Summer Plunge 2010 with Fuel/Friends

This year marks the most fun I’ve had yet putting together twenty songs to soundtrack your summer. The mix came together organically and joyfully while I did summery things, and the contentment I feel lately in these weeks is embedded in the picks. I declared on January 1 (when I did the Polar Bear Plunge) that 2010 was going to be a flippin’ fantastic year, full of new experiences — and it certainly is living up to the promise.

Enjoy these as I have, play them at the BBQs to come, and burn them on CD for your next trip to the beach. Bring enough firewood; don’t forget the sunscreen and the fuzzy blankets. Summer is here.

FUEL/FRIENDS SUMMER PLUNGE 2010

Bullet – Scarlett Johansson & Steel Train
I adore the two drastically different versions of this song so much that I am declaring them the anthems of my summer, and bookending this year’s mix with them. Starting this mix with ScarJo? Yeah, I’m as shocked as you are. This is actually a cover of the original (see track 19) from an album of all-female covers (Tegan & Sara, Amanda Palmer). When Scarlett croons over that immense, filthy-crunchy beat that she fell in love on the back seat of your car, can you blame her?

Bang Pop – Free Energy
Another song I want to listen to all summer: 100% pure bottled fun from these Philadelphia chaps — like Mentos in a bottle of Coke.

The Diamond Church Street Choir – The Gaslight Anthem
Snapping on the street corner because it’s too hot to go inside? A song that’s all at once immediate and urgent, as well as timeless, from these Jersey boys’ third album. “While I’m just waiting on the light to change / and the steam heat pours from the bodies on the floor.”

Heard It On The Radio – The Bird and The Bee
The lone original on an album of shiny Hall & Oates covers, it’s the standout tune for me, since I could never abide Hall & Oates anything. It perfectly encapsulates those summer crushes soundtracked to that one song on the radio all through August.

Heart To Tell – The Love Language
This North Carolina band (on Merge Records, one of my favorites) has a poppy, effusive, beat-driven sound that fits perfectly in these months. They kind of reminded me of Voxtrot, before Voxtrot stopped trotting.

Kiola Beach – HOT SPA
I know nothing about this band except they made a wonderful video with this song and old home movie footage of beach trips and vintage surfing. That’s enough for me to have a permanently fabulous vision in my mind for this song. They’re Australian, unsigned, and I read about them here.

The Drying Of The Lawns – The Tallest Man On Earth
On last year’s summer mix, Kristian Matsson sang to us about bluebirds flying away, and this year it’s the drying of summer lawns, and waves, rivers, and mirages. I’ve spent the interim twelve months falling completely in love with him, because of songs like this.

Fairweather – Houses
The cover art picture above was taken by my friend Kinsey, the luminous woman in the Denver band Houses. As I was clicking through a few of her quintessentially-summer pictures online, showing a bunch of folks up at Echo Lake lounging on huge boulders in the sun, this song of theirs (from their Summer EP last year) came on randomly. And it was perfect: let’s leave this town behind, let’s go for a drive.

Lost In My Mind – The Head and The Heart
What’s summer if not a little time out of mind? This song shimmers and grows slowly, to the crescendo where the bass drum starts softly thumping, and it sings about the stars all coming out at night. It’s almost like that Fanfarlo track I loved last year, that helped me actually see the way the sky illuminates at twilight, one tiny pinprick of light at a time. I’ve been massively loving The Head and The Heart since I posted that song last week (their full-length album is just out this week). They also remind me delightfully of the Local Natives, if you love them as I do.

I Will Be The Sun – Old Canes
Windchimes and hard-driving clattery percussion that you can dance around to, and this one sails right into the summer mix. The whole Feral Harmonic album sounds this joyous, and I love it. Great for roadtrips and gratuitous steering-wheel drumming.

Black and Milds – Cataldo
My criteria for summer is often a rubric of what songs might sound good sung around a bonfire, if I had exceptionally talented friends who played the banjo as well as they drank. We’ve also got plenty of handclaps here, in this song about missing someone (which surely we all do on occasion, even in the summer). Thanks Katie!

