it's summertime, boy!

so the spring of springles, the shortest of the seasons, is over, and the summer jamz be jamming. i'm listening to the new matthew dear cd now - it's poppin, it's cool. (possibly really really cool. don't like the title much though.) i've been writing a number of song blurbs over in the styjuke, which you can see if you scroll back through the last several pages. no major revelations yet. i'm inching forward (but having new thoughts faster than i can record them) on my disco stuff...hopefully post that very soon. also been thinkin' bout the beatles - sgt. peppers
less so than, actually, meet [not with] - which upon consideration turns out to be easily the best early beatles album, since it relegates all the dross of with to the filler-ful 2nd album. also "in my life" and how perfectly pitched its sentimentality is.

otherwise, my bloggish enerjies for the last week and a half have been going to the MIXX. which is done! at least, the musixal part of it - i want to work on some artwork and packaging and all that. maybe it will be a 2cd set with the Love is the Dancer mix (also about an hour long) but i will want to nice that up a bit first.

anyway, the latest and final version of PoPSICAL, which is now posted below, is slightly different from the one i posted a few days ago, so go listen to it now, as you read along. here it is again:

sort of annoying that snapdrive (whom i like for file storage even though it can be rather slow, because it's generally generous) is not allowing direct URL linkage to mp3s anymore, which may mean there isn't a good way for you to download them - i'll look into that later, and at the very least make a sidebar player for my mixes. but for now...

Title: Popsical(!)
Format: mp3 (single file 1:02:)/CD-R (with track separation! - 24 track continuous mix)
Date: 28 May - 5 June, 2007
Packaging: tbd. perhaps: [eta: found a way to make a neat sleeve package using my printer (for once), with this image on the front; this on the back. there's even a little divot in the envelope to create spaces for two discs.]

Jan and Dean: "Popsicle"
The Buffalo Bunch: "Music Box [Waves]"
Tom Tom Club: "Under the Boardwalk"
The Fiery Furnaces: "Here Comes the Summer"
Four Tet: "Sun Drums and Soil (Sa Ra Creative Partners Remix)"
Bonde do Role: "Office Boy"
Rihanna: "S.O.S."
Millie Small: "My Boy Lollipop"
Leslie Gore: "Maybe I Know"
Spank Rock: "Sweet Talk"
Phoenix: "Funky Squaredance"
Blackbyrds: "Rock Creek Park"
Shuggie Otis: "Ice Cold Daydream"
DJ /Rupture: "Mosquito"
Ce'Cile: "Hot Like We"
Mistah F.A.B.: "Ghost Ride It"
Stevie Wonder: "All Day Sucker"
Fantasia: "Baby Making Hips"
XTC: "It's Nearly Africa"
Natasha Bedingfield: "I Want To Have Your Babies"
Munk and James Murphy: "Kick out the Chairs!"
The Pharcyde: "Soul Flower"
Cassie: "Just 1 Nite"
Lil Mama: "Lip Gloss"
Rjd2: "Bus Stop Bitties"
Clinton: "Mr. President"
Talking Heads: "Popsicle"

notes:
• it's a summertime dance/DJ mix - first draft hastily assembled for a memorial day (monday) barbeque, after several days of futzing i started completely from scratch on friday, recording it again (but with most of the same music); editing and some minor re-recording over the next few evenings, a few more days of fiddling with levels and such, and now it is ready for the world. and it's barely even summer yet! which means i'm in good shape.

• it doesn't have a whole to do with this summer mix i made this winter (although i still love it though), but it has a lot in common with this, not quite a year old, summer mix from last summer. in fact, it might be the same mix. same title (cause i couldn't think of a good way to call it as a stand-alone sequel/revision), 5/21 of the same tracks, plus at least two i had wanted to put on the original popsical - "sun drums and soil" and the tom tom club cover - instead of "under the boardwalk" i used its standalone sequel/revision "sand in my shoes." other amendments due to underdanceability, timelinesslessness, and whatever.

• the second half of this mix (blackbyrds on) was originally going to be the latter half/third of what is now "Love is the Dancer" (still not sure about that title), as evidenced by the presence of "rock creek park" on both. i don't mind.

• stretched but basically obeyed the four tet rule (you can think of the first three tracks as preamble, "sun drums" as introduction, and "office boy" as start of the mix proper, because that's where the dancing really gets going anyway.)

• final resting place for the "s.o.s.">"my boy lollipop" and "maybe i know">"sweet talk" transitions that i've been playing with for like a year now - love 'em both but good riddance b/c they were getting dated and played, at least in my living room, but it felt like an obligation to air them properly. see how you like 'em now.

• what makes the songs "summer" is obvious in some cases, subtler/indirect/questionable in others, nonexistent in others, but it all sounds pretty summery to me. two popsicle songs; two lollipop songs (could have done more but that'd seem like overkill - why are there so many more of the latter when the former are so much better?) no ice cream or pinkberry songs. i was mostly unaware of the two popsicle songs until i started conceiving this. amazingly, talking heads, my favorite band, turned out to have a song called "popsicle" that i had never (consciously) heard before! and it was in my collection - and it's really good! thanks to amg for the tip. ending the mix with that makes me feel like a reel kool dj. actually allows me the rare chance to experience the thrill of discovery, on my own mix, that i'm always hoping my mixes will provide to others.

• no scandinavians.

• the idea at one point was to represent a dj style for the defunct club night whose flyer design i modified to make the above cover. the mix as it exists doesn't quite reflect the styles described there - novelties and summer jams, check, but not as much with the disco, electro, and dance-pop, strangely enough. all of those are amply represented on love is the dancer (hence my wanting to present it as a complement), but here we have more hip-hop, r&b (old & nu), and indie/post-punk(!) than i would have predicted. not to mention baile funk, ragga, electro-salsa, faux-reggae, bajun pop, and what-have-you (file under "novelties," perhaps.) but, y'know, whatever. mixmaking is such a strange balance of wholes, units, and sections - i like the way this works out even if the architecture is more slippery than you might expect.