Mo, your mix tape is ready to go, I think I'm going to be coming to CT on Saturday, so I'll give it to you then. Because I used a Sony 110 min. tape with a slide case, I'm afraid it's not going to have much (anything) by way of liner notes and the song titles and artists are written in small, illegible script. Hence, following for your perusal is the complete list of songs, artists, and the occasional bit of justification for why the song is included:
A.
"Movie Star" by
Stereo Total (from the "Tao of Steve" soundtrack); "Ballad of Cable Mogue" by
Calexico (takes the Santa Fe, NM aesthetic on loan from the "Tao of Steve" track and moves south of the border); "Worthless" by
Dido (I'm not crazy about the album as a whole but I do like her voice); "Pauline" by
Eleni Mandell; "Totally Freaked Out" by
Bettie Serveert (rounding out the female vocalist groove set by the last two tracks); "Hands Up Billy" by
The Fall (I hope this wasn't on the tape MD made for ya); "The Employment Pages" by
Death Cab for Cutie ("We Have the Facts..." is one of the best albums of the last several years); "Danelectro 2 (remix)" by
Yo La Tengo/N. Takemura; "Dark Sun" by
Sally Timms (the lovely and talented); "What Can I Say" by
Yo La Tengo (after the Timms tune I felt I had to bend the mix tape rules and come right back with a great Georgia Hubley track); "The Last Laugh" by
Mark Knopfler/Van Morrison; "Love Travels Faster" by
the Halo Benders; "Negated" by
Unwound; "The Ballad of Ezra Messenger" by
the Gravel Pit (part one of their American Trilogy, part two follows later in the tape); "So This Is the Night" by
the Slackers (the new album has a few wrong turns but they are still pound for pound the best ska band working)
B.
"Negative Attitude" by
Lloyd Cole; "I'm Going to Spain" by
the Fall; "Fell, Destroyed" by
Fugazi; "You Don't Have to Tell Me Now" by
Grant Hart; "The Rise of Abimelech DuMont" by
the Gravel Pit; "Timber" by
Neko Case and Her Boyfriends(sweet little neo-country number); "Little Light" by
Jets to Brazil; "Buried Bones" by
Tindersticks; "Common People" by
Pulp; "Child Psychology" by
Black Box Recorder (
"life is unfair / kill yourself or get over it"); Dinosaur Act" by
Low; "My Time After A While" by
Buddy Guy; "Part Company" by
the Go-Betweens; "She Thinks I Still Care" by
George Jones (we had Sally Timms and Neko Case, seems like time for some classic honky-tonkin'); "Daydreamin'" by
Hepcat; "Superman" by
Cinerama; "Oliver's Army" by
Elvis Costello (gack, the tape ended too soon so it's cut-off, you know how it ends anyways...)
I'd better give props to Mega cuz several songs on here (The Neko Case & Black Box Recorder most notably) I actually have on loan from his collection. Every mix tape has it's missteps (was "Part Company" the best choice off the Go-Betweens album? most likely not, but it's the song I thought of first; are the Dido and Unwound songs really good enough to warrant inclusion? maybe not, but they're new in the collection and I wanted to put stuff that was new, to me at least, on here) and this one is no exception. There it is though ... now, to name it ... "The Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb Tape"?
Long post longer: announcing, in a rare fit of generosity, the first ever, totally free,
Triptych Cryptic Mix Tape Giveaway! Some of what's listed above sound good to you?
Send me an e-mail with your name and address and I'll slap some tunes from the mighty, mighty c-dog (and mega) cd collection on tape (or mini-disc if you're the other person who bought a player) and mail 'em to ya on my dime. Why? I'm still delirious with fever and hopped up on the heady mix of Nyquil and Captain Morgan-n-Diet Coke. My fellow Crypters are welcome to participate, so act fast because I'm going to send the tape to the first email I get.