Mix Tape Mondays!

The Cardigans – Feathers And Down When I think of the Cardigans, all I can think of is Lovefool, which isn’t a bad things because I secretly love that song. But this is a good song too! It’s a lot slower and more mellow than Lovefool. Lyrically, it seems to be about drinking and sobering up and subsisting on love instead of alcohol. Which is a nice thing to dream about.

Something Corporate – When It Goes Down Something Corporate used to be my favorite band in the whole world. I sobbed when Andrew McMahon was diagnosed with leukemia. SOBBED. But anyway, what I like most about SoCo is the piano, which is beautiful on this track. It’s from the album Ready…Break, one of their older ones. It starts out slow and picks up, and as always, I love the lyrics.

Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins – Happy My girl crush back again without Rilo Kiley! This was another musical project of hers and it’s good. Not as good as Rilo Kiley in my opinion, but still good. This song almost sounds Western-y, or like Jenny (from Forrest Gump, not Lewis) should be singing it naked with a guitar. It’s got kind of a cool rift going on in the back, and I love her voice.

Ben Lee – Aftertaste Ben Lee! Ben Lee is my new obsession. He is so chill and fun. I love him. This actually is not one of my favorite Ben Lee songs though. It’s one of the less fun, darker ones. And when I say darker, I don’t mean very dark, because it’s Ben Lee. It’s actually kind of a boring song, which I feel bad saying having just raved about how much I love him. But depending on what mood you are in, this could be a good son to listen to.

The Temptations – I Can’t Get Next To You The Temptations are always fun. I love how it starts out this cute little piano ditty and then picks up into this funky jam with a bunch of different parts and levels. This is a GREAT song. It’s a funk machine and I just want to put on bell bottoms and dance around my room. But I don’t own any bell bottoms. So I can’t.

The Kooks – California You gotta love the Kooks! Brit indie rock FTW! I mean so it’s actually kind of funny that this song is about California because they are British. But it’s got a good beat and it’s a pretty good introduction to The Kooks, in my opinion. I love the different breakdowns and the constant piano banging and his voice, and everything about this song (and The Kooks) I just love.

Everclear – Wonderful (Radio Edit) 90s classic alert! Call me crazy or does the opening of this sound exactly like Savage Garden? Which is weird since they are from the same era…anyway, Everclear, yeah. Wonderful. I can’t say anything bad about this song because it’s 90s, possibly my favorite decade. I mean you know, it’s just a dude wishing everything was wonderful and there’s a fun “na na na” going on the background and everything is just…wonderful.

Fiona Apple – Criminal Apparently my iTunes is in a 90s mood. Here’s the thing about Fiona Apple – she has a great, soulful voice. So while I don’t particularly go out of my way to listen to her, I very much appreciate her. This is a good song because she’s all sort of heartbreak-y, but then it’s also sort of lame in a 90s way because her crime is breaking someone’s heart. Maybe I’m just bitter, but there are worse crimes. Like murder. Or raping puppies. Or something.

The Doors – Riders On The Storm The Doors remind me of the summer. And then there is this song with the like….beach-y storm in the background and the like full piano scale, which reminds me why they remind me of summer. I feel like this would be a playing in a movie when a guy’s estranged ex-girlfriend shows up at his beach house while it’s storming in the background and they have this really passionate make-up sex with lingering anger about their past. But…that’s just me.

Secondhand Serenade – It’s Not Over Alright, admittedly I had never heard of Secondhand Serenade until I heard this song on Joe’s Myspace profile. But I’m obsessed with this song, so I listen to more Secondhand Serenade and found out that I LOVE THEM. I mean pretty much all he sings are these acoustic love songs, it sort of has an old-school Dashboard feel but a bit more on the pop side of the scale. I love it all, truly. Check them out if you like semi-cheesy acoustic bliss.

Alexi Murdoch – All Of My Days I could write a book about how much I love Alexi Murdoch. I think the first time I ever heard him was from The OC soundtrack, which is ironic since I’ve never watched The OC in my life. I love all of his songs, and while Song For You is probably my favorite, this one if a close favorite. He has a lovely deep voice and he is lovely on guitar and everything about him is just chill and nice and lovely to sleep to.

Say Anything – Sorry, Dudes. My Bad. Picking up the pace of the mix tape a little! I love Max Bemis’ voice, and I pretty much love anything that he writes, including this song. In Defense Of The Genre is a great album (or should I say 2-Disc set) that includes this song. I love the middle, “Max, I will sell you this Xanax for $5. Then we can go to Waffle House…”

Eve 6 – Nocturnal Oh, Eve 6. How middle school of me. Here is a fun little fact that I will share with you though: Horrorscope is one of my favorite albums of all time. It’s one of those CDs that I can listen to every single song on and never get sick of any of them. That sad, Nocturnal is a good song, and I love the beat of it. This album brings back a lot of memories for me.

