Shhhh...I never use to be able to fall asleep to music. I tried. In high school, I'd turn the CD player next to the bed on and try to drift off. Never worked. I'm a light sleeper.
Then I got to college and discovered alcohol. And that if I used enough of it, I could sleep inside a stack of Marshall amps. Some people call it "passing out." But that sounds so tawdry and crude, doesn't it? I think it's an unfair stigma attached to such a wonderful process. My favorite part of a night of drinking in college was to stumble home, stumble upstairs, stumble to CD collection, stumble through CDs (usually to the "C"s for Codeine or Cat Power), stumble to stereo, stumble fingers to PLAY > button, and stumble to bed, awash in sound. That was a perfect end of a likely enjoyable evening for me.*
(*now that i think about it, college was apparently a lonely time for me. biblically speaking.)
Flash forward from college, and I discovered that somehow I had trained myself to fall asleep with music in my ear. With or without booze. I can't stress how happy that has made me over the past 10 years. It was a psychological wall that I simply drank through. I would like to thank beer. And probably the bartenders at Faegan's in Syracuse, NY.
So as happy as falling asleep to music makes me, I obviously then made mixes that paid tribute to this lovely experience. This was one. Since it's called "Shhhh..." As in "Shhhh... Go to sleep and forget about all the crappy stuff day-to-day life shits upon your shoes." Wonderful melodic peace. Ahhhh...
(aside: as a mix, i can blend applicable tracks from records that as a whole are not conducive to a tuneful sleep into a wonderful new LP of the quiet, restful variety. however, if i was being put in suspended animation for some sort of space exploration, and i had to pick 10 albums to repeat for the next billion light years while i slumbered, i'd probably select the following in no particular order: colleen-the golden morning breaks, mogwai-come on die young, godspeed you! black emporer-f#a#(infinity), cat power-moon pix, codeine-the white birch, mountains-sewn, loren mazzacane connors + david grubbs-arborvitae, low-things we lost in the fire, james blackshaw-a litany of echoes, and the very obvious, brian eno-music for airports. but i don't know why anyone would send me to space.)
Onto the mix:
1) Low/Dirty Three-"I Hear...Goodnight" In the Fishtank EP (2001)
What an opener for a mix. A literal blend of two great sleepy bands in Low and The Dirty Three. And then the song title ends in "Goodnight"? Should have just repeated this track 20 times.
2) Gillian Welch-"Revelator" Time (The Revelator) (2001)
Another nice opener. There's an acoustic guitar solo in here that I wish I could play even just a bar of. And I hate guitar solos.
3) Crooked Fingers-"Sunday Morning, Coming Down" Reservoir Songs EP (2002)
Such a good cover, bleeding into the guy who made the song famous....
4) Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash-"Girl From the North County" Nashville Skyline (1969)
...on another tune with some Bob dude. This is really the only Bob Dylan record I ever feel a need to listen to. And this is my favorite track off of it. Heart-wrenching regret spilled over 3 chords.
5) Cat Power-"Good Woman" You Are Free (2003)
I've said enough about Cat Power before: (http://thefmtana.blogspot.com/2009/07/no-ground-is-being-broken-to-say-chan.html) This song is a sad, sad goodbye.
6) Kings of Convenience-"Singing Softly to Me" Quiet Is the New Loud (2001)
This tune might be a little too swingy to be on a mix like this. But the title is very apropos.
7) The Mountain Goats-"Have To Explode" Tallahassee (2002)
My favorite Mountain Goats record, and this is the Shhhh...-iest song on it. (Not shittiest, Shhhh...-iest.) If you were the character in this song, you'd want to sleep it all away too.
8) Nick Drake-"Which Will" Pink Moon (1972)
Pink Moon always reminds me of when I first met my wife, which is a nice thing to think about as you fall asleep.
9) Califone-"Stepdaughter" Quicksand/Cradlesnakes (2003)
There's a really drowsy slide steel guitar that's working very well in this song. A nice closer to a great album.
10) Bonnie Prince Billy-"Wolf Among Wolves" Master And Everyone (2003)
When I play this diddy on my gee-tar, I can almost knock myself right out.
11) The Kingsbury Manx-"Piss Diary" The Kingsbury Manx (2000)
I haven't listened to this song in years. A nice rediscovery.
12) Gastr Del Sol-"Each Dream Is An Example" Camoufleur (1998)
Sometimes, Gastr Del Sol can get kind of scronky and frantic, but this track never does. You can really hear the Jim O'Rourke in this one. One of the most unique groups of the 90s.
13) B.Fleischmann & Ms. John Soda-"Here She Comes" Blue Skied An' Clear comp (2002)
This is off a Morr Music comp that has a lot of great bands. I'm not a wikipedia of electronica lingo, but I believe this would be considered "downtempo."
14) Scott Walker-"Montague Terrace (In Blue)" Scott (1967)
Scott Walker is kind of a weird choice. And this song's not that quiet in parts. But he did* have a very soothing baritone. (i use a * not because he's dead, which he isn't, but because later scott walker records like tilt and the drift would wake dead dudes for miles.)
15) M.Ward-"Let's Dance" Transfiguration of Vincent (2003)
Man, I just have always had a hard time getting into M.Ward, but it's a nice cover of a good song, so I guess that's where he works for me: recording nice covers of good songs.
16) St. Thomas-"I'm Coming Home #2" I'm Coming Home (2002)
Another song I haven't listened to in years. And another good closer, if you like your closers 10 minutes in length.
Download here:
Shit From an Old Mixtape vol 2 pt 1
Shit From an Old Mixtape vol 2 pt 2
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