February ‘07 Mix

February 28, 2007

1) Keep the Car Running - Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

The official first single from Neon Bible is pretty quintessential Arcade Fire. Slow build, propulsive rhythm section, rousing choruses and some every man lyrics… it’s all there.

2) Sad Girls Por Vida - Good Health - Pretty Girls Make Graves

So PGMG broke up, so I will celebrate the times when they were killing it daily, living mi vida loca in Echo Park, instead of that last record that made me fall asleep all the time.

3) Frustrating Sound - Radio Moscow - Radio Moscow

Dan Auerbach produced this record and it’s a bit TOO much of a throwback, but it nevertheless rocks, in an old Cream sort of way.

4) Baby C’Mon - Live - Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

Feel the power of Janet Weiss’s drums, dude. Malkmus never sounded quite this rockin’ before.

5) Bottle of Buckie - Living With The Living - Ted Leo / Pharmacists

Like Timorous Me before it, Bottle of Buckie is one of those songs about roots, about growing up on stoops and milling around with people you don’t really know anymore. There aren’t a whole lot of lyricists that capture that nostalgic sense of time and place like Leo.

6) That’s Entertainment (Demo) - Stranger than Fiction - The Jam

This version isn’t found on the giant Jam box set for some reason. I *think* it is the same version on the SNAP! compilation. It’s a little simpler and direct than the other versions, and is just a touch better.

7) My Man, My Moon - The Reminder - Feist

Here’s a new track from Feist, with a Spoonish rhythm part and the typically sexxxy Feisty vocals.

8) Missed the Boat -We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank - Modest Mouse

I dig the island feel of this Modest Mouse track, and the chorus is just divine when it kicks in.

9) Girl Sailor - Wincing the Night Away - The Shins

It’s a nautical theme this month!

10) Dark Matter - Armchair Apocrypha - Andrew Bird

Dark Matter kicks along on some cowboy whistling and a little plucked violin before unfurling into something ginormous. Bird’s really dipping into some truly epic stuff here.

11) To The Country - Saltbreakers - Laura Veirs

Laura Veirs works with a choir to do some call and response and some generally spooky vocal work.

12) 23 - 23 - Blonde Redhead

I’m always off and on with Blonde Redhead but the title track from their new record has those supercatchy lalalalas that keep you hooked in beyond the noise and shimmer of their instrumental work.

Posted in Mixtape