(no subject)
REBIRTH OF THE COOL
First of all, don't waste your time with the 33 1/3 book on the Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen. Here's what you need to know: Gentlemen was recorded at the same studio as Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul (another definite contender for my favorite album of all time), and Dulli recorded the vocals for "Gentlemen," "Debonair," "When We Two Parted," "Fountain and Fairfax," and "What Jail Is Like" while coked out of his mind in a single midnight run while trying to impress a stripper he had dragged back to the studio from a club. The rest of the book is consumed with sycophantic mythologizing that conveniently glosses over the troubling, disturbing aspects of the record, the explorations into the deep psychology of chauvinism that make the album so fascinating. Some intelligent music writing, please?
(I still want to read the 33 1/3 book on Led Zeppelin IV by Erik Davis. If you need me, I'll be in the parking lot outside the venue drinking King Cobra and telling everyone how much Zep rules, dude.)
Second, I'm in a musical rut. I need an injection of new tunes and bad. Therefore, I am hereby issuing this edict:
MIXTAPE TRADE MOTHERFUCKERS
With the stated intention of both the exchange of fine tunes, the initiation of thoughtful commentary, as well as the permeation of these myriad mediated relationships into materiality.
Here's how this works: I've put together a sweet mix. You give me your address and I'll mail it to you along with some cool packaging and maybe some other goodies, and will give you my address and you mail me a mix of your own making. Now here's the catch. With this trade comes the commitment to writing about my mix and posting this in your lj. You may approach this task however you see fit (on the mix as a cohesive whole, a consideration of a particular song, in relation to a memory or something personal, how conducive it is to jive-puffing, whatever). I commit to posting about every mix I receive. I'm looking for fresh tunes, so I'm not just talking to those of you whom I trade mail with already (though of course you are encouraged to take part as well), I'm also talking to those of you whom I don't regularly trade with, who I don't know that well, and so on.
My mix is called "You'll Still Be In The Circus When I'm Laughing In My Grave." I took a different approach to building it this time; instead of picking out a bunch of tracks I dug and arranging them into some semblance of the order, I chose a beginning and end point and let it evolve slowly from one end to the other, over the course of about a week and a half. By then end of the process, I was sort of thinking of it as the soundtrack to an imaginary film. There are several long instrumental passages, which is something I don't usually put on mixes, but I think this one came out rather well. I would encourage you to try this approach in your own mixes, it's sort of a fun exercise, but no gods no masters, do what thou wilt.
I think the mix is pretty sweet. There's some cool vintage soul, some awesome guitar shredding, some smoothed out french shit, some sad bastard whining, it's all there. The track list:
YOU'LL STILL BE IN THE CIRCUS WHEN I'M LAUGHING IN MY GRAVE
1. Riot in Thunder Alley - Eddie Beram
2. Come Together - MC5
3. Memo From Turner - Mick Jagger
4. Seeing Hands - Dengue Fever
5. Foolish Fool - Dee Dee Warwick
6. Space Prophet Dogon - Sun City Girls
7. Heart of Glass - Blondie
8. Longdance - Danava
9. Fallin' Rain - Link Wray
10. The Baby is Mine - Swamp Dogg
11. That's Not the Way to Love - LaReine Lamar
12. Le Drogue - Messieurs Richard De Bordeux & Daniel Beretta
13. The Man With the Golden Arm - Barry Adamson
14. Everybody's Gotta Live - Arthur Lee
15. Ace of Spades - O.V. Wright
16. House of the Rising Sun - Miriam Makeba
17. Echoh Air - The Psychic Paramount
18. Tres Avisos - Calexico
I owe some mail to a couple of you. Andy Freedman, you will receive this mix along with the letter I owe you. Let's talk more about our relationships with our parents, dawg. Andy K., you will get this mix along with the long-delayed soul mix. It has now evolved into epic proportions and will transform your blood into molten lava. Will Jarrott, you will receive this mix along with an experimental short story for Commode called "And Jesus Riding Shotgun." Y'all are welcome to participate in the game if you want to, but are not obligated to do the writing bit if you don't want.
