raucous classic fueled, as usual, by Tina's incendiary vocals and Ike's wild guitars and backed by a rock-steady band.

Much like The Hold Steady, I write a lot about John Darnelle, aka The Mountain Goats. I write about his literary, bracing story-songs, about his sparse but beatiful production, about his melancholy anthems of isolation and alienation. So, I guess the only thing left to do is recommend the new album Heretic Pride and this song, "How To Embrace A Swamp Creature."

I just heard that Pretty Girls Make Graves broke up. Which is a damn shame. Their mix of riot grrl and post-punk were just my cup-o-tea. Andrea Zellner's fragile but tough voice augmented by the ringing Gang of Four / No Knife guitars guaranteed that any album they put out would be in my collection. Here's to them, with a particularly rockin' cut ("The Teeth Collector") from their second (and best) album, 2003's The New Romance. (Particularly fitting as some of the last words of the song are "This captain's ship is going down")

Say what you want, but when I was a lonely teen listening to Pixies albums, I had a huge crush on Kim Deal. I hadn't been much interested in the Breeders catalog, but I grew out of that. "German Studies" features Kim and her sister on dual German vocals and the jangly art-rock guitars everyone knows and loves. From the recent album Mountain Battles.

"Voices in my head want me to go back / pick up the guns don't take your Prozac" Such conflicts constantly arise in Old Dirty Bastard's solo work, particularly those that followed his first arrest and rehab visit. This track, "Lift Ya Skirt" released on the posthumous collection A Son Unique, features Missy Elliott and dozens of shout-outs to Wu Tung.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, for those who are unaware, is the genius/madman guitarist behind The Mars Volta (and, before that, At The Drive-In). His solo albums tend to be even more inscrutable than his work with TMV, though I never thought that possible. This track, "La Tirania De La Tradicion" (literally, "The Tyranny of The Tradition") comes from one of a series of solo efforts Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo (it should be noted that, while it's a solo record, this song includes Volta bandmember Cedric Bixler-Zavala on vocals)

When you tire of spastic art-prog, might I recommend The Apples In Stereo? "Winter Must Be Cold" comes from the Fun Trick Noisemaker album, and much like that record, it's a soft dollop of psychadelia mixed with a dose of indie-punk fuzz. 

I used to be ashamed of my affinity for pop-punk albums. I would hide my MXPX Cds when friends would come over and dread should any conversation turn to blink-182. Now that I've grown up a little I see that there's nothing wrong with liking pop-punk music. A shame, then, since blink-182 has broken up. But they left us a great final album, the self-titled gem, which features brutally adult anthems like "Stockholm Syndrome" and many more.

It wasn't intentional to bury this classic Thursday track at the end of this mix, I swear. Thursday were first introduced to me as "what if Morissey joined a hardcore band?" This image fits them, since, as is evident on "Telegraph Avenue Kiss," their combination of metal-esque riffs and emotive songwriting makes them head-and-shoulders above their peers. The album A City By The Light Divided is their third and hopefully not their last. 

I still hear a lot of smack-talk going on about the latest album, Zeitgeist, by Smashing Pumpkins. I do agree with some of it -- the album is half awesome and half OK -- but haters be damned, "Starz" is a bad-ass track.

How To Self-Destruct

How To Self-Destruct

1. Patton Oswald -Married & Single

2. Morningwood - New York Girls

3. Aimee Mann - Borrowing Time

4. You Say Party! We Say Die! - The Gap (Between The Rich and The Poor)

5. Uncle Tupelo - I Got Drunk

6. Spain - Her Used-To Been

7. Son, Ambulance - Paper Snowflakes

8. Saves The Day - Because You Are No Other

9. Robert Pollard - The Killers

10. Reggie & The Full Effect - G

11. Paramore - Whoa

12. Nine Inch Nails - 1,000,000

13. Girl Talk - No Pause

14. The New Amsterdams - Hover Near Fame

15. The Fratellis - My Friend John

16. The Faint - The Geeks Were Right

17. The Eels - Lone Wolf

18. Big Wreck - Inhale

19. 16 Volt - Everyday Everything

20. Warren Zevon - Play It All Night Long

21. The Vandals - How They Getcha

22. Story Of The Year - Take Me Back

23. Boris - Rattlesnake

24. Nick Lowe - Shake That Rat

25. Sonic Youth - Plastic Sun

26. PJ Harvey - Silence

27. Dispatch - Gasoline Dreams (live version)

Get IT Here!

That's a lotta tracks!

OK, a brief joke and we're off -

Morningwood, despite their bonerific name, are a dreamy boy-girl rock combo and make some wild, trashy tunes. Their self-titled album is jammed with tracks like "New York Girls" and many many more.

I saw Ms. Aimee Mann on the now-questionable "Henry Rollins Show" doing a live version of songs from the Magnolia soundtrack (where I had first heard of her solo work) and it made me think, "Does she have a new album out?" The answer is yes. It's called @#%&*! Smilers. And "Borrowing Time" is from that very same album. As usual, it's chillingly great songwriting and briskly appropriate pop arrangements.

The sharp, bouncing electro-punk grooves of blog-ready bands can get a little wearying, but sometimes you hear one that gets it just right. You Say Party! We Say Die! is one of those bands that understands the conflicting desire to dance your ass off and to have a message. "The Gap (Between The Rich And The Poor)" comes from their debut Hit The Floor!

People around here usually lament the passing of Uncle Tupelo. And rightfully so, since they essentially created alt-country out of punk rock and country/western. This track, "I Got Drunk" comes from a recently released anthology 89/93

If you ever want to kill yourself, Spain is the music to do it to. I'm not being hyperbolic either. Put on a copy of The Blue Moods of Spain and start writing your note. "Her Used-To Been" is a slow, morphine-drip of a song with heart-stabbing lyrics and a glacier's pace.

With a reverb-drenched piano and a solid beat and some weird-out guitars, Son, Ambulance can be described as Creepy-Meets-Indie. I'd say that goes for their album Key and the song "Paper Snowflakes", too.

I've been a Saves The Day fan since their second album, Through Being Cool, basically described my life back in 1999. It goes without saying, then, that as they've evolved as artists, so has my fandom. Under The Boards, their latest, is a mix of matured pop-punk and balls-to-the-wall stompers like "Because You Are No Other."

Guided by Voices was some of the more prolific and bizarre indie rock in existence. Everyone owes something to them, from Ryan Adams to any of the latest blog bands. Robert Pollard continues to plug away at his post-GBV career, releasing 2+ albums each year and he has over 1000 songs registered to copyright giants BMI. "The Killers" comes from last year's Standard Gargoyle Decisions.

The guy behind the keyboards in The Get Up Kids set off in 2000 to write a goofy side-project, calling it Reggie & The Full Effect. There's been bizarre off-again-on-again tours, rumours and outright lies about keeping up the Reggie band. Whatever the case, Last Stop : Crappy Town, is a rather literal journey through the painful process of getting into rehab -- inosmuch that the track titles are the stops on the train leading to the rehab center.

Some call Paramore punk-lite or some variation of the phrase, trying to diminish the talents of the band as a whole and simultaneously trying to pidgeonhole Hayley Williams as "just a girl" who obviously can't really make good music. Despite all that, their album All We Know Is Falling is straight-up genius. "Woah" is a prototypical example of this.

What else can you say about industrial trail-blazer Trent Reznor and his nom-de-rock Nine Inch Nails? Little, aside to say that The Slip, the latest album, is a return to form and is well worth the money, if you choose to purchase it. You don't have to, I'm just saying, it might be worth it.

Pennsyllvania native Gregg Gillis is the master of mashing and mixing. Under the name Girl Talk, he released his album Feed The Animals on the NIN/Radiohead tip - pay for it if you can, if not, cool. Songs like "No Pause" jam dozens of samples into a pop-culture stew, mixing Missy Elliot and 80s synth poppers Nu Shooz, and many many more. Someone actually dissected the song for samples here. Dizzying.

When The Get Up Kids break up for a while, James (in Reggie) is rawking hardcore, while Matt (in New Amsterdams) is singing heart-breakers like "Hover Near Fame." The second full-band New Amsterdams album Worse For The Wear brings home that feeling with brutal lyrics and expert songwriting.

My friend Amy is usually going on and on about me being "Mr. Music", but for once, she scooped me. She handed me a copy of the first Fratellis album and I was blown away. Pub-ready rock tunes with a skilled writer at the helm and a handful of delicious hooks mark their style on their second album Here We Stand, exemplified by "My Friend John".

People are big on dissing a band when they change something. I for one am all about artists evolving and stretching and growing. It's important to me that bands like The Faint release albums like Fasciinatiion, because it shows they're breaking out of their established patterns and trying something new. Not everyone will like it, but sometimes, you'll find out "The Geeks Were Right."

The Eels seem to spend every waking moment working on ways to get their songs stuck in my head. Aside from the Beck-alike vocals, Mr. E does it again on the album Shootenany! which features "Lone Wolf" (and another favorite "Restraining Order Blues")

Old obsessions tend to grow with time. In the 90s, Big Wreck's "That Song" was a perennial favorite, because it crystalized exactly what it was like to be in love with music, which was something I was just coming into. Years later, with the help of some friends, I found their second album, The Pleasure And The Greed, which has lots of great songs like "Inhale."

