say yea! to 2!0!10!

it's a new year! i'm glad to be here! definite 2010 jam thus far (though "white sky" is close) is this song (click to listen, or download from the band here), "o.n.e." (annoyingly meaningless title - as far as i can tell - though it does align it fittingly with last year's spelling-jams trend, as spearheaded by "m.a.g.i.c") by yeasayer,

whom i have previously paid not too much attention... but i think i'm not alone in the internet (for once?!) when i say that this new album (coming out next week) is pretty pretty pretty good! i first listened to it when i was working on a jigsaw puzzle, by myself, too late at night. the album as a whole struck me as likably sprightly with a nice positive message, and this song stuck out right away. but it was only about a week ago that it really started hitting me, and now i have decided that is the "my girls" of 2010.



by which i mean, i guess, an indie-rock dance jam of supreme hookiness and mega-crossover potential that shall become quasi-ubiquitous. with a pair of distinct and equally strong vocal hooks. though, the subject matter is rather different, and it doesn't have that distinctive, elemental bifurcated structure. but: it's better than "my girls." for one, it's actually an electro-pop song (with a tricky but stomping beat and a sweet'n'bouncy synth riff) instead of just playing at being one. and the lyrics (at least the lyrics to the refrain - haven't fully parsed the rest) are not only sensical and non-mock-worthy, but actually good:

hold me like before
hold me like you used to
control me like you used to

kinda kills. a bit. not sure how i feel about the juxtaposition with "no/you don't move me anymore/and i'm glad that you don't" - puts a curiously smiley/cynical spin on the sentiment, but it's a bit sharp, and undercuts the sublimely subtle pathos of the "control me" line. anyway, interesting. anyway, it's a total JAM. get in.

this is already looking like a boom year for indie dance, after something of a downtick in '09... between this and the spunky new vampire weekend (and maybe four tet?), and a promised lcd soundsystem newbie among other things upcoming. and, the other one i've been jamming lately, hot new hot chip chip.

which is innarestin, too. it's surprisingly serious. basically none of joe goddard's goofy interjections. it's pretty silky-smooth throughout – a bunch of their marvelous moody slow jams, with a handful of swoony, streamlined house bangers – with their familiar playfulness coming through most notably in a few quirkily chromatic musical bits (the post-chorus blips on the "one life stand," the mildly dissonant ostinato of "take it in.") in essence, it's an extremely romantic album, never more so than on the aforementioned title track, "one life stand," which is a clear highlight. great video, too:



a departure from their title songs being relatively minor tracks on their albums (i do love "made in the dark" and "the warning," but they're not exactly standouts.) i really like that hot chip are a band with title tracks. this one gets a lot of its charm and potency out of its just-so-clever (and slightly dorky) but truly sweet and touching notion contained in the title phrase, delivered with alexis taylor's perfectly understated sincerity. (followed by a tammy wynette reference that seems too corny to work but does, anyway.) i'm curious to see how this album grows as i get to know it; for now i'm kind of loving its quiet, tender, heartfelt simplicity.

realism contra transference: full steam ahead into 2010

yé-yé! now that that's done, i'm so hyped about digging into this new decade we've got laid out in front of us... (ok, yeah, i still want to list my best of the '00s... look out for some sidebar action on that front, hopefully soon.)

i bought these cds yesterday:

realism! contra! transference! single word titles! single-human-figure cover images! something about new albums always seems so edgy. even if, really, there's nothing very edgy about any of these things. (except maybe the word "transference"? i dunno. and spoon's use of // always feels edgy too. i like how the words match the lampshade.)

i listened to realism and gosh it sounds so much like the magnetic fields it kinda hurts... thing is i'm not even sure i like the way the magnetic fields sound anymore. i need more listens to figure out what's going on here, but this review tells me it's about subverting sincerity (also, "a slight record, and often so chintzy it's obtuse"...yikes!) at this point the mag-fields catalog is roughly balanced with 69 love songs in the middle, and three albums on either side (let's call that oft-overlooked susan amway-era first pair - which i'll admit i've never really heard - balanced out by the two or three merritt-solo), and things look a bit different. 69ls is obviously a lot more than the one-off diversion it seemed at the time; supposedly realism marks the end of a "no-synths" trilogy, but i'll be extremely (pleasantly) surprised if t/he/y really return to making records like the mid-90s "synths trilogy"...

i'm trying to put my finger on what sets those apart. it's hardly as though sincerity has ever been a magfields hallmark, but it does feel like the balance has shifted from clever to clever-clever; at least holiday/charm/get lost had a distinct and consistent mood/mode which felt sincere in tone even if it was necessarily a deliberate construction. more, even if the songs and characters were in some sense "types," they were still imbued with real feeling: something like "all the umbrellas in london" is as emotionally sincere as you could want. that was still true for much of 69LS (even if, e.g. "yeah! oh yeah!" plays as a jokey parody of the kind of biting sentiment in, say, "the desperate things you made me do") but it was dubious even by i (although it does sound pretty good now. "it's only time" is convincingly tender, true, but otherwise "i don't believe you" pretty much summed it up.) the only songs that really made an impression from distortion (which i found pretty hard to take) were outright jokes, albeit pretty funny ones ("the nun's litany," "too drunk to dream," and especially "california girls.") and new one comes off as just woefully glib. but perhaps that's just on the surface... as i say, i need more listens.

contra (roughly two listens in) is a blast, with the initially sore-thumby "horchata" making good as a bouncy funburst of a lead-off, and the much-remarked refrain fading towards amiably insouciant rather than truly irksome inanity. dunno if i can buy matt's contention that it's "brilliant" (though it occurs to me that someone could get away with those lines much more easily - and possibly be hailed for them - if this were hip-hop), or that this is "the first album of the new decade." but, there it is.

haven't heard transference yet. should i be scared? anyhoo. going out and buying cds doesn't seem very 2010s of me, does it? (at least i went out and bought them? and got the contramelt bonus disc for my biking trubblz) buying spoon and magnetic fields cds seems practically 1990s. to say nothing of "steam"? yeesh.

never fear, for i have also downloaded: albums by hot chip and charlotte gainsbourg (illegally) and by rjd2, surfer blood, four tet, owen pallett, and beach house (legally! but haven't heard them yet), and by retribution gospel choir (rockin!!), everybody wants to be in the french resistance...now! (silly!!) and even better, got promos (in the mail) of new
eluvium, fredrik, yeasayer (!), pantha du prince (!!), and jj (!?!) jawnz, plus other bands i don't even know if i like. and, downloaded this mixtape by yelawolf, who i have not even heard of except he was on bedbugs' last.fm page, and it's pretty dope, i think.

