mix tape mondays!

Brand New – Moshi Moshi (acoustic) I dedicate this first song to Katelin because I feel like we are always referencing it at odd times =). So, I feel like every time I talk about a Brand New song I am reduced to gushing. I’ll spare you and simply say I love this song. It was release between YFW and Deja, on the Brand New/Safety In Numbers split EP. Fun fact: apparently in Japan, “Moshi moshi” is what you say when you answer the phone.

Snow Patrol – Grazed Knees You’ve probably realized this by now if you have been following Mix Tape Mondays but, I love a good, unique singing voice. Enter Gary Lightbody, with a good unique singing voice. I just find his voice so soothing. This song is pretty emotionally raw. It’s beautiful. The lyrics are simple and straight forward, being scared of love, and fighting and loving, etc.

Keaton Simons – Unstoppable I have this whole album and I have no idea where it came from. But, like with Snow Patrol, I love Keaton’s voice. It’s sort of smoky. So I believe he’s fairly new to the scene, and his album, Can You Hear Me, just came out this year. I haven’t listened to this whole thing but this song is positively delightful. Keaton Simons, FTW!

Fantastic Plastic Machine – L’aventure Fantastique You know when you hear a song and you think, “Boy, if I were on rolls, this would completely fuck me up.” Well this is one of those songs. It’s fun, it’s French, and it’s pretty electronic. So the guy, Tomoyuki Tanaka, is Japanese and incorporates many types of music and sound effects into his songs. Pretty cool stuff. Fun song to listen to.

Jason Mraz – Wordplay Classic! I completely love Jason Mraz and I also completely believe that he’s a lyrical genius. He is incredibly eclectic, has a great voice, and can rhyme the shit out of you. This song is off Mr. A-Z which A) is such a good album name and B) is probably my favorite Mraz album. It peaked at 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 which is, lame sort of, but hey at least it was on the list!

The Wombats – Let’s Dance To Joy Division I seriously love anything fitting the criteria of a) indie and b) out of London/Europe. THAT’S what I’m jamming to these days. This is a completely fun and charming song that fits into those categories. The fun continues when you learn that this song is based on an actual event, when lead singer Matthew Murphy drunkenly danced on a table to Joy Division with is girlfriend. Fun!

Hanson – Hand In Hand You know what I love about Hanson? I love that when they first showed up with MMMBop, anyone that wasn’t a pre-pubescent girl was like “Psh, those guys look like girl and they are SO not going to last long.” And then Hanson was like, “Yeah, you know what, eff you, nay-sayers! We’re sticking around! And we’re gonna grow up and get hott! And married! To women!” And they kept making music, and it kept getting better and they proved everyone wrong WHILE providing them with delightful tunes! And, thus ends my Hanson rave.

Two Gallants – Waves Of Grain WARNING: This song is super-long, 9 minutes long. But it is so, so beautiful and so moving. From what I gather, it is about kind of the death of the American Dream. It’s a pretty tragic song, but like I said, very beautiful. It’s quite powerful, and like last week where I said I hate the harmonica, I must once again take back that statement because of how much power it adds to this song.

Ashlee Simpson – Endless Summer Yeah, yeah, hardy har har, and Ashlee Simpson song. But actually, I really like this song. And if I were feeling especially honest, well, I sort of like her voice. Plus it sort of reminds me of the Summer Haus, and nostalgia makes me think that I love a song more than I actually love it. But as far as Ashlee Simpson goes, this song isn’t half bad.

Ryan Adams – Come Pick Me Up (Live Acoustic) Oh hello one of my favorite songs ever! The amount of time I spend listening to this song is bordering on irrational. The live version is great, because live versions are always, you know, more majestic and powerful and more emotional. It talks about this completely destructive relationship, they do these horrible things to each other but…he welcomes it. He can’t help loving her.

Arctic Monkeys – Brianstorm Remember my criteria, indie and England? Hello Arctic Monkeys! Ding ding ding! I don’t see how anyone could NOT like the Arctic Monkeys. They are fun and upbeat and charmingly British, and so adorable. When asked about who Brian was, Alex Turner said, “I can’t remember Brian now… I dunno if he were in me imagination or what… it’s a blank spot in me brain… I think that’s what he ["Brian"] wanted.” Agh! I love it!

The Hollies – Jesus Was A Crossmaker You know, I’m not very religious and also not a huge fan of religious undertones in songs (that may be untrue…Bob Dylan…) but, this song has a good beat and is fun to sing along to. It’s also on the Elizabethtown soundtrack, which I think is quite possibly one of the greatest movie soundtracks ever.

Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch – Wildside Yes, I own a Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch CD. No, I’m not ashamed. Music for the people is pretty much the epitome of Marky Mark in the 90s, in all his pants-dropping glory. He was a BADASS. Wildside mostly consists of Mark trying to rap, and fun do-do-do’s in the background.

Sherwood – Middle Of The Night I love this song. Dare I say, my favorite Sherwood song. The beat is awesome. I never really gave Sherwood much of chance, despite their close relationship with Waking Ashland – I always meant to but – okay, water under the bridge. End of the story is, I gave them a chance, I loved them, especially this song.

Missy Higgins – They Weren’t There I have this mix that someone else made, about how love sucks or about jilted lovers or something, and this song is on there. I actually looked up exactly what this song is about, and it about this girl sleeping with this guy for the first time and she falls in love with him. Apparently everyone is saying she is too young to know what love is and all that, and she is saying that they weren’t there to experience what she did with him. A little poppy for me, but pretty catchy too. Also, I award her points for being Australian!

Enjoy listening!
Ponz

Mix Tape Mondays!

*Apologies for the absence in the past week. I have no good excuse except it’s been too lovely of a week not to take advantage of lounging by the pool all day. That being said, I’ll be back in full force this week! Anyway, on to this week’s mix tape!

Bob Dylan – Just Like A Woman I love Dylan. Dylan makes me happy. What’s funny is I hate the harmonica. I think it is possibly the most annoying and abysmal instrument ever (except the accordion?) – but for some reason, I really actually sort of like it in Dylan songs. Anyway, Just Like A Woman, pretty classic song as far as old Bob goes. It was allegedly inspired by Edie Sedgwick, whom I am becoming increasingly more fascinated by.

Jesse Lacey – Untitled 01 (live) It’s definitely not news that I love and possibly worship Jesse Lacey. I truly think he is a musical genius. Untitled 01 is one of my favorite Brand New songs, and it’s unfortunate that it was only demoed. In an interview, Jesse Lacey responded to the leak of the nine demos by saying, among other things, “It had me pretty down for a while. No one likes to show their creation in mid-process, and those songs weren’t done…Now, in retrospect, I want those songs to be on the album and many of them aren’t, and I’m probably more to blame for that than anyone. This record already feels incomplete to me without those tracks and probably will forever.” Kind of sad. And I sometimes wonder what the album would be like with those nine demos, because I always really liked them. Anyway, sidetrack. This particular track is a live version recorded from a show in Mississippi during Jesse’s solo tour with Kevin Devine.

The Moldy Peaches – Anyone Else But You Ahh, Juno. Can I be honest? I hate the Juno soundtrack. The songs sound good in the movie but when just listened to separately on the soundtrack? Almost painful. Fortunately for this mixtape, this is one of the only songs that I like. And, in all honesty, I like it better when sung by Ellen Page and Michael Cera because I find it more charming. But this version is good too, and bit longer.

DJ Paul V. – Tequila Lipgloss (Lil Mama vs. The Champs) Was this mashup made with the Summer Haus in mind? You’ve got Lipgloss, which was always playing at Delta, matched with Tequila…which I can relate to the Summer Haus in several ways – mainly that the song was in Pee Wee, and the drink was constantly being poured down Crystal’s throat *friendly wink!*. I’m a sucker for mashups, I think they are way cooler than they actually are. This one is REALLY fun. It’s just cool how a song can fit with a totally different beat and still sound cool. Loves it!

We The Kings – Check Yes Juliet It’s irrationally how much I love this song. It makes me feel like I’m in high school again for some reason. Let me go ahead and say that I hate the utter cliche-ness of the music video, especially that fact that it reminds me of a certain relationship that I don’t very much agree with (and I’m not alone on that one!). But the song is so catchy! I feel like it’s been stuck in my head since March! And I admit…it’s my ringtone…sigh.

Britney Spears – Overprotected Picture, if you will, me standing on a rooftop, screaming this at the top of my lungs: “I LIKE BRITNEY SPEARS AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO ADMIT IT!” Seriously. I delight in how white trash she is. I delight in her drunkeness, and her puss-flashing, and her head shaving, and her crazy parenting. She went from being America’s little sweet small town girl to a complete and utter mess – and she’s still making music that people are still buying! I love it! And all her songs are catchy!! Come on!! A little part of everyone secretly loves Britney Spears, and if you deny that, you just haven’t realized it yet. But you do. Oh, erm, Overprotected – good song.