Who is in?
First of all, don't waste your time with the 33 1/3 book on the Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen. Here's what you need to know: Gentlemen was recorded at the same studio as Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul (another definite contender for my favorite album of all time), and Dulli recorded the vocals for "Gentlemen," "Debonair," "When We Two Parted," "Fountain and Fairfax," and "What Jail Is Like" while coked out of his mind in a single midnight run while trying to impress a stripper he had dragged back to the studio from a club. The rest of the book is consumed with sycophantic mythologizing that conveniently glosses over the troubling, disturbing aspects of the record, the explorations into the deep psychology of chauvinism that make the album so fascinating. Some intelligent music writing, please?
(I still want to read the 33 1/3 book on Led Zeppelin IV by Erik Davis. If you need me, I'll be in the parking lot outside the venue drinking King Cobra and telling everyone how much Zep rules, dude.)
Second, I'm in a musical rut. I need an injection of new tunes and bad. Therefore, I am hereby issuing this edict:
MIXTAPE TRADE MOTHERFUCKERS
With the stated intention of both the exchange of fine tunes, the initiation of thoughtful commentary, as well as the permeation of these myriad mediated relationships into materiality.
Here's how this works: I've put together a sweet mix. You give me your address and I'll mail it to you along with some cool packaging and maybe some other goodies, and will give you my address and you mail me a mix of your own making. Now here's the catch. With this trade comes the commitment to writing about my mix and posting this in your lj. You may approach this task however you see fit (on the mix as a cohesive whole, a consideration of a particular song, in relation to a memory or something personal, how conducive it is to jive-puffing, whatever). I commit to posting about every mix I receive. I'm looking for fresh tunes, so I'm not just talking to those of you whom I trade mail with already (though of course you are encouraged to take part as well), I'm also talking to those of you whom I don't regularly trade with, who I don't know that well, and so on.
My mix is called "You'll Still Be In The Circus When I'm Laughing In My Grave." I took a different approach to building it this time; instead of picking out a bunch of tracks I dug and arranging them into some semblance of the order, I chose a beginning and end point and let it evolve slowly from one end to the other, over the course of about a week and a half. By then end of the process, I was sort of thinking of it as the soundtrack to an imaginary film. There are several long instrumental passages, which is something I don't usually put on mixes, but I think this one came out rather well. I would encourage you to try this approach in your own mixes, it's sort of a fun exercise, but no gods no masters, do what thou wilt.
I think the mix is pretty sweet. There's some cool vintage soul, some awesome guitar shredding, some smoothed out french shit, some sad bastard whining, it's all there. The track list:
YOU'LL STILL BE IN THE CIRCUS WHEN I'M LAUGHING IN MY GRAVE
1. Riot in Thunder Alley - Eddie Beram
2. Come Together - MC5
3. Memo From Turner - Mick Jagger
4. Seeing Hands - Dengue Fever
5. Foolish Fool - Dee Dee Warwick
6. Space Prophet Dogon - Sun City Girls
7. Heart of Glass - Blondie
8. Longdance - Danava
9. Fallin' Rain - Link Wray
10. The Baby is Mine - Swamp Dogg
11. That's Not the Way to Love - LaReine Lamar
12. Le Drogue - Messieurs Richard De Bordeux & Daniel Beretta
13. The Man With the Golden Arm - Barry Adamson
14. Everybody's Gotta Live - Arthur Lee
15. Ace of Spades - O.V. Wright
16. House of the Rising Sun - Miriam Makeba
17. Echoh Air - The Psychic Paramount
18. Tres Avisos - Calexico
I owe some mail to a couple of you. Andy Freedman, you will receive this mix along with the letter I owe you. Let's talk more about our relationships with our parents, dawg. Andy K., you will get this mix along with the long-delayed soul mix. It has now evolved into epic proportions and will transform your blood into molten lava. Will Jarrott, you will receive this mix along with an experimental short story for Commode called "And Jesus Riding Shotgun." Y'all are welcome to participate in the game if you want to, but are not obligated to do the writing bit if you don't want.
Who is in?