plug tuning, pt. 2

i'm not enitrely ready yet to commence the year-end listing, and all the soul-searching, self-imposed self-conscious listening that entails - to say nothing of the year-end mixmaking - though bedbugs' fairly comprehensive '07 teen-pop round-up makes a good inspiration/starting point. but here goes i guess the last mix-tape i made in regular season play this year, which will stands as a sort of informal beginning to that process, since it rounds up many of my favorites from the first two-thirds of '07 (and the last half or so of '06); and i'll use it as a way to begin commenting on those artists/albums/tracks, as seems appropriate.

it's possibly the most 'conventional' mix i've made in ages, which is to say that, even more than its mood-based predecessor (which drew from a wider array, temporally speaking) it has no especial theme or organizing principle other than to survey recent highlights in a way that makes an enjoyable, relatively cohesive listen.

Title: Musician Plugs II (subtitle: paren(t)heses)
Format: 2 CDs
Date: September 2007
Packaging: similar to the design of the original, with inserts made from that same calendar, but in a long, DVD-size jewel case (the fancy kind that allows two discs to fit on the spindle.) this time it's ingrid bergman on the front/inside cover, and humphrey bogart on the back cover, and for some reason i decided the track listing on the calendar squares should be upside down with respect to the numbers. so it's pretty hard. i won't even bother showing you a picture of the track list for the first disc (which is in the tray, underneath the cd) - look down to see the list for the second disc (which is inside the 'booklet'.)

incidentally, the critics have been raving:

"Your musician plugs covers are works of genius."

- my dad

DISC ONE

1. LCD Soundsystem, "Someone Great"
2. Caribou, "Sandy"
3. Patrick Wolf, "Overture"
4. The New Pornographers, "My Rights Versus Yours"
5. Battles, "Leyendecker"
6. Keith Urban, "I Told You So"
7. Miranda Lambert, "Guilty in Here"
8. The Blow, "Parentheses"
9. Spoon, "Finer Feelings"
10. Pop Levi, "Flirting"
11. The Long Blondes, "Weekend Without Makeup"
12. Okkervil River, "Black"
13. Hot Chip, "No Fit State"
14. The Ark, "Let Me Down Gently"
15. Gui Boratto, "Xilo"
16. Aberfeldy, "Hypnotized"
17. M.I.A., "Paper Planes"
18. Oakley Hall, "Living in Sin in the USA"
19. Patty Griffin, "I Don't Ever Give Up"
20. Feist, "1 2 3 4"

DISC TWO

1. Low, "Hatchet (Optimimi Version)"
2. Margaret Berger, "Naive (16)"
3. Lauryn Hill, "Lose Myself"
4. Junior Boys, "Count Souvenirs"
5. Regina Spektor, "Better"
6. The Good, The Bad and the Queen, "Behind the Sun"
7. Maxïmo Park, "Books From Boxes"
8. The National, "Fake Empire"
9. They Might Be Giants, "Climbing The Walls"
10. Arctic Monkeys, "Flourescent Adolescent"
11. Andrew Bird, "Heretics"
[alternate selection: Joan as Police Woman, "Eternal Flame"]
12. Joanna Newsom, "Cosmia"
13. Ellen Allien + Apparat, "Way Out"
14. Tracey Thorn, "Falling Off a Log"
15. Amy Winehouse, "Tears Dry On Their Own"
16. The Hold Steady, "You Can Make Him Like You"
17. The Gothic Archies, "The World Is A Very Scary Place"
18. Beirut, "Scenic World"
19. Barbara Morgenstern, "The Operator (Single Edit)"
20. The Bird and the Bee, "Again and Again"
21. John Vanderslice, "New Zealand Pines"
22. Jarvis Cocker, "Black Magic"
23. Marit Larsen, "Solid Ground"

[stay tuned for commentary on the tracklists]

plug tuning, pt. 1

Title: Musician Plugs
Format: CD
Date: 2002, it must have been. april i think?
Packaging: in a jewel case with inserts made from a time-life "faces of the 20th century" calendar meredith gave me from back in the 20th century. half of greta garbo upside-down on the cover; the other half rightside-up inside. clark gable on the back. the calendar part (from the back of the pictures) is in the interior tray and i traced it onto the cd itself too:



also, calendar inside the 'booklet,' forming the numbers (mostly) for the tracklist:

1. super furry animals • some things come from nothing

2. boards of canada • roygbiv
3. wilco • radio cure
4. damon albarn, afel bocoum, toumani diabate, et. al. • kela village

5. the mountain goats • horseradish road
6. aphex twin • {siding nails}
7. empire state • bugs in the system
8. califone • trout silk
9. infectious organisms • city limits
10. tortoise • equator
11. spoon • take the fifth
12. rjd2 • {here's what's left}
13. yo la tengo • autumn sweater
14. {the} beck • paper tiger
15. hrvatski • gemini (early)
16. john vanderslice • from out here
17. plaid • new family
18. the chemical brothers • the sunshine underground

i made this mix for my parents. the concept was to plug some musicians to them that i thought they might enjoy (males, i guess, specifically, as a counterpart to the highly successful "chicks" series of mixes for my mom.) musician plugs is what audiologists call custom-fitted ear plugs for people who want to retain their hearing and also hear clearly when exposed to a lot of loud noise. mine are purple and live in little a neon yellow case.

it didn't really work out too well for that purpose - for one thing, i don't think they listen to it much, maybe because it's got a lot of electronica. also, it maintains a pretty consistent mellow mood, meaning the songs don't really stand out that much, so it doesn't do a very good job of plugging the individual artists. (spoon's awesome "take the fifth" taking pride of place as the lone high-energy cut providing a release and a contrast to the rest of the moodery.)

on the other hand, i think it is a nice li'l mix, for those very reasons - i like how it sustains that mood while covering a decent amount of genre territory including hip-hop [9] and "world" [4]. though most of it is indie and electronica of various stripes, or some combination. it has some of the classic examples of a particular type of gorgeous synthesized portamento chordal sequence that just makes me melt - i'm thinking especially of [1] (which used to be my radio show theme song), [12] and [15]. (another one would be squarepusher's "journey to reedham") i sometimes refer to these bits as "keening," though i'm not quite sure what that means.

anyway it's a pretty listen, and an interesting snapshot of what i was listening to at the time - some of these artists i haven't given much thought to in the past five years (empire state, infectious organisms, hrvatski), though there are also many of my perennial favorites on here.