Faves of 2013 (vol. 3)

I'm posting this Faves compilation mere moments after learning of the passing of Lou Reed. It's difficult to place this kind of event into perspective without delving into exactly the kind of maudlin sentimentality that would probably make Lou himself scoff in derision, but I think it's safe to say that there isn't a band on this mix that would have existed if not for the  direct influence of Mr. Reed. A lot of artists are deemed influential, but precious few of them can lay claim to the profound impact the Velvet Underground unleashed upon the world. "Sweet Jane" alone would place Lou in the pantheon of rock & roll immortality, nevermind the towering achievement of the entire VU catalogue, nevermind the always interesting output of his solo career, and nevermind all the bands and artists that followed in his hallowed wake. So RIP, you beautifully cantankerous contrarian, may your footsteps forever echo.

As for the mix itself, this is the last one of this year. The next task will be compiling the absolute best albums of 2013, and this mix presents a number of contenders. Albums by James Younger (Feelin' American), the Grimm Generation (The Big Fame), Bad Sports (Bras), Glitz (It'z Glitz), Barrence Whitfield (Dig Thy Savage Soul), and J. Roddy Walston (Essential Tremors) are pretty much certainties for the Top 30, but I wouldn't rule out any full-length release by any artist included here. Somewhere, Lou Reed is tapping his foot.

My Life Was Saved By Rock & Roll

1. The Grimm Generation  The Next Indie Boy
2. James Younger  Monday Morning
3. Brand New Hate  Sinners and Preachers
4. Black Joe Lewis  The Hipster
5. The Strypes  Hometown Girls
6. Deer Tick The Dream's In The Ditch
7. The Cheap Thrills  Midnight Sun
8. The Temperance Movement Be Lucky
9. The Suburbs Turn The Radio On
10. Bare Mutants Cunt
11. Propeller Might Never Be The Only One
12. The Dirtbombs Crazy For You
13. Mark Crozer & the Rels Tell Me You Want Me
14. Star Anna Smoke Signals
15. Diarrhea Planet Babyhead
16. The Julie Ruin Just My Kind
17. The Charlie Watts Riots Metal
18. Bad Sports Rockin' The Noose
19. Glitz Don't Think About It
20. Needles//Pins Date Night (You Bring the Napalm)
21. Drivin' n Cryin' Hot Wheels
22. Barrence Whitfield & the Savages The Corner Man
23. J. Roddy Walston & the Business Marigold
24. Timmy Sean & the Celebrities Back to the Middle

Hello My Name is Mix (vol.5)

Listen, I totally cop to the fact that these names mixes are a tad on the crazy side and, frankly, I'm as surprised as anyone that it's even possible for so many volumes to exist. But here's the thing: these songs are out there. And they're awesome. And, godammit, somebody has to compile 'em. And so it may as well be this little backwater blog that almost exclusively places its attention on non-mainstream oddities and confections, amirite? I mean, if not here, where else?

 Walking 'Round the House in My Underpants

1. The Redwalls Robinson Crusoe
2. Dipsomaniacs Syd Barrett
3. Supraluxe Lester Bangs
4. Bad Books Forest Whitaker
5. Late Cambrian Ryan Gosling
6. Art Brut Martin Kemp
7. Barrance Whitfield Oscar Levant
8. Jet Electro Walter Cronkite
9. American Aquarium Abe Lincoln
10. The Prime Ministers Ron Wood
11. Bronx Cheerleader Ann Coulter
12. Dick Diver Michael Jackson
13. Cherry Blossom Clinic Bobby Baccalieri
14. Terry Andersen & the Olympic Ass-Kickin' Team Willie Mays
15. Big Dipper Robert Pollard
16. Boxer the Horse Karen Silkwood
17. Saint Motel Benny Goodman
18. The Breakup Society Mary Shelley
19. Lily Wood & the Prick Joni Mitchell
20. The Rifles Robin Hood
21. The Courtneys KC Reeves
22. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin Harrison Ford
23. This Many Boyfriends Tina Weymouth
24. Bodeens Jay Leno

Faves of 2013 (vol. 2)

I guess the thing I find most puzzling about this digital age is how it's so incredibly easy to get the word out and yet the word still don't get out. I just don't understand why some indie bands come out of nowhere riding a wave of internet buzz while others are doomed to rage into an echo chamber of disinterest. Why, for example, do artists like Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees become Pitchfork-approved, while scores of other garage/punk/pop rockers - either more vicious, more fun, or more melodic - can't get even a whiff of a hipster's Pabst-stained neckbeard?