I don't even know where my love for industrial music started, but few bands do it right these days. So I listen to my old 16 Volt albums and wait. If you dig old Ministry, pick up Supercool Nothing, which contains "Everyday Everything."

My new obsession lately has been Mr. Bad Example himself, Warren Zevon. A classic album from his prolific musical career, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School, contains this gem "Play It All Night Long" wherein Warren relishes in trashing Lynyrd Skynyrd and the hicks who love them. That's not to say I don't like a little LS now and then, but he does have a point.

Two things that will never change about punk - Bad Religion will always put out hearty polemics and The Vandals will always be goofy punks with a kindergarten sense of humor. "How They Getcha'" is from their latest album, Hollywood Potato Chip, which is, according to Wikipedia , the term for "dried semen on a casting couch."

People in St. Louis are weird about bands who come from St. Louis and get a taste of fame. Suddenly, they're "not as good" and they've "sold out" and all that nonsense. Formerly Big Blue Monkey, Story Of The Year still make the same music that caught my ear on their debut EP. "Take Me Back" is from the second record they put out, aside from the live album, entitled In The Wake of Determination.

Japan has a serious noise addiction. Considering some of the best noise-rock bands are Japanese in origin, you can make the assumption that being near so many earthquakes permanently affects your need for grinding guitars and thundering bass. Boris is here to satisfy those urges.
"Rattlesnake" is the Boris template writ large - larger than life riffs and mondo distortion - and so is the rest of the album Heavy Rocks.

Two instrumental tracks in a row, can you handle that? The second is this outtake from the Nick Lowe album Jesus of Cool, recently re-issued with almost double the length. This surf-rockin' take on American pop from the 50s and 60s is swerving with its fat bass line and chunky guitars. Why he called it "Shake That Rat", I'll never know.

Another thematic two-fer on this mix, it's Sonic Youth and PJ Harvey. Why those two? The connection is mostly that they're indie artists from the 90s, who still put out albums and who originally drew me in with noisy guitars, but then mellowed out in the ensuing years. Sonic Youth drops "Plastic Sun" from Murray Street, which sticks to the noise formula, while PJ Harvey strips down to piano and atmospherics on "Silence" from White Chalk.

You see? I don't just throw things together and see what sticks! I work on this. I think about it all the time.

Anyway, the last track is another one of those "my friend told me about the band and I didn't like them at first, but now I kinda do" bands. It's Dispatch, with a live version of "Gasoline Dreams" that was from the DVD/CD combo pack of Patchwork.

Blah Blah Blah

Another week, another fun mix.

Blah Blah Blah

1. Intro - "The Promised Land"

2. Les Savy Fav - "Dishonest Don Part 2"

3. Supergrass - "Mansize Rooster"

4. Public Enemy - "Burn Hollywood Burn"

5. Tom Waits - "Gun Street Girl"

6. TV On The Radio - "The Wrong Way"

7. Alkaline Trio - "Love Love Kiss Kiss"

8. mc chris - "Never Give Up"

9. Freezepop - "Here Comes A Special Boy"

10. MXPX - "Middlename"

11. Kemuri - "Rhythm"

12. Soundgarden - "My Wave"

13. Joss Stone - "Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin' On Me?)"

14. Polyphonic Spree - "Reach For The Sun"

15. Oasis - "Cigarettes and Alcohol"

16. Arlo - "Shutterbug"

17. Switchfoot - "Ammunition"

18. Ryan Adams - "Sweet Illusions"

19. Grand National - "Drink To Moving On"

20. Our Lady Peace - "One Man Army"

21. Mates of State - "Fraud In The 80s"

22. Cex - "First For Wounds"

Download HERE.

Oh yeah. 

Welcome back. 

An intro from Harlan Ellison's short-turned-film, "A Boy And His Dog" and we're off.

No, there is nothing wrong with your CD player/MP3 player/iTunes. That's just the stuttery jittery opening of Les Savy Fav's rollicking, Simon & Garfunkle-sampling, dyspeptic rock tune "Dishonest Don Part 2" from the equally frantic album The Cat and The Cobra (dig the awesome album art). 

Supergrass have always been the "new-age Rolling Stones" and this is sleazy rock at its best. "Mansize Rooster" (note the subtle dick joke) is featured prominently on their career-spanning album Supergrass is 10.

Ice Cube guest spots on this mid-90s Public Enemy jam, "Burn Hollywood Burn" (kinda ironic now considering Flava Flav's pseudo-celebrity and Ice Cube's kid-movie charm). Still, it's a blast of bombast from the master, Chuck D, from the incendiary album Fear Of A Black Planet.

OK, again, another entry into I Was Wrong. Two words : Tom Waits. The storytelling, the instrumentation, the delivery -- all things that I originally found distasteful, I now can't imagine not listening to. If you don't know, "Gun Street Girl" (and, hell, most of Rain Dogs) ain't a bad place to start. 

I thought, "what better way to follow up a Tom Waits song than by putting on his contemporaries?" Turns out he doesn't really have any. But TV On The Radio get close, very close, with albums like Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes and brutal, sweet sing-a-longs like "The Wrong Way." Drum machines spit out bludgeoning bass lines, guitars come and go like fever dreams and saxophones adorn the whole blessed mess.

I was holding off on putting a new Alkaline Trio song from The Agony and The Irony, because a lot of folks don't like it. I think it's a great album, but it takes some time. So here's "Love Love Kiss Kiss" a poppy grinding with a catchy chorus and dark dark lyrics. Just the way I like 'em.

I know that I'm legally bound by the Indie-Snob Union to hate all new MC Chris songs, but screw that. The entirety of MC Chris Is Dead is effing genius. Taking it back to emo-dude rapping, mixed with braggadocio-laden sex-tales (although he complains earlier on the album that he "need[s] OnStar to find the clit"). Here, on "Never Give Up," he both takes aim at haters and gives sad dudes in his audience a few nice words. 

If you know me well, you know one of my favorite webcomics in existence is "Achewood" by Chris Onstead. His literary prose, characterisation and storylines are the thing of comics legend and it's a shame he isn't bigger than he is. But! There are songwriters who write songs about his characters. This song, by electro-pop band Freezepop, sounds like it was written by (not just for) eternally-happy, hug-machine Phillipe. 

Pop-punk is my middlename. MXPX are old hats at the genre and have been putting out records on a regular basis since about 1992 and are still going. "Middlename" is from the superior Life In General, a great intro to their sound.

Japanese ska band Kemuri are just all kinds of wicked - first, they play a genre that started in Jamaica, they sing in half-English/half-Japanese and they play a kick-ass Americanized punk version of ska. True polyglot genius. "Rhythm" is the opening track to the album eMovitation.

My friend and bass player were discussing the various merits of various Seattle bands from the mid-to-late 90s and, as per usual, the conversation peaks with mentioning not Pearl Jam and Nirvana, as one continues to put out excellent albums and the other is pretty much canonized by now, but rather with Soundgarden. Somehow the move from "Rusty Chain" to "Ty Cobb" is as confusing to him as it is to me. Here is the mid-period track "My Wave" from the eternally popular SuperUnknown.

Pop/Soul ingenue Joss Stone is an enigma to me. I have no idea who she is, where she's from or what she's about. (I know a quick google would do the trick, but I'm lazy when it comes to pop singers.) But I do know this : she's got the vocal chops and the 'tude to really knock 'em dead. Trouble is, the albums tend to fall apart about midway through. Her cover of "Super Duper Love" is fantastic though. If you like it, find yourself a copy of Soul Sessions, which is great as well.

With so many members, I wonder when Polyphonic Spree stops being a band and starts being "performance art." Aside from the heavy body-count, the glorious pop songs are more than enough to keep the astute listener glued to the stereo. "Reach For The Sun" is the shortest song on The Beginning Stages Of... 

From pretty to dirty. That's the kind of transition that I like. Here's Oasis, masters of the pub song belting on the woozy "Cigarettes and Alcohol" from their first album Definitely Maybe. Note the lyric "you might as well do the white line."

Epitonic used to be my favorite resource for finding new music, but they've since kinda shut down. Which is a shame, because without them I never would have found the album Up High In The Night, which gave us "Shutterbug" by Arlo, a  jangly Pavement-meets-Weezer-circa-1993 band. With better vocal harmonies.

My friend Wes, who himself is doing quite well in the songwriting business, was the first to try to covert me to liking Switchfoot. I resisted at first, but then I found songs like "Ammunition" (from best-seller The Beautiful Letdown). I get it now, they're not 'some Christian band' - they truly rock and they have a message, but it's not about the J-man or any of that, it's just a positively-tuned one. 

I'm not one of those people that has to have EVERYTHING Ryan Adams puts out. I'm not as bad as some people I could name. But, certain albums are truly classic. The double-album Cold Roses, where "Sweet Illusions" comes from, is one of those. It's twangy, Neil Young-y and all-around pretty. 

It's interesting when you're looking for one thing and find another. My friend Ken had told me about The National, a Joy Division-biting new-wave wannabe group. I was looking for them when I found Grand National, a dance-rock band. "Drink To Moving On" is the first track on Kicking The National Habit, their debut album. Honestly, I like Grand National far better.

It's also interesting going back and listening honestly to music you just outright dismissed years ago. Breaking ourselves of the snobbery habit is hard, especially to one who was so dead-set against bands like Our Lady Peace. Well the album Happiness Is Not A Fish You Can Catch makes me regret not seeing them before they broke up. The lead singer's vocal acrobatics on songs like "One Man Army" originally turned me away from the band, but I've seen the error of my ways now. Chalk another one up to I Was Wrong. 

With the creepy album cover and cheesy keyboard sounds, I was originally wary of Mates of State. Was I listening to "Fraud In The 80s" by yet another version of Black Kids or some other blog-made band? Nope. There's more to the songs on Bring It Back than at first blush and the male-female vocal interplay is wonderfully handled. Pop music at it's most cacophonous. 

And we leave you with an instrumental from electro-jokester Cex (pronounced Sex). Taken from the second album, titled Oops I Did It Again, this is "First For Wounds" a Squarepusher by way of Swervedriver shot of morphine. 

Tank Vs. Dinosaur

First, many many apologies for slacking. I decided to take the summer off from this site.

But I'm back now. And I brought some killer tunes with me.

This one is called "Tank vs. Dinosaur" and it's just as awesome as it sounds.



Tank vs. Dinosaur

1. Cassetteboy - "From Now On"
2. Smoking Popes - "Welcome to Janesville"
3. Afghan Whigs - "Somethin' Hot"
4. Elvis Costello - "Stella Hurt"
5. Noisettes - "IWE"
6. Death Cab For Cutie - "Bixby Canyon Bridge"
7. The Weakerthans - "Aside"
8. Mad Caddies - "The Dirge"
9. James Kolchalka Superstar - "Magic Finger"
10. Beck - "Profanity Prayers"
11. Thunderbirds Are Now! - "PPL R ANMLS"
12. Earlimart - "Sounds"
13. She & Him - "This Is Not A Test"
14. Kevin Bewersdorf - "I'm Bruce Willis"
15. The Submarines - "Thorny Thicket"
16. My Morning Jacket - "Wordless Chorus"
17. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - "Reading In Bed"
18. Scarlett Johansson - "Anywhere I Lay My Head"
19. Islands - "Creeper"
20. Hot Water Music - "Bleeder"
21. The Hold Steady - "Slapped Actress"
22. The Raconteurs - "Attention"
23. MC Hawking - "The Dozens"
24. Cassetteboy - "Duck Breath"


And, you might note, the return of commentary.

Cassetteboy is a cut-up artist out of ol' Britain who likes to make people say awful, terrible things. In this case, a news report on safety turns into horrible advice like "... In case of a fire, take the lift. Fires are safe." This comes from a very appropriately-titled album Dead Horse (as in, beating a...)

And now, the triumphant return of Chicago's Smoking Popes, heroes of mine and great songwriters all. "Welcome to Janesville" is from their comeback album Stay Down and it's a polished gem of Johnny Cash storytelling wrapped in pop-punk perfection.

Oh man. Time for gushing. I found a copy of 1965, the "final" album of legendary alt-rock band The Afghan Whigs. For $6. Brand new. So, to celebrate, here's the first song on the album, a soul-drenched rock track complete with sleazy bedroom talk, a chorus about getting high and feeling good, punchy piano lines and R&B-style backing vocals. Gloriously dirty.

And of course, my man Elvis. Not the dead one, the other one. The British Elvis. Elvis Costello. His new band The Imposters joins him on this slow-burn rock track, "Stella Hurt." The album, Momofuku, is a combo of fuzzed-out rock and guest muse Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley (not on this track, sadly).

You ever wonder what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would sound like if they were from England? Wonder no more. The Noisettes are here to beat you senseless with their razor-sharp art-rock. This song, "IWE" is from the album What's The Time, Mr. Wolf? and I don't know what either one really means.

The first two tracks on Death Cab For Cutie's latest, Narrow Stairs, are very unusual. For these guys, anyway. They're filled with noise-rock endings, as in "Bixby Canyon Bridge" and then the supposed single from the album, "I Will Possess Your Heart" takes 5 minutes to get started. It's like they changed their name to Death Cab For Noise Rock. It's an amazing tranformation that surely took a lot of balls.

OK, stop me if you've heard this one before. Dude from a hardcore punk band that was all about shout-along choruses and meat-head riffs starts a new emo band. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it comes together beautifully on The Weakerthan's album The Left and Leaving, which is exemplified in songs like "Aside" where he says he's "in love with love and lousy poetry."

Horns? On my rock album? Yes. The Mad Caddies are still waiting for ska's "third wave" and hopefully they'll get their wish, since they put out kick-ass tracks like "The Dirge" on a regular basis. Keep It Going is a killer album, full of dancehall, DIY and ragga by the boatload.

You may know James Kolchalka from his amazing diary comic "American Elf" but he's also a musician. Of the funny kind. From the greatest-hits (sorta) collection Our Most Beloved, here's "Magic Finger" a loving ode to his own genitals. Sample lyric "It's my dick / it's a magic finger / pointing at all the pretty girls"

If you don't love Beck by now, either you've been out of the loop quite a while or you just don't like music. This track won't cause you to run and get his discography, but "Profanity Prayers" is the kind of fuzzy energetic track that exemplifies his 8th major-label release Modern Guilt.

Thunderbirds Are Now! What can I say about them? They have a bad-ass album Making History, they write funky fresh indie-tastic rock tracks like "PPL R ANMLS" filled with chugging bass and fiery keyboards. And yet, no one has picked up on their awesomeness. Sad.

I must have been sleeping, because Earlimart put out 4 albums since I last checked (which was the glorious Everyone Down Here). Their dynamic Elliott Smith-meets-Sonic-Youth aesthetic still hasn't changed and they're the better for it. "Sounds" is a deceptive track - starts out rock, ends mournful. Just like the album it comes from, the 2004 masterwork Tremble & Tremble.

I think I can safely say that the movie-star-turns-rock-star thing has gone too far. But, having said that, She & Him (which is actress Zooey Deschanel and multi-instrumentalist M. Ward) is effing amazing. Seriously. She sings like Jenny Lewis (also a former TV star!) and her lyrics are really really good. They say they're trying to bring back sweet AM-radio-era music and for the most part the album Volume One captures that era well.

Kevin Bewersdorf is not a rapper. Neither is his alter ego, Jeep Cherokee. But that doesn't stop him from trying his hardest to emulate and mock the crunkified modern rap sound on the genius parody "I'm Bruce Willis" off the yet-to-be-finished album Babes. The beats are cheap and goofy as are the lyrics, which include the gems "That ain't no po-po that's Carl Winslow!" and "Sneaky in the sheets / I ditch that rubber / Yipee-Kay-Ay-Muthafucka." Nothing but "Die Hard" references and generic thuggery. About the 3 minute mark, the script gets flipped. Kevin pulls out the vocoder and laments John McClane's fate ("Oh John, will you ever show your pain?") Genius.

Man, I can't get enough pop music. Cheery, happy, cheesy; I want it all. The Submarines are a fantastic pop group, a boy-girl duo with chops to spare. The album, Honeysuckle Weeks, is a sugary confection that in the end does stick with you, with songs like "The Thorney Thicket".


It's time for another edition of I Was Wrong. When people lauded My Morning Jacket for their debut album, I skoffed. What do those fools know? I made the mistake of lumping them in with Drive-By Truckers and Kings of Leon - bands with which they share a background, not a sound. I laughed when the enigmatically-titled follow-up, Z, landed on a slew of Best Of lists back in 2005. Well, let me say that I was very very very wrong. Here's "Wordless Chorus" as consolation. Oh and the newest album Evil Urges is awesome, too.

You may know Emily Haines from her awesome keyboard/lead singer skills with Metric. But her album with The Soft Skeleton, Knives Don't Have Your Back is more subdued and pretty than one would expect. The lyrics are brutal in their honesty and directness ("with all the luck you had / why are your songs so sad?" from "Reading In Bed") and the spare arrangements of the songs drive it all home. Pretty music for the heartbroken.

On paper it sounds like a disaster. Get the guy from TV On The Radio, have him produce Scarlett Johansson singing Tom Waits songs. An actress who isn't known as a good singer covering a guy who really doesn't sing produced by a guy whose albums tend to be buried in noise. Yet it works. Scarlett's album Anywhere I Lay My Head (and it's titular track) are funky bits of melancholia wrapped in her sultry voice and tied together with bits of piano and guitar. Like I said, it sounds like it should be a trainwreck, but it's actually more like an amusement park.

