Real Party Mix

This is a 'getting ready to go out' party mix I made, and is perfectly architectured to accompany pre-gaming and putting on nice clothes, while dancing around the place like an idiot.

It's short (just over 30 minutes) and to the point:

1. Ratatat - 'Seventeen Years'
2. Girl Talk - 'Hold Up'
3. Justice vs. Wale - 'W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.'
4. Das Racist - 'All Tan Everything'
5. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - 'Let's Make Out'
6. Streetlight Manifesto - 'Linoleum'
7. Sleigh Bells - 'Infinity Guitars'
8. Rjd2 - 'The Horror'
9. The Go! Team - 'The Wrath Of Marcie'

Incidentally, for more mixes, I've made an 8tracks account, which is like this blogspot, but better...since you can actually listen to the music!

The Get Up Kids Mixtape

This entry deals with one of my all-time favourite bands, who also recently reformed and began putting out new material. Often considered to be among the founding fathers of emotional hardcore punk, and with a handful of the most influential early albums from that subgenre, including Four Minute Mile and Something To Write Home About, The Get Up Kids found a niche writing energetic, raw punk rock in the late 1990s, and began to pursue other sounds and influences as with 2004's gloriously poppy Guilt Show and the acoustic folk of 2002's On A Wire. The Kansas City 5-piece released a handful of EPs and LPs, a rarities compilation and a live record over a ten-year period before ultimately disbanding in 2005. Upon reforming in 2008, they began to record material for a new EP, Simple Science, which came out earlier this year.

This playlist spans the lifespan of the GUK through all their flirtations with different styles, but nonetheless represents a catalogue which remains remarkably cohesive.

1. Last Place You Look (Four Minute Mile)
2. The One You Want (Guilt Show)
3. I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel... (Something To Write Home About)
4. Close To Me (Eudora)
5. Man Of Conviction (Guilt Show)
6. Don't Hate Me [Live] (Live! @ The Granada Theater)
7. Action And Action (Something To Write Home About)
8. Woodson (Woodson)
9. Your Petty Pretty Things (Simple Science)
10. Washington Square Park (Four Minute Mile)
11. Sympathy (Guilt Show)
12. Coming Clean (Four Minute Mile)
13. The Breathing Method (Eudora)
14. Overdue (On A Wire)
15. Shorty (Four Minute Mile)

Rilo Kiley Mixtape

Before posting this, I checked it over with the biggest Rilo Kiley fan I know (yep, I take this blog seriously, yo) and we agreed it's pretty airtight. The thing about Rilo Kiley is that they don't really have any bad songs; it just matters what mood you're in. And so there may be one or two songs left out here that might otherwise have been included if not for reasons of length or tone, but that are perfectly great songs on their respective albums.

Because the band's repertoire is so strong, it was pretty easy to choose an even mix from all of their releases, starting with The Initial Friend EP and coming through to 2007's Under The Blacklight. There hasn't been a new release since then (with Blake Sennett and Jenny Lewis each concentrating on separate projects) and the band is currently on indefinite hiatus.

Anyway, the playlist is as follows:

1. The Good That Won't Come Out (The Execution Of All Things)
2. The Frug (The Initial Friend EP)
3. Wires And Waves (Take Offs & Landings)
4. Smoke Detector (Under The Blacklight)
5. Does He Love You? (More Adventurous)
6. My Slumbering Heart (The Execution Of All Things)
7. Don't Deconstruct (Take Offs & Landings)
8. Always (The Initial Friend EP)
9. It's A Hit (More Adventurous)
10. Give A Little Love (Under The Blacklight)
11. Go Ahead (Take Offs & Landings)
12. The Execution Of All Things (The Execution Of All Things)
13. It Just Is (More Adventurous)

The Gamits Mixtape

The Gamits are one of my absolutely favourite bands of all time, and a substantial part of the soundtrack to my teens. They were probably amongst my first exposure to punk, and I did my best to collect everything they had ever recorded, although unfortunately without ever getting a chance to see them live (they were a well kept secret from Colorado, albeit one with an impressively strong fanbase in Japan) before changing direction marginally with a new lineup and 2004's Antidote, and splitting up altogether in 2005.

You can imagine my absolute joy, then, to hear that frontman Chris Fogal had decided to reunite with longtime drummer Forrest Bartosh (also one of my stronger drumming influences) and get The Gamits back together to perform this year, as well as to release some new material in the future. I checked out an awesome new song demo on the band's website, and I'm thoroughly pumped to hear of any new developments, so I set out to make this mixtape in honour of the reformation.

Every Gamits release is well represented here, including the amazing career-retrospective Golden Sometimes and its inclusion of demos and rarities and the recording of the 'last ever' Gamits show in 2005 (a wet dream for an enthusiastic collector like myself). Given the source material, this looks like it could easily become one of my favourite playlists.