Hard Sun – Indio
The original version of the sweeping epic song from Canadian Gordon Peterson in 1989. Featuring Joni Mitchell on background vocals and an assortment of exotic African-sounding instruments, it just feels radiant.

Flaming Arrow – Jupiter One
NYC’s Jupiter One is a duo with folksy roots and Seventies AM radio leanings. This song is all lemondrops and summer street strolls, over lyrics about burning buildings. What an odd, totally successful juxtaposition.

Unattainable – Little Joy
Man, this entire album is the perfect summer accompaniment — that slightly kitschy, clattery sound from Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and vocalist Binki Shapiro, along with Brazilian musician Rodrigo Amarante. I had a hard time picking just one track off this album for the mix.

Mirando – Ratatat
The video for this Brooklyn duo’s 2008 song consist of clips from Predator in reverse, so this song feels a bit like humid jungle warfare to me, in some exotic land. But, you know — humid jungle warfare you can dance to.

In The Summertime (acoustic) – Rural Alberta Advantage
I discovered this in the cold of November, and have been waiting for the sun to come and warm things up enough to enjoy it the way I think it was meant to be heard. A bittersweet, piercing, perfect little song, recorded off-the-cuff backstage at the Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco.

Sunny Sunday Mill Valley Groove Day – The Sir Douglas Quintet
My friend Nick from London said I had to put this on the mix, and when he recommends, I listen. I’d never heard this before but it feels like something captured on a warm afternoon in the studio when the recorder was accidentally kept running. “When there’s nothing left to say, and all the clouds have faded away / And my mind wanders out there across the bay…”

Saturday Night (Pinkhearts session) – Ryan Adams
My friend Brian from San Francisco said I had to put this on the mix, and when he recommends, I listen. There’s something in the aimlessness and lazy midnight humidity of this song that sounds like a perfect summer night when you were a teenager. Also, the saxophone makes it sound for all the world like a cast-off demo from the Rolling Stones.

Bullet – Steel Train
Indie kids doing their best, brilliant shot at Springsteen. As soon as I burn this mix onto a CD, I am hitting the road with the windows open because holy heck how good will this song sound on a summer night with the car windows down?? It’s so good that I had to use this song twice on the mix. My new favorite summer song of 2010. [huge thanks to Brian in Portland!!]

Pursuit of Happiness (Kid CuDi cover) – Lissie
Finally, this one – I love Lissie, and I love how she had to take a shot of tequila before she covers hip-hop artist Kid CuDi’s collaboration with MGMT and Ratatat: “2am, summer night / Hands on the wheel — uh, uh, fuck that….” Ending on a perfect, if dangerous, note.

ZIP: FUEL/FRIENDS SUMMER PLUNGE 2010

Go forth and enjoy.

[cover image by Kinsey Hamilton, design by Todd Roeth]

Stomp. Clap. Stomp. Clap. (the MIX!)

My favorite songs are the ones you feel in your bones, the ones that bubble up effervescently with that passion which has to explode out your extremities in the form of claps, stomps, and other forms of bodily percussion.

A few months ago, fellow blogger Adrian and I started knocking around the idea of a Stomp/Clap mix with all the best samples of these songs. This has been an absolute joy to assemble (with suggestions from you guys) and is the perfect late-Spring soundtrack. While everything outside is coming back to life, these songs are the essence of vibrancy and propulsive joy.

They range all over the map, from the old Delta blues of Son House, to Frightened Rabbit from Scotland (my favorite song on their new album), to the fantastic version from Brooklyn’s Elizabeth & The Catapult covering Leonard Cohen. There’s the song from Good Old War that kept me going all winter with its hopeful lyrics about birds up in the sky (and I thought of those words when a flock of seagulls soared silently over my head on the beach Saturday evening), and the Joshua James tune still frequently finds itself on repeat in my car for a dozen times or more.

The handclap + stomp combination was the earliest way that we humans punctuated our songs and kept our beats, and the preponderance of newer artists on this mix heartens me. Music is joyful again.