Honest to blog, I had no idea what the hell people were raving about when they talked about Islands' debut. Then I heard their second album, Arm's Way. I understood. I was grounded and humbled and one with everything (to borrow a phrase from Kimya Dawson). "Creeper" and the rest of the songs on that album are 80s-tinged pop burners with X-Ray Specs guitars, burbling keyboards and just enough lyrical meat to really satisfy.

They've been off-and-on for a decade plus, but Hot Water Music can't seem to quit being unruly punks. Good for them and awesome for us. From the latest B-sides compilation 'Till The Wheels Fall Off, here they are covering one of my favorite bands, Alkaline Trio, doing a wicked, violin-enhanced version of "Bleeder."

I've talked endlessly about how awesome The Hold Steady are. I've done that. I've told you about their Springstein-esque instrumentation, hard-rocking riffs, Bukowski/Burroughs lyrics and fixation with partying. I guess all that's left to tell you is this song is called "Slapped Actress" (watch for the Ben Gazarra/Gina Rowlands line) and the new album is Stay Positive.

I have a guitar addiction. Seriously. I go to meetings. But when I really need something blues-influenced and rocking, I usually reach for a White Stripes album. But Jack White's "other" band, The Raconteurs do the Stripes one better - more guitars, double the singers, add in a bass and blow it all to hell. Get Consolers Of The Lonely ASAP.

Some people think it's not funny to use Professor Steven Hawking's name to do computer-voiced gangsta-rap. I'm not one of those people. MC Hawking, which is basically just two smart guys working with Apple's text-to-speech software, is goddamned hilarious. Though "Family Guy" ran the joke into the ground, it's still a gas to me. The album is appropriately titled A Brief History of Rhyme (a riff on the real Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time")

And we bring it on back to Cassetteboy, taking the piss. This time, they've set their sights on the Crazy Frog fad that was all the rage a few years back. Using Carl from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" and John Lennon's "Imagine."


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# 30 : Fawn & Games

Thirty mixes! Thirty!

That's a lot.

With an average length of 1 hour 20 minutes, 30 mixes equals (lemme do the math here...) 2400 minutes of music.

That's 40 hours, just shy of two full days of music.

So, to celebrate, the last of our "scraping the bottom of the bottom of the barrel" mixes, "Fawn & Games"



1. Everclear - Normal Like You
2. The Get Up Kids - Burned Bridges
3. Tom Petty - Rhino Skin
4. The Thrills - Your Love Is Like Las Vegas
5. Fugazi - Give Me The Cure
6. Terrifying Experience - Hollis Put His Hands Around My Neck (Alt. Version)
7. Foo Fighters - Darling Nikki
8. Amanda Ghost - Dirty Mind
9. Tub Ring - The Future Was Free
10. X-Ecutioners (feat. Slug) - (Even) More Human Than Human
11. A Static Lullabye - A Sip of Wine Chased with Cyanide
12. Veruca Salt - Bodies
13. Ugly Duckling - Do Your Thing
14. Kemuri - Ito-ichinen
15. 30 Seconds To Mars - Edge Of The Earth
16. Pop Will Eat Itself - Cape Connection
17. Comets on Fire - The Bee & The Crackin' Egg
18. Books - Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again
19. Joakim - Teenage Kiss
20. Sifl & Olly - The Math Song


Download it here.

Ms. Direction

Ms. Direction





1. Polaris - Hey Sandy (Theme from "The Adventures of Pete & Pete")
2. Slapstick - There's A Metalhead In The Parking Lot
3. Cut Copy - Saturdays
4. 386DX - Smells Like Teen Spirit
5. Nina Gordon - One More Night
6. Clutch - Escape From The Prison Planet
7. Morphine & Apollo 440 - This Is Not A Dream
8. Link 80 - Up To The Top
9. Weezer - I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams
10. MC 900 Foot Jesus - But If You Go
11. Unwritten Law - Teenage Suicide
12. Star Ghost Dog - The Only One
13. Braid - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
14. Earlimart - We Drink On The Job
15. Erlend Oye - Every Party (Has A Winner & A Loser)
16. The Decemberists - Sporting Life
17. The Impossibles - Plan B
18. The Wildhearts - Vanilla Radio
19. Melee - Last Chance
20. Split Habit - $100 Guarantee
21. Kind of Like Spitting - Sex Ruins Everything
22. Finley Quaye - Sweet & Loving Man
23. Cornelius - Thank You For The Music

Download it here.

Jesus Shaves

This mix is what happens when I cull the leftovers from the 29 mixes that are up on the site and make a brew of insane pop music, covers, soundtrack-only songs and other assorted miscellany. The title is in honor of David Sedaris, who was just in town. "Jesus Shaves" in one of his funniest essays in the book "Me Talk Pretty One Day"



Jesus Shaves


1. Intro (Bill Cosby) - Cocaine
2. Butthole Surfers - Pottery
3. Motion City Soundtrack - Pop Song '89
4. Stellastarr* - No Weather
5. 13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me
6. Ween - Waving My Dick In The Wind
7. Liz Phair - Uncle Alvarez
8. Razorlight - Rip It Up
9. Glitter Mini 9 - Are You Bad?
10. Pizzacato Five - Twiggy Twiggy
11. The Reunion Show - On A Scale From One to Awesome
12. Segue - Amber is horny
13. Animal Chin - Seven
14. The Beatles - Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except For Me & My Monkey)
15. Gatsby's American Dream - Work, Lies, Sex, Love, Fear
16. Railroad Jerk - Bang The Drum
17. Extra Fancy - Violator
18. Refused - The Deadly Rhythm
19. Idlewild - Mistake Pageant
20. Segue - You voted for hoover
21. David Garza - Discoball World
22. Dan Andriano - Let The Stars Play
23. Glossary - Counterculturism
24. Milemarket - Sex Jam Two : Insect Incest
25. Ivy - Corners Of Your Mind
26. Call & Response - Rollerskate
27. The 5, 6, 7, 8's - I Walk Like Jane Mansfield
28. "Weird" Al Yankovich - Stuck In A Closet With Vanna White
29. The Left-Rights - If you figure this out, we'll suck your dick


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Capitalism Stole My Virginity

This one's got a lot of new stuff, some old stuff and a bunch of catchy effin tunes.



1. Patton Oswalt - When You Buy A Humvee
2. Chopper One - Cherry Crush
3. Kristeen Young - Cherry
4. The (International) Noise Conspiracy - Capitalism Stole My Virginity
5. Mudhoney - Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More
6. Screaming Trees - More or Less
7. Against Me! - You Look Like I Need A Drink
8. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
9. Eagles of Death Metal - Stuck In The Metal (actually a cover of Stuck In The Middle)
10. The Goops - Change Your Mind
11. Apex Theory - Mucus Shifters
12. Little-T and One Track Mike - Fome Is Dape
13. The Dears - Whites Only Party
14. The Twilight Singers - Strange Fruit
15. The Black Keys - Strange Times
16. Felt - Dirty Girl
17. The Bens - Stop!
18. Kay Henley - 3 Small Words
19. Old 97s - Dance With Me
20. Har Mar Superstar - No Chorus
21. Atmosphere - The Waitress
22. Belly - Super-Connected
23. Mae - Soundtrack for Our Movie
24. The Notwist - Alphabet
25. Black Grape - Submarine
26. Built to Spill - Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss

Download it here

Songs For The Rats, Disc 1

Songs For The Rats is my personal Mountain Goats best-of collection, much like The Electrifying Contusion and Electric Turkey Tapes, seen previously on this very blog.

This is part one, the second part will be coming soon.



section 1 songs from "Get Lonely"
1. Half Dead
2. Woke Up New
3. If You See Light
4. Maybe Sprout Wings

section 2 songs from "Heretic Pride"
5. Sax Rohmer # 1
6. San Bernadino
7. Autoclave
8. Lovecraft in Brooklyn
9. Michael Myers Resplendent

section 3 songs from "The Sunset Tree"
10. You Or Your Memory
11. Lion's Teeth
12. This Year
13. Dance Music
14. Up The Wolves
15. Love Love Love

section 4 songs from "Tallahassee"
16. Have to Explode
17. First Few Desperate Hours
18. Game Shows Touch Our Lives
19. No Children
20. See America Right

section 5 songs from "We Shall All Be Healed"
21. Linda Blair Was Born Innocent
22. Your Belgian Things
23. Cotton
24. The Triumph Of The Pigs That Ran Straightaway Into The Water
25. Against Pollution

section 6 miscellany from various EPs and tapes
26. Sinaloan Milk Snake Song

Download it here

An Audio Guide to the Pacific Northwest

This mix is a bit of a shout-out to my cousin and her husband, who live in Seattle. They're super-cool friends and people with whom I swap music on the regular.