1. I Named Her Christina (Come Get Some)
2. Reset (A Small Price To Pay)
3. Audrey's Davenport (Endorsed By You)
4. Born And Raised Afraid (Antidote)
5. Broken In (This Is My Boomstick)
6. Beach Boy (A Small Price To Pay)
7. I Don't Wanna Play No More (Endorsed By You)
8. Somebody's Baby (Golden Sometimes - Demos & Extras)
9. The Shakes (Come Get Some)
10. Hookless (Endorsed By You)
11. How To Escape (Antidote)
12. There's A Place (Come Get Some)
13. Run Along (This Is My Boomstick)
14. Dead Like An Enemy [Live] (Golden Sometimes - The Gamits' Live Show)
15. No Fun At All (A Small Price To Pay)
16. 15 Minutes (Endorsed By You)
17. Last Of The Mullets (Endorsed By You)

Augustus Pablo Mixtape

Well, it's summer; and summer means lying out in the sun; and lying out in the sun means listening to some chill dub; and listening to some chill dub means listening to Augustus Pablo. (Wow, what an opening sentence.) I've been thinking about this playlist for a while, and I briefly thought I was going to do a less specific, anything-goes dub mix with numerous artists on it, but then I thought, how can I deny Augustus Pablo the attention? After all, to me, he *is* dub. Maybe later on, I'll do further dub mixes which incorporate more than one producer.

This mix borrows a lot from King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown, one of my absolute favourite records, although I've tried to spread the load over a lot of his selections. As with dub in general, there are some prominently recurring musical motifs, in this case the killer 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown' / 'Baby I Love You So' / 'Black Gunn' and 'Silent Satta' / 'Satta Dub' melodies. So all that's left is the listing. I hope you enjoy this one:

1. Satta Dub (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
2. El Rockers (El Rocker's)
3. 555 Dub Street (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
4. East Of The River Nile (East Of The River Nile)
5. Up Warika Hill (Original Rockers)
6. King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
7. Silent Satta (El Rocker's)
8. Hot & Cold (The Great Pablo)
9. Memories Of The Ghetto (East Of The River Nile)
10. Sahara Rock (The Essential Augustus Pablo)
11. Skanking Dub (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
12. Far East (The Essential Augustus Pablo)
13. Unfinished Melody (East Of The River Nile)
14. Stop There Jah (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
15. Black Gunn (El Rocker's)

Tom Waits Mixtape (Mellow)

Here's one I've been meaning to do for a while, but as you'll know if you're even partially familiar with Tom Waits, he's not the easiest of characters to define.

And as with anyone of that ilk, I find myself going through phases related to individual clusters of his previous albums. Sometimes I'll like his early, croonish, folkier output with just him and a piano, and other times I'll be more drawn towards the insane stuff where it sounds instead like he's shouting into a megaphone while banging on a nearby pipe with a wrench. Of course, those are just the two most notable extremes of his remarkably unique body of work.

Judging from the shortlist of songs I made for this mix, it looks like I'm currently in the former of the two aforementioned phases. So this mix has a comparatively gentle feel to it, with the earlier blues-styles from Closing Time, The Heart Of Saturday Night, and Blue Valentine, and even the eerie, dour fairytales of Alice, pulling focus. Maybe when I'm feeling so-inclined, I'll come up with a less reserved selection of alternate Tom Waits songs from the raucous megaphone/wrench camp.

Without further stalling, here's the mellow Tom Waits tracklist:

1. New Coat Of Paint (The Heart Of Saturday Night)
2. Please Call Me, Baby (The Early Years Vol. 2)
3. Alice (Alice)
4. Time (Rain Dogs)
5. All The World Is Green (Blood Money)
6. I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You (Closing Time)
7. Gun Street Girl (Rain Dogs)
8. Blue Valentines (Blue Valentine)
9. The Part You Throw Away (Blood Money)
10. No One Knows I'm Gone (Alice)
11. I Want You (The Early Years Vol. 2)
12. Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis (Blue Valentine)

XTC Mixtape

To be honest, the reason it's taken me so long to get around to uploading the tracklisting for this mixtape, for Swindon New Wavers XTC, is that I haven't been able to find a decent profile photo of the band to go along with it, who seem instead to have all but disappeared from the face of the internet (or, more likely, been drowned under a sea of other sites trying to sell me party pills).

That aside, they cracked out some of the best pop records of the 70s and 80s, combining impressive musical subtlety with comforting pop sensibilities. Needless to say, I immediately regretted not taking their career-retrospective singles collection, Fossil Fuel, away to New Zealand with me, and listening to it again was among my top priorities on my return.

All of the following songs are singles, and so can be found on the aforementioned compilation CD set, and so I haven't listed the original releases after each song like I usually do.

1. This Is Pop
2. The Mayor Of Simpleton
3. Senses Working Overtime
4. Statue Of Liberty
5. Wake Up
6. Are You Receiving Me?
7. The Meeting Place
8. Life Begins At The Hop
9. Grass
10. Science Friction
11. Making Plans For Nigel
12. Dear God
13. The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead