JDK's The Best Mix Ever (2010 Edition)

I compile one of these humbly-titled mixes yearly. Granted, not much has changed since last year, but I think I hit a good sequencing stride in the first third.

Download or stream TBME2010 at my public Dropbox.

Tracks:

1. Rogue Wave - Endless Shovel
2. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
3. Why? - Fatalist Palmistry
4. Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time
5. Radiohead - Kid A
6. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
7. A Place To Bury Strangers - To Fix The Gash In Your Head
8. Lightning Bolt - Dead Cowboy
9. Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything
10. Frightened Rabbit - I'll Believe In Anything
11. High Places - From Stardust To Sentience
12. Jay Reatard - Oh It's Such A Shame (Blood Visions cut)
13. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
14. Joy Division - Transmission
15. The National - Abel
16. Smog - Teenage Spaceship
17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
18. Liars - The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack

Also, I'm not sure if it's too heavy-handed or not, but ending with "Maps" followed by "The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack" was oh-so deliberate. Because of, you know, the Karen O / Angus Andrew romance. The songs put back-to-back is some high concept, call-and-response shit.

It also seems that "Kid A" has dