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How Can I Tell You

Love songs. Break-up songs. So much of rock 'n' roll is about love and I've always been a sucker for a good love song. I called my collection of love song mixes Heartaches. I wanted to be inclusive of all kinds of love songs and people can be so much in love to cause heartache and of course the lack of love or the loss of love certainly causes heartache which has become one of my mix collection categories.

This is another mix where I was looking for that formula for the perfect mix. So it is a mix of different songs from different periods and groupings of small sets that go together.

I'm looking forward to posting this on my Facebook Mix of the Week.

1. Cat Stevens - How Can I Tell You (Teaser And The Firecat, 1970)
2. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows (Pet Sounds, 1966)
3. Colin Bloodstone - Caroline Goodbye (One Year, 1971)
4. The Beatles - Girl (Rubber Soul, 1965)
5. Eric Clapton - Easy Now (Eric Clapton, 1970)
6. Big Star - Thirteen (#1 Record, 1972)
7. Teenage Fanclub - Mellow Doubt (Grand Prix, 1995)
8. The Go-Betweens - Love Goes On (16 Lovers Lane, 1996)
9. The Green Pajamas - She's Still Bewitching Me (Seven Fathoms Down And Falling, 1999)
10. Roy Orbison - She's A Mystery To Me (Mystery Girl, 1989)
11. Crowded House - Fall At Your Feet (Woodface, 1991)
12. Keren Ann - Lay Your Head Down (Keren Ann, 2007)
13. Winterpills - You Don't Love Me Yet (Central Chambers, 2008)
14. Explorers Club - Forever (Freedom Wind, 2008)
15. R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful (Up, 1998)
16. Jim Noir - The Only Way (Tower Of Love, 2006)
17. Bon Iver - For Emma (For Emma, Forever Ago, 2008)
18. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - When Your Mind's Made Up (Once: Soundtrack, 2007)
19. Van Morrison - Crazy Love (Moondance, 1970)
20. Paul McCartney - Every Day (McCartney, 1970)
21. Crosby, Stills & Nash - You Don't Have To Cry (Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1969)
22. So Long, Marianne - Leonard Cohen (Songs Of Leonard Cohen, 1968)
23. Neil Young - Only Love Can Break Your Heart (After The Goldrush, 1970)

You can listen here


or

It's Four in the Morning... again

This is a mix that I've posted several times in various places and in several configurations. It's an example of looking for that perfect mix. This mix is part of my Late Night series.

It has many of the characteristics that I've strive for in a mix. First of all I like all of the songs because after all I'm making mixes for myself foremost and would not put something on a mix that I personally didn't like. It holds a certain mood or feel and as part of my Late Night series it can be brooding, quiet, hypnotic, reflective, etc.

I don't think I'm going to change this mix again.


1. Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat (Songs of Love and Hate, 1971)
2. Nick Drake - Pink Moon (Pink Moon, 1972)
3. Richard Thompson - Waltzing's for Dreamers (Amnesia, 1988)
4. Elliott Smith - Waltz #2 (XO, 1998)
5. Mazzy Star - Five String Serenade (So Tonight That I Might See, 1993)
6. R.E.M. - Nightswimming (Automatic for the People, 1992)
7. The Arcade Fire - Crown of Love (Funeral, 2004)
8. Beck - The Golden Age (Sea Change, 2002)
9. Nada Surf - Blonde On Blonde (Let Go, 2003)
10. The Shins - New Slang (Oh, Inverted World, 2001)
11. Band Of Horses - The Funeral (Everything All The Time, 2006)
12. My Morning Jacket - The Way That He Sings (At Dawn, 2001)
13. Neil Young - Don't Let It Bring You Down (After The Goldrush, 1970)
14. Lou Reed - Perfect Day (Transformer, 1972)
15. Tim Buckley - Song to the Siren (Starsailor, 1970)
16. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (Grace, 1994)
17. Jennifer Warnes - Bird on a Wire (Famous Blue Raincoat, 1987)
18. John Cale & Suzanne Vega - So Long, Marianne (Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the 60's, 1999)

You can listen here



or


Leonard Cohen is perfect to start this mix. The mix title comes from the opening lines of this opening song... "It's four in the morning". The mood is immediately set in place. The backing vocals are awesome.

Nick Drake is a great followup. It's from the same time period and carries the same feeling. It could have been any Nick Drake song but choosing "Pink Moon" is a popular favorite for many people. The Richard Thompson song continues the quiet self examination going on in the mix.

Often times a mix is really a collection of smaller sets of similar music. A group of songs that work well together connected to other small groups. The transition is always important. I've never liked jarring contrasts that a mixer puts there just to shake up the listener.

The next three songs are from popular albums from the 90's and not only maintain the general mood of the mix but add a slightly classical music feel... the waltz, the string serenade and the piano along with the yearning vocals.

