April 16, 2008
The Spring 2008 Mix.
I haven't done this in ages, and I thought I'd try a simpler and more user-friendly, if somewhat less elegant, interface than Box.net for the music. No, you can't download these anymore either, but that keeps me off the hook.
And so: twelve songs, in no order except for a vague mixtape-y flow between them, that I loved in the first four months of 2008, at thewilyfilipino.muxtape.com:
1. Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, "Bag of Hammers"
- From the 2008 album We Brave Bee Stings And All.
- Official website.
"The trick is / You do not get on that interstate bus / The catch is / You stay and see what becomes of us." (I really will be writing a review of this album, I promise.)
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2. Donovan, "Get Thy Bearings"
- From the 1968 album The Hurdy Gurdy Man.
- Official website.
Donovan gets funky. And yes, that's also Biz Markie's "I Told You."
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3. The Budos Band, "Origin Of Man"
- From the 2007 album The Budos Band II.
- Official website.
This is what I imagine: Mahmoud Ahmed by way of Staten Island, to accompany the very beginning of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, but all the apes start dancing instead.
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4. Radiohead, "All I Need"
- From the 2007 album In Rainbows.
- Official website.
"I'm the next act / Waiting in the wings / I'm an animal / Trapped in your hot car."
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5. Taken by Cars, "Uh Oh"
- From the 2008 album Endings of a New Kind.
- Myspace page.
Quoting myself here: "The second track, "Uh Oh" (the album's real beginning) has a perfect opening, as instruments fall rapidly into formation: drum heartbeat, stabbing guitar riff, and suddenly, best of all, a synth refrain parachuted in from 1982."
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6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Maps"
- From the 2003 album Fever to Tell.
- Official website.
I hadn't heard this song before until Rock Band, to tell you the truth. I love the way the notes cut diagonally across the frets: red red red red, yellow yellow yellow yellow, or something like that.
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7. The Cool Kids, "A Little Bit Cooler"
- From the 2007 album The Bake Sale.
- Myspace page.
"Does that belt say 'Star Wars'?" An ode to being a nerd: "I'm in the crib Saturday night with my Sega that's right / Playing a game of that Street Fighter, Street Fighter, Street Fighter / I guess that makes you think you cooler than me / But any girl you can pull I can pull 'em with ease."
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8. Fujiya & Miyagi, "Ankle Injuries"
- From the 2007 album Transparent Things.
- Official website.
I drove up and down from Oakland to Davis and back twice a week, and this song -- plus Can's "Uphill" -- provided the perfect driving soundtrack.
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9. m-flo, "Hands"
- From the 2000 album Planet Shining.
- Official website.
You'll be hearing that piano riff in your dreams, I swear.
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10. Little Dragon, "Test"
- From the 2007 album Little Dragon.
- Official website.
"A test, a test, a test. No rest, no rest, no rest."
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11. Captain Audio, "Lemon"
- From the 2000 album Luxury or Whether It Is Better To Be Loved Than Feared.
- Myspace page.
I heard this on UT Austin's college radio one morning: at first I thought it was some long-lost Liz Phair track, with wah-wah guitar and ragged "We Will Rock You" handclaps and footstomps thrown in.
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12. Led Zeppelin, "The Ocean"
- From the 1973 album Houses of the Holy.
- Official website.
"Now i'm singin all my songs to the girl who won my heart / She is only three six years old / now that's a real fine way to start."
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Again, the songs are here: thewilyfilipino.muxtape.com.