THE FUEL/FRIENDS STOMP-CLAP MIX
(This one’s so massive, I’m calling it a Double-CD/Gatefold LP supermix)

Before This Time – Ollabelle
Coal War – Joshua James
Catch My Disease – Ben Lee
Airline To Heaven – Billy Bragg & Wilco
Scar That Never Heals – Jeremy Fisher
Before I Knew – Basia Bulat
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb (alternate version) – Spoon
Dog Days Are Over – Florence + The Machine
But For You Who Fear My Name – The Welcome Wagon
Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare – Matt & Kim
Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel) – Local Natives (more)
Heart It Races (Architecture in Helsinki cover) – Dr. Dog
Twenty Five Miles – Edwin Starr
Five Years Time – Noah and the Whale
Coney Island – Good Old War
I’m A Pilot – Fanfarlo (more)
The Loneliness and the Scream – Frightened Rabbit
My Love – The Bird and The Bee
If You Need A Friend – James Murphy
Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen) – Elizabeth + The Catapult
When U Love Somebody – Fruit Bats
Grinnin In Your Face – Son House
I Woke Up Today – Port O’Brien (more)
Boy With A Coin – Iron & Wine (more)
Running Wild – Matt Pond PA (more)
Dokkoise House (With Face Covered) – Anathallo
Welcome Home, Son – Radical Face (more)
First Person – Jenny Owen Youngs
My Body’s A Zombie For You – Dead Man’s Bones (more)
Sea Lion Woman – Feist
Jackie Wants A Black Eye – Dr. Dog
Canceling Stamps At The University of Ghana Post Office

ZIP: FUEL/FRIENDS STOMP CLAP MIX

I recently made a different mix for a drummer friend of mine, all based around songs with percussion I love — and I think this mix just eclipsed it. This might be my favorite new mix ever.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose

So. Despite my general disdain for television, I kinda might have sorta gotten addicted to Friday Night Lights. It happens, on occasion, when an exceptionally good show crosses my path, and even moreso when it has an ace soundtrack. At the urging of several friends with really good musical taste, I began gorging myself on the first three seasons on DVD right around Thanksgiving and I’m just catching up. The best I can explain, in its finest moments, this show feels like a Springsteen song in small towns and the fires of youth, all come to life in Texas.

The soundtrack is impressive. I’ve had to watch each episode with my laptop nearby because I do an excessive amount of lyrical-snippet Googling and message board trolling (nerd!) to find all the deep cuts and covers and quirky songs the music directors have chosen. Whoever they are, I love them. If you’ve never watched the show (I thought it was lame for years) take a gander at the soundtracking and you might change your mind. The songs fit perfectly, and then once you start watching, you and I can have conversations about Tim Riggins. Trust me.

Since I enjoy making mixes for occasions, heading to SXSW tomorrow (via aereo this year, sadly, not roadtripping like that one amazing time last year) makes this new mix sound even more satisfying. These are all songs that have been played on the first three seasons of the show. If you happen to be driving down to Texas this week, do me a solid and burn this to enjoy on the way.

CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS, CAN’T LOSE (FNL/TEXAS MIX)
Your Hand In Mine (with strings) – Explosions In The Sky
Everything I Do (Miss You) – Whiskeytown
Read My Mind (Like Rebel Diamonds Mix) – The Killers
Devil Town (Daniel Johnston cover) – Bright Eyes
Permission – American Catapult
Either Way – Wilco
To Build A Home – The Cinematic Orchestra
Dead Man’s Will – Iron & Wine/Calexico
Decline-O-Meter – The Gourds
I Made A Resolution – Seawolf
Devil In Me – 22-20s
Eyes – Rogue Wave
If It’s The Beaches – The Avett Brothers
Eyes Wider Than Before – Scott Matthews
I Will Dare – The Replacements
Starlite, No. 1 – Mojave 3
Storm – Jose Gonzalez
Morning Hollow – Sparklehorse
Remember Me As A Time Of Day – Explosions In The Sky

ZIP: CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS, CAN’T LOSE MIX

(Image credit David Kozlowski).