(i have a new year's/decade's resolution to start listening to rap again, f'realz, partly fired up by all of the amazing early '00s hip-hop i re-heard for the mixburst cycle, partly by having some actual friends to maybe get excited about lil wayne with, and by wanting in on the gucci mane hype/debate, and by a newfound contention that maybe i can actually deal with mixtapes after all...i guess we'll see?)

plus....many other new and old faves with discs in the pipeline... like tunng and ted leo (seeing him friday!) and sharon jones and jason falkner (domestic release) and david byrne vs. fatboy slim vs. imelda marcos (should be brilliance or a trainwreck, i can't remember) and big-star capital-a number-one top-priority hype-prospect monster-mofo joanna newsom who is crazy and is releasing a triple album, and i have tickets to see twice in march, and this time nobody better hit me with their car mere hours before the concert !!! and also is wearing an awesome dress. oh my my.

so, duh, i've got my listening cut out for me. and my writing, getting cut out and out too, sooner or later. no, sooner. now. now.

2000s mixbursts: finis

ok. 'sbeen real. the party was awesome and epic, so much fun to see everybody dancing and singing along and enjoying this music that i'd essentially spent the previous two weeks putting together. "thanks for epic megamix of my dreams" said ['08 mvp] emily bate.

i'mma stop now though... 23 mixes, roughly six and a half hours. ought to fit neatly onto five cds, though i will have to do some figuring about how to make that work. 23 isn't a particularly nice number, but it happens to be the date of the day i completely finished the last mix (it was almost finished on the 22nd, when i was saying i had broken the date barrier.)

the fun*a*day thing was a nice idea, but i feel like my time's probably better spent other ways than making eight more mixbursts, even if the story as it now stands is only partially told. still, for a survey of an entire decade's dance music relayed in the span of one evening's worth of listening, and given some strong biases and limitations inherent in the project (heavily focused on readily recognizable, primarily american pop music, and specifically hip-hop and r&b), i think i did a pretty decent job of balancing range and variety (and some notion of "historical accuracy") with accessibility and nostalgia-maximization, while also including a smattering of more personal favorites.

here's the "playlist" order from the party. you can download any or all of the mixes from the links below. so you can more or less recreate the party for yourself, but not quite, because a lot of the transitions were somewhat tweaked in their final form for enhanced seamless smoothness. (i haven't figured out how to share that version of the mixes yet... i guess i'll eventually make them into five cd-length maximixes. which may mean the mixburst concept was more trouble than it was worth, but oh well. got a lot of content up here anyway.)

hey ya:

[pre-party]
(reinvented sex)
#8
#13

[nobody was really here yet]
#1 [2000]
#4 [neptunes]
#5 [electro/clash]
#7 [french 1]

[getting into it...]
#11 [rock]
#6 [mashups]

[first peak]
#9
#3 [timbaland]
#21

[slight lull]
#12 [soul]

[whipping to a frenzy]
#15 [novelty]
#14

[epic megamix of my dreams]
#22
#16
#17
#18
#19
#2 [2003]

[and]
#23 [comedown]

[bonus trax]
#10 [french 2]
#20 [indie]

oh, and - here are the final statistics on the number of tracks for each year:
2000: 43
2001: 33
2002: 32
2003: 31
2004: 40
2005: 23
2006: 28
2007: 26
2008: 23
2009: 14
total=293

(didn't check my work, so this could be wrong. but i like how - relatively - even it came out. look at how '04 surged ahead there! '00 def. benefited from a lot of inclusions that could have also been considered '99 fairly easily - though i don't think i ever bent the rules too far there... n.b. '09 was at a disadvantage for obvious reasons, but also because i tried not to duplicate too much from the 2k9 new years mix - though i did get to include several that were unjustly left off of that one - but, i have to say, i feel like it primarily suffered simply for not being as good a year for music. k.)

2000s mixburst #23: the comedown

end of the party. (or is it the beginning?) end of the project, for now. y'all know who i do this for...

#23: it's yoooooooo [9:31]

Sigur Ros - Svefn-G-Englar (2001)
Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place (2000)
Dntel - (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan (2001)
Coldplay - Viva La Vida (2008)
Feist - 1234 (2007)
Jordin Sparks ft. Chris Brown - No Air (2008)
Timbaland ft. One Republic - Apologize (2007)
Destiny's Child - Say My Name (2000)
Gui Boratto - Beautiful Life (2007)
Air - Playground Love (2000)

2000s mixburst #22

the second-to-last mix i started, but the last one i finished, for a last-minute addition to the party (completed about two hours before start time) - as you can hear, it's made to segue right into mix #16, making it a tacked-on start to the all-powerful final sequence. so, good. as it happened, this made for doubles by the knife, hot chip and r-head a little close together (the first two being on #16 and the latter on #14), but whatevs, good to have more of them. and for katy and vampire weekend to make it into the party, nice last-minute surprise. (plus the last four tracks were total spur-of-the-moment bonus inclusions.)