The Arcade Fire comes in with some pomp and emotion with a tempo changing interlude. This was a late addition to the mix when I was looking for something to transition different groups of songs. It also comes from what I think was probably my favorite album of the last decade.

"The Golden Age" was the opening song from Beck's Sea Change which was another favorite album of the decade. The Beck, Nada Surf and Shins songs have been together on this mix since it's very earliest versions. They do everything I want together. "New Slang" is a particular favorite for many people.

The Band of Horses song adds some heavier guitar sounds to the mix along with some very intense quiet moments. The vocals move the song forward and move the listener to the very distinctive singing of My Morning Jacket. Their classic rock sound is a perfect lead in to Neil Young. After The Goldrush is a great album from 1970 and I picked a deep cut but that was an album that was played everywhere by everyone at the time. You heard it all the time and every song was familiar so it's nice to hear the not so obvious song from an album.

The next song is another deep track from a classic album. Lou Reed's Transformer is mostly known for "Walk On The Wild Side", "Vicious" and "Satellite of Love" but the pop sheen and mood of "Perfect Day" is the perfect song for the this mix. It is followed by Tim Buckley, one of the great vocalist of the 60's, whose wildly experimental vocal style highlights the classic "Song to the Siren" from 1970's Starsailor.

That little set of 70's singer songwriters is followed by a set that pays tribute to Leonard Cohen who opened the mix. Tim Buckley's tragic son Jeff Buckley gives a nearly definitive reading of Cohen's "Hallelujah" followed by "Bird on a Wire" from Jennifer Warnes' 1987 Cohen tribute album. The closer is a wonderful version of Cohen's "So Long, Marianne" by John Cale and Suzanne Vega. A fitting tribute to a great artist and the ending to a search for a perfect mix. Well, still not perfect but time to move on to the next one.

The Decades of Rock

I'm calling this post the Decades of Rock because I want to rant a little bit about lumping music into calendar decades like it has some meaning.

My recent listing of favorite albums from the last decade got me thinking about how we look at music and how we break the history of popular music up into decades. We see list of songs, albums, movies, etc listed by decades. We tend to lump together music based on the decade it was created or released. 80's music, 60's music, etc.

In my own personal collection of music in mixes and playlists I have used a different breakdown of musical eras. My groups are still about ten years but my time span is based more on style and culture rather than the calendar.

My first decade of rock 'n' roll begins about 1956 and goes to 1965. I call it the First Decade and includes a variety of music from the early pioneers of rock 'n' roll, Elvis, rockabilly, doo wop and early Motown, the Beach Boys and surf music, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, the girl groups, the Four Seasons, early British Invasion, those first few Beatles albums, the early Stones and the blues men such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.

The Second Decade starts about 1966 or thereabouts because Rubber Soul was 1965 and that album really shows the difference in the decades. It was the beginning or what came to be known as Classic Rock. It was also soul music and the beginnings of funk and reggae. Classic country too.

The Third Decade starts in 1977 but that again is arbitrary because you could see the changes coming a little earlier in bands like the Ramones and Big Star. Of course the really big thing about this decade is Punk, New Wave and Disco. Why limit this era to 80's music when artists like the Clash, Talking Heads and Elvis Costello began in the 70's with essentially the same sound. There is also the early Rap and Hip-Hop starting at this time.

The Fourth Decade runs from the mid 80's to the mid 90's and includes what is sometimes called Modern Rock, Post Punk, Grunge, Rap and the assorted smaller genres that music seems to have been obsessively broken down into.

The Fifth Decade hasn't really jelled into something really unique or discernible yet. It is still too early to tell. All those Alternative genres and endless sub genres abound. Post-Rock I guess and all the various Alt-this or that. So here we're talking about the mid 90's to the mid 00's.

Now we are already half way into the Sixth Decade.

Here is an example of using my decades concept for a mix. This might be called an 80's mix but it really is a Third Decade mix. Message of Love.

Here Comes Your Man is a Fourth Decade mix. It sounds like a certain time but not limited to a specific decade. The songs range from 1987 to 1996 which is the fourth decade of rock music.

So this is all just meaningless ramblings while I sit at my laptop listening to some great music.

Out In The Sweet Unknown

The title of this mix comes from the opening song. This is another in the collection of music from 2009 that impressed me. This mix is a little more mellow than the last couple from the collection.