Boys Night Out – I Got Punched In The Nose For Sticking My Face In Other People’s Business I love irrationally long song titles. And note that that was not sarcasm, I really do. Especially ones that reference movies (The Wedding Singer). I also love…Boys Night Out! They’ve got good – just the right amount of screamo – jams. I often forget about them, which is unfortunate. This particular song was their single off 2003’s Make Yourself Sick and, while I tend to stray from singles for some reason, it IS one of my favorite BNO songs.

Washington Phillips – What Are They Doing In Heaven Today? This song is pretty out of place on the mixtape. Well, it’s pretty much out of place anywhere except in Elizabethtown when he’s all road-trippy (meaning, on a road trip, not being trippy on the road). So, this song, along with 16 others, were recorded by Washington Phillips in the 1920s. The fun thing is, these are the only songs he ever recorded and they all are his vocals accompanied with an unidentifiable instrument, which some believe to be homemade by him. I like old songs because…I feel like at some point society got really, really corrupt and stupid. And in the 20s and before, while society was still of course corrupt, things like music and love…they were more pure, they had more feeling and purpose. Not to say that love and music can’t be pure now but…oh this is a topic for another day.

Audio Karate – Nintendo 89 To be honest, outside of this song, I don’t know much about Audio Karate. I haven’t heard much else. Also to be honest, I don’t really have a desire to. While I don’t dislike the song, I feel they are just your typical pop-punk band and, I don’t really like Art Barrios’ voice. But I mean, if you like pop-punk, you’ll probably like this song. It’s just a little….generic.

Cobra Starship – The Kids Are All Fucked Up I love Cobra Starship! Because…they are fun, and somewhat an 80s throwback, style-wise, which I think is completely charming. Also, I have this weird love for Gabe Saporta. I mean, he’s Midtown Gabe! Midtown Gabe who used to sometimes make out with Pete Wentz! This song is slower, less party-ish, and it pretty much exhibits why I think Gabe’s voice is so sexual.

Alkaline Trio – Fatally Yours I feel like this is one of the first songs I ever heard by Alkaline Trio. Oh, actually, fun fact! The first song I ever heard by Alkaline Trio was Radio. And I loved it. But, so, Fatally Yours is one of my favorite Alkaline songs, if not for anything else, then for this like, “I don’t hear from you no more, but I get the message – you crashed your car through my front door, I pulled you from the wreckage. You told me that you missed me…but you meant with the grill and hood.” I’ve just always loved that line for some reason!

Bright Eyes – Arc Of Time I just love so many different Bright Eyes songs that I find queer specifically talking about one. I like how upbeat this song is. The music is just…great. Conor Oberst is a great lyricist and I like his voice in the same way that I like Kevin Devine’s – it’s not necessarily GOOD but it’s charming, and it works, and it’s nice to listen to BECAUSE it’s not traditionally good. He comes across as more of a normal guy, just with, ya know, a lot of feelings.

Third Eye Blind – My Hit And Run In my opinion: Third Eye Blind is one of the greatest bands of the last 15 years. I mean…I won’t even talk about how completely and utterly ingeniously written Semi-Charmed Life is. I mean I won’t even say anything about this song other than I love it just as much I love every other 3EB song. It’s a cool song because, face-value wise it’s about a car accident (big surprise!), but it’s basically saying that you may not always have another tomorrow, that if you want to do something, don’t put it off, do it today. Which is important message, albeit an overdone one. In the end he gets to walk away from the accident, which is nice. (Fun fact: 3 out of 15 of the songs this week mention car crashes. WEIRD! I hope that’s not an omen!)

The Fray – Fall Away I have something against The Fray. I’m not entirely sure what it is. I think because How To Save A Life was absolutely, 100%, OVER. PLAYED. Lord. But aside from that, this song kind of speaks to me just because of how I’ve been feeling lately, that I’ve essentially fallen away from my past, but that it’s staying with me. And I feel as though I’ve left some things unfinished, and I’ve run from them because I was too scared. And suddenly Mix Tape Monday became less fun and more whiny.

The Dandy Warhols – We Used To Be Friends This song is FUN. I. Love. It. It makes me want to dance all around my room and their voices get so high and I just want to dance around and scream and sing along. Phew! I mean, what’s awesome is the song is SO UPBEAT and…it’s sort of sad because it’s obviously a friendship that has faded. But, it’s also pretty much acceptance of the fading friendship. It’s like, we’re not friends anymore, so whatever. Which, I can relate to. I mean, what?