Priscilla Ahn – Red Cape An alum of TILT! I think this song showcases her voice really nice. I love the backing vocals a lot and the tune. It’s one of my favorite songs of hers. I love how light her voice is, as lame as this sounds, it kind of just floats over you. She’s great and I cannot wait to hear more out of her. You should definitely check out more tracks by her.

My Chemical Romance – Sleep I think this is such an overlooked track, by me, on the Black Parade album. The beginning always makes me feel like I’m watching the Sixth Sense (the rewinding tape, etc). Anyway, I think the entire Black Parade album comes together very nicely and it’s one of those albums where the songs feed off each other and create an end product that is great. And this song fits in perfectly as a powerful, great song.

mix tape mondays: volume one

In the grand tradition of me loving traditions, I have decided that it would be fun to start of each week with a mix tape of 15 songs. How are these songs chosen? I put my iTunes on shuffle and the first 15 songs that play are the ones that go on the list. No skipping, no cheating (except I will only include one song for each artist). So here is this weeks mix tape! Just press play!

Dashboard Confessional – Overkill I love the intro. The whole song is sort of…wistful, like it would be playing while you were floating down a calm river on your back after a huge epiphany that life is going to be alright. I’m not the BIGGEST Dashboard fan (as Katelin knows, since I walked out of their concert) but I really love this song.

Motion City Soundtrack – Mary Without Sound I love anything by Motion City. I always forget how much I love Justin Pierre’s voice. That being said, this is not one of my favorite MCS songs, but it’s still good. I think it has some nice strong parts, some good breakdowns. It always sounds a little too “rough demo” to me though.

Groove Armada – Hands Of Time I like this song! At first there was a tiny little something about the guys voice I didn’t like. But I got over it. Most of the song is just really chill but when the chorus pops up it’s strong and awesome. And there are backup singers! Also, you can totally hear this guys emotion and that’s awesome. Say what you will, but I believe that all good music should be emotional.

The Bird And The Bee – Birds And The Bees These guys kept popping into my life, so I just got the album. I feel like they are pretty different from most of the other stuff that I listen to, but I really like them. Their music, including this song, is chill but in a really fun way. Definitely not boring. I feel that I am often taken by surprised by the turns that their songs take. I love it.

Iron & Wine – Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car Iron & Wine are a good band in that they are one of those people that when I get in a certain mood I need to listen to them. They are very soothing and they are great to fall asleep to. That being said, in this particular song, I love the violin undertone and the general beat of the song. I feel like it’s one of their more upbeat ones, if that makes any sense. But it’s a good one.

Landon Pigg – Great Companion I got the Landon Pigg album because I loved the song Coffee Shop. I was severely disappointed by the actual album. Maybe I just haven’t given it enough of a chance but…I just didn’t like it. He doesn’t have a bad voice, I just don’t really like any of the songs. This one is okay. I wouldn’t write home about it. He’s sort of the poor man’s Gavin DeGraw in my opinion.

Bright Eyes – A Song To Pass The Time I love any Bright Eyes song. I can’t even really write anything about this song because I just have a giant blanket of love that I drape over all over Bright Eyes. I can say that this song has almost a country feel to it? That might be misleading. When I say that I mean very, very light country feel. It’s heavy on vocals and not-so-heavy on instrumentals, save a few short bursts of guitar.

BBMak – I’m Not In Love 90s! I’m a sucker for any 90s music, and especially 90s boy bands. This is actually one of my favorite BBMak songs. I love the beat, I love everything about it. I love that the whole song is him insisting he’s not in love instead of like “I’ll be with you until the end of time~~~.” But he actually totally is in love. You can tell. He’s just lying to himself.

The Last Goodnight – Stay Beautiful So, the lead singer kind of sounds like Adam Levine actually. The whole song really has a Maroon 5 feel to it, so if you like them, you’ll like this song. Is definitely a power pop type song. It’s the only song I know by The Last Goodnight and it definitely makes me want to hear more.

Turn Off The Lights – Hollywood Undead I have huge love for Hollywood Undead. They are brutal and I love it. This song is especially good because it features an intro by Jeffree Star. What could be better! It’s one of my favorite HU songs for sure. It’s sick and twisted and completely foul and I love every second of it.

Manchester Orchestra – Don’t Let Them See You Cry Manchester Orchestra went on tour with Jesse Lacey and Kevin Devine, so obviously I had to check them out. They are great. I think in my head they were a lot smaller than they actually are because apparently they’ve been on Conan and Letterman. This song is slow and nice and lovely and emotional.

Enjoy!