Fuel/Friends Christmas Mix 2009

Well today is a snow day in my part of Colorado, bringing everything outside to a deadened, frozen, thickly-blanketed crawl. It’s gorgeous and quiet, and perfect weather for putting the finishing touches on my annual Christmas mix. I do love Christmas music, as you might remember from past years, but I also have a picky palate and am always amazed when I turn on the radio (as I did last night while we played cards) at how many many Christmas songs should have never been made. If I have to hear “Wonderful Christmastime” again, I might gouge out my eardrum with a candy cane to the beat of those synthesizers.

Even though there’s room on this mix I’ve made for the fun and light-hearted (I am in love with the opening remix track), I do tend to find myself drawn to the reflective and traditional songs at this time of year. Maybe it’s some slight seasonal affection disorder, or the natural rhythms of winter — or an internalization that this is a month of hope and light but that there is such need out there as well. I went to an ecumenical advent service this weekend at the old stone chapel on the college campus where I work, and one of the professors from the Classics department read a bit from the book of John about how the light shines into the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. I found the simplicity of that inspiring in a way that surprised me. I sat there in the candlelight thinking about dichotomies of light and dark, hope and despair, kindness vs. letting ourselves be hard and stony.

Anyways, there’s a bit of reflection from me on how this season is wrapping itself into my thoughts, as I sit here beside this pretty twinkling Christmas tree, warm under a fuzzy blanket. I also delight in how all these music blogs have made such a rad collection of alternative holiday tunes available for the endless mixing.

Now I’m gonna go watch Elf.

…Oh! and we’ll hope Edward Hopper won’t mind the bastardization of his moody Nighthawks painting too much. It made me smile, and is exactly how I feel today.

FUEL/FRIENDS CHRISTMAS MIX 2009

White Christmas – Corporal Blossom (from the free Very Bootie Xmas comp)
O Christmas Tree – The Layaways (free track from their Christmas album)
Kamikaze Christmas Economy (I Owe) – Jeremy Fisher (free track from last year, great artist)
The Warmest Part of Winter – Voxtrot
River (Joni Mitchell cover) – Lex Land
Listen To The Choir Sing – Ian McGlynn
Murder by Mistletoe – Felice Brothers
First Christmas – Boyracer (from their Christmas EP)
Goodbye England Cove – Laura Marling
Winter Winds – Mumford & Sons
O Holy Night – Cary Brothers (from his Father Christmas EP)
I Know The Reason – Mindy Smith & Thad Cockrell
Grateful For Xmas – Hayes Carll
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Chad Johnston
Blue Christmas – Bright Eyes
Seasonal Persuasion – Caithlin de Marrais
Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees – Elvis Presley
I Wonder As I Wander – Woven Hand (from the free Familyre Christmas Vol. 1)
Christmas Eve Can Kill You – The Everly Brothers
It’s Almost Christmas – Chris Garneau
Snow Angels – Boca Chica (from the Indiecater Christmas 2009 album)
All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue – Over The Rhine
Winter (Curled Up Toes In Red Mary Janes) – Jenna Nicholls
O Little Town of Bethlehem – The Innocence Mission (from the free Familyre Christmas Vol. 2)
New Year’s Eve – Team Five
I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Amanda Rogers
Silent Night – Zach Gill (from last year’s This Warm December comp)

ZIP: FUEL/FRIENDS CHRISTMAS MIX 2009

(Note: I want to put my last two years’ mixes up as well, but am having trouble with my FTP router-port stupid thingies and stuff, so those should come soon, once I get stuff fixed around here.)

I am all at sea

My day job involves advising college students about opportunities to study in rad places, and all this week I get to give one of our programs a test run by sailing on a 134-foot ship and, literally, learning the ropes.

I’ll be sailing out in two hours, under the Golden Gate Bridge, and spending a few days on the Pacific as an active member of a working crew, seeing what students experience on their semesters on board. We dock in Monterey at the end of it all. In addition to being a classroom and lab (I keep thinking of Voyage of the Mimi), it’s also a working ship, so there will be 24-hour watch rotations. Maybe I can get the middle-of-the-night one. I could use some 2am silence on a glassy sea.

