quote:

Originally posted by Backcountry:
Admit it, its because Cusack seemed so cool making his mix tapes in High Fidelity. We al wanted to be him.

Well, except for us old farts who have boxes and boxes of dusty mix tapes laying around that predate both the book and the movie by a decade or more.

quote:

Originally posted by Backcountry:
On another note, is anyone leaving out what they consider to be a song in their top-5 of the year? Does a "mix tape of the year" have to include the years best songs? I would say no, but I doubt many people are eaving those songs off....with the exception on Linn who might have a jazz number as the best song.....

This is an interesting question, B. Aside from the perennial question, "Does an album belong in this year's mix if it was released overseas last year," I tend to play a bit loose with the mixes that I provide friends. I can pull an awful lot of music from the past five years that will be new to them.

It's also worth noting that quite a few artists that appear on my mixes throughout the year, won't come anywhere near making my year-end list of albums. The Cloud Room, for example, had a great single in "Hey, Now Now," but I didn't care for the album as a whole. Conversely, some of my favorite albums of the year aren't represented on my mixes throughout the year because they don't really lend themselves well to the format. Especially, as you suggest, jazz releases like the Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane and the new Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra. Both will likely make my top ten album list for the year, but don't show up on my mixes.

Now Playing: "Dry Drunk Emperor" TV on the Radio streaming on Seattle's KEXP

This isn't really an actual mixtape I'm making, maybe just an iPod playlist.

1. World Leader Pretend, "Punches"
2. White Stripes, "Blue Orchid"
3. Louis XIV, "Hey Teacher"
4. Cloud Room, "Hey Now Now"
5. The High Dials, "The Holy Ground"
6. The Decemberists, "16 Military Wives"
7. Black Mountain, "Don't Run Our Hearts Around"
8. Bloc Party, "Positive Tension"
9. Chemical Brothers, "Galvanize"
10. Queens of the Stone Age, "Burn the Witch"
11. The Raveonettes, "Love in a Trashcan"
12. John Frusciante, "The Past Recedes"
13. Sleater-Kinney "Rollercoaster"
14. Spoon, "The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine"
15. Stars, "Your Ex-Lover is Dead"
16. The Killers, "Smile Like You Mean It"
17. Stephen Malkmus, "Kindling for the Master"
18. Stereophonics, "Superman"
19. System of a Down, "B.Y.O.B."
20. Moussa Doumbia, "Keleya"
21. Yeltsin, "Sitting in the Corner"

The last two are the only ones few people reading this can really be expected to know. The first is actually off a compilation that came out this year of late 60's/early 70s psychedelic music from west Africa, entitled "World Psychedelic Classics, Vol. 3: Love's a Real Thing" (kind of a cheat, I know, but few albums have entertained me as much as this one in 2005). The second is from the debut album of a band in Eugene, OR that I got into while going to college out there. Good stuff with lots of echo-drenched staccato guitars.

Well, I said I would get down to business and put together the mix tapes, but the weekend did not turn out that way, so I have put together a couple here from what I have lying around. A more exhaustive search would no doubt find some jems.....

Harder:
1. The Drones - Baby squared
2. Wolfmother - Woman
3. Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen
4. Sleater Kinney - Entertain
5. The National - Abel
6. Ween - Gabriel
7. Calla - It dawned on me
8. Low - Step
9. Spoon - I summon you
10. CYHSY - Is this love
11. Wolf Parade - You are a runner.....
12. Art Brut - Emily Kane
13. Black Rebe Motorcycle Club - Aint no easy way
14. Kaiser Chiefs - I predict a riot
15. The Cloud Room - Hey, now now
16. The Hold Steady - Your little hoodrat friend
17. Okkervil River - For Real
18. Tim Rogers and the Temperence Union - My Brothers Room
19. System Of a down - BYOB
20 Black Mountain - Dont Run Our hearts around

Softer:

1. Animal Collective - Did you see the words
2. Death Cab For Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhatten
3. BRMC - Fault Line
4. Bright Eyes - Road to joy
5. Eels - Trouble with Dreams
6. Josh Pyke - Middle of the Hill
7. Josh Ritter - Wings
8. Josh Rouse - Winter in the Hamptons
9. Laura Veirs - Magnetized
10. Richard Hawley - Just likee the rain
11. Smog - Rock Bottom Riser
12. Art of Fighting - Along the Run
13. Stephen Malkmus - Mama
14. Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gracy Jr
15. Kate Bush - Sunset
16. The Go Betweens - Daringhurst nights.
17. Tex, Don and Charlie - Harry was a Bad Bugger
17. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Backcountry,

I decided to make two additional CDs in addition to the intial mix that I posted on page one.

