Mux200: Retromux Deux (plus Mux001 and Mux100)

So it only took eight years, but Mux200 has arrived! And, just like Mux100, this Mux is comprised (almost) entirely from bands that featured on the very first Mux back in 2008. Well, the first Mux only had 11 tracks, so I tossed on a Radiohead cut to bring it up to 12; no major foul given that Radiohead featured on Mux002.

I probably won't do a third Retromux for 300 (set for, at this rate, sometime in late 2020) given that a lot of these bands have either called it quits or have faded considerably. For example, The Joggers probably won't release another album, and I've used up all their muxable tracks. And Dan Deacon hasn't really done anything too spectacular as of late, same with The Smashing Pumpkins and... well, you get the idea. Maybe I'll revise that idea in 2020 and make it a combination of 001 and 002.

Last thing: Same as the jump from 099 to 100, there's new art for 200 and going forward. 001-099 was a picture I accidentally Photoshopped that way when I was 12 or so, and 100-199 was a rather triumphant photo of me leaping over fireworks after a particularly-difficult day of shooting Archetype. Given my total lack of talent at graphic design (and I haven't really directly talked to JET lately, who did some awesome art for the two Tapes By JET), I just took a rather horrifying picture of me. If anyone thinks it far too terrible for these fines Muxes, make me something better!

So download or stream Mux200, and check out Muxes of yore below it.

1. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone? (Hearts of Oak)
2. Destroyer - European Oils (Destroyer's Rubies)
3. The National - Looking For Astronauts (Alligator)
4. The Joggers - Little Kings (Solid Guild)
5. Dan Deacon - Trippy Green Skulls (Spiderman of the Rings)
6. Radiohead - Daydreaming (A Moon Shaped Pool)
7. Cut Copy - That Was Just A Dream (Bright Like Neon Love)
8. Wolf Parade - Dear Sons And Daughters of Hungry Ghosts (Apologies To The Queen Mary)
9. Pavement - AT&T (Wowee Zowee)
10. Spoon - My Little Japanese Cigarette Case (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)
11. My Bloody Valentine - What You Want (Loveless)
12. The Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock (Siamese Dream)

I readded Mux100: Retromux to my Dropbox, so you can also download or stream that. Tracks below.

1. Pavement - Summer Babe (Winter Version) (Slanted & Enchanted)
2. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead (Hearts of Oak)
3. My Bloody Valentine - Loomer (Loveless)
4. Wolf Parade - Fancy Claps (Apologies To The Queen Mary)
5. The Joggers - Era Prison (With A Cape And A Cane)
6. Dan Deacon - Snake Mistakes (Spiderman of the Rings)
7. Cut Copy - Autobahn Music Box (Bright Like Neon Love)
8. Spoon - Back To The Life (Kill The Moonlight)
9. Destroyer - Chinatown (Kaputt)
10. The National - Geese of Beverely Road (Alligator)
11. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 (Acoustic) (Single)

And Mux001: May 2008 is also in there to download or stream. Tracks below.

1. Wolf Parade - Language City (At Mount Zoomer)
2. Cut Copy - Saturdays (Bright Like Neon Love)
3. Ted Leo - La Costa Brava (Living With The Living)
4. My Bloody Valentine - Off Your Face (Glider)
5. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
6. The National - Slow Show (Boxer)
7. Destroyer - My Favorite Year (Trouble In Dreams)
8. The Joggers - Back to the Future (Solid Guild)
9. Pavement - Cut Your Hair (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
10. Spoon - Finer Feelings (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)
11. Dan Deacon - Pink Batman (Spiderman of the Rings)

Until 2020...

Mux179: Mr. Mux Strikes Back

Download.

I've broken my rule of not having the same band on two consecutive muxes. Well, doubly accidental that Battles has been on three muxes in a row, but "FF Bada" is quickly becoming one of my favorite Battles tracks. Also considering "The Yabba," La Di Da Di is pretty much a lock for my shortlist for my favorite albums of the year. It'll definitely be great to hear the studio version of the album in a week or two before I see them live in early October. Hoping to see some familiar faces at First Ave. who will front-row-it with me.