An Audio Guide to the Pacific Northwest



1. Young Fresh Fellows - Rock N Roll Pest Control
2. Afghan Whigs - Dedicate It
3. Regina Spektor - Poor Little Rich Boy
4. Modest Mouse - Missed the Boat
5. Spoon - Eddie's Ragga
6. The Replacements - Color Me Impressed
7. Sunny Day Real Estate - Friday
8. Brassy - Parkside
9. Grade - Stole Bikes Ride Faster
10. Helmet - Pure
11. MIA - XR2
12. Skin - Faithfulness
13. The Killers & Lou Reed - Tranquilize
14. Hootie & The Blowfish - Be the One
15. The Mountain Goats - Autoclave
16. Paramore - Born For This
17. Liz Phair - Can't Get Out Of What I'm Into
18. No Knife - Your Albatross
19. Rilo Kiley - 15
20. Saul Williams - Break
21. Aesop Rock - The Harbor Is Yours (remix)
22. Mindless Self Indulegence - Capital P
23. Smoking Popes - Waiting Around (live)

DOWNLOAD IT HERE...

Recommended Dosage

recommended dosage


1. the jam - modern world
2. self - insecure sober
3. thunderbirds are now! - we win (ha ha)
4. pedro the lion - rapture
5. the dandy warhols - every day should be a holiday
6. cascada - kids in america
7. clor - making you all mine
8. gnarls barkley - surprise!
9. cat power - aretha, sing one for me
10. big black - he's a whore
11. captain beefheart - she's too much for my mirror
12. portishead - nylon smile
13. mark ronson - toxic
14. the kills - cheap and cheerful
15. blur - moroccan peoples revolutionary bowls club
16. supergrass - rush hour soul
17. moby - alice
18. panic at the disco - the green gentleman
19. the reputation - cartography
20. the distillers - drain the blood
21. descendents - talking
22. big star - back of a car
23. the breeders - when i was a painter
24. bush - cold contagious


Download it HERE.

Admit It

Admit It


1. say anything - admit it!!
2. the gutter twins - bete noire
3. rem - living well is the best revenge
4. people noise - sedation
5. against me! - americans abroad
6. the fratellis - for the girl
7. bear vs. shark - rich people say hey hey
8. the thermals - when you’re thrown
9. jimmy eat world - electable (give it up)
10. i love you but i’ve chosen darkness - lights
11. sons & daughters - gilt complex
12. the cars - candy-o
13. the white stripes - rag & bone
14. live - sweet release
15. superdrag - lighting the way
16. the donnas - girl talk
17. the mountain goats - lovecraft in brooklyn
18. the coral - pass it on
19. nick cave & the bad seeds - we call upon the author
20. dead boys - caught with the meat in your mouth
21. bad religion - tiny voices
22. arctic monkeys - You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me
23. nick lowe - so it goes
24. kenna - say goodbye to love

Download it HERE.

The Electrifying Contusion - Guided By Voices Mix

A cousin in spirit to the Zappa mixes, this one takes a healthy dose of music NOT FOUND on "Human Amusements At Hourly Rates", a greatest-hits album put together by the band (with the exception of the first song, "Game of Pricks" -- this version included here is the original 7" version, slightly different from the album version).

What's amazing about Guided by Voices is not only their prolific output but that their songs can be beautiful AND concise. To wit, there are 32 (!) tracks on this mix, each from different sources (though there are some repeats, simply because the album is THAT good).

So, on we go.



The Electrifying Contusion


1. Game of Pricks (7" version)
2. Matter Eater Lad
3. Skin Parade
4. When She Turns 50
5. Dayton, Ohio-19-something and 5
6. Marchers In Orange
7. "Wished I Was A Giant"
8. Melted Pat
9. The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet
10. Blimps Go 90
11. I'll Replace You With Machines
12. Wings of Thorn
13. Quality of Armor
14. Underground Initiations
15. The Worryin' Song
16. Postal Blowfish (live)
17. Expecting Brainchild
18. Can't Stop
19. Running Off With Fun City Girls
20. If We Wait
21. Tropical Robots (live)
22. Fair Touching
23. We've Got Airplanes
24. Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)
25. Trampoline
26. Metal Mothers
27. Mushroom Art
28. Discussing Wallace Chambers
29. The Brides Have Hit Glass
30. Smothered In Hugs
31. She Wants to Know
32. Ghosts Of A Different Dream

DOWNLOAD IT HERE.

RIP, good gentlemen of GBV.

The Lonesome Electric Turkey Tapes (Part 2)

Frank Zappa - The Lonesome Electric Turkey Tapes Part 2

1. Intro Rap
2. You Are What You Is
3. Fine Girl
4. I'm So Cute
5. We Are Not Alone
6. Hot-Plate Heaven at the Green Hotel (Live Version)
7. Cosmik Debris
8. Camarillo Brillo
9. Would You Go All The Way?
10. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
11. Stick It Out
12. Punky's Whips (Live Version)
13. Dinah-Moe Hum
14. Tryin' To Grow A Chin
15. Tell Me You Love Me
16. Stinkfoot
17. The Torture Never Stops (Original Capt. Beefheart version)
18. WPLJ (White Pony Lemon Juice)
19. Going For The Money


I haven't done commentary for a mix in a while, but some of this requires it.

The first track is some of the behind-the-scenes dialogue in the movie "Baby Snakes", Terry Bozio pretending to be an awestruck fan trying out for the band. That's after a 10-minute acid-trip visual and before an hour-long concert film. Yes, FZ was a bizarre kinda guy.

"You Are What You Is" is one of the better "concept" albums FZ put out, ranking up there with "Thing-Fish" (which has an alternate version of this song) and "Joe's Garage." A scathing rebuke on racism, from both sides of the aisle and about people trading in their racial identity to fit in better. And it's funny, too.

"Fine Girl" , from "Tinseltown Rebellion" also appeared on the Greatest Hits compilation, "Strictly Commercial" - Ike Willis tells us what his idea of a "fine girl" is, which includes a head that's flat ("but her hair covers that") and being built like a mule.

From my favorite album "Sheik Yerbuti", comes "I'm So Cute" making fun of Terry Ted Bozio and his cute-boy looks, sung by the man himself. Terry, the song says, is "so cool, he'll make you freeze." Notable also for the scatting FZ does, imitating the main riff of the song.

Instrumentals make up a majority of the FZ catalog, but they don't often make good mixtape material. I have a few exceptions to this rule, which includes "We Are Not Alone", a boozy jazzy number from "The Man From Utopia." The sax alone rocks, but watch for the xylophone solo.

As I've said in numerous places, FZ's "Hot-Plate Heaven at the Green Hotel" is about as prescient a political track as you can get. 30+ years later, it still seems to apply. Sample lyric "Republicans is fine if you're a multi-millionaire, Democrats is fair all you own is what you wear. But neither of 'em's really right, cause neither of 'em care." This is the live version from the 1984 world tour, which ended up as the record "Does Humor Belong In Music?"

I've said before that the double-disc "Apostrophe"/"Overnite Sensation" was the first Zappa record I ever got and these next two songs are winners that come from that same set. "Cosmik Debris" has FZ taking spiritual gurus down a peg ("the price of meat has just gone up and your old lady has just gone down") and "Camarillo Brillo" remains one of his more bizarre hits, considering it's about a one-night stand with a lady who is quite nuts, has "green skin" and wears a poncho (much debate over whether it's a "real poncho or a Sears poncho").

The doo-wop period is often scoffed at by FZ hardcore fans, but I think it's some subversive hilarious goofiness. "Would You Go All The Way" flips the script on doo-wop's vague sexual innuendo ("would you go all the way for the USO, lift up your dress if the answer's no"). This version comes from "Chunga's Revenge".

As I said before, "You Are What You Is" takes many many potshots at many of FZ's favorite targets, including organized religion. "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" is a fine slice of sacrilege, part of a 3-song trio that includes "Heavenly Bank Account" and "Dumb All Over."

The next three songs are quite offensive, so if you've got tender sensibilities, you'd be wise to skip ahead. (If you've got tender sensibilities, how did you find yourself here?)

"Joe's Garage" takes a playful jab at Scientology, creating their own version called Appliantology, run by L. Ron Hoover, which includes having sex with household appliances. Here, the main character Joe is trying to seduce a robot called Sy Borg, by singing a filthy tirade in German. "Stick it Out" features Ike Willis singing lines like "stick out your curly weeny" and "don't get no jism on that sofa" in both German and English. Good for learning some of the finer points of German swearing.

Punky Meadows, for those who aren't aware, was a member of glam-metal darlings Angel. FZ made extensive jokes at the time about Punky's pouting face in a promo photo. Here, in a live version of "Punky's Whips", which was mostly improvised for the "Baby Snakes" concert film, Terry Bozio shares his love of Punky, insisting all the while that "I'm not gay." Keep an ear out for the jab at Jeff Beck, too.

Another hit that was very unusual for its content, "Dinah-Moe Hum" tells the story of FZ's attempt at getting a woman to orgasm. Yeah. From the album "Overnite Sensation"

Another genius piece from a longer-form record, "Lather" the song "Tryin' To Grow a Chin" seems self-explanatory, but I will only add that the solo is very reminiscent of "Hotel California"by the Eagles ...

This quick, punk-rock version of "Tell Me You Love Me" comes from the stellar live album series "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore" - a fine cross-section of the musical playfulness that FZ's band could exude in their live show.