CD 1: Catchy, Radio Friendly Stuff:
1. The Cribs - Hey Scenesters
2. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor
3. Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure
4. Bloc Party - Banquet
5. The Cloud Room - Hey Now Now
6. Hot Hot Heat - Middle Of Nowhere
7. The Bravery - Unconditional
8. Kaiser Chiefs - Modern Way
9. Weezer - This Is Such A Pity
10. Bloc Party - Two More Years
11. Nada Surf - Blankest Year
12. Shout Out Louds - Please Please Please
13. Louis XIV - Finding Out True Love Is Blind
14. Kings Of Leon - The Bucket
15. The Ponys - Get Black
16. Sleater-Kinney - Entertain
17. Foo Fighters - Best Of You
18. Idlewild - Blame It On The Obvious Ways
19. Oasis - The Importance Of Being Idle
20. Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Heading For A Breakdown
21. Doves - Black And White Town

CD 2: Everything I couldn't find a place for on the first two:
1. Laura Veirs - Galaxies
2. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - The End
3. AIH - Wishbone
4. Stephen Malkmus - Baby C'Mon
5. My Morning Jacket - Off The Record
6. The Hold Steady - Cattle And The Creeping Things
7. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth
8. Wolf Parade - Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts
9. Fiona Apple - Parting Gift
10. M.I.A. - Amazon
11. Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple
12. Feist - Mushaboom
13. Bright Eyes - Arc Of Time
14. Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
15. Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes
16. The Fiery Furnaces - Here Comes The Summer
17. Eels - Things The Grandchildren Should Know
18. Regina Spektor - Ghost Of Corporate Future
19. Kanye West - Gone

for this mixtape (or "cd"- sorry) i tried to pick songs that may not come from a top ten album this year.

nada surf - always love
xiu xiu - muppet face
goldfrapp - lovely 2 C U
bloc party - plans (replanned by mogwai
common - faithful
sleater-kinney - everything
death cab for cutie - your heart is an empty room
cata-a-tac - devil
annie - the wedding
wolf parade - ill believe in anything
spoon - i turn my camera on
gravy train!!!! - ghost boobs
death from above 1979 - romantic rights (the phones lovers remix
maximo park - apply some pressure
editors - blood
metric - empty
royksopp - only this moment
stereo total - la douce humanite
m83 - teen angst
coco rosie - noah's ark
the mountain goats - this year

This is the list I came up with off the top of my head. 98% of my posts come from while I'm at work, so I wasn't able to look through the majority of my discs. I'm sure I have left some off, but oh well, others probably hopefully included them in theirs. I also did not put them in strategic order, except maybe for the first and last track listed. So maybe just consider it an outline of a mixdisc.

"The Fallen" - Franz Ferdinand
"You Are A Fast Runner and I'm My Father's Son" - Wolf Parade
"Bug Eyes" - Dredg
"Your Ex-lover is Dead" - Stars
"The Bleeding Heart Show" - New Pornographers
"Sofa King" - DangerDoom
"Emily Kane" - Art Brut
"Dakota" - Stereophonics
"Since U Been Gone" - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
"Fistful of Love" - Antony and the Johnsons
"Burn" - Alkaline Trio
"Like Eating Glass" - Bloc Party
"First Day of My Life" - Bright Eyes
"King Without A Crown" - Matisyahu
"Abel" - The National
"Ziggy Stardust" - Seu Jorge
"I Turn My Camera On" - Spoon
"Apply Some Pressure" - Maximo Park

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PRG,

I hope no one I know is reading this because this is the cd I'm giving out for the holidays...

Come On! Feel the Illinoise! ~ Sufjan Stevens
Live It Out ~ Metric
Fistful of Love ~ Antony and the Johnsons
Sing for Me ~ The Fiery Furnaces
We All Lose One Another ~ Jason Collett
I Turn My Camera On ~ Spoon
Secret Meeting ~ The National
I Predict A Riot ~ The Kaiser Chiefs
Mornings Eleven ~ The Magic Numbers
Off the Record ~ MMJ
Darlinghurst Nights ~ The Go-Betweens
Sing Me Spanish Techno ~ The New Pornographers
Tables and Chairs ~ Andrew Bird
7/4 (Shoreline) ~ BSS
Cheap Rhyme ~ Archer Prewitt
Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood ~ CYHSY

My wife and I switched cars on Friday, and I was digging around for something to listen to and she had one my 2005 Mix CDs in the car. I popped it in and it just blew me away. It's a little heavy on alt-country, but I had forgotten about a lot of these songs.

First Year, Second Term Vol. V:

01. Iron & Wine/Calexico - "History of Lovers"
02. Low Lights - "Emily"
03. Mayday - "Booze & Pills"
04. Richmond Fontaine - "Don't Look and it Won't Hurt"
05. Silver Jews - "Punks in the Beerlight"
06. Nations by the River - "Heart Attack Romance"
07. Son Volt - "Bandages & Scars"
08. Lucero - "California"
09. Reigning Sound - "Find Me Now"
10. Ross Beach - "The Proverbial Shit"
11. Amy Rigby - "Dancing With Joey Ramone"
12. Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockrell - "Two Different Things"
13. Robbie Fulks - "All You Can Cheat"
14. Bruce Springsteen - "Long Time Comin'"
15. The Constantines - "Soon Enough"
16. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - "Ramblin' Man"
17. Sun Kil Moon - "Never Ending Math Equation"
18. The Long Winters - "Ultimatum"
19. Ham 1 - "Pop Song for a Funeral"
20. Kelley Stoltz - "The Sun Comes Through" [Probably my favorite song of 2005]
21. Dios (Malos) - "Grrl"
22. Big Star - "Lady Sweet"
23. Chris Brokaw - "Blues for the Moon"
24. Okkervil River - You're United Again"
25. Erlend Øye - "Friends and Lovers"