1. Heartless Bastards - Be So Happy (The Mountain, 2009)
2. The Dutchess and The Duke - Scorpio (Sunset/Sunrise, 2009)
3. Bon Iver - Blood Bank (Blood Bank, 2009)
4. Eels - The Look You Give That Guy (Hombre Lobo, 2009)
5. The Swell Season - In These Arms (Strict Joy, 2009)
6. Devendra Banhart - Goin' Back (What Will We Be, 2009)
7. Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard - Big Sur (One Fast Move Or I'm Gone, 2009)
8. The Cave Singers - Summer Light (Welcome Joy, 2009)
9. The Felice Brothers - Penn Station (Yonder Is The Clock, 2009)
10. Hoots & Hellmouth - You And All Of Us (My Open Secret, 2009)
11. The Avett Brothers - Slight Figure Of Speech (I And Love And You, 2009)
12. Buddy Miller & Julie Miller - Gasoline And Matches (Written In Chalk, 2009)
13. M. Ward - Never Had Nobody Like You (Hold Time, 2009)
14. Exene Cervenka - Surface Of The Sun (Somewhere Gone, 2009)
15. Elvis Costello - Complicated Shadows (Secret, Profane and Sugarcane, 2009)
16. Calexico - Funeral Singers (All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, 2009)
17. Dan Auerbach - When The Night Comes (Keep It Hid, 2009)
18. Sleepy Sun - Golden Artifact (Embrace, 2009)
19. Anton Barbeau - Plastic Guitar (Plastic Guitar, 2009)
20. Atlas Sound - Walkabout (Logos, 2009)
21. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks (Veckatimest, 2009)

You can listen here.


or

I Wanna Be Trash

Here again this is another mix that was recently reworked. It is going up on Facebook as one of my Mix of the Week postings. It was mostly changed to make it part of my 2009 collection of favorites of the year put together in a 5 CD set.

1. The Whip - Trash (X-Marks Destination, 2009)
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero (It's Blitz, 2009)
3. Peter Bjorn and John - It Don't Move Me (Living Things, 2009)
4. The Harlem Shakes - Strictly Game (Technicolor Wealth, 2009)
5. Suckers - Beach Queen (Sucker, 2009)
6. Franz Ferdinand - Turn It On (Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, 2009)
7. Girls - Hellhole Ratrace (Album, 2009)
8. L'Avventura - Swandive (Your Star Was Shining, 2009)
9. Tinted Windows - Can't Get A Read On You (Tinted Windows, 2009)
10. Camera Obscura - French Navy (My Maudlin Career, 2009)
11. St. Vincent - Save Me From What I Want (Actor, 2009)
12. Bat For Lashes - Sleep Alone (Two Suns, 2009)
13. Late Of The Pier - The Bears Are Coming (Fantasy Black Channel, 2009)
14. The Drums - Let's Go Surfing (Summertime, 2009)
15. Animal Collective - I Think I Can (Fall Be Kind, 2009)
16. Yo La Tengo - Here To Fall (Popular Songs, 2009)
17. Doves - Kingdom Of Rust (Kingdom Of Rust, 2009)
18. Washed Out - Feel It All Around (Life Of Leisure, 2009)

You can listen here


or

More of those favorite albums of the decade

It's time to get back to my list of favorite albums of the just completed decade. As I stated in a previous post, this is not a best of but rather a collection of my personal favorites. Albums that I played over and over again. Albums that I kept going to for songs to use in mixes.

So here are 50 Albums.

These albums were discussed in previous post.

The Strokes - This Is It, 2001
The Flaming Lips - Yoshima Battles The Pink Robots, 2002
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, 2002
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising, 2002
Beck - Sea Change, 2002
David Bowie - Heathen, 2002
Arcade Fire - Funeral, 2004
Cat Power - The Greatest, 2006
Damien Youth - Alchemy, 2006
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark, 2007


Here are more albums on my list and again they are in no particular order.


Radiohead - Kid A, 2000
Shelby Lynn - I Am Shelby Lynn, 2000
Steve Earle - Transcendental Blues, 2000
XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Pt. 2), 2000
John Hiatt - Crossing Muddy Waters, 2000
My Morning Jacket - At Dawn, 2001
Chris Whitley - Rocket House, 2001
Lucinda Williams - Essence, 2001
Joe Henry - Scar, 2001
Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator), 2001
Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me, 2002
Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights, 2002
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around, 2002
Doves - The Last Broadcast, 2002
The Sleepy Jackson - Lovers, 2003
Damien Rice - O, 2003
The White Stripes - Elephant, 2003
The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music, 2003
Joe Strummer - Streetcore, 2003
Ry Cooder - Mambo Sinuendo, 2003
Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun, 2003
Over The Rhine - Ohio, 2004
Ambulance LTD - LP, 2004
The Detroit Cobras - Baby, 2005
The Quarter After - The Quarter After, 2005
Alejandro Escovedo - The Boxing Mirror, 2006
Bob Dylan - Modern Times, 2006
M. Ward - Post-War, 2006
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House, 2006
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther, 2006
Robert Plane & Allison Krause - Raising Sand, 2007
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights, 2007
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Once, 2007
Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior, 2007
LCD Sound System - Sound of Silver, 2007
Winterpills - The Light Divides, 2007
Deerhunter - Microcastle, 2008
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes, 2008
Bon Iver - For Emma, Long Ago, 2008
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion, 2009



etc, etc.