15 songs by the Yum Yums

It's almost impossible to describe this band in a way that accurately conveys their genius. The term "pop punk" doesn't do it - it's been marred by a couple decades of whining, tin-eared careerists - and to simply say they sound like the Ramones mated with the early Beach Boys gives short shrift to all three points in the equation. The Yum Yums come from a galaxy (Norway, actually) where nothing matters other than melody, momentum, and bright, fuzzy powerchords. It seems like an easy recipe, but it's only easy until you hear the 9,999,999 bands out of 10 million that fail at it. I can't explain it, but singer/songwriter Morten Henriksen and his fellow Yum Yums just get it. To me, this is the sound of pure, unbridled joy. I can barely imagine a summer without them. Not a good summer, anyway. This is a 15 song sampler from a number of their releases. Take 'em for a test drive and see if you can resist. "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum!"

15 Songs by the Yum Yums

1. I Wanna Be The One
2. It's Gonna Be A Hit
3. Let's Rock and Roll
4. Come On Come On
5. Twenty Four Seven
6. Shake Some Action (Flamin' Groovies cover)
7. Rock and Roll Tonight
8. Here Comes Summer
9. Forever
10. Miss You Baby
11. Out of Luck (Pointed Sticks cover)
12. Be With Me
13. Chewy Chewy (Ohio Express cover)
14. Too Good To Be True
15. 9,999,999 Tears

tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 14 from Whatever Rhymes With Baby (2008)
tracks 2, 4, 8, 9 from Blame It On The Boogie (2002)
tracks 10, 11, 12, from Sweet As Candy (1997)
track 6 from Come On Come On single (2002)
track 13 from Singles 'n' Stuff (2001)
track 15 from Funzone ep (2001)

Give That Kid A Smack mix

Rock! Roll! Drugs! Girls! Underpants! It's another volume of the most mongerous mongerosity in all of mongerdom. This one ranges a little wider than previous entries, starting with the Tom-Waits-in-Nawlins chug of Royal Fingerbowl and ending on the hyper Dolls-gone-hair-metal of the Nastys, and in between it veers drunkenly between glam, power pop, hard rock, and rootsy Americana. Special thanks to the Look What The Twat Dragged In blog for introducing me to the Sand Rubies, whose "Fuk 'Em" is quickly becoming a personal anthem (even though I'm philosophically opposed to misspellings of song titles). Remember to turn this one up loud.

Give That Kid A Smack

1. Royal Fingerbowl Bad Apples
2. The Compulsions Big, Fat, Sexy Mama
3. The Glossary Save Your Money For The Weekend
4. Cobra Verde Underpants
5. S'cool Girls Put Up Or Shut Up
6. Like A Martyr And By Coffee I Mean Drugs
7. The Respectables Charged By The Minute
8. The Heats Let's All Smoke
9. Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle Too Sober To Sleep
10. The Sand Rubies Fuk 'Em
11. The Liquor Giants Awful Good
12. The Mekons (w/ Neko Case) Last Night On Earth
13. The DomNicks Busted
14. Green Up All Night
15. The Crybabys Swallow Me Up
16. The Glands When I Laugh
17. Doug Gillard The Temperament Twist
18. Free Energy Dark Trance
19. Parallax Project I Hate Girls
20. The Nastys Bad Doctor

25 Songs of Christmess

Ah... Christmas. If the consumerist pressures aren't enough to break you, then surely the non-stop holiday music will. Admit it, if you have to listen to another round of those earnest, choral hymns and/or chirpy yule ditties you may have to eat your own head to make it stop.

And you can't fight it. Nope. It's Christmas, ferchrissakes. In order to fight you'd either have to declare war on friends, family, and immediate culture - maybe go live in a cave or forage in the snowy forests for seeds and berries - and that's not gonna happen if you're even halfway sane.

So instead of an outright fight, why not offer a compromise? And by compromise, I mean this mix. Slip it in the player at the next family Christmas event, settle back, and bliss out over the 80 minutes of actual decent music - and make sure to appreciate it, because once it's over you know you're doomed to return to Burl Ives bleating "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". Or the Dogsbum Township Middle School Choir's version of "Silent Night". Or those barking dogs. Or even... (shudder)... the jingle cats. You know what I'm talking about. Yep. We're all in this together. Download now. Thank me later.