1. The Black Keys - Bullet In The Brain (Turn Blue)
2. Destroyer - Dream Lover (Poison Season)
3. Titus Andronicus - Come On, Siobhan (The Most Lamentable Tragedy)
4. Cymbals Eat Guitars - LifeNet (LOSE)
5. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Can't Keep Checking My Phone (Multi-Love)
6. Brian Eno & Kyle Hyde - Cells & Bells (High Life)
7. Ought - Habit (More Than Any Other Day)
8. Built To Spill - So (Untethered Moon)
9. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
10. The Go! Team - The Power Is On (Thunder, Lightning, Strike [Original Version])
11. Battles - FF Bada (La Di Da Di)
12. Caribou - Your Love Will Set You Free (C2's Set U Free Remix) (Our Love [Expanded Edition])

TRT 57:14

2015 music: Battles, Built To Spill, Destroyer, Titus Andronicus, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Mux118: February 2013

Slow, fast, slow. Sort of.

Boom.

Featuring the talents of Wiping out Thousands, whose name I defiantly spell with a capital O for my MP3 tags. They're from the Twin Cities and so am I, thus the special mention. HI GUYS.

1. Wild Nothing - Shadow (Nocturne)
2. Destroyer - Your Blood (Destroyer's Rubies)
3. Wolf Parade - What Did My Lover Say? (It Had To Go This Way) (Expo 86)
4. Japandroids - Adrenaline Nightshift (Celebration Rock)
5. Spoon - Metal Detektor (A Series of Sneaks)
6. Liars - Clear Island (Liars)
7. Metz - Get Off (Metz)
8. Wiping out Thousands - Below Tripping (This Came First)
9. Daniel Rossen - Golden Mile (Silent Hour / Golden Mile)
10. Ty Segall & White Fence - Time (Hair)
11. Spiritualized - Hey Jane (Sweet Heart Sweet Light)

Rookies: Daniel Rossen, Ty Segall & White Fence

TRT 49:46

Notable albums for Q1

I don't think albums are often associated with fiscal quarters, but now seems as good as time as any to air out my early list for albums that might end up on some sort of year-end List:


Bibio - Mind Bokeh

The guy sounds more like Boards of Canada each passing day. Not a problem since the last BoC album was somewhat underwhelming and is now ancient. This is far more consistent than the scattershot Ambivalence Avenue, though there isn't as immediate an earworm as "Fire Ant."


Braids - Native Speaker

First heard them opening for Baths. The lead singer is gorgeous, and at the time I didn't realize that a song like "Lemonade" is about mass casual sex. If only I connected the dots in the post-set lull when I exchanged approximately five words with her.


Cut Copy - Zonoscope

I miss the guitars from In Ghost Colours and skipping their upcoming show at First Ave. doesn't mean I'm writing this off as the most dull Cut Copy record. I haven't given it enough listens to really nail down my favorite tracks. My gut reaction is that the band is trying to fill in the post-LCD Soundsystem music world with stuff like the hella-long opener "Need You Now" and fifteen-goddamn-minute closer "Sun God."


Destroyer - Kaputt

The best smooth jazz album ever made.


The Dodos - No Color

After the slight misstep of Time To Die, this is much more in the vein of the often-schizo Visiter. Which is a good thing.


The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts

Maybe skipping Proof of Youth made The Go! Team suddenly sound as energetic as their debut (and not the bastard US version). As far as I can tell, there isn't much annoying rapping, and most of these tracks make me want to run onto the field at a sporting event or something.


The Hood Internet - The Mixtape Vol. V

Even if this wasn't any good I'd list it if only for the sake of completion. The Mixtape Vols. I and II had the good fortune of being the Hood's first stuff and, thus, having several years' worth of indie-whatever to use for backing tracks. Now with their output hovering around three major mixtapes per year, it's not a surprise that a lack of new material takes away some of that Oh Shit! magic from the first few tapes. But still good. And free.


James Blake - James Blake

I'm kind of going in circles on this one. I can't decide if I like dubstep James Blake (see "CMYK" off the EP of the same name) or singer-songwriter James Blake (see every track off his self-titled except a few). Sure, "The Wilhelm Scream" is one of the better songs of the year, and "Limit To Your Love" is probably my favorite cover ever (and sort of The James Blake Showcase of what he can do), but without careful listening, the rest of the album can fade into the giant swaths of silence that Blake isn't afraid to commit to tape.

(Put my head in a noose. On the Wikipedia page for Blake, it says his primary genre is "post-dubstep." And on the stupid post-dubstep page, it basically says the only difference is getting rid of the "wobbly" dubstep bass and playing around 130 BPM instead of 140. Yep. Real important.)


Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Not many listens, but it's nice to hear Lykke expanding her range beyond the whole twee-fairy sound of Youth Novels.