Of course, I made a mix and have been listening to it all week in preparation. It’s eerie how fitting each song is becoming for me this week, and how each one is a perfect soundtrack to my unique life right now. Enjoy in my absence…

I’m all at sea
where no one can bother me
…Just me and my thoughts
sitting far away

I sleep by myself
I drink on my own
I don’t speak to nobody
I gave away my phone

Like a warm drink it seeps into my soul
please just leave me right here on my own
later on you could spend some time with me
if you want to, all at sea

Now I need you more than ever
Do I need you more than ever now?
So come and spend some time with me
and we will spend it all at sea

FUEL/FRIENDS ‘ALL AT SEA’ MIX
All At Sea (Live at KFOG radio, SF) – Jamie Cullum
Stuck On A Boat – Port O’Brien
Girl Sailor – The Shins
The Ocean Lifts Her Dress – The Swimmers
Eager to Sail – Wine and Revolution
Lost Coastlines – Okkervil River
Sea Lion Woman – Feist
The Ragged Sea – Alexi Murdoch
The Ocean In Between – Matthew Sweet
Drowning Men (acoustic version) – Fanfarlo
Driftwood – Mark McAdam
Salt And The Sea – Gregory Alan Isakov
Momentary Drowning – Young Coyotes
Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
Swim Until You Can’t See Land (live) – Frightened Rabbit
The Sea & The Rhythm – Iron & Wine
Deckchairs and Cigarettes – The Thrills
The Waves – Princeton
Creeping Coastline of Lights – Mark Lanegan
The Ship Song (at Glastonbury) – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Sail on Sailor – The Beach Boys
Winter Waves – Chris Isaak

ZIP: ALL AT SEA FUEL/FRIENDS MIX

I took this picture a few hours ago when I walked down to the dock to find the boat.

I hope I get to say things like “hoist the mainstay.”

Late Nights and Longboards: Fuel/Friends Summer 2009 mix

Before you head off on the long 4th of July weekend of merriment and BBQs (mostly for my US readers, but heck, it’s a good idea wherever you live), I have finally completed my annual summer mix for 2009: “Late Nights and Longboards“! I don’t surf, I just pretend I’m one of those girls in the picture up there – with the especially foxy swimsuits.

These are twenty tunes that will be soundtracking my summer, the porch swings and lemonade (okay, Fat Tire), the volleyball and sunburns, the roadtrips with the windows down because my air conditioner is broken. Maybe even the mosquito bites and seemingly inevitable summer broken hearts.

