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IN THIS ISSUE [2] You’re Lookin’ At It [3] Nick Hornby [4-5] Theme: Well I Guess This Is Growing Up [6-7] Theme: Pretty [8-9] Theme: Soft > Loud > Soft [10-11] Theme: This One’s A Cover [12-13] Theme: Pride [14-15] Theme: Go, Going, Gone [16-17] Theme: Turn in the Punchbowl [18] Theme: Hated Bands [19] Album Artwork How it works: Every few weeks a group of friends create a theme for a mix tape. Each person then puts together a 6 song mix on Spotify and shares it out with the rest of the group. There have been hundreds of mixes made on a variety of topics ranging from death to flowers to pride to Black Lives Matter, to hard times, to aliens, to advice to bad songs on great albums. 2
A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with ‘Got To Get You Off My Mind’, but then realised that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straight away, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you’ve got to up it a notch, and you can’t have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can’t have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you’ve done the whole thing in pairs, and ... oh there are loads of rules. - Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, 1995
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01 - “Right Back Where We Started From” - Maxine Nightengale [ever since I was kid, this song has made me feel so happy inside. And is just an eternal truth] 02 - “Stardust” - Louis Armstrong [my favorite artist of all time. The joy, the passion, the pain, the sadness, the love, the charm, the sheer spirit of generosity captured in the sound of that horn, forever bursting forth, can bring me to tears. As a testament to his genius, the alternate “oh memory” take is just as astounding] 03 - “Into The Mystic” - Van Morrison [Astral Weeks has meant so much to me in my life ever since I first heard it in college. And the whole album could probably qualify here. But this one song takes that album’s worth of wonder and beauty and condenses it into one song] 04 - “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” - Frank Sinatra [my obsession with Sinatra began with my first move to NYC when I was 24. There are other gems from his Capitol Records peak, but this one takes the prize for me. Big time props to Nelson Riddle for the arrangement. What a performance. What a journey] 05 - “Cold Sweat” - James Brown [you could feel the funk coming in 65 and 66 in things like “Out of Sight.” But then he took the boys into the studio in May 1967 and promptly made musical history. You can argue about where it all began, but this is as pure a cleave as you can get. Everyone firing on all cylinders] 06 - “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” - The Shirelles [This might be the closest to perfection of anything I’ve ever heard] THEME: WELL I GUESS THIS IS GROWING UP
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I bookended this list with two bands who have meant a lot to me over the years, and two songs in particular that lyrically captured me “growing up.” The first song is “I Was a Teenage Anarchist” by Against Me. Two lines in particular: “Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire” and “I was a teenage anarchist, but the politics were too convenient.” I was a blooming punk rock kid in high school, angry and holier than thou. It wasn’t until well into my twenties that I allowed some nuance outside of “fuck the system” into my ideology. The last is “Stay Positive” by The Hold Steady. My favorite band of all time. As someone entering late 30’s that still goes to punk rock and metal shows, the line “one day the kids at the shows will have kids of their own” is self explanatory. Song two is by the Weakerthans, aside from being the first band whose lyrics made me cry like a baby, this was the favorite song of my first long term girlfriend, who broke up with me later that same year. Song three “Homewrecker” by Converge holds a special place as it was my first foray into heavy music back in 2002 and there was no looking back. Next, “The Young Thousands” by The Mountain Goats came along at a pivotal “growing up” stage, when I was deep into experimenting with all sorts of drugs, which didn’t help out my existing anxiety and depression at the time. The lines “the dull pain that you live with isn’t getting any duller” and “there are better things than diamonds coming down the line” resonated deeply with me at the time and I listened to this album every single day. Finally song five is “13 Monsters” by Lightning Bolt. I remember not studying for finals my freshman year of college and going with my friend Matt to see them in a warehouse in Olneyville. That was the first “underground” show I ever went to, and led not only to my love for that band, but spending the next number of years deeply entrenched in our local music scene, which led to my decision to move to Providence when I finished college; here I am owning a house here in 2020. 5
Here is my Pretty Mix. I made a pretty big pivot with this one. I started with songs from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack then moved to songs that used the word pretty more than 5 times in the chorus. THEN, I listened to Darling Nikki yesterday and moved to songs that just ooze sex. I'll be around when he's not in town, oh Oh yeah, I'll show you how you're doing it wrong, oh I really love it when you tell me to stop, oh ah Oh, it's turning me on 6
“It’s the talking part that’s important, not the result. I’ve had both transcendental and tragic experiences. It all depends on the mood. I prefer snogging and petting to full sex anyway - it leaves more to the imagination.” ~ Jarivs Cocker 7
THEME: PRETTY
There’s a level of recognizing that maybe I had spent a really long time trying to retroactively imbue suffering with meaning. And while it’s a completely normal thing and it’s how human beings cope, maybe assigning it to divine providence or just fate or an experience that ultimately taught you a lesson and made you stronger actually robbed you of the right to mourn a bad thing that happened. I think sometimes, when people believe that everything happens for a reason, it’s easy to shift responsibility for your fellow human being from the self to the divine. It’s actually very alarming to think that we are responsible for each other, you know? But we are. Julien Baker Vulutre, 2021
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Song structure is the arrangement of a song, and is a part of the songwriting process. It is typically sectional, which uses repeating forms in songs. Common forms include bar form, 32-bar form, verse– chorus form, ternary form, strophic form, and the 12-bar blues. Popular music songs traditionally use the same music for each verse or stanza of lyrics (as opposed to songs that are “throughcomposed”—an approach used in classical music art songs). Pop and traditional forms can be used even with songs that have structural differences in melodies. [clarification needed] The most common format in modern popular music is introduction (intro), verse, prechorus, chorus (or refrain), verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge (“middle eight”), verse, chorus and outro. In rock music styles, notably heavy metal music, there is usually one or more guitar solos in the song, often found after the middle chorus part. In pop music, there may be a guitar solo, or a solo may be performed by a synthesizer player or sax player. ~ Wikipedia 9
THEME: QUIET-LOUD-QUIET: SONGS WITH CHILL VERSES AND HUGE CHORUSES.
The Evolution of: The First Cut is the Deepest Cat Stevens made a demo recording of “The First Cut Is the Deepest” in 1965, while hoping to become a songwriter. He wrote the song earlier to promote his songs to other artists, but did not record it as his own performance until early October 1967 with guitarist Big Jim Sullivan, and it did not appear until his second album, New Masters, was released in December 1967. P. P. Arnold bought the song for £30, and it became a huge hit for her, reaching No. 18 on the UK Singles Chart. Keith Hampshire had the first chart-topping hit of the song when his recording of it became a number-one hit in Canada in 1973, reaching the top of the RPM 100 national singles chart on 12 May of that year. Rod Stewart recorded the song at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, United States, and it appeared on his 1976 album A Night on the Town. It was a huge success, and spent four weeks at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in May 1977, No. 11 in April in Canada, and also reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. Swedish rap, ragga and dancehall musician Papa Dee recorded a reggae cover of “The First Cut Is the Deepest” in 1995. It remains his most commercially successful track and was a big hit in Europe. Sheryl Crow’s version of “The First Cut Is The Deepest” is the first single released from her 2003 compilation album The Very Best of Sheryl Crow. It became one of Crow’s biggest radio hits, peaking at No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100. 10 THEME: THIS ONE’S A COVER
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FREE
ESQUERITA
THEME: PRIDE
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JOBRIATH
EDIA
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I made this mix in the wake of the suicide of Japanese professional wrestler and Terrace House cast member, Hana Kimura. Saki and I started watching Hana’s season of Terrace House together and I was struck by the feeling that this show was more direct and honest and focused on the self-improvement of the cast members. That turned out not to be true at all. After a seemingly staged altercation with another cast member, Hana was subjected to brutal online harassment, mostly focusing on her mixed-race and her body type. She absorbed those attacks, posted a good-bye message on Instagram, locked herself in her bathroom, and mixed a combination of cleaners to create a lethal gas that she then suffocated on and died. There is so much tied up in her tragic story, and a lot of it has elements that are unique, at least in part, to problems in Japanese culture. But we also share shades of those problems in our culture as well: racism, misogyny, online harassment, depression and feelings of isolation. Her death was so cruelly unnecessary, it broke my heart. The songs I picked are from a mix of perspectives. Whatever You Say I Am and Losing Sleep are from inside depression and all the distortions that weave together to keep you stuck where you are. I Don’t Always Miss You, If You Call, We’ll Make It Through are from the perspective of the people left in the aftermath of suicide. The “what-ifs”, the replaying crisis points where you imagine being able to intervene, the profound sense of loss. 14
“Which Will” is a Lucinda Williams cover of Nick Drake. I chose this song with the idea that the basic plot of Terrace House is that these people are thrown into a living situation together looking for love. It’s naive and silly, but so profoundly sad given what happened. I felt like this song spoke to that feeling perfectly. Which will you go for/ which will you love/ which will you choose from/ from the stars above... 15 THEME: GO, GOING, GONE
For the record, I’m licking the shitty piece of pizza (calling dibs) on the song that is Corpus Christi Carol on Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Bad enough that it might be the reason for his extended swim in the Mississippi river. 16
THEME: TURD IN THE PUNCH BOWL
Neon Bible. It just does nothing for me, and doesn’t fit great in the album (even though it’s the eponymous song). Corpus Christi Carol. What in the hell is this song doing existing on our planet, nevermind in an otherwise excellent album. The star of Team Dreck. Motion Picture Soundtrack. Just a total letdown song at the end of Kid A. I don’t get it. Why was this even included? And the fuckin’ HARPS. Shoot me in the head. Chalkhills and Children. The song is fine, it just doesn’t go with the otherwise excellent, sorta trippy and energetic Oranges and Lemons. People as Places as People. Again, the song is fine. But the album just had two EPIC, I mean, touched by the hand of God-level songs in Steam Engenius and Spitting Venom. What was Sony (or Modest Mouse) thinking not ending the album with the raw vitriol of Spitting Venom? It almost feels like they intentionally tried to soften the edge of those two bitter, angry songs. *Sigh* Tongue. Really weird song, especially to include in the otherwise raucous Monster. And do we really need to hear Michael Stipe sing a whole song in falsetto? No. No, we don’t.
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“I mean, no offense, but I don’t really see why, like guitar players from Creed, or something like that, are on the cover of guitar magazines. Almost anybody can sit down and learn to play those songs.” ~ Dweezil Zappa
I’m taking a page from previous six-songs-from-one-band mixes others have done. I have listened to the all 4 available Creed albums on Spotify, and after separating the chaff from the additional chaff, I have found six songs from this vilified band that are......not all that bad. In fact, I might actually listen to this mix more than one time. To these ears, these guys are at their best when the singer relaxes and they allow softer moments in. My choices seem to be the more anthemic ones, and are def samey samey. The guitar riffage will always signify “grunge” in the worst possible way, which is why I favor the “new” version of With Arms Wide Open - with strings! The guitars are pushed way back in the mix or made to sound like massed cellos.. or whatever. It’s like a breath of fresh air.
And now I can say, conclusively, Scott Stapp is an Asshole. ~ David Cross on Scott Stapp* 18 THEME: Hated Bands
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SIDE B
Thanks to to all the #MicroMixers who make this project possible George & Jason Mike Mike & Christa Matt & Mike Mike & Brad Garrett Nate & Mike George And so many more... See you in the next volume