[Mix #8: "Hungry Ghosts"]
That's right - fourteen tracks. I am pushing the envelope... Back!
Made for Elise (hi, Elise! Nonetheless, third person), who has possibly been my most daunting mix-recipient yet; she lives in my city (and so I've been able to physically lend her some albums by artists that I might otherwise have exposed her to this way), and has experience in popular music at least as broad as my own. To force myself to work on it, I set myself the sensible deadline of her birthday; then, remembering only that that was in March, I finished it late February, and decided that I couldn't wait to share it with her.
Composition stuff: I originally set out to make this a #1 (you know, as well as a #4), which, at one overly literal point in the conceptual genesis, made for a lot of songs about travellers or female musicians. I eventually ended up going with songs that called her to mind on a vaguer, more emotional and intuitive level - and then others that fit well thematically or musically with those - and I think the result is more of a strong #2.
(Some songs are also in there because I'd discussed them with her at some point ("Never Be Mine" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard"), because I really wanted to make sure I included that artist (Ted Leo, Lucinda Williams, Noe Venable), or because - in the case of "Tell Balgeary" - the names sounded Irish, and I thought maybe she could tell me what it was about.)
Borrowing the title from the lyrics therein is one of Elise's tricks, and used in deliberate homage. I also liked the way that, when I came up with it, it recontextualized the mix; a lot of the songs, to varying degrees, are about hunger and yearning, haunting and things that are gone. Now, when Noe begins by telling you that you're 'caught amongst the hungry ghosts', you spend the rest of the mix finding your way through them.
This is probably my most successful mix in terms of audience reaction.
1. Noe Venable - Is The Spirit Here?
2. Kate Bush - Never Be Mine
3. The Organ - Memorize the City
4. The Decemberists - Grace Cathedral Hill
5. Tilly and the Wall - Shake It Out
6. Yoko Kanno - After, In The Dark ～ Torch Song
7. Matt Pond PA - Grave's Disease
8. Cream - Badge
9. Jeffrey Foucault - Thistledown Tears
10. Joni Mitchell - The Last Time I Saw Richard
11. Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
12. Elliott Smith - Independence Day
13. Lucinda Williams - Essence
14. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead
(download)
Made for Elise (hi, Elise! Nonetheless, third person), who has possibly been my most daunting mix-recipient yet; she lives in my city (and so I've been able to physically lend her some albums by artists that I might otherwise have exposed her to this way), and has experience in popular music at least as broad as my own. To force myself to work on it, I set myself the sensible deadline of her birthday; then, remembering only that that was in March, I finished it late February, and decided that I couldn't wait to share it with her.
Composition stuff: I originally set out to make this a #1 (you know, as well as a #4), which, at one overly literal point in the conceptual genesis, made for a lot of songs about travellers or female musicians. I eventually ended up going with songs that called her to mind on a vaguer, more emotional and intuitive level - and then others that fit well thematically or musically with those - and I think the result is more of a strong #2.
(Some songs are also in there because I'd discussed them with her at some point ("Never Be Mine" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard"), because I really wanted to make sure I included that artist (Ted Leo, Lucinda Williams, Noe Venable), or because - in the case of "Tell Balgeary" - the names sounded Irish, and I thought maybe she could tell me what it was about.)
Borrowing the title from the lyrics therein is one of Elise's tricks, and used in deliberate homage. I also liked the way that, when I came up with it, it recontextualized the mix; a lot of the songs, to varying degrees, are about hunger and yearning, haunting and things that are gone. Now, when Noe begins by telling you that you're 'caught amongst the hungry ghosts', you spend the rest of the mix finding your way through them.
This is probably my most successful mix in terms of audience reaction.
1. Noe Venable - Is The Spirit Here?
2. Kate Bush - Never Be Mine
3. The Organ - Memorize the City
4. The Decemberists - Grace Cathedral Hill
5. Tilly and the Wall - Shake It Out
6. Yoko Kanno - After, In The Dark ～ Torch Song
7. Matt Pond PA - Grave's Disease
8. Cream - Badge
9. Jeffrey Foucault - Thistledown Tears
10. Joni Mitchell - The Last Time I Saw Richard
11. Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
12. Elliott Smith - Independence Day
13. Lucinda Williams - Essence
14. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead
(download)