LATE NIGHTS AND LONGBOARDS
Fuel/Friends Summer 2009 Mix
Storia Di Un Corazon – Jovanotti & Jarabe de Palo
Spanish and Italian and salsa dancing and sweat. Move your hips.
Song Away – Hockey
I’m still addicted, and this still sounds fantastic driving fast.
Kissing Like It’s Love – The Voyces
Marvelous marvelous! “You smell like every summer should, my favorite time of year, like Coppertone and firewood — how am I supposed to steer?”
I Was A Fool – Roman Candle
I can feel the summer twilight heat emanating off this slow charmer. “Out in the evening past the bridge and below, frogs and cicadas left and right growling low… “
Folding Chair – Regina Spektor
Feet buried in the sand, and the sea is just a wetter version of the skies.
We’re All Stuck Out In The Desert – Johnathan Rice
Miami vacations, desert journeys, salt and sand in this (damn catchy) tune from Jenny Lewis’s boyfriend.
How Can I Love You If You Won’t Lie Down? – Silver Jews
All shiny and chimey with a faint banjo, electric guitar, and lyrics like “fast cars, fine ass, these things will pass and it won’t get more profound.” No, no it won’t.
Bowl of Oranges – Bright Eyes
Citrus seems summery, but really this is just my personal anthem of the summer and a favorite Bright Eyes song. What we’re all looking for.
Harold T Wilkins – Fanfarlo
Wow, this song still explodes into a billion technicolor sparks every time I hear it.
Sleep All Summer – Crooked Fingers
The original is different than that fabulous cover floating around, but just as bittersweet once you get used to it.
California (All The Way) – Luna
I can see the sun glinting hard off the Los Angeles car windshields, blinding me, when I listen to the guitar melody here.
July 4, 2004 – Jason Anderson
It’s not a summer mix ’til someone starts handclapping.
Fireworks – The Whitest Boy Alive
Half of the Kings of Convenience secured his place on this mix with the first second of this perfect song. Not lying.
My Radio (AM Mix) – Stars
“Hot sun on skin, that crimson dress too thin.”
Where Do My Bluebird Fly – The Tallest Man On Earth
You know how endless quiet afternoons can pass in August, laying on your back looking at clouds? This is that song – “You’re just a riddle in the sky…”
Wasted & Ready – Ben Kweller
Yes.
Sweet Summer Night on Hammer Hill – Jens Lekman
Even though Jens has the swine flu, I still hope he can find a day like this one this summer, all flirty brass and shout-out-loud clapping down on the corner.
The Village Green Preservation Society – The Kinks
Personally, my summers always require the Kinks to be present and contributing.
Play Until The Streetlights Come On – Rabbit Is A Sphere
From their new free EP, this interlude makes me think of running home barefoot on warm asphalt.
We’ll See The Sun – Houses
This song has two sublime moments in it that make my insides expand – when the drums come in at the two-minute-mark, and when the Wurlitzer explodes like fireworks at 3:27. Give it time to build and you’ll be rewarded. We will see the sun.

ZIP: LATE NIGHTS AND LONGBOARDS

It all fits on one CD. Let’s go!

Magic! Listen today to my DJ set from last night

Thanks to the magic of the internets and fancy mixing software, you can listen to my DJ set from last night (streaming, or download the gigantic mp3 to play at your own par-tay). We had so much fun! Turns out I really like making people shake it.

HB Larimer Lounge Set (Jan 19, 2009)

Songs include:
Bag of Hammers – Thao Nguyen & The Get Down Stay Down
Fall In Step – Jaydiohead
Nothing – The Hands
My Drive Thru – Santogold, Julian Casablancas and N.E.R.D.
Mr. Tough – Yo La Tengo
King of Karat Flowers (Neutral Milk Hotel remix) – DJ Mark E. Moon
Blankest Year – Nada Surf
The Book I Write – Spoon
Amy (Ryan Adams cover) – Mark Ronson
Multiply – Jamie Lidell
Gratification to Concrete – Robert Pollard
Filthy / Gorgeous (ATOC vs Superbuddha remix) – Scissor Sisters
Help I’m Alive – Metric
Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights – Aqueduct
Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby? (Rae and Christian remix) – Dinah Washington
Do The Panic – Phantom Planet
Pile of Gold – The Blow
The First Single – The Format
Vertigo (Trent Reznor remix) – U2
Tora Tora Tora – Pretty & Nice

[pic via Brian Carney, from Eryc Eyl's Larimer DJ set a few weeks ago -- but it's pretty much identical to what last night looked like, except we had on different clothes. And I was wearing my new octopus necklace]

Your Naughty/Nice Christmas mix

Christmas is coming and kids are having fun (so said the chorus of my fifth grade play “Shaping Up Santa,” for which I still know all the words and thankfully no longer have to wear the green elf costume).

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year because of the overabundance of really bad, synthy, jingly, repetitive Christmas music that bombards me at every pass. But tonight I was listening to my friend Dainon’s superb radio show out of Salt Lake City and he filled two and a half hours with the kind of Christmas music that reminds me why I do love it.

I tend towards the melancholy, the meaningful, the achingly pretty at this time of year, and tonight’s show inspired me to finally put the finishing touches on my own mix of music for the season. Twenty-five songs to get at the goodness under the busy surface this time of year. Enjoy.