"Stinkfoot" is on here because I totally identify, my feets are stanky. And it's also another essential track from the "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore" series. This live version is actually shorter than the album versions, which is the exact opposite of what usually happens.

I had to bury this next track later on, because it's 1.) very long and 2.) kinda monotonous. But it's a genius appearance by the master of bizarre, Captain Beefheart, and it deserves a place here. "The Torture Never Stops" (called "The Torcha Neva Stops" with re-tooled lyrics on "Thing-Fish") from the album"Zoot Allures" tells a bluesy tale of a prisoner and his terrible conditions in the "dungeon of despair" complete with Beefheart's grunt-y vocals. The twin harmonica/guitar solos are pretty stellar here. As are the sound effects, which, according the legend, were created using real people in real BDSM situations.

The really really fast version of "WPLJ" comes from "Does Humor Belong In Music?" and takes some of the lazy, haziness of the original version and condenses it down to its bare essence. The song is an ode to a drink, called White Port & Lemon Juice (guess what's in it), a drink referenced by several bands, most notably The Feathers, whose song "Johnny Darling" FZ had covered live.

We end with another goofy bit of dialogue, this from the movie "200 Motels".

I hope you enjoyed this week's Zappa tape. Look forward to more traditional tapes next week.

Download it here.

A Taste of Saint Louis (A Choice Selection of Local Music)

NOTE : This is NOT a definitive or all-encompassing mix!

Most of it comes from albums/EPs I've purchased over the past year and a half and the rest is culled from free MP3 downloads off Myspace. That said, I still haven't bought some friends' CDs and some of my favorite local acts don't let you download songs from their myspace pages.

Even so, this is a pretty decent cross-section of the manic music scene here in St. Louis. We've got 80s-aping The Bureau, old-school Cali-style punks The Humanoids, riot grrls Bitch Slap Barbie, country hootnanny Strawfoot, Elvis Costello-ish John Hardy & The Public, my band The Orbz - a punk/funk/indie fusion, 90s-era alt-rockers Ashborne, shoegazy Stella Mora, rockabilly via the 7 Shot Screamers, funky rockers The Feed, Belly-esque indie rockers Goodnight Ghost (no longer around, sadly), the sonic stomp of PFIC, and the clunky indie messes of The Hibernauts and Tape Deck Sonata. A pretty good mix, given the cheap methods used to create it.

And yes, some of these bands I have had the good fortune to share the stage with (Stella Mora, Ashborne, PFIC and Tape Deck Sonata).




A Taste of Saint Louis


1. Bitch Slap Barbie - Don't Wanna
2. The Bureau - White Girls
3. Wooden Kites - Our Secret In The Orchard
4. PFIC - Of The Red Sea
5. Tape Deck Sonata - Dissolve It
6. The Hibernauts - People Better Than You
7. Goodnight Ghost - Whisper When You Tell A Secret
8. Ashborne - Future Millionaire
9. Stella Mora - Safe Word
10. The Feed - Leave
11. John Hardy & The Public - I Will
12. The Museum Mutters - South City Girls (Christmas on TV)
13. The Humanoids - Targets
14. 7 Shot Screamers - Confusion
15. The Orbz - Chicago Ted
16. Red Eyed Driver - Whatever
17. Grace Basement - I Don't Think I Love You (Live @ Off Broadway)
18. Strawfoot - The Sky Is Falling
19. HazardsForHeadlights - Modern Art
20. The Mad Titans - Triforce
21. Kentucky Knife Fight - I Don't Mind (Keepin' It Real)


Download it here

Sound Check

Sound Check



1. Me First & The Gimme Gimmes - On The Road Again
2. OK Go - It's A Disaster
3. Tegan & Sara - Walking With A Ghost
4. Gnarls Barkley - Who Cares?
5. Toad The Wet Sprocket - Something's Always Wrong
6. Harvey Danger - Wine, Women & Song
7. Black Eyed Peas - Don't Lie
8. Tenacious D - Friendship
9. The Killers - Bling (Confessions of a King)
10. Tom Petty - This One's For Me
11. The Donnas - Too Bad About Your Girl
12. Zwan - El Sol
13. Alkaline Trio - Dethbed
14. Weezer - The World Has Turned And Left Me Here
15. Oh No! Oh My! - Walk In The Park
16. Rilo Kiley - Close Call
17. REM - Drive
18. The Dears - Who Are You, Defenders Of The Universe?
19. Glue - Catch As...
20. Red Elvises - Wild Man
21. The Strokes - Reptilia
22. Aimee Mann - Goodbye Caroline
23. Gorillaz - Sound Check (Gravity)

DOWNLOAD HERE...

Cigarettes Will Kill You

Cigarettes Will Kill You



1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Curse of Millhaven
2. Moby - Slipping Away
3. Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
4. Freezepop - That Boy Is All About Fun!
5. Ben Lee - Cigarettes Will Kill You
6. Soul Coughing - Collapse
7. The Urge - Welcome To Gunville
8. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
9. System of a Down - Vicinity of Obscenity
10. Grandaddy - "Yeah" Is What We Had
11. Hawthorne Heights - Ohio Is For Lovers
12. Green Day - Saint Jimmy
13. Tricky - Abbaon Fat Tracks
14. Catherine Wheel - Judy Staring At The Sun
15. Marilyn Manson - If I Was Your Vampire
16. Ani DiFranco - Swim
17. Team Dresch - To The Enemies of Political Rock
18. Foo Fighters - Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-Up Is Running)
19. Sum 41 - Open Your Eyes
20. Strung Out - Ultimate Devotion
21. Wire - Mannequin

DOWNLOAD IT HERE.

Same Old Drag

Same Old Drag


1. Wired All Wrong - You're Freaking Me Out Girl
2. TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
3. The Apples In Stereo - Same Old Drag
4. The Sounds - Hit Me
5. Bayside - Walking Wounded
6. The Thermals - Pillar of Salt
7. Nine Inch Nails - The Warning
8. Clann Zu - So Complicated Was The Fall
9. Aqueduct - Living A Lie
10. Secret Machines - Faded Lines
11. The Raconteurs - Level
12. Mae - This Is The Countdown
13. Lupe Fiasco - Real
14. Aimee Mann - Going Through The Motions
15. Bright Eyes - Four Wind
16. Kings of Leon - Ragoo
17. The Rakes - Suspicious Eyes
18. Athlete - You Got The Style
19. Ambulance Ltd - Anecdote
20. Zutons - Havana Gang Brawl
21. The Honorary Title - Untouched and Intact
22. Cat Power - The Greatest

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Blame The Basements

Blame The Basements


1. Lifter Puller - Back in Blackbeard
2. Phantom Planet - JabberJaw
3. Refused - Summerholidays vs. Punkroutine
4. The Kills - At The Back Of The Shell
5. Blood Brothers - My First Kiss at the Public Execution
6. Rhett Miller - Brand New Way
7. Meshell Ndegeocello - Article 3
8. Sonic Youth - Incinerate
9. The Fratellis - Everyone Knows You Cried Last Night
10. Dead Poetic - Hostages
11. Interpol - Obstacle 2
12. Coheed and Cambria - Crossing The Frame
13. The Dismemberment Plan - I Love a Magician
14. Tin Machine - Video Crime
15. Sunny Day Real Estate - Theo B
16. Ultimate Fakebook - All The New Poisons
17. Outkast - Makes No Sense At All
18. Gay Dad - My Son Mystic
19. Team Sleep - King Diamond
20. These Arms Are Snakes - Big News
21. At The Drive-in - Pickpocket
22. Mindless Self Indulgence - Bullshit
23. Paula Abdul - U

DOWNLOAD HERE.

The Weather Report

The Weather Report


1. The Mountain Goats - Heritic Pride
2. The Raconteurs - Intimate Secretary
3. Kimya Dawson - Loose Lips
4. The Thrills - Don't Steal Our Sun
5. Paramore - Hallelujah
6. The Go! Team - Bull In The Heather
7. The Rapture - Heaven
8. Smashing Pumpkins - 7 Shades of Black
9. Taking Back Sunday - Number 5 With A Bullet
10. Toadies - Hell Below, Stars Above
11. Unwritten Law - Babylon
12. LCD Soundsystem - Time To Get Away
13. Neko Case - That Teenage Feeling
14. Fugazi - Long Division
15. The Promise Ring - Make Me A Chevy
16. Sia - Taken For Granted
17. The New Pornographers - Use It
18. Stone Temple Pilots - Coma
19. The Von Bondies - No Regrets
20. Imogen Heap - Daylight Robbery
21. Remy Zero - Over The Rails/Hollywood High
22. The Bravery - Fearless
23. Clor - Good Stuff