Radiohead - The King of Limbs

Some days I just want to call it and slap this up on the sidebar as my favorite album of the year. It's already my most-listened-to album ever, partly due to its insanely-short running time, and also because I usually skip "Feral" and sometimes "Little By Little," or what I like to call Radiohead On Autopilot. It just sounds like all the uninspired, gloomy tracks that clogged Hail To The Thief and Amnesiac. But I skip tracks on every single Radiohead album. I only listen to half of OK Computer and two thirds of Kid A, so listening, at the least, to six of eight tracks results in a healthy 75% listen rate.

Also, while some people think they're clever when calling In Rainbows the band's best album, I see that mostly as a good collection of songs instead of a capital-A Album. After all, In Rainbows is comprised of a lot of live staples the band finally committed to recording, like "Nude," "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi," "House of Cards," and "Videotape." While The King of Limbs might not have the unity of their masterpiece Kid A, it eschews the straight-ahead (albeit really fucking good, like "Jigsaw Falling Into Place") rock of Rainbows and puts Radiohead in their element: pushing into new sonic territories, like the steady pulse of "Bloom" or the flanged piano on the gorgeous "Codex."


The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing

Two plays, and given that half of it is already in my temp playlist for future muxes, I expect many more.


Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972

I think you can listen to a Hecker album once and get it. His stuff plays great on plane trips, but unfortunately I haven't been on one in a while.

Mux059: The Muxtape Reloaded

Boom.

1. The National - Fake Empire
2. Jens Lekman - Black Cab
3. TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
4. Weezer - Tired of Sex
5. Guided By Voices - Tractor Rape Chain
6. Radiohead - Fog
7. Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out To Get Us
8. Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything
9. Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945
10. Destroyer - Rubies

TRT 44:38

Mux004: August 2007, the reissue

I'm working on Archetype, I swear.

Download or stream off drop.io.

1. Bloc Party - Like Eating Glass
2. Born Ruffians - I Need A Life
3. Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood
4. Weezer - El Scorcho
5. Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly
6. Destroyer - Painter In Your Pocket
7. Grizzly Bear - Knife
8. Joy Division - Transmission
9. The National - The Perfect Song
10. Do Make Say Think - A Tender History In Rust (Edit)
11. No Age - Every Artist Needs A Tragedy
12. Jay Reatard - Nightmares (Demo)

Mux001: May 2008, the reissue

What better way to procrastinate on heavy Arc lifting than by mixing down my first muxtape, back when there was still Muxtape?

Also: Imeem is a pain in the ass to deal with. You can just go to the drop.io link, hit the drop-down, and select "preview" to stream it. Much simpler, and no registration or anything required.

Download or stream at Dropbox. [Updated to the correct link on April 14, 2018.]

The tracks, back before I was obsessed with sequencing, but sequenced decently:

1. Wolf Parade - Language City (At Mount Zoomer)
2. Cut Copy - Saturdays (Bright Like Neon Love)
3. Ted Leo - La Costa Brava (Living With The Living)
4. My Bloody Valentine - Off Your Face (GLider EP)
5. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 (Mellow Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
6. The National - Slow Show (Boxer)
7. Destroyer - My Favorite Year (Trouble In Dreams)
8. The Joggers - Back to the Future (Solid Guild)
9. Pavement - Cut Your Hair (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
10. Spoon - Finer Feelings (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)
11. Dan Deacon - Pink Batman (Spiderman of the Rings)

TRT 49:40

Mux001 flashback

How strange of me to reference my first muxtape without supplying said muxtape? Here's the download link at drop.io. And here are the tracks:

1. Wolf Parade - Language City
2. Cut Copy - Saturdays
3. Ted Leo - La Costa Brava
4. My Bloody Valentine - Off Your Face
5. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
6. The National - Slow Show
7. Destroyer - My Favorite Year
8. The Joggers - Back To The Future
9. Pavement - Cut Your Hair
10. The Hold Steady - You Can Make Him Like You
11. Spoon - Finer Feelings
12. Dan Deacon - Pink Batman

That's a solid line-up. Probably because it was my return to mixes after moving out of Chicago, where I was the unofficial music guy at the Post-Production Center. (And, you know, having two years of new music to compile.) While I kept my still-current rule of never repeating a song on a series of mixtapes, back then my only restriction was that a mix came in under 1 hr. 20 mins. so I could burn it to CD and rip it on the work computer. That was in the dark ages before thumb drives - how novel!

I'm glad muxtape added the rule of a max of twelve tracks. For one thing, it weeds out anything not in the top tier of songs. And second, twelve tracks usually rounds out around forty-five minutes, and I usually don't do anything that requires continuous music for more than that time.