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?

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!