Please DOWNLOAD HERE

Here's Your Future

Here's Your Future




1. The Thermals - Here's Your Future
2. Dropkick Murphys - Shippin' Up To Boston
3. Deftones - Mein
4. The Dears - Death Or Life We Want You
5. Fall Out Boy - Thriller
6. The Killers - Bones
7. Neutral Milk Hotel - Two-Headed Boy
8. No Use For A Name - Pre-Medicated Murder
9. The Mars Volta - Vermicide
10. Muse - Map of the Problematique
11. CSS - Art Bitch
12. The Vines - Highly Evolved
13. Thursday - We Will Overcome
14. Thrice - Between The End and Where We Lie
15. Nina Gordon - Kiss Me Till It Bleeds
16. Morrissey - On The Steets I Ran
17. John Vanderslice - Exodus Damage
18. Incubus - Light Grenades
19. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - Kingdom Of Doom
20. Everclear - Shine
21. Eels - Dirty Girl
22. Wilco - Either Way
23. VietNam - Step on Inside

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Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back

Life Is A Lemon and I Want My Money Back





1. The Shins - Australia
2. The Hives - Two-timing Touch and Broken Bones
3. The Living End - One Said To The Other
4. Fall Out Boy - Save Your Generation
5. Archers of Loaf - Plumb Line
6. The Pillows - Runner's High (FLCL version)
7. The Spill Canvas - The Tide
8. The Thermals - I Might Need You To Kill
9. From First to Last - World War Me
10. Justin Timberlake - Sexy Ladies/Let Me Talk To You
11. Tapes n Tapes - Cowbell
12. Meatloaf - Life Is A Lemon and I Want My Money Back
13. Something Corporate - Space
14. Third Eye Blind - Danger
15. B-52s - Strobe Light
16. The Replacements - Left of the Dial
17. Statistics - Hours Seemed Like Days
18. Matthew Sweet - The Ugly Truth
19. Lindsay Lohan - A Little More Personal
20. The Black Keys - Your Touch
21. Helmet - Exactly What You Wanted
22. Pearl Jam - Comatose
23. Dashboard Confessional - Reason to Believe

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Don't Ask Me

Keeping in line with this week's theme of "no comments" ...



Don't Ask Me



1. + 44 - Lycanthrope
2. The Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
3. Bloc Party - Hunting For Witches
4. Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love...?
5. Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry
6. Dinosaur Jr - Almost Ready
7. Gogol Bordello - 60 Revolutions
8. HelloGoodbye - All Time Lows
9. The Killers - Sams Town
10. Lifter Puller - Secret Santa Cruz
11. Modest Mouse - Fire It Up
12. My Chemical Romance - Mama
13. OK Go - Don't Ask Me
14. The Pipettes - It Hurts To See You Dance So Well
15. The Rakes - Trouble
16. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - In Fate's Hands
17. Regina Spektor - That Time
18. Self - Cinderblocks For Shoes
19. Silversun Pickups - Little Lover's So Polite
20. Social Distortion - Through These Eyes
21. Sparta - Red.Right.Return (Straight Into Our Hands)
22. TV On The Radio - Hours
23. Zebrahead - Rescue Me

DOWNLOARD IT!

Sick Sad World

Tape 1 of 2 this week

I'm not doing commentary for this week, you can email me questions about the tracks at my Gmail address...



Sick Sad World



1. Wolf Parade - You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son
2. Cascada - Every Time We Touch
3. Elastica - Your Arse My Place4. The Killers - Change Your Mind
5. Guided by Voices - Postal Blowfish (live)
6. Baby Chaos - Golden Tooth
7. Boris - Woman on the Screen
8. Queens of the Stone Age - Sick Sick Sick
9. Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights
10. The Donnas - Don't Wait Up For Me
11. Radiohead - 15 Steps
12. Butterfly Boucher - Busy
13. Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man - Tom The Model
14. Serj Tankian - Empty Walls
15. Britney Spears - Freakshow
16. Clutch - A Shogun Named Marcus
17. Chris Walla - The Score
18. Against Me! - Up The Cuts
19. Muscles - Jerk
20. The D4 - Get Loose
21. Patti Smith - Free Money
22. Division of Laura Lee - Does Compute
23. Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
24. Azure Ray - We Are Mice
25. Dirty Projectors - Spray Paint (The Walls)
26. American Football - The One With The Wurlitzer

CLICK HERE FOR ZE DOWNLOAD.

Live Till You Die

2nd mix this week and it's an older one that I pulled out of the archives (read : my car).

Tons of great music here, some stuff that has been on a Weekend tape before and some that hasn't.


Live Till You Die
1. Stars - "Ageless Beauty"
2. Bran Van 3000 - "Rainshine"
3. Bloc Party - "Helicopter"
4. The Notwist - "Pick Up The Phone"
5. Me First and The Gimme Gimmes - "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?"
6. Rilo Kiley - "Wires and Waves"
7. Mike Doughty - "The Only Answer"
8. The Mountain Goats - "Dilaudid"
9. Metric - "The Twist"
10. Bear vs. Shark - "Entrace Of The Elected"
11. Head Automatica - "Beating Heart Baby"
12. The Strokes - "You Talk Way Too Much"
13. Kings of Leon - "King of The Rodeo"
14. Jimmy Eat World - "Call It In The Air"
15. Moby - "Raining Again"
16. Morphine - "So Many Ways"
17. Nick Cave (feat. PJ Harvey) - "Henry Lee"
18. Hot Hot Heat - "Dirty Mouth"
19. Violent Femmes - "Prove My Love"
20. Superdrag - "Drag Me Closer To You"
21. Cursive - "Bloody Murder"
22. The Get-Up Kids - "No Love"
23. Queens Of The Stone Age - "In The Fade"

So yeah.

DOWNLOAD HERE.

Stars are Canadian, which in indie-rock terms means they sing pretty, well-orchestrated, epic songs about life and its many facets. Their album Set Yourself On Fire and the follow-up, In Our Bedroom After The War, are beautiful, heartbreaking albums.

Hip-hop/funk collective Bran Van 3000 had a medium sized hit with their album Glee, but their second record, Discosis didn't fare so well. It's a shame, because they craft these strange little gems (like the pop song with Jamaican scat "Rainshine") that are scattered throughout their records.

Bloc Party came out swinging with their debut Silent Alarms. Part of the new-new-wave coming out of the UK this past couple of years, they manage to sold old-school and new at the same time. The hypnotic guitar line of "Helicopter" alone is worth the cost of admission.

Neon Golden, the album from The Notwist, is full of glitchy pop anthems like "Pick Up The Phone" - proving Radiohead don't have the patent on this type of technical, paranoid music.

Some songs sound way better done at a double-fast pace with gritty punk vocals. Thank the Gods we have bands like Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. In this case, it's Mariah Carey getting the MFATGG treatment with the song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" off the Gimmies album Take A Break.

Young Jenny Lewis didn't quite know what she started when the first Rilo Kiley album, Takeoffs and Landings, came out. "Waves and Wires" is a fine introduction to the RK style, all alt-country twiddling and lyrical barbs with hints of rock straining at the corners.

I have to confess a deep love for Mike Doughty. His first post-Soul Coughing album, Skittish, remains in heavy rotation around my house. Maybe it's the haphazard production, the jerky guitar or the trademark M Doughty lyrics - all of which are present in "The Only Answer".

Singer-songwriter John Darnelle, who goes under the name The Mountain Goats, shows up here doing his best "Eleanor Rigby" impression on "Dilaudad" from the album The Sunset Tree. That record is the brutal exhumation of all his feelings about growing up with an abusive stepfather and it remains one of Darnelle's finest moments.

Emily Haines, lead singer of Metric, is also Canadian. But don't let that scare you. Her songs tend towards the funky, punky edge of pop. This song, "The Twist" comes from the first Metric album Grow Up And Blow Away, a melancholy collection of dark pop songs.

Another band who were vying for the new Fugazi crown was Bear vs. Shark. But they tempered that righteous post-punk anger with deft songwriting, indie-flavored instrumentation and a flexible singer. The last album before their breakup in 2005 was Terrorhawk, which includes the bass-driven "Entrance of The Elected".

Glassjaw were "the next Deftones." But then they broke up. Daryl Palumbo, lead singer, took his demos to the legendary Dan The Automator. Shortly thereafter, they emerged with the tracks that would eventually become the Head Automatica album Decadence. "Beating Heart Baby" is a fine example of the punk-tinged pop songs that came out of that pairing.

The Strokes ruled the indie world for about 2 years after the release of Room On Fire. Enjoy one of the finest tracks from Room, "You Talk Way Too Much" with its Television-via-Rick-Ocasek vibe.

I've talked extensively here about how awesome Kings of Leon are. You will just have to either take my word for it, or pick up a copy of Aha Shake Heartbreak, which contains "King of the Rodeo"

One of the earliest tapes I can remember making featured this propulsive Jimmy Eat World song, from the now classic Static Prevails album. I'm revisting "Call It In The Air" and it remains the ultimate emo prototype : math-rock guitars, strained vocals (with some overlapping sections and gang vocals) and deep lyrics.

The phrase "Moby ROCKS" gets a giggle of out some people. These are the same folks, mind you, who passed on M's 90s rock/metal album Animal Rights. When Hotel came out, I was enamoured with the stomping pop of "Raining Again". With some further listens, it still stands out among an album full of soon-to-be-classics.