This new Faves mix is a case in point. So many of these bands have just released albums or EPs that deserve to get them enshrined in the hallowed halls of rock&roll immortality, and yet I'm not seeing much about them anywhere. Little Steven (godbless that awesome suminabitch) might be playing the hells out of the new Connection, and King Khan & the Shrines continue an upward trajectory, and maybe two or three others have received reviews in major(-ish) web zines, but the rest appear to have been roundly and unfairly ignored. If you haven't yet, search out the albums these songs come from (album titles included in the info) - and maybe we can get some of that buzz started.

These Are The Things I've Come to Love

1. The Bamboo Kids Batshit Crazy
2. The Connection Wrong Side of 25
3. Wyatt Blair Sugar Lips, Cinnamon Hips
4. The Computers Love Triangles, Hate Squares
5. The Cliks Savanna
6. Rooni Ambulance
7. Jesse Dee Sweet Tooth
8. Beech Day Wasting All My Time
9. Primitive Hearts Falling Apart
10. Radio Days Get Some Action
11. Nick Piunti On The Way Out
12. Rev Gusto Click-Click
13. The Mergers Caught Beneath
14. King Louie's Missing Monuments Covered In Ice
15. Pat Todd & the RankOutsiders 14th & Nowhere
16. Jumgle Midnight Limousine
17. The Sharks Blow
18. Modern Kicks Crew'n Up
19. Rich Hands Tease (Pretty Pretty Please)
20. Attic Lights Say You Love Me
21. Indian Rebound Backlash
22. The Solicitors DDT
23. King Khan & the Shrines Bad Boy
24. Crocadiles Marquis De Sade

Summer 2013

These are the best days. Blue skies and sweltering heat, long hours of sunlight, and a warm fleeting assurance that our time is infinite and all things are possible. And these summer mixes try to catch that sense of lazy optimism in an hour (or so) of music. These tunes stretch all over the last 40 years and generally don't land in any one specific genre, although given the established preference of this blog you can assume they lean primarily towards guitar-based poprockwhatever with a little girl group goodness thrown in for variety.

I've included a few vinyl rips from my LP collection here as well. A couple bands, After All and the B-Sides, have almost zero web presence these days. After All was a Vancouver band that only released a single album, How High the Moon (1988), before their lead singer left. The remaining members morphed into a band called Pure, who had some minor success in the 90s. The B-Sides were from Victoria, and spent the early part of the 80s skanking the hell out of every joint they played. They put out the Red to Black LP on Radioactive Records back in 1981, and after that I have no idea what happened to them. Other fairly obscure artists from those early days (like Pagliaro and the Secrets) have been championed by various blogs, so info on them is readily available.

Oh, and ignore the intentional misspellings in the tracklist. It's a new strategy. A lame strategy, but a strategy nonetheless.

Anyway, I hope this mix hits you the way it's been hitting me while lounging on the deck with a frosty martini in hand. Enjoy the heat, everybuddy.

Grab Your Shades and a Bottle of Pop

1. GRMLN Summer Days
2. Imani Copola Sah-Weet (Sweet)
3. The Addies Summertime
4. Free Enrgy Girls Want Rock
5. Sleeper Agent Love Blood
6. American Heartbreak Last of the Superheroes (of the 1970s)
7. The Dahlmans Dumb Me Down
8. Propeller Summer Songs
9. Pagliaro Magic Moments
10. The Allah-Las Busman's Holiday
11. Ryan Powers & the Secret Weapons Mr. Sunshine
12. Jungle Summer Heat
13. River City Rebels Sick Kids
14. Wild Belle Love Like This
15. The Secrets Radio Heart
16. J. Geils Band Give It To Me
17. After All Here I Am Again
18. Matt Costa Good Times
19. Reno Bo You Don't Know
20. Asteroids Galaxy Tour Sunshine Coolin'
21. The Raveonettes Ode to L.A.
22. The B-Sides Bedtime for Ronald

Re-ups

Full-On Monger: You Know How to Eat Ice Cream?  - Trashy, foul-mouthed, horn-laden punk-fueled rock 'n' roll. You know you want it.