25 Songs Of Christmess

1. Pointed Sticks Power Pop Santa
2. Manic Street Preachers Ghost of Christmas
3. Joey Ramone Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
4. The Hives w/ Cyndi Lauper A Christmas Duel
5. Barely Pink Come On Christmas
6. Imperial Drag Please Leave Me Home For Christmas
7. The Holidays Sleighbell Bop
8. The Fleshtones I Still Believe In Christmas
9. The Yobs Another Christmas
10. Jeffrey Foskett Christmas Time Is Here
11. Slow Santa Claus Is Back In Town
12. The Del-Lords Merry Christmas Baby
13. The Media Whores All I Want For Christmas
14. Hello Saferide Ipod Xmas
15. Redd Kross Super Sunny Christmas
16. Carpet Frogs Christmas Would Not Be Christmas
17. Black Halos Homeless For Christmas
18. The Raveonettes Christmas Song
19. Aimee Mann & Michael Penn Christmastime
20. The Smithereens Merry Christmas Baby
21. Tom Petty Christmas All Over Again
22. Fountains of Wayne I Want An Alien For Christmas
23. Spooner The Saddest Time Of The Year
24. Dreams So Real Red Lights (Merry Christmas)
25. Wonderful World of Joey What Sweet Child O'Mine Is This?

Wet Winter Holiday mix

I don't really do autumn and spring. To me, it's either summer or winter - that inbetweeny stuff is for fence sitters and committment-phobes. So in that spirit, here's a new mix perfect for the upcoming cold 'n' nasties.

The mood here is melancholy, but it's not weepy acoustic folkie melancholy. This is essentially a companion piece to the "Allergic To Fun" punky poppish etc. mix from last summer - lots of guitar jangle 'n' fuzz, melody, and momentum - but the key here is a distinct note of sadness for those winter blahs.

There's no rhyme or reason behind the bands picked; they come from many eras and genres. Lead-off track "Now It's On" is a great track from a few years ago, even though everything else that particular band has done has left me cold. Gidget's Ga Ga, Philadelphia Grand Jury, the Modern Station, the Tomorrows, and Raveonettes are some faves from this year. Teenage Fanclub, Sammy, the Odds, and Material Issue are starting to feel like transmissions from an ancient world. The others are a grabbag from the last few years. Or so. Pretty much all of it deserved a much greater audience.

Wet Winter Holiday

1. Grandaddy Now It's On
2. Teenage Fanclub Sparky's Dream
3. Junior Panthers California
4. Attic Lights Bring You Down
5. Javier Escovedo Tonight Is Gonna Be Better
6. Gidget's Ga Ga Dreamer
7. Ambershades Clap Clap Clap
8. The Raveonettes Breaking Into Cars
9. Philadelphia Grand Jury Wet Winter Holiday
10. The Modern Station Evangelina
11. The Redwalls Love Her
12. The Oranges Band White Ride
13. Planet Melvin Chromacolor Dream
14. Sammy Neptune Ave. (Ortho Hi Rise)
15. The Mayflies USA The Greatest Thing
16. The Odds Eat My Brain
17. The Breakers Tried So Hard
18. Material Issue Ordinary Girl
19. Watts One Below (The All Time Low)
20. The Tomorrows Don't Worry About Me
21. Ice Cream Hands Weak At The Knees

Note: if you're using skipscreen you'll want to turn it off for megaupload

PG13 mix

Yeah, what the hell - this month has been a frenzy of mixes, so why not one more? This one was put together as a request. The challenge was to compile a mix for a teenage daughter that wouldn't induce mom to stick an icepick in her ear. It also works as an apologia for the previous mix - completely free of dirty words and nasty thoughts. Well, maybe a nasty thought or two. But overall so clean you could eat your lunch off it. No guarantee about the icepick though. And it's 66% pure female too. Although, somewhere, there should be some fine print about the definition of "purity" in this context.


HEADACHES & ICEPICKS

1. Brett Anderson California Sun
2. The Riff Randels When You Go
3. The Yum Yums It's Gonna Be A Hit
4. Nikki Corvette Under My Wheels
5. Suzy & Los Quattro Freak Show
6. Josie Cotton He Could Be The One
7. The Muffs Honeymoon
8. The Donnas Can't Keep It A Secret
9. The Successful Failures All I Can Take
10. Les Hell on Heels Ain't So Cool
11. The Prissteens I'm Devastated
12. Tammy & the Lords of Misrule Wig Wam Bam
13. The Wildhearts One Love, One Life, One Girl
14. Ben Kweller I Don't Know Why
15. The Fondas Don't Come Back
16. The Pandoras I Didn't Cry
17. Detroit Cobras Shout Bama Lama
18. Edna Swap Next To You
19. Silver Sun Jody
20. Slender Means Hidden Grove
21. The 88 Love You Anytime
22. Volumizer I Promise You, Thomas
23. American Heartbreak Last of the Superheroes (of the 1970s)
24. Joan Jett Riddles