I haven't seen AKACOD yet, but the surviving members of Morphine got together for a new take on Mark Sandman's "low rock" groove. Included on this tape is "So Many Ways" a perfect example of the sound and one of the groovier tracks on their final album The Night.

Who wants a downbeat ballad about Henry Lee Lucas, notorious American serial killer*? I do! From the brooding album Murder Ballads, here is "Henry Lee" by Aussie Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, featuring Brit PJ Harvey on the chorus.

Canadian rock band Hot Hot Heat put out one of the more exciting releases of 2005 with their 4th album Elevator. Their Elvis Costello-meets-XTC routine is polished thoroughly on tracks like "Dirty Mouth." (on a side note : what is it with Canadian bands on this tape?)

Travel back in time with me : early 90s, Slash records, someone listening to the acoustic punk of the Violent Femmes' self-titled debut says "Oh hell yeah!" "Prove My Love" was no doubt playing at that exact moment.

The last and most excellent of the Superdrag albums, Last Call for Vitriol, stands out as a gritty rock-n-roll spectacle, buttressed by John Davis' sandpaper vocals and gutterpunk guitars. The standout track "Drag Me Closer To You" shuffles along on its own boozy energy. Delicious.

As the first song on the second half of the madhouse opera that was The Ugly Organ, "Bloody Murder", by Omaha, NE's own Cursive, is a moving grueling stomp of a song - greatly enhanced no doubt by the crushing digital beats, violin stabs and cello accents.

Another mixtape classic, "No Love" by The Get-Up Kids is also proto-emo : whining teenage vocals, amateurish guitar playing and dynamic song arrangements. The album 4 Minute Mile is pretty much all like this.

Are songs about coming down from drugs supposed to sound this chill? Queens of the Stone Age know a thing or two about psychotropics (their first song on the album R is simply a list of their favorite drugs). "Into The Fade" is the stunningly mellow coda to an album full of punishing rock workouts. Until the chorus hits and the guitars go into overdrive. Stick around after the song fades out for a little treat.

I paid $10mil to talk to Xenu and all I got was this stupid CD

Sorry for the delay. This week, you'll be getting 2 mixes, just to make up for my "extended vacation"

The first, "I paid $10 mil to talk to Xenu..." takes a look at new fascinations and some new songs by old favorites.

Let's go!


I paid $10mil to talk to Xenu and all I got was this stupid CD



1. Tripl3fastaction - Revved Up
2. Saves The Day - Can't Stay The Same
3. Cursive - Hymns For The Heathen
4. Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon
5. Bonde do Roll - Tieta
6. The Most Serene Republic - Battle Hymn of the Republic
7. Hamell on Trial - Don't Kill
8. Tegan and Sara - Knife Going In
9. Mark Ronson - Stop Me
10. Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro
11. The Hives - Try It Again
12. Salt - Obsession
13. Cobra Starship - My Moves Are White (White Hot)
14. State and Madison - Circumstance
15. Say Anything - We Killed It
16. Piebald - Get Old or Die Trying
17. Sleater-Kinney - Modern Girl
18. The Mars Volta - Aberinkula
19. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)
20. Fischerspooner - We Need A War
21. Kenna - Sun Red Sky Blue
22. Electric Six - Down at McDonnelzz
23. Pavement - Date With Ikea
24. PJ Harvey - The Devil


DOWNLOAD HERE

The title came from a blog someone posted about Tom Cruise's Scientology video (I think it was RStevens, brains behind dieselsweeties...)

Some tracks on this mix come from the 90s and my old-school mixtapes - the first one is a prime example. Tripl3fastaction's album Broadcaster was a tapedeck staple in my high school tapes, the song "Revved Up" in particular with its rockin' dual-vocal chorus.

My friend Ken gave me a copy of Saves The Day's Through Being Cool back in our undergrad days and we've been listening to their emo-tastic pop-punk ever since. They keep getting stranger and stranger : on their latest album Under The Boards, they still bring the drama but they augment it with clearer hooks, tastier songs built around skilled players and far superior songwriting. 2nd best track on the album? "Can't Stay The Same"

The album Happy Hollow gets a fair amount of rotation at my house, with its Wizard of Oz allegories and vicious Fugazi-style polemics. Cursive used to sound like the second coming of Fugazi, but now they sound like their own thing, and we're all the better for it. Adding horns and stripping away the scream-o makes for tasty tracks like "Hymns For The Heathen"

I tend to avoid the hype machine, so when it spewed its guts over Brits The Arctic Monkeys, I said, "whateva." Then friend from the UK sent me a mix with them on it. I changed my mind immediately the moment I heard the hook to "The View From The Afternoon", which is the first song on Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not. Cheeky bastards.

Brazilian bizarr-o music to move your booty to. Not exactly pop, not exactly electro, Bonde o Role have topped many critics' "Best of 2007" lists. Add me to that number. With Lasers is straight-up awesome. Want proof? Check out "Tieta"

The Most Serene Republic often live up to their name, but sometimes they bring the cling-clang noise. "Battle Hymn Of The Republic" comes from their newest record Population.

Ani DiFranco's labelmate Hamell on Trial makes concise little punk epics on his acoustic guitar. Yes, it's about as awesome as it sounds. The album Tough Love is full of songs like "Don't Kill" - a direct communique with Yahweh himself, asking "what part of 'thou shalt not kill don't ya understand?'"

Tegan and Sara released a new album, The Con, and are coming to St. Louis this spring. To celebrate, I added "Knife Going In" to this mix. If you don't know how awesome these two ladies are, you will soon.

Another critical darling that I approached with caution, Mark Ronson's album Version changed my concept of what a cover album could be (but, frankly, so did Cat Power's Covers Album and the recent Jukebox). Ronson's version of The Smiths "Stop Me (If You Think You've Heard This One Before", here called simply "Stop Me" replaces the sad-sack Morrissey act with a more Motown feel. Genius.

My friend and bandmate Ken keeps telling me about the Manchester scene in the 90s and that I would LOVE the Happy Mondays. For once, he was right. "Kinky Afro" is from their second album Pills N Thrills N Bellyaches and is more awesome than anything from the 90s has the right to be.

ALERT : The Hives are (one of) the BEST BAND(s) on the planet! The Black and White Album shows Howlin' Pete and company doing what they do best - laying down garage rock - as well as expanding outwards and trying new things, like the schoolgirl chanting of the chorus of "Try It Again"

Another 90s mixtape staple, Salt were always getting my friends confused. "Is this Veruca Salt?" "No, it's Salt"... and repeat. But their album Auscultate got fairly little radio play and they kinda fizzled out. Sad really, because songs like "Obsession" were truly rockin'.

Some people didn't care for Cobra Starship's second album Viva La Cobra! But if you've got a sense of humor, the desire to rock and the willingness to put up with some goofiness, you'll love it and songs like "My Moves Are White (White Hot That Is)".

My band The Orbz played with State and Madison and they were some really friendly awesome Chicagoans. Their record, Consider This A Confession, is really only an EP, but it's still great.


Say Anything just put out Max Bemis' senior thesis on Emo 499 : In Defense Of The Genre. It's backed up with singularly great songwriting and killer hooks. Study up, haters, songs like "We Killed It" are far and away better than most emo out there.

Piebald are just a bunch of goofy dudes writing goofy songs. While this may remind too many people of Presidents of the United States of America, it really works on albums like Accidental Gentlemen and songs like "Get Old or Die Trying." Plus, I really loved POTUSA...

Sleater-Kinney's swan song, the beautiful and angelic The Woods was the best way to go out as a band. "Modern Girl" is a genius track on an album full of genius tracks.


Most people don't think The Mars Volta are really mix tape material : their songs are too interconnected and 'out-there' to fit in. Usually I'd agree, but "Aberinkula" off the new album The Bedlam in Goliath is just too good not to include.

My friend Joe talked me into finally listening to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and I was really impressed. The self-titled debut is packed with songs like "Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)" full of glockenspiel and warbly vocals.

Electroclash survivors Fischerspooner managed to escape intact from a rapildy imploding genre. Then they got Susan Sontag to write "We Need A War" for their second album Odyssey. Yes, the deceased author wrote a pop tune about war...

Kenna was supposed to be the "next big thing"... then his label delayed his first album, which may have cost him dearly. That's all behind him as he tries to be a hit again with the record Make Sure They See My Face, bringing with him bombastic tracks like "Sun Red Sky Blue". He's got a style that ranges between Bjork and modern rock, so give the guy a listen.

I thought joke bands were supposed to die off at some point. I guess Dick Valentine's Electric Six aren't a joke... Their 4th album in 4 years, I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master, is 1.) a really long title and 2.) pretty universally awesome.

Hooray for 90s indie rock! Pavement, being standard-bearers of the genre, are a current obsession - their album Brighten The Corners in particular. "Date with Ikea" is surprisingly current despite its age.

Lastly, I leave you with a spooky gem. PJ Harvey's new album White Chalk sounds like it was recorded 100 years ago in a haunted schoolhouse. All piano and spooky vibes, songs like "The Devil" bring palpable chills.