Eine Kleine Jujumusik 1.5: Marge's Mix
Life has been far from the daily grind recently. This no shens.
My buddy Marge was complaining that his music selection on his PSP has been crappy (basically a lot of random songs and a rap mix Kyle posted about on LiveJournal) so I decided to make him a mixtape-esque playlist. As a whole, it's kind of indie but not really. Mostly great dance music that's upbeat, so next time he's scheduled to do tips, he'll have something delicious to listen to. I'd encourage y'all to give it a whirl and see how it goes.
As usual, it's just long enough to burn to a CD for your listening pleasure. It's being uploaded to Box.net piecewise, because I might have to get up and go grab some pizza soon. But rest assured, it will all be there eventually. And Lenny the Cat is purring, so I better start writing this up before he starts purring and I get distracted. Here's the tracklist:
Eine Kleine Jujumusik 1.5: Marge's Mix
Voxtrot - Honey Bee: Voxtrot is a great band to open a mix with. They're indie rock, but upbeat and poppy. The message of this song is pretty good, too.
Ben Folds Five - Kate: Kate is one of the most awesomely underrated Ben Folds songs out there. People should look past the norm and start dating weirdly eccentric girls instead. TO GENERAL WORLD: Hint. Hint. Haha.
Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You: I'm in love with the band Black Kids. FIrst off, they're not black (therefore an interesting form of name). Their album is, as a whole, solid. The Cure-esque vocals, the gender ambiguity of this song, and the general poppiness just absolutely makes it. There are seven thousand possible interpretations of this song, all of which add to the amazingness of it. Interestingly enough, I would have never heard of this song if I didn't randomly find and obsess over the Kate Nash cover of it first.
Vampire Weekend - M79: Vampire Weekend is, to an extent, pretentious, and to an extent, deserves to be. They're Columbia grads who write musically simple songs and simple face-value lyrics, but when you read a little more, into it, the cleverness just effing strikes you. They aren't just an catchy run-of-the-mill indie pop band, they're disgustingly complex with their strings and references to old rhythmic patterns and Peter Gabriel. This song is my favorite because of the chorus. But even if you don't understand their pretense, it's still fun to listen to at face value, and that's what is the best part about them.
Louis XIV - Louis XIV: Louis XIV is sexy. Everything about Louis XIV is sexy. Everything about their album is sexy, and when you listen to them, you want to rock out and feel sexier than you've ever felt before. Their song "Finding Out True Love is Blind" was well-recieved, but this is hands down my favorite track on the album. Indie or not, they're captivating, racy, and can play their guitars and solos well. Did I mention they are sexy?
The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers: Electro indie dance rock. The Rapture, best known for being Daft Punk's openers on their last tour, are a solid band because they can make you get up and dance. And hoo boy, do I love a good dance party.
The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name: The Ting Tings are best known for having another one of their songs put in an Apple commercial and having everyone hate it, and thank the Apple kids for showing me this song. Anyone who knows me knows my weakness for British music, and I fell weak to this band when I first heard this song. It's annoying, but catchy, and you'll probably catch me singing it at work. This is their hit single in Britain. The rest of their album is constantly on my rotation nowadays. I'm in love.
Adele - Right as Rain: Another delicious export from Britain. Adele comes from the same school of music as Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, and Lily Allen, and she's like the 2nd gen version mix of all of them -- soulful like Wino, confrontational like Kate, innocent and light like lily. The album is great and diverse, and "Chasing Pavements", her single, pales in comparison to this gem of a track.
Cake - I Will Survive: This is hands down the best cover of the cheesy disco karaoke-ly overplayed Gloria Gaynor song. +++ points for dropping strategic F-bomb. Cake never fails to please.
Annie - The Greatest Hit: From renovated disco to modern disco. Annie was introduced to me by a former boyfriend and I made a mental note to check her out that I forgot about until Sherrie put some tracks on the Shuffle. I was then compelled to get the whole album, and I don't regret it. "Heartbeat", a single that was revered by Pitchfork four years ago, is one of the most listened to on my various music devices, but when I first heard this song, my mouth dropped because of the strikingly similar sound to Anita Ward and all those other late 70's disco belles pumping out music that I adore.
The Postal Service - Be Still My Heart: This song was not on their album, Give Up, but rather hidden away as Track 2 on the We Will Become Silhouettes EP. Hoo boy. This is one of my favorite, and it's pretty and optimistic. And synthy.
Chromeo - Needy Girl: Chromeo really knows how to put the disco back into the indie dance scene and hopefully instill some sick dance moves into the general cardboardiness of the white-kid dance. Also, this song makes me realize how pathetic I'm not. :D
Diplo - Outkast - B.O.B.: The previous track to this album, Fabriclive 24, was an instrumental version of "Lovesong" by The Cure, but track numbers no know bounds. WIth B.O.B., it just leaks over and mashes itself up as the bass riff. And it's fantastic.
Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove: The original. Let's face it, a good number of kids my age only know this song from dancing games. This song is so much better. So. Much. Better. As with all other Earth, Wind & Fire stuff, it seems. They did another song that made it licensed to a dancing game, but that's a story for another mixtape.
Death From Above 1979 - Little Girl (MSTRKRFT Edition): I never really liked Death From Above 1979 until I heard this song. Now I can't really stop listening to them. The chorus is so great, too. Homage to women in simple terms hasn't sounded so awesome in a long time.
Daft Punk - Digital Love: From 2001's Discovery, which, upon watching Interstella 5555, I gained a new appreciation for. While it's no "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", the scene in the movie that's based on this song always plays in my head when I listen to the song, and I usually can't stop smiling.
Freezepop - Chess King: This song is about mallrat romance, and the first thought that came to my mind was Buckland Hills in Connecticut. Also, I really like Freezepop.
Yael Naim - New Soul: Although this song was in some commercial, the first time I heard it and had it get stuck in my head was in a Girl Talk mashup off of Feed The Animals. A French-Israeli songwriter, she has a really cute voice, and this song is a great one to end with because it just puts you in a great mood.
Here's the link to the tracks I've uploaded so far. They should all be up in the next 24 hours.
NOTE TO MARGE: Two of the songs are in .m4a, so you'll have to convert them to .mp3 or .mp4 to listen to them on your PSP. Would've done it, but I got lazy. I replaced one of the .m4a's with another copy I found on an indie music search engine, but the other two I was kind of SOL for. Sowwie.