#22 [16:27]


Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling (2009)
Annie - Heartbeat (2004)
Madonna - Hung Up (2005)
Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand A Chance (Chromeo Remix) (2008)
MGMT - Kids (EP Version) (2005)
The Knife - Like A Pen (2006)
Radiohead - Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box (2001)
Lindstrøm - I Feel Space (2005)
Hot Chip - And I Was A Boy From School (2006)
Booka Shade - Mandarine Girl (2005)
Katy Perry - Hot'n'Cold (2008)
Fergie - Fergalicious (2006)
Hercules and Love Affair - Blind (2008)
Beck - Mixed Bizness (Nuwave Dreamix by Les Rhythmes Digitales) (2000)
Rihanna - S.O.S. (2006)

2000s mixburst #21: evidently, novelty pt. 2

i really didn't intend this at all when i started, but these are kind of all novelty songs too... well, except for "such great heights," which is decidedly unfunny. (and in fact feels kind of horribly earnest in these surroundings, even though in reality it's more like awesomely earnest.) i was thinking this wouldn't make the party, but i'm pretty fond of it now... very happy to have included "my red hot car" and (especially) "vatstep dsp" - definitely sentimental favorites. and, of course, "like wow." does anybody even know that song? dunno.

#21: funny ha ha [12:45]

Manu Chao - Bong Bong (2000)
Lil Wayne ft. Static Major - Lollipop (2008)
T.I. - Whatever You Like (2008)
Rich Boy - Throw Some D's (2006)
Squarepusher - My Red Hot Car (2001)
Afroman - Because I Got High (2001)
The Postal Service - Such Great Heights (2003)
Avril Lavigne ft. Lil Mama - Girlfriend (Dr. Luke Remix) (2007)
Hrvatski vs. Kid606 - Catstep/My Kitten/Catnap Vatsep DSP (2000)
Shaggy - It Wasn't Me (2000)
t.A.T.u. - All The Things She Said (2002)
J-Kwon - Tipsy (2004)
Leslie Carter - Like Wow (2001)

2000s mixburst #20: token indie

wow, this one actually did only take me about an hour. and it's actually only about fifteen minutes. it's not for the party... pre-party, probably. though you could still dance to it, if you like. started out dancier and then i decided it should be a token indie mix. man, don't you had that word? (not "indie rock," just "indie.") ha.

#20: indie [15:46]


LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum (2007)
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. (2005)
Phoenix - Too Young (2000)
of Montreal - Disconnect The Dots (2004)
Belle and Sebastian - I'm A Cuckoo (2002)
Spoon - The Underdog (2007)
The New Pornographers - Letter From An Occupant (2001)
Franz Ferdinand - Darts of Pleasure (2004)
The Strokes - Take It Or Leave It (2001)
Ida Maria - Oh My God (2008)
A.C. Newman - Miracle Drug (2004)
Aberfeldy - Summer's Gone (2004)
The Mountain Goats - No Children (2002)

2000s mixbursts #18 & 19

oh, it's a party, in the u.s.a. ! can't help but wait. n.b. mixes 16>17>18>19 are designed to go in sequence, pretty much. the tempo is slowly dropping, contra s.o.p. hey, i did the miley/jay-z/britney thing. hope it's funny? hey, i did the pink/lil mama/madonna thing? hey, i did the swaggaplanes thing (again) but with the sick-ass anti-violence dfa remix thing this time. hey i did the rjd2x2. hey, i never noticed before how in "ms. jackson" when they say "puppy love" there are puppies barking and then grown dogs barking for "it's full grown." cute!

#18


Amerie - 1 Thing (2005)
Destiny's Child - Independent Women, Part 1 (2000)
M.I.A. - Pull Up The People (2005)
Shakira ft. Wyclef Jean - Hips Don't Lie (2006)
Beyoncé - Naughty Girl (2003)
The Game ft. 50 Cent - Hate It Or Love It (2005)
T.I. - Bring 'Em Out (2004)
Pink - Don't Let Me Get Me (2002)
Lil Mama - Lip Gloss (2007)
Madonna - Don't Tell Me (2000)
Miley Cyrus - Party in the U.S.A. (2009)
Jay-Z - 99 Problems (2003)
Britney Spears - Overprotected (2002)
DMX - Party Up (Up In Here) (2000)
Outkast - Ms. Jackson (2001)
RJD2 - Ghostwriter (2002)
M.O.P. - Ante Up (Robbin Hoodz Theory) (2000)

#19: [100% pure hip-hop, r&b, and swedish pop]


Beyoncé - Single Ladies (2008)
Robyn - Handle Me (2005)
Cassie - Is It You? (2007)
M.I.A. - Paper Planes (DFA Remix) (2007)
The Very Best - Tengazko (2008)
Swagger Like Us - T.I. ft. Jay-Z, Kanye West, & Lil Wayne) (2008)
Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger (2005)
Fat Joe, Ja Rule, Ashanti - What's Luv? (2002)
Brandy - What About Us? (2002)
Amy Diamond - What's In It For Me? (2005)
Blu Cantrell - Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops) (2001)
Cam'ron - Hey Ma (2002)
Talib Kweli - Get By (2002)
Missy Elliott ft. Ludacris - One Minute Man (2001)
RJD2 - Here's What's Left (2002)
The Knife - Heartbeats (2002)
Mary J. Blige - Family Affair (2001)
Eminem - Lose Yourself (2002)
Ghostface Killah - Nutmeg (2000)
Jay-Z - Izzo (H.O.V.A.) (2001)
Beyoncé - Irreplaceable (2006)

2000s mixbursts #16 & 17

real name, no gimmicks.

