Michaels and mixtapes
It’s been a musical sort of weekend. On Friday I bought myself a new acoustic guitar, and I’m officially in love with it. I spent the afternoon and evening noodling around on it and developing our relationship – it’s all going well, thanks.
On Friday night I was telling a friend about another friend’s band in which three of the members are called Michael. Friend-the-first thought that “three Michaels in the band” would make a good song, so I rose to the challenge and on Friday night I wrote and demo’d the most literal song I’ve ever written. About Michael. And his band.
I spent Saturday getting intimate with Garageband and enlisted the help of Flatmate Hamish on Flatmate Rohan’s electric drum kit. I know: there is an electric drum kit in my house… does it get any better? Three Michaels is a work-in-progress, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s coming along. I’m even entertaining the notion of throwing together a video for it – bet you can’t wait.
Yesterday was kinda sad as I waved some friends goodbye. As a parting gift I slipped into mixtape mode and put together the best compilation I’ve ever made. I was up till four-thirty in the morning perfecting my art; taking into consideration track order, song length, flow, mood, and the recipient's own music taste. I started with a thirty-one-strong track list and had to cull twelve songs… the result (in very particular order) was as follows:
1) Invocation - …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Special Factor: A stirring piano instrumental that gets me every time
2) The Drowners – Suede
Special Factor: Quintessential Suede, the perfect introduction to the band – you can practically hear Brett Anderson swanning around flamboyantly
Favourite Line: “Well he writes the line, wrote right down my spine”
3) Everything is Sorrow – The Boo Radleys
Special Factor: One of the saddest songs I know with crushing lyrics
Favourite Line: “And then it’s back inside your head, the thought that it will turn out bad, a fleeting glimpse of what is bound to be”
Followed closely by “it eats me up the cancer that is you”
4) This is the One – The Stone Roses
Special Factor: Stacks of vocal reverb, crashing cymbals, and beautiful sentiment all wrapped up in one genius euphoric pop song.
Favourite Line: “This is the one she’s waiting for”
5) On Fire - Sebadoh
Special Factor: Another sad one. Earnest yet disconnected vocal delivery. Simple instrumentation with an endearing, almost clumsy guitar hook
Favourite Line: “And I don’t think before I speak, and I don’t know how far my words reach, so wrong nearly every time that I’m sorry I speak my mind, if what I said was unkind”
6) Pink Glove – Pulp
Special Factor: Nearly every Pulp song has a huge buildup and this particular offering contains one of their finest climactic moments. This is Jarvis Cocker at his desperate best.
Favourite Line: “Oh it looks pretty good, yeah it fits you ok, wear your pink glove babe, he put it on the wrong way”
7) That Great Love Sound – The Raveonettes
Special Factor: Jangly guitars, guy/girl/call/answer vocals, and a killer hook.
Favourite Line: “So I walk right up to you and you walk all over me”
8) You’re So Great – Blur
Special Factor: Perfectly distorted Graham Coxon vocals combined with bright acoustic guitar and charmingly honest lyrics
Favourite Line: “City’s alive and surprise, so am I”
9) Over My Shoulder – I Am Kloot
Special Factor: This song just oozes cute. I was sent this by a boy from Latvia before I even knew Latvia existed. Incredibly simple, sweet and reflective.
Favourite Line: “Over my shoulder you go, back to a bar that we both used to know”
10) Goddess On A Hiway – Mercury Rev
Special Factor: Haunting piano, haunting vocals, epic chorus
Favourite Line: “When I see your eyes arrive they explode like two bugs on glass”
11) Now It’s On – Grandaddy
Special Factor: I’m a fan of catchy pop, and this is catchy pop with distorted guitars and cute synth moments.
Favourite Line: “Seems that I’m seasoned to be in the season of the old me”
12) Cold Hands (Warm Heart) – Brendan Benson
Special Factor: Musically – superb. Lyrically – brilliant. Cute and sad all at once.
Favourite Line: “Cold hands, warm heart, we just need some time apart and everything will be okay”
13) If – The Bluetones
Special Factor: Great bassline doubled at times by guitar. One of the catchiest songs I know with the added bonus of gang na na na’s
Favourite Line: “Sometimes I smoke, I drink and I ponder, can work wonders”
14) Seeing Other People – Belle and Sebastian
Special Factor: Cute piano, beautiful melody, incredible lyrics
Favourite Line: “We lay on the bed there, kissing just for practice, could we please be objective cos the other boys are queuing up behind us”
15) Red – Elbow
Special Factor: A beautifully dark song for someone so intriguingly complex, totally amazing, and potentially self-destructing. That’s what it is for me anyway.
Favourite Line: “You’re a tragedy starting to happen”
16) Married to a Lazy Lover – The Auteurs
Special Factor: Along with The Boo Radleys track, this is one of the most depressing songs in my entire collection. Musically it destroys me and lyrically it breaks me.
Favourite Line: “Anyway this marriage is annulled”
17) Relative Ways - ….And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Special Factor: This is just a really excellent song that repeatedly swings from thrashfest to stirring beauty and back again.
Favourite Line: “It’s okay, I’m a saint, I forgave your mistakes”
18) Song for Guya - Nik Brinkman
Special Factor: One of my favourite local songs by one of my favourite local songwriters. This is a beautiful indie-pop gem
Favourite Line: “I remember the photographs that we took that day”
19) Intervention – Arcade Fire
Special Factor: Arcade Fire are special, end of story. Church organs, impassioned vocals, controversial lyrics, choir backing vocals… epic.
Favourite Line: “Been working for the church while your life falls apart, been singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart”
There it is, a little look into my musical leanings, and more importantly the kind of stuff I feel simply must be shared with someone who counts. I hope he likes it.
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Uh... Jane, I don't know if you noticed (I'm assuming you might have because someone went through and numbered each song on the list), but you actually have 19 songs there, rather than an elite 12...
uh, nic, perhaps you need to look up the meaning of the word 'cull'?
Nic if you actualy read the blog you would notice that Jane had to cull 12 songs. she started with 31, culled 12 and is left with 19. 31-12=19
nic,
She said she had 31 and culled 12, so 31 - 12 = 19. :)
Cheers!
I just love it when someone makes me a mixed tape (CD)! A friend of mine in the States made me a set of mixed CDs of her 72 all-time favourite songs. She included everything from a bit of cheesy Michael Jackson to Cole Porter to Belle and Sebastian and it couldn't be a better mix. A lot of the songs and artists I'd never heard of, but now some of them are my favourite songs. I don't think I've ever had a gift I liked more!
Nic - 31-12=19.
lol nah-uh nic...i think Jane's right....if she started out with 31 and had to cull 12 then *tatatada* she's left with 19 songs...
Ohhh, so this is why Tommy is saying on his blog "Boo hoo hoo jane isn't returning my calls".
If you make a video you should audition all of your blog writers to be in it! I'm sure there's gotta be a few decent potential video stars amongst us...lol
Give nic a break haha. He posted at 8.40am, my brain wouldn't be functioning properly at that hour that's for sure.
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An excellent mix, I love most (if not all) of those songs! How did you know...?!
Any chance we could hear some of your creations?