mixtape songs /

1. Ladyhawk - Ladyhawk
Pitchfork called this one a downer. Allow me to retort. One night when going out for drinks to celebrate a friend’s birthday, five of us piled into my car and played Dugout over and over, screaming the words, high-fiving and laughing uncontrollably. During the drive we realized that we had the lyrics wrong (“I’m haunting the basement again,” not “I’m down in the basement again” or “mom’s in the basement again”) and got sore throats. Remember, this was on our way to get drinks. That’s a good time, as far as I’m concerned.

Ladyhawk - Dugout
Ladyhawk - My Old Jacknife Video

2. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
People went crazy for their first one, but I never understood what the big deal was. It sounded like lo-fi folk with sound textures, right at the time when “freak-folk” was hitting it big, so it didn’t stand out. But this one blew my mind. To borrow an analogy from someone else talking about something else, if the first one was black and white then this one is technicolour. Like that one scene in The Wizard of Oz.

Grizzly Bear - On a Neck, on a Spit

3. Pink Mountaintops - Axis of Evol
Another case where I couldn’t get behind the first album, but this one is incredible. It’s like a folksy Suicide, and all the songs are about God. It sounds like driving around East-Van early in the morning and having a mild existential crisis.

Pink Mountaintops - New Drug Queens

4. Soul Sides Vol. 1
I’ve noticed that I consume a lot more music than I used to. I acquire more albums, and I get sick of them more quickly. To make matters worse, this year I got a computer and discovered mp3 blogs. Now I download tons of songs and rarely even listen to the whole thing to see if they’re any good. But one blog where the songs not only hold my interest but actually make it onto regular rotation is soul-sides.com. Maybe it’s because I know so little about this music, but it doesn’t really matter. This comp is the “rawest and rarest” of what’s come out on the blog.

Soul Sides Vol. 1 - Charles May and Annette May Thomas: Keep My Baby Warm Sample

5. Liars - Drum’s Not Dead
There’s something in me that makes me want to know why other people are so excited about things. When I was in junior high I started drinking black coffee because it seemed like everyone’s so passionate about it. I gave it a month, but I never came around to enjoying coffee in the least. When this album came out it got rave reviews, so I wanted to check it out. At first I didn’t really “get it.” It’s kind of drone and kind of drum circle, and didn’t sound like anything else I listen to. But I gave it a couple more tries and started hearing the songs more. And now it’s one of the prettiest cd’s I have.

Visit Liars Downloads

(Continued)

Has anyone ever asked you, “So what kind of music are you into?” This tape is an attempt at answering that unfortunate and awkward question. I generally answer that question with, “ummm… low-fi indie folk rock?”. Which sucks as an answer and isn’t entirely true or honest. And the person (new co-worker, distant cousin, newest kid on the block, or a girl/boy you have just met who may be the next object of your affection) asking the question more often than not doesn’t even know the names of the artists I submit.
*One guy I met in Pennsylvania though, his first guess was The Mountain Goats (which I was claiming as my favorite band at that time!)

There is also the question often posed of “hey, um, what is your favorite era in music or time period or whatever?” The obvious answer is the sixties! Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys are enough to demonstrate why this period of time is so important in popular music. The albums by these artists released in the last half of the decade alone support this claim; Pet Sounds(66), Blonde On Blonde (66), St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (67), Abbey Road (69), Magical Mystery Tour(67), Revolver (66) and Let It Bleed (69) Beggar’s Banquet (68) and Aftermath (66) — Even just 1966 on it’s own could constitute the sixties as a viable and accurate answer! Pet Sounds (66), Blonde On Blonde (66), Revolver (66) and Aftermath (66). But wait a second, hold off on the nostalgia and canonical music makers of the past. What about “now”
*I am obviously not referring to the songs that have ended up on those pop/top 40 “Now” compilation CDs.

…so don’t dismiss the present for the best time in music. But then again, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones are all still touring, Paul McCartney played at Superbowl XXXIX and Brian Wilson just released SMiLE like two years ago, so maybe those guys are still in the present — but I’m not including them on this tape.
*note that the songs on the tape range from 1998 to 2006 (nearly half of the songs included were released in 2005 and only two occur in the ‘1990s (smog-1999 and neutral milk hotel-1998)

Side A

01. Sunset Rubdown - “Stadiums and Shrines II” from Shut up I am Dreaming - 3:57
[Absolutely Kosher - 2006]
“can I lift my dress up for you?/can I lift it in the night?/the white undersides of my thighs look much better in the dark light/ there’s a kid in there/ and he’s big and dumb and he’s kinda scared and he’s well he’s too old to be there/ he’s just looking for a ride”

02. Final Fantasy - “This Is The Dream Of Win And Regine” from Has a Good Home - 3:26
[Tomlab - 2005]
“Montreal might eat it’s young but Montreal won’t break us down”

03. M. Ward - “I’ll Be Yr Bird” from Transistor Radio - 2:54
[Merge - 2005]
“I’m not your second I’m not your third but I’ll be your bird”

(Continued)