Shit From an Old Mixtape vol. 1

Mix #6 Karl Hendricks Trio, Verlaines, Stereolab, CCR
So the other day, I found this mix I made. It was in my wife's car under the passenger seat. Her car has a CD player. Mine never did. But now it doesn't matter. We all have iPods. So who gives a shit? Right?

But I use to love to make mixes. From the 8th grade on when I got my JVC Dual Cassette/CD Player boombox (which I only said goodbye to last year), I became obsessive with them. I bullet-sweated the details, from song order to lengths to transitions to themes. If you love/loved music, you love/loved mix tapes. And now I don't make them. Because again, what's the point? But it seems like this is more than just a scratched up CD found under the passenger seat. It's a little time capsule of where my musical head was at a very specific point in time. And archiving these rediscovered mixes here seems more deserving than chucking them into the trash.

So a new addition to The FMTana: "Shit From an Old Mixtape." Click the links at the bottom and you can download the whole thing. I think this one is from 2005. I must have made 5 others at some point, since this one is "#6." Seems like I had just figured out how to convert vinyl into mp3s, because more than a few of these tracks, I only had on record in '05. Not much presentation, so it must have just been for personal listening. No idea where the other ones are. But if I find them, they could end up here.

1) Karl Hendricks Trio-“Naked and High On Drugs”
A great opener from Pittsburgh’s favorite non-football related son.
2) Butterglory-“Our (Proud) Mascot”
There are 3 Butterglory songs from Crumble that I feel very comfortable putting on mixtapes. This is one of them.
3) Further-“Ferrets and Weasels”
These were LA locals from before I became an LA local. They always seemed to have a chip on their shoulder about being compared to Sebadoh or something. They have a lot of good stuff on their own, so I don’t know what they were getting all worked up about.
4) Small Factory-“So What About Love”
Certainly my favorite folk-pop band, if not my favorite pop-pop band.
5) The Verlaines-“Whatever You Run Into”
I “liberated” this album from a college radio station I was doing time at. Fantastic Kiwi pop.
6) The Who-“Odorono”
I never went through a Who phase, even when I was ear deep in Classic Rock radio (both at times by choice and at times by no choice at all.) I don’t know why. There’s stuff of theirs that just has never sat right with me. But I like a lot of the songs off of The Who Sell Out.
7) The Talking Heads-“Warning Sign”
It is a blemish on my record to not know the Talking Heads as well as I should. I think I had just snagged this on vinyl for cheap.
8) Cat Power-“Speak For Me”
You Are Free has a lot of movin’ (as in groovin’) tracks. Especially for Cat Power. This is one of them.
9) Broken Social Scene-“Almost Crimes”
Scrawk.
10) Stereolab-“The Seeming and the Meaning”
I keep thinking this is a Modern Lovers song every time it starts. Then that beautiful Frenchified voice of Laetitia Sadier’s comes on, and it all becomes very obvious. Early S-Lab goodness.
11) Sufjan Stevens-“The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders”
Circa 2005, this is an obvious choice. I’m a Michigan man over an Illinois man, but this is an enjoyable track.
12) Peter Gabriel-“White Shadow”
These first three Gabriel solo records are all titled Peter Gabriel and they’re all reeallllllly good.
13) Pink Floyd-“Fearless”
The standout song on Atom Heart Mother.
14) Palace Songs-“All Gone, All Gone”
Right in the heart of a time period where Will Oldham changed my ears. From the now-titled Days in the Wake to this EP, Hope, to the following year’s Viva Last Blues.
15) Creedence Clearwater Revival-”Good Golly Miss Molly”
This is a weird choice. But it is a nice bridge, blending the countrified air of Palace with the R&B funk of…
16) James Brown-“Down and Out in New York City”
I think there’s something really gutty in this song. James Brown can be kind of mechanical for me. Even with songs of very passionate sentiment. This song has something kind of earnest at the heart of it.
17) A Tribe Called Quest-“Excursions”
Boom-boom-boom, ba-boom-boom, ba-boom-boom, boom-boom-boom, etc. etc.
18) Kanye West-“Spaceship”
I know everyone’s all worked up about some bullshit that Kanye did at the VMAs, as if that still has, or ever had, some sort of relevance in what makes music important and good and life-changing, but I don’t care. This is a great song off a great album. That actually means something.
19) Common-“Go!”
Kanye’s on this track too. This album came out right around the time I made this mix. It’s good, but it’s a little too “clubby” probably. I’ve never been to an afterparty in my life, so I don’t know what’s that all about. But I think Kanye has a good touch. (As if that's a groundbreaking statement...)
20) Stevie Wonder-“He's Misstra Know It All”
Innervisions, bitches.

Download here:
Shit From an Old Mixtape vol 1 pt 1
Shit From an Old Mixtape vol 1 pt 2