(no subject)
01. The Books - Three Day Night
02. The Boy Who Spoke Clouds - Fear at 3am
03. Radio Phnom Pehn - Indefinite State of Emergency
04. Elf Power - Somewhere Down The River
05. Ultramarine - British Summertime
06. Why? - Crushed Bones
07. June Brides - Heard You Whisper
08. Orange Juice - Blue Boy
09. The Oranges Band - Ride The Wild Wave
10. Three Mile Pilot - Glitter Wave
11. Ticonderoga - They Can Run
12. manyfingers - 3 forms
13. The Mountain Goats - Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise (Trembling Blue Stars cover)
14. Women & Children - Build Me a Castle
15. Hanne Hukkelberg - Break My Body (Live) [Pixies Cover]
16. Birdmonster - No Midnight
17. Richard Buckner - Loaded At The Wrong Door
18. Machinefabriek - The African Guy
19. Matinee Orchestra - The Matinee March
20. Es - Summer and Smiles of Finland
Total time: 75:23 after edits. 3, 11 and 15 are altered the most -- meaning beyond a fade in/out
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01- Really, I think of this song as a representation of the passage of time.. how it can go from winter to summer faster than you can blink practically. I still remember the beginning of the year like it happened yesterday. I also like the owl hooting at the end, yes...
02- This was the first transition I heard randomly on iTunes that inspired this mix. it also prepares the listener for the sense of panic this mix has...
03- Especially at the beginning of this song with the warning. even if you're not into world music, this song still has a good beat, damnit.
04- It was hard to find something to go after the cambodian song without turning the whole mix into a world mix or just hopping into something random. before I discovered this song, it was just going to jump into british summertime showing the contrast between fear and a sense of calm elsewhere. I am still glad I added this song even if the vocals aren't really the warmest out there.
06- It was about time I put a Why? song on a mix... this song also goes nicely along with a british summertime: 'In london, where the sirens yelp like a helpless dog with his paws stepped on / ..and the rain comes down in late july'.
07 & 08- This starts the 80's portion of the mix... the only reason I used them was for the summery vibe they conveyed while still being rather ominous. I just discovered the June Brides recently thanks to reading an article (I had to google for this) that Dave Eggers liked them and used to bike miles to the closest record store to get their albums. it intrigued me even if I think Eggers can be a bit pretentious sometimes. I wasn't disappointed in checking them out anyhow.
09- It still went along with the 80's vibe while being a song from the 00's. this band semi-reminds me of a mix between The Beach Boys and The Smiths.. hrm. I'm not even sure why, that's just the first thing that came to mind.
10- It had that same take charge beginning and is a song with the word 'wave' in the title. it's also my favourite Three Mile Pilot song. I think I've listened to it a trillion times and it's about time it got a spot on a mix. this is another one I noticed through random transitions while listening to my playlist. did you know I recently realised (thanks to the lyrics booklet), that they say "black liver" in the chorus before saying glitter wave? definitely dark.
11- I can't get enough of this Ticonderoga album and I think of this song as the one I listened to most ("If a stem should sprout / from a seed inbetween the both of us / I'll breathe for the three of us")... I like how the way it transitions seems to give the image of waves rolling out and the fog rolling in... it also carries along the vibe of summer and things growing in more ways than one ("On the search for love").
12- The piano seems to capture that sense of running in circles. it also sounds like the start of a death... the romance was pretty short lived :P
[ETA: I just now noticed that from 10-12, the #3 is brought up in some fashion.. well, sort've.. 'three mile pilot, breathe for the three of us and 3 forms' ...the things I don't plan!]
13- Yep, it's the "tasteful emo" song. when I first heard The Mountain Goats were going to cover this song, I pictured it being more acoustic than it ended up being. it's still less smoothed out pop like the original, but there's more to it than I thought there'd be. Trembling Blue Stars is always the band that makes me get nostalgic / mopey. I stopped following them once they changed their sound and were less about breakups / unrequited love and more about just straight pop. I'm not sure what they're doing now, but I did download a song last year. it didn't move me in the least. this song.... "making contact gets harder / as the silence grows longer / Why would you think of me? / When you were not the one in love / When you were not the dreamer / When you were just the dream" ..lines like that are what make a song, yo. certainly not this cheap emo crap happening the past few years.
14- This song isn't as sweet as the title may suggest it'd be ("Build me a castle / in which I may die / Bring me some poison / to dry out my eyes"). it's pretty doom and gloom, but I like the pretty piano and the slight crackles. I downloaded this album, but I do think it's only on vinyl, so perhaps that's the source of the crackles. anyhow, just a continuation of the moping from the last and so forth.
15- I first heard this on paperandglue's radio show that first Thursday (I forgot to listen if there were more episodes though :\) and it gave me chills.. I didn't even remember the Pixies version at that point (I later got it out; it's just faster really.. eh, not their best song). afterwards, I immediately searched one of those mp3 aggregators for an mp3 version and all I did with it for this mix was edit out the clapping at the end. it's still known as a live track even without it. I just wanted a smoother transition.
16- I like how putting this song after the last gives it new meaning. "She held your babies / safe in her arms / then they called her in the night / to the grave where she belongs". the babies could represent the bones and of course, bones lead to death and the grave.
17- This song turns the whole story around.. asking why it is you wasted all your time pissing and moaning... if you're really digging for connections, it could represent dying and reaching the other side.. the door being the gateway. I choose it to just represent the changing of an attitude and not taking the rest of summer for granted. that synth line makes me smile everytime.
18- This song is from the little 'Manchester' album... I used it 'cause it gave me a sunny summer day vibe.
19- Everything is full of la la la's now.. still not better than oh oh oh's, but do a good job of creating that big finale where everything turns out okay and everyone dances across fields amongst flowers. tra la la...
20- I put this in just as a silly joke.. "Make you cry / Make you laugh" ...a simple summary.
A sense of worldly delight in a small summer package.