mixtape songs /

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”

04. Mirah - “Mt. St. Helens” from Advisory Commitee - 4:05
[Kpunk - 2002]
“there had been a great disaster/the hot winds came just after/a tremendous shock was felt/survivors often tell”

05. Andrew Bird - “Mx Missles” from Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs - 4:21
[Righteous Babe - 2005]
“are you made of calcium or are you carbon based? And if your made of calcium I’ll have to take a taste”

06. Devendra Banhart - “Little Boys” from Cripple Crow - 5:20
[XL - 2005]
“oh little Billy little Timmy little Jimmy you’re the one/I may not look it but I swear my heart is young”

07. The Arcade Fire - “Neighborhood #2 (Laika)” from Funeral - 3:32
[Merge - 2005]
“when daddy comes home you always start a fight so the neighbors can dance in the police disco lights”

08. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - “Timorous Me” from The Tyranny of Distance - 4:34
[Lookout! - 2001]
“but I watched her sing along with every word in the prettiest voice that I’d never heard”

09. The Mountain Goats - “Dance Music” from The Sunset Tree - 1:57
[4AD - 2005]
“let me down/let me down/let me down gently/when the police come to get me/ I’m listening to dance music”

10. Neutral Milk Hotel - “In The Aeroplane” from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - 3:21
[Elephant Six - 1998]
“how the notes all bend and reach above the trees”

11. Magnolia Electric Co. - “Hammer Down” from What Comes After the Blues - 2:41
[Secretly Canadian - 2006]
“sometimes I forget how I’ve always been sick and I don’t have the will to keep fighting”

12. Bright Eyes - “Lua” from I’m Wide Awake its Morning - 4:31
[Saddle Creek - 2005]
“I know you have a heavy heart/I can feel it when we kiss/so many men stronger than me have thrown their backs out trying to lift it”

Side B

01. Minus the Bear - “Fine + 2 Points” from They Make Beer Commercials Like This - 3:51
[Suicide Squeeze - 2004]
“I think I loved you but I forget the place”

02. Danielson - “Did I Step On Your Trumpet” from Ships - 3:06
[Secretly Canadian - 2006]
“your body basket”

03. Beirut - “Postcard From Italy” from Gulag Orchestra - 4:17
[Ba da bing! - 2006]
“we put our feet just where they had/had to go”

04. Half-Handed Cloud - “Can’t Even Breathe On My Own” from Learning About Your Scale - 1:09
[Asthmatic Kitty - 2001]
“I’m constantly/trying to compete/with myself”

05. Okkervil River - “Westfall” from Don’t Fall in Love with Everyone You See - 5:56
[Jagjaguwar - 2002]
“and when I killed her/it was so easy/that I wanted to kill her again”

06. Ladyhawk - “New Joker” from Ladyhawk - 5:17
[Jagjaguwar - 2005]
“and in my car I ride the eastern hillside/rollin’ another and lightin’ it up/cause it the only way-at least that’s what I say/I’m burning forever with the lights of the city”

07. Wilco - “Kamera” from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - 3:30
[Nonesuch - 2002]
“phone my family/ tell ‘em I’m lost/ and no it’s not okay”

08. Smog - “Cold Blooded Old Times” from Knock Knock - 4:14
[Drag City - 1999]
“how can I stand/and laugh with the man/who re-defined your body?”

09. Cub Country - “Your Old Street” from High Unita High - 3:13
[Jade Tree - 2002]
“there’s darkness now/surrounding me/and our history”

10. Damien Jurado - “Window” from Where Shall You Take Me? - 2:21
[Secretly Canadian - 2003]
“I am looking at a beautiful window/and that window is your eyes/and the only time/I saw rainfall/was the day your mother died”

11. Jon-Rae & the River - “Come Back To Me” from New Songs for the Old Town - 3:48
[Permafrost - 2005]
“but I am here/wishing you would come back, come back to me”

12. Sufjan Stevens - “Star-Spangled Banner” from Live at Lee’s Palace Toronto Nov 16 2004 - 4:00
[Available through CBC radio - 2004]
“Oh say does that star-spangled yet wave o’r the land of the free and the home of the brave?”