#16


Flo Rida - Low (2008)
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor (2008)
The Knife - Silent Shout (2006)
Kylie Minogue - Love At First Sight (2002)
Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood (Ed Case Refix) (2001)
The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers (2002)
Mylo - Drop The Pressure (2004)
The Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies) (2004)
Matthew Dear - Dog Days (2003)
Daniel Bedingfield - Gotta Get Thru This (2001)
Kelly Clarkson - Since You Been Gone (2004)
The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love (2002)
Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks (2006)

#17


Solange Knowles - Sandcastle Disco (2008)
Nina Sky - Move Ya Body (2004)
Ciara ft. Missy Elliott - 1 2 Step (2004)
Britney Spears - Piece of Me (2007)
Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mom (2003)
The Roots - The Seed (2.0) (2002)
Rye Rye - Shake It To The Ground (2007)
Röyksopp - Eple (2001)
Young Leek - Jiggle It (2006)
Animal Collective - My Girls (2009)
E-40 ft. Keak Da Sneak - Tell Me When To Go (2006)
The Very Best ft. Ezra Koenig - Warm Heart Of Africa (2009)
Kevin Lytle - Turn Me On (2004)
Ce'Cile - Hot Like We (2004)
Sean Paul - Get Busy (2003)
Usher ft. Lil Jon & Ludacris - Yeah (2004)
The Strokes - Someday (2002)
Missy Elliott - Work It (2002)

2000s mixburst #15: yuks of the y2ks

this needed to happen. i know i'm not supposed to be doing themed ones any more, but i think this mix will be pretty crucial. i like how snoop/lonely/bloodhound and das racist each provide an equally pertinent, equally clear answer to basement jaxx's musical question. (nobody seems to have answer for baha men though...) oh, and don't try tell me that "sexyback" isn't a novelty single. or "poker face." or "clocks."


#15: fun*a*decade


Justin Timberlake - SexyBack (2006)
Eminem - Without Me (2002)
Lady Gaga - Poker Face (2009)
LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge (2002)
Kelly - Shoes (2006)
Lady Sovereign - Love Me Or Hate Me (2006)
Snoop Dogg ft. Robyn - Sexual Eruption (Fyre Department Remix) (2008)
The Lonely Island - Jizz In My Pants (2008)
The Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch (2000)
Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At? (2001)
Das Racist - Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix) (2009)
Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out? (2000)
O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei (2004)
The Laziest Men On Mars - Invasion of the Gabber Robots (2000)
Darude - Sandstorm (2000)
Coldplay - Clocks (2002)

2000s mixbursts: progress report

having fun? i am. so, i've got fourteen mixes done now, as of january 20th (actually as of the 19th - haven't done any yet today), which means i'm almost caught up with the days of the month, definitely on a pace to finish one for each day, if not strictly speaking fun *a* day. not sure if i really will continue past the party though – my short-term goal currently is 20 mixes. but hey, if i do end up with 31, i'm almost at the half-way point.

definitely not sticking with my initial time parameters, either in terms of mix length or production time – nava encouraged me to set a goal of only spending one hour per mix, which is proving extremely difficult to keep to...partly because it's sometimes just hard to figure out how to fit things together, partly because i'm being typically perfectionistic about making the transitions nice, partly because of some traktor krashes (annoying, but i basically know what is going to cause them and can usually avoid them), and partly because i keep thinking of new songs to download add to the project, so the "initial preparation" stages keep continuing. this morning's epiphany: "sandstorm"! (have you heard this? tee-hee)]

length-wise, i've got just over four hours of material now. 6h40m[=5cd=1 changer-full] might be a good goal (though i don't see how i could keep it that short with 31 mixes.) but my more immediate concern is the party: five hours of actual dance music is probably about the limit, and i've still got a list of 50+ must include 2k's nostalgia jamz to work in somehow. i could certainly relegate mix13 and i suppose mix8 to pre-party, and perhaps ditch the rock mix to buy some more time. well... we'll just have to see. but i predict the next batch will be srsly all-killer.

[eta: interestingly, i'm running up against a bit of discrepancy in terms of the goal/concept here – between "my favorite of the 2000s" and "the 'best' of 2000s" and "the most nostalgic of the 2000s." i guess i'm trying to balance those about evenly, but leaning more heavily on the latter – there's been some concern about the format being sufficiently nostalgiable. plus, also trying to make it a good dance party...]

incidentally, i've been tracking the number of songs that i use from each year of the decade. here are the stats after the first 14 mixes:

2000: 27
2001: 17
2002: 10
2003: 25
2004: 24
2005: 13
2006: 14
2007: 15
2008: 7
2009: 8

'00 and '03 had whole mixes devoted to them, but it's impressive that '04 is showing nearly as well without any preferential treatment. (i did have one or two really awesome cd-rs of singles from that year, which have been heavily represented here, so that may have something to do with it.) not surprising that the end of the decade is less well repped, but i'm sort of curious about 2002. well, stay tuned for more thrilling developments!

2000s mixburst #14: radioteque club jamz

aw yeah. more unpremeditated peaktime mayhem. kinda ridic that this is 18 minutes and only 11 tracks, but some of these really needed to play out a bit. i'm excited for this one.


#14: 138-74 bpm [fuck flirt crank rock (idiotoxic re-hab)] [18:08]


Eamon - Fuck It (2004)
R. Kelly ft. T.I. and T-Pain - I'm A Flirt (Remix) (2007)
Soulja Boy - Crank Dat (Soulja Boy) (2007)
The Blow - Parentheses (2006)
Radiohead - Idioteque (2000)
Britney Spears - Toxic (2004)
Amy Winehouse - Rehab (Hot Chip Remix) (2006)
Usher ft. T.I. - Love In This Club (2008)
Twista and Kanye West w/ Jamie Foxx - Slow Jamz (2003)
Young Money ft. Lloyd - Bedrock (2009)
T.I. - What You Know (2006)

2000s mixburst #13: exotica-tronica

nice one. this will end up being pre-party tunes, i think. i didn't approach it with any plan in mind (default four tet opener, again), but it ended up being a bit of a microdisneycal world tour, with stops in the uk, usa, iceland, germany, japan, sweden, and brazil. should've got some konono in there too.