NAUGHTY/NICE CHRISTMAS MIX 2008
No Christmas For Me – Zee Avi (new Malaysian artist I’m excited about)
Joy To The World – Clem Snide
Christmas Is Coming Soon – Blitzen Trapper
Egg Nog – Luna
It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop – Frightened Rabbit
It Won’t Seem Like Christmas Without You (alternate take 6) – Elvis Presley
Christmas TV – Slow Club
Sweet Secret Peace – Neil Finn
Xmas Time Is Here Again – My Morning Jacket
Gift X-Change – Calexico
This Christmastime – Mascott & Gramercy Arms
The Secret of Christmas – Ella Fitzgerald
Christmas – Leona Naess
Just Like Christmas – Low
Song For A Winter’s Night (Gordon Lightfoot) – Erica Wheeler
Icicles – Let’s Go Sailing [from the Plastic Snow compilation]
Goin Home For Christmas – Nicolai Dunger
Goin Home For Christmas – Merle Haggard
Snowfall – Josh Rouse
The First Noel – Pedro The Lion
Please Come Home For Christmas – Willie Nelson
The Gift of Grace – Denison Witmer
New Year’s Resolution – Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
Winter Wonderland – Radiohead
Silent Night – Evan Dando

ZIP IT ALL UP, BABY

If you want even more Christmas music, the excellent WXPN out in Philly is hosting 12 Days Of Christmas with local bands and free mp3s each day. Ten down, two to go, check it out.

Merry Christmas.

[image from the fabulous Anne Taintor]

Welcome, summer

Ten tunes for this first day of summer 2008:

Girls In Their Summer Clothes (winter mix) – Bruce Springsteen
California (Phantom Planet cover) – Mates of State
Constructive Summer (live at Non-Comm) – Hold Steady
It’s Your Thing – Isley Brothers (this cut from Out of Sight)
Electric Music and the Summer People – Beck
Sunshine (Jonathan Edwards cover) – Paul Westerberg
Summersong – The Decemberists
Burned (Buffalo Springfield cover) – Wilco
Summer In The City – Regina Spektor
Nightswimming – R.E.M.

Check out the corresponding selections at Some Velvet Blog and The Late Greats as well — and choose your own summer adventure.

The Ghosts of Coachella Past :: Live driving mix

I hear sometimes there’s traffic.

If you are heading down to Coachella this weekend in the center of the Indio desert, you may encounter a few other (80,000) folks doin the same. What shall you do whilst idling?

After Netflixing the movie about Coachella last weekend filled with so many great live performances from the past seven fests, I felt compelled to look for some of them to put on my iPod. Turns out that it makes quite the fine little mix to keep you company on the drive.

This and In’n'Out, and I’m all set:

THE GHOSTS OF COACHELLA PAST: LIVE DRIVING MIX
Autobahn (short) (2004) – Kraftwerk
Y Control (2006) – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Some Candy Talking (2007) – The Jesus and Mary Chain
Inertia Creeps (2006) – Massive Attack
7/4 (2004) – Broken Social Scene
Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time (2007) – Jarvis Cocker
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (1999) – Morrissey
Kelly Watch The Stars (2007) – AIR
Girls and Boys (2003) – Blur
No Fun (2003) – Iggy Pop & The Stooges
Bizarre Love Triangle (2005) – New Order
Keep The Car Running (2007) – Arcade Fire
New York City Cops (2002) – The Strokes
Pressure Zone (2004) – Beck
You Know I’m No Good (2007) – Amy Winehouse
Planet Telex (2004) – Radiohead
March of the Pigs (2005) – Nine Inch Nails
Dead Ken Beats (2005) – Prodigy
Do You Wanna Touch Me (2003) – Queens of the Stone Age
Kool Thing (2003) – Sonic Youth
Bulls on Parade (2007) – Rage Against The Machine
Close To Me (2004) – The Cure
In Heaven –> Where Is My Mind? (2004) – The Pixies
She’s Electric (2002) – Oasis
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (2005) – Wilco
Like Eating Glass (2006) – Bloc Party
Army of Me (2007) РBj̦rk
God Put A Smile On Your Face (2005) – Coldplay
Lua (2005) – Bright Eyes
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2004) – The Flaming Lips

ZIP: THE GHOSTS OF COACHELLA PAST