Covers Project Vol. X

Awright, here we go for the tenth time. Some of the best songs ever written, some of the worst, and all of them made awesome by bands that grabbed something familiar and made it their own. Or something like that. There's usually two ways a band can go with a cover. One is to play it close to the original, and the other is to re-invent the song into something entirely different. In either strategy, I tend to prefer the ones that maintain the melody. Those hooks were put there for a reason, people - mess with 'em at your peril. 

Twelve of these twenty-two songs come from the '70s, which is still the great goldmine of classic bubblegum pop. Of course, that might be a declaration made by my own prejudice and preference - but, let's face it, something like the Sweet's "Little Willy" couldn't have existed in any other decade. It's equal parts hook-riddled genius and cloyingly saccharine; you just know the hippies of the 60s would've shunned it with the same fervor as the noo wave disco mavens of the 80s would have banned it from the VIP room. In one sense, the same could be said about every tune included here, regardless of era: it's all so cool it ain't cool no mo', which only makes it cooler. Or, y'know, something like that.

Someday You'll Remember Me

1. Tsar Pool Party (The Olsen Twins)
2. Needles//Pins Picture My Face (Teenage Head)
3. Rocket Rocket (Mud)
4. Bamboo Kids Jet Boy, Jet Girl (Elton Motello, by way of Plastic Bertrand)
5. Howler Up the Bracket (Libertines)
6. Best Coest Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)
7. London Calling Just Got Back (Cheap Trick)
8. Nushu My Best Friend's Girl (The Cars)
9. Tina & the Total Babes Tell That Girl To Shut Up (Holly & the Italians)
10. Kasey Anderson & the Honkies Save It For Later (English Beat)
11. Warm Soda Waiting For The Man (Velvet Underground)
12. DM3 Sweet Hitch-Hiker (Credence Clearwater Revival)
13. Material Issue Little Willy (The Sweet)
14. Imperial State Electric I Don't Know What I Want (Raspberries)
15. Yesterday's Kids Tired of Waking Up Tired (Diodes)
16. Ko & the Knockouts If I (Nolan Strong & the Diablos)
17. Superchunk Cruel Summer (Bananarama)
18. Boys School S.O.S. (Abba)
19. The Connection Yeah Yeah (Ramones)
20. The Dollyrots Dream Lover (Bobby Darin)
21. Bayside Oliver's Army (Elvis Costello)
22. Ash Teenage Wildlife (David Bowie)

Faves of 2013 (Vol. 1)

Spring has sprung, which means I'm a little overdue for the first faves mix of the year. But never fear, good things come to those who wait (usually in the form of a 20% gratuity).

The first four months of 2013 have produced some outstanding music. Too much for a single mix, in fack, which means a) there's already a fine chunk of Volume 2 primed for posting, and b) this one is chockful of greatness. Among the new(-ish) finds you may note the reappearance of some of my longtime obsessions (for example, I'll be pushing the Yum Yums, Zachary James, and the Biters until they all become as hugely popular as they deserve), as well as new ones by 80s faves the Del-Lords and the Grapes of Wrath. There's also a bonus track, hidden more out of my paranoia of major label assholeishness than any sense of added value.

Let the sun shine in. And remember: SPF 30 or above is not sunscreen, it's a shirt.

The Bands I Like They Don't Sell A Lot Of Records

1. Slam Dunk Dying Breed
2. Purling Hiss Rat Race
3. The Yum Yums I Like Good Music
4. Biters So Many Nights
5. Night Marchers Big in Germany
6. Warm Soda Jeanie Loves Pop
7. Two Hours Traffic Ready For a Look
8. The Postelles Caught By Surprise
9. Grapes of Wrath Good To See You
10. Polly Put a Little English On It
11. Bed Wettin' Bad Boys Sally
12. Red Jacket Mine Someone Else's Cake
13. The Del-Lords When the Drugs Kick In
14. Sugar Sugaar Stoned
15. Dirty Fences King's Cross
16. Dick Diver Alice
17. Mount Mariah Bright Light
18. Matt Costa Shotgun
19. Har Mar Superstar Lady, You Shot Me
20. The Virgins Prima Materia
21. Zachary James & the All Seeing Eyes Runnin' Outta Tyme