#13: 112-120 bpm (drop/rise//stay/stuck) [16:55]

Four Tet - She Moves She (2003)
LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great (2007)
Múm - I'm 9 Today (2001)
Jürgen Paape - So Weit Wie Noch Nie (2002)
Cornelius - Drop (2002)
JJ - From Africa to Malaga (2009)
Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - Rise (DFA Remix) (2003)
Lykke Li - Little Bit (2007)
Hot Chip - (Just Like We) Breakdown (2005)
Amon Tobin - Get Your Snack On (2000)
Spoon - Stay Don't Go (2002)
Ratatat vs. Missy Elliott - Hot (2004)
Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat (2008)

2000s mixburst #12: soul

whoa yeah. i had a bit of a hard time deciding what "soul" means here – initially was gonna be more strictly just the retro-folks that mostly make up the middle chunk, but i ended up expanding the parameters a bit...not too broad though: i think all this stuff is pretty soul-y. better decade for soul than rock then? definitely the best soul decade of the last three, no question (and the worst for rock...yeah.) i like that this is exactly evenly split (and largely down the middle) between the soul sistas and the soul brothas.

ran especially long because i had to give fuller-than-standard airings to a bunch of these (and, there are a bunch of them...)

#12: soul siblin's [22:33]


Alicia Keys - No One (2007)
Brandy - Camouflage (2008)
Joss Stone - Super Duper Love (2003)
Beyoncé - Sugar Mama (2006)
Mya - Fallen (Zone 4 Remix ft. Chingy) (2003)
Mary J. Blige - No More Drama (2001)
Maroon 5 - This Love (2004)
Mayer Hawthorne - Make Her Mine (2009)
Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good (2007)
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - How Long Do I Have To Wait For You (2005)
Jamie Lidell - Multiply (2005)
Owusu and Hannibal - What It's About (2005)
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (2006)
Maxwell - Pretty Wings (2009)
Justin Timberlake ft. T.I. - My Love (2006)
NOMO - One To One (2006)

2000s mixburst #11: rock

er, "modern rock"? eh, not sure what's so modern about it. most notable thing about rock in the 2000s?: as with pretty much every other (vocal?) genre except for rap, it was more or less dominated by women. (8/13 of the tracks that made this mix are female-fronted, which was not especially an intention of mine at the outset. q.e.d...?) i was not a big fan of rock in this decade, but i do like almost all the songs below, with the possible exception of the final three, which seemed important to include as perhaps the three defining indie>mainstream crossover rock tracks of the decade (all by boy-bands) (forgot about the white stripes though...) – "float on" is, yeah, okay-eeah, but i never especially liked "take you out" (gimme "darts of pleasure" or, better, "do you want to," kthx), and "last nite" is far from being one of my favorite strokes songs. oh well. kelly/ashlee/avril/miley rulz, natch (wait, don't tell me "c u again" isn't rock right?), and now i regret not including more of "how you remind me" (mostly b/c i figured people wouldn't want to be reminded that much), cuz i am rather fond of it. it was nice putting the simpson-wentzes together (it almost sounds like they're talking to each other, aw), and i like how the v's introduce s-k by saying the name of their song. (i thought they would make nice together.)

ok rok on. wait i forgot this iz rock not rok. (cuz u can't dance to that ish!)

#11: rock (like a party star) [15:21]


Nickelback - How You Remind Me (2001)
Avril Lavigne - Complicated (2002)
Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes (2005)
Ashlee Simpson-Wentz - Pieces Of Me (2004)
Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Going Down (2005)
Paramore - Misery Business (2007)
The Veronicas - 4Ever (2005)
Sleater-Kinney - Oh! (2002)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control (2003)
Miley Cyrus - See You Again (2007)
Franz Ferdinand - Take You Out (2004)
Modest Mouse - Float On (2004)
The Strokes - Last Nite (2001)

2000s mixburst #9: dippin' stuntin' turnin' brushin'

more freestyle mixin. actually this was initially supposed to be a more dancehall-inflected "riddim" mix, but it felt better to switch into hip-hop instead. (maybe that'll happen later, though i really wish i knew more about dancehall to do it right. more like crossover pop with a vague dancehall groove.) wayne gets his ≤15 min. (yeah, there'll probably be more later, but it seemed right to give him a chunk here.) and i have some fun with probably the coolest mixing technique there is, pitting 70s-80s bpm hip-hop against 140s-160s bpm electro, for that half-time/double-time wooziness. except outkast flip it by rapping at 150 bpm... ooh, ice cold. of course i had to let "b.o.b." play out in full, so it got kinda long.

#9: 150-80 bpm (this is bigger than lil wayne) [23:50]


Rihanna - Unfaithful (Reggae Remix) (2006)
Christina Milian - Dip It Low (2004)
Lil Wayne ft. Bobby Valentino - Mrs. Officer (2008)
Keri Hilson ft. Lil Wayne - Turnin Me On (2008)
Birdman and Lil Wayne - Stuntin' Like My Daddy (2006)
Jay-Z - Brush Your Shoulders Off (2003)
Dead Prez - Hip Hop (2000)
Com.A - Fear Farms (2003)
Sway - Up Your Speed (2005)
T.I. - Rubber Band Man (2003)
Ludacris - What's Your Fantasy (2000)
Buraka Som Sistema - IC19 (2009)
Outkast - B.O.B. (2000)

*some of these are less than optimal versions of these songs, either cuz they're clean or the sound quality isn't very good.

2000s mixburst #8: smile left your gum numb

taking a break from themed mixbursts, at least for now. this one would probably work best slotted early in the party. actually i was initially thinking of it as pre-dance music, but it got groovier than i anticipated. mainly personal favorites rather than mass-appeal jams. starting, naturally, with four tet:

mix #8: 100-120 bpm (ah, humans dream blind) [22:38]


Four Tet - Smile Around The Face (2005)
Belle and Sebastian - Your Cover's Blown (2004)
Max Tundra - Lysine (2002)
The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2001)
Paris Hilton - Stars Are Blind (2006)
The Very Best - Kamphopo (2009)
Blur - Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club (2003)
David Byrne - Like Humans Do (2001)
Bertine Zetlitz - Ah Ah (2004)
Ratatat - Seventeen Years (2004)
Annie - Chewing Gum (Mylo Remix) (2004)
Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb (2004)
Estelle ft. Kanye West - American Boy (2008)
Christian Falk ft. Robyn and Ola Salo - Dream On (2006)
Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes (XXXchange Remix) (2008)

