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.