2000s mixburst #10: frenchies pt. deux

well, that problem is easily enough solved. plus, this one really is relatively quick. mad peak-time jams brah:

#10: French 2 [10:08]


Phoenix - Everything is Everything (2004)
Yelle - A Cause de Garçons (Tepr Remix) (2007)
Justice vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends (2004)
Daft Punk - One More Time (2000)
Nôze - Remember Love (2007)

2000s mixburst #7: frenchies

how about a quickie? these have been getting long, so i thought this one would be nice and simple. sadly, french house has not been especially dominant in the past ten years – at least, not as made by french people – despite the looming (er, gleaming?) shadow cast by discovery over the decade... even so, i felt like i was leaving out something important as i set out to make this mix, which at one point was just going to be multiple tracks each from daft punk, phoenix, and justice – then i thankfully remembered yelle, and i slotted in braxe/falke too to be nice. but it wasn't until i wrapped this up that i realized i'd forgotten the nuttiest, fruitiest frenchiest freaks of them all...those nutsos nôze! how could i forget "remember love"?? d'oh! oh well, will have to try to include it elsewhere. in the meantime, get yr filter-disco on:

#7: french [12:18]

Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better (2000)
Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster Stronger (2001)
Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (2007)
Yelle - Ce Jeu (2007)
Daft Punk - Technologic (2005)
Daft Punk - Digital Love (2001)
Alan Braxe and Fred Falke - Rubicon (2004)
Phoenix - 1901 (2009)

2000s mixburst #6: mash-up

another big early-decade buzz concept... this one clearly took off and exploded in pretty undeniable ways. maybe a little crazy even to attempt making this mix, but of course it's also appropriate in various meta ways that i'm not going to bother getting into... anyway, it was particularly hard to know what to include here, but i tried to balance "historical significance" (the canonical touchstones – "a stroke of genius," the grey album, night ripper – and i made it a point to feature something other than the over-lauded biggy/elton moment) with a few personal favorites ("freak like me" – which is brilliantly, as i always point out, a remix of a cover of a mashup – is undeniably both) and, in particular, trying to get in some songs that i might otherwise want to include in these mixes in other forms. killed a bunch of birds, basically.

#6: mashups [19:07]


Freelance Hellraiser - A Stroke of Genius [The Strokes vs. Christina Aguilera] (2001)
Alicia Keys - You Don't Know My Name (Reggae Remix) [vs. Burning Spear] (2004)
Evolution Control Committee - Rocked by Rape [Dan Rather vs. AC/DC] (1998/2003)
Sugababes - Freak Like Me (We Don't Give A Damn Mix) [Adina Howard vs. Tubeway Army vs. Girls On Top vs. Sugababes vs. Richard X] (2003)
Go Home Productions - Sly Beyonce Walks Like a Nerd [The Bangles vs. N*E*R*D vs. Beyonce ft. Jay-Z vs. Sly and the Family Stone] (2003)
M.I.A. & Diplo (ft. Lil' Vicious) - Galang (Piracy Funds Terrorism version) [M.I.A. vs. Baby ft. Clipse] (2004)
DJ Danger Mouse - December 4th (from The Grey Album) [Jay-Z vs. The Beatles] (2004)
Galen H. Brown - My Humps (New World Mix) [Black Eyed Peas vs. Antonín Dvořák] (2005)
Soulwax - Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head [Kylie Minogue vs. New Order]
Girl Talk - Bounce That (from Night Ripper) [The Emotions vs. Purple Ribbon All-Stars vs. LCD Soundsystem vs. The Breeders vs. Stevie Wonder vs. Stevie Winwood vs. DJ Funk vs. Britney Spears vs. Wreckz-N-Effect vs. Elastica vs. Ciara ft. Ludacris] (2006)
A-Trak - Walk It Out Trizz (from Dirty South Dance) [DJ Unk vs. ??] (2007)
Ross of Love - Umbrella (The Summerbrella Lolly Brolly ThatzmyJAM Remix) (from Popsical!) [Rihanna ft. Jay-Z, Keak da Sneak, Mims, Usher, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Clipse, Birdman, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, T-Pain, Cassie, Lil Mama, T.I., DJ Webstar, Young B, DJ Unk, Fat Joe & Lil Wayne] (2007)

2000s mixburst #5: electro/clash

this stuff was so buzzy in the first few years of the decade, in, seemingly, all the wrong ways ... empty decadent postures, style over substance, blah blah... and i certainly can't say i was ever all that into it at the time – i remember being curious about felix, mostly put off by that one adult. full-length, and slightly repulsed/fascinated by peaches, and adoring one particular ultra electro which i was very tempted to excerpt here (bis and playgroup remixes, "shiny disco balls"... well, maybe they'll get a chance to come out later?)

anyway, yeah, i'm sure there was plenty of bad and/or lame music made under this banner, but this is all sounding pretty good right about now, and, far from the stylistically limited dead-end it at one point appeared to be, extremely prophetic for the rest of the decade. true, almost nobody talks about "electroclash" anymore (that word was probably a large part of the problem? though actually i kinda like it), but we've found ever-so-many more ways to be synthy and sleazy and stylishly dark. i only slipped one late-decade track in here – a seeming has-been remixed by even more of a seeming has-been – but i could have done a lot more than that, just going on aesthetic grounds (some of what i did include probably wouldn't fit a strict definition of electroclash anyway, not that anyone cares.) actually this mixburst gave me the most trouble of any so far in terms of having to leave stuff off. and hence, it's kinda long.

#5: electro/clash [19:25]


Ladytron - Playgirl (2000)
Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene (2001)
Le Tigre - Deceptacon (DFA Remix) (2001)
Goldenboy with Miss Kittin - Rippin' Kittin (2001)
Goldfrapp - Strict Machine (Blackstrobe Italian Fireflies Bootleg) (2003)
ADULT. - Nausea (Reconstructed) (2000)
Vitalic - No Fun (2005)
Tiga - Shoes (Mr. Oizo Remix) (2009)
Soulwax - NY Excuse (2004)
Peaches - Fuck The Pain Away (2000)
Ellen Allien - Trashscapes (2003)
Fischerspooner - Emerge (2001)

2000s mixburst #4: the neptunes

the obvious counterpart to yesterday's timbaland mix. i've gotta say, this oeuvre doesn't stack up quite as well... the similarities across the neptunes' productions grow even more pronounced when placed side by side, and though it does make for some easy mixing (these were all within an easy 15 bpm of each other), it doesn't really magnify the excitement of the individual tracks the way the timbo mix did... still, some definite bangers here. (mildly unorthodox: i had to sneak in diplo's delicious b-more flavored remix of "hollaback girl" at the end to break up the mid-tempo chunky-funk monotony.)

#4: the neptunes decade [13:54]

jay-z ft. pharrell - i just wanna love u (give it to me) (2000)
mystikal ft. pharrell - shake it fast (2000)
clipse - when the last time (2002)
nore - nothin' (2002)
snoop dogg ft. pharrell - drop it like it's hot (2004)
justin timberlake feat. pharrell - rock your body (2002)
nelly - hot in herre (2002)
kelis - trick me (2003)
gwen stefani - hollaback girl (2004)
gwen stefani - hollaback girl (diplo remix) (2005)

2000s mixburst #3: timbaland

picking up where i left off last time (with "cry me a river"): the decade according to timbaland. god damn... admittedly his brilliance was kind of focused early in the decade, plus that shining resurgence in 2006 that has somewhat fizzled since. still: his brilliance... cannot be denied. this is pretty much a master-class in straight bangers, including an unfair majority of the decade's absolute best:

#3: the decade in timbaland [17:24]


aaliyah - more than a woman (2001)
missy elliott - get ur freak on (2001)
bubba sparxxx - ugly (2001)
cee-lo ft. timbaland - i'll be around (2004)
timbaland ft. nelly furtado and justin timberlake - give it to me (2007)
nelly furtado - maneater (2006)
jay-z - big pimpin (2000)
justin timberlake - what goes around/comes around (2006)
aaliyah - we need a resolution (2001)

2000s mixburst #2: 2003

2003 is, to me, the banner year for 2000s pop. that's partly personal: after a few years of flirtations with it, '03 was the year i really started to get unabashedly excited about mainstream commercial music (more or less in step with the rockcrit community in general.) but it's more than just that: the run of completely killer, completely fresh-sounding and completely culturally omnipresent singles that year has, to my mind, yet to be topped (though 2k4 and 2k5 did come close.) it was also the first year i made a continuous year-end dance mix ("as if the party was catered," aka disc one of the duct-tape mix), which i kicked off with a brief mash of snippets from a bunch of big singles that i didn't find space for on the actual mix. this mixburst is a recreation of that mini-mash with larger sections of all the same songs (plus two bonus '03 jams, from decade mvp runner-up j-tim - whom i hadn't quite warmed to yet at the time for some reason – and wacky crossover faves jr. sr.) and i didn't even get around to "hey ya!":

#2: 2003 [14:50]

beyoncé ft. jay-z - crazy in love
50 cent - in da club
sean paul - like glue
panjabi mc ft. jay-z - mundian to bach ke (beware of the boys)
kelis - milkshake
junior senior - move yr feet
!!! - me and giuliani down by the schoolyard (a true story) [um, excerpt]
r. kelly - ignition (remix)
justin timberlake - cry me a river

2000s mixburst #1: "2000"

new project!
in preparation for my houses's 2000s nostalgia party; as somewhat sluggardly participation in and/or adjunct to fun-a-day 2010; and just generally in culmination of a decade of music-sponging, i have decided to embark on a series of mini-mixes (one a day? 31 by the end of january? sure, why not...)

the concept is for each one to be 10 minutes long [10m x 30 = ~4 cds = 5 hours = as long a dance party as conceivably possible], but i have already botched that with installment #1, which is 17:30 exactly. so maybe i'll go for a rough average of ten minutes. or, okay fine, fifteen. [10m x 30 = 15m x 20.] ten-minutes-on-average-a-day?

the only rule is that all the music should be from the 2000s (and, basically, it should all be solid gold classic material), but the guidelines are that at least most of them should be dance mixes (for the party), and some of them will be roughly conceptual (though for dancing purposes i'm more interested in keeping things varied, and for mixing purposes i might start using concepts like "90 b.p.m.") i won't necessarily do one for each year, but the first is an attempt to snapshot the state of things (pop-wise, mostly, but also from my particular perspective) at year zero of the decade:

#1: 2000 [17:30]

blink 182 - all the small things
macy gray - i try
lee ann womack - i hope you dance
*nsync - bye bye bye
britney spears - oops, i did it again
destiny's child - jumpin' jumpin'
outkast - so fresh, so clean
common - the light
jurassic 5 - monkey bars
christina aguilera - come on over
the apples in stereo - the bird that you can't see*
eminem - the real slim shady
aaliyah - try again
sisquo - the thong song
madonna - music

*this was my jam so hard at the time... i think it might have been the first time i'd heard indie rockers trying to make music you could dance to.

the spirit of 2009 {mix yr accent}

presenting to the internet:

the fourth annual ross of love new year's eve dance party megamixtravaganza: 2009>>>2010 edition

you can download/hear the whole thing as one file here, or listen to it in four convenient chunks below (dl @ 1 2 3 4)


1.
Michael Jackson, "This Is It"
Four Tet and Burial, "Wolf Cub"
The Beatles, "Revolution 9" [Remastered Mono Version]
Neko Case, "This Tornado Loves You"
Animal Collective, "My Girls"
Phoenix, "1901"
BBU, "Chi Don't Dance"
Major Lazer ft. Mr. Lexx & Santigold, "I'll Make Ya (Hold The Line)"
Soulja Boy, "Kiss Me Through The Phone"
Soulja Boy, "Turn My Swag On"
Joker, "Digidesign"
Jessie James, "Blue Jeans"
Cam'ron, "I Hate My Job"
GS Boyz, "Stanky Legg"
The Lonely Island ft. T-Pain, "I'm On A Boat"
jj, "Ecstasy"
Solange Knowles, "Stillness Is The Move" [Dirty Projectors cover]
Grizzly Bear, "Two Weeks"
Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys, "Empire State of Mind"
Asher Roth, "I Love College"
The Big Pink, "Dominos"
Sleigh Bells, "Crown On The Ground"
Electrik Red, "So Good"
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, "Ballicki Bone"
Etienne Jaumet, "Mental Vortex"
Dorrough, "Ice Cream Paint Job"
Fever Ray, "Triangle Walks"
Amerie, "Why R U"
YΔCHT, "I'm In Love With a Ripper"
Miley Cyrus, "Party in the USA"
Phoenix, "Lisztomania"
Mayer Hawthorne, "Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'"
Maino ft. Swizz Beatz, "Million Bucks"
Nomo, "Bumbo"
Little Boots, "New In Town"



2.
Bangz, "We Jerkin"
New Boyz, "You're A Jerk"
Bernard Fevre, "Dali"
The Very Best ft. Ezra Koenig, "Warm Heart of Africa"
Forro in the Dark, "Perro Loco"
Ciara ft. Justin Timberlake, "Love Sex Magic"
The Sound of Arrows, "M.A.G.I.C."
The Whip, "Divebomb"
Emiliana Torrini, "Jungle Drum"
Jonathan Johansson, "En Hand I Himelen"
Jack Peñate, "Today's Tonight"
Animal Collective, "My Girls"
Fool's Gold, "Surprise Hotel"
Röyksopp ft. Robyn, "The Girl and the Robot"
Lady Gaga, "Paparazzi"
Gui Boratto, "Eggplant"
Matias Aguayo, "Rollerskate"
Kikumoto Allstars, "Last Train to Chi-Town"
Tiga, "Shoes"
Shakira, "Loba"


3.
Two Fingers ft. Sway, "What You Know"
Voodeux, "Just A Spoonful"
The xx, "Crystalised"
La Roux, "Bulletproof"
Cash Cash, "Party In Your Bedroom"
Permanent Vacation ft. Kathy Diamond, "Tic Toc"
The Dø, "On My Shoulders" (WILDLIFE! Remix)
Amadou & Mariam, "Sabali"
The Juan MacLean, "One Day"
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Zero"
Julian Casablancas, "11th Dimension"
Rye Rye ft. M.I.A., "Bang"
Sticky ft. Lady Chann, "Your Eye Too Fast"


4.
K.I.G., "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes"
Fake Blood, "Fix Your Accent"
Black Eyed Peas, "Boom Boom Pow"
Britney Spears, "3"
Buraka Som Sistema ft. Deize Tigrona, "Aqui Para Vocês"
Annie, "My Love Is Better"
The Very Best, "Kada Manja"
Lady Sovereign, "Let's Be Mates"
Das Racist, "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" (Wallpaper Remix)
Fuck Buttons, "Surf Solar"
Joy Orbison, "Hyph Mngo"
Kelly Clarkson, " I Do Not Hook Up"
Caspa, "Marmite"
Camera Obscura, "French Navy"
Zomby, "The Lie"
Lily Allen, "The Fear"
Vistoso Bosses ft. Soulja Boy, "Delirious"
Major Lazer ft. Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze, "Keep It Going Louder"
Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me"
Kanye West, "Yo Taylor!"
Beyonce, "Ego"

i think it's a record for most songs used [88, give or take a snippet] and shortest production time [i basically made the whole thing between say 10am on december 28th and 5am on december 30th, during which less-than-two-day period i slept zero hours, though i did get a hair cut, though i did go in post-new years to rejigger the last 10 minutes and tack MJ onto the beginning.]

i definitely don't think it's my greatest piece of work, though i'm not sure if that's a result of less time put in [in fact the making went pretty smoothly, with less glitchiness than in past years] or something about the suitability of the source material. i'm inclined to think it's the latter – 2k9 felt somewhat lacking in the dancejamz department, or maybe i'm just listening to too much fluid, non-click-tracked world music and not enough readily mashable teenpop/rap/electro (and remixes in general) these days.

anyhow, it did the trick, and there's still plenty to enjoy here, and just maybe make the butterflies fly away. (sorry i didn't manage to do the miley/jay/britney three-way thing... but "lisztomania" seemed like almost as much of a national party anthem this year, no?)

just a few moments i like in particular:
• the stone-faced silliness of "i'm on a boat" abutting the smiley-faced stoniness of "ecstasy," both of them equally lush rap pisstakes from seemingly opposite ends of the irony spectrum.
• solange and jay-z getting down with grizzly bear
[with bonus hipster/hip-hop brooklyn mindmeld points for the d-pros cover]
• asher roth's hipster-scorned misogyny juxtaposed with the big pink's hipster-approved version of same
• ciara and the sound of arrows' rather different conceptions of 'magic'
• the sublime synth tones of kikumoto allstars' "last train to chi-town," leading us out of a kinda rough patch, and even more so as they rub against the sublimely ridiculous "shoes"
• the sexxy perplexxy xx sneaking in there, but only for about 5 seconds because they're not a freaking dance act
• julian casablancas: "no one really cares or wonders why anymore/i've got music coming out of my hands and feet and gizzards!" nuff said.

as for the taylor/kanye/bk sign-off, well, i am kinda sorry about that (better maybe just to leave where we started off, with major lazer in the trunk piled six chicks deep), but it did seem like an obvious one and a good way to include the two most notable 2008 jams of 2009 (or was it vice versa.)

happy new year!!

--
p.s. i never actually shared last year's mix with you, did i? hm hm i'm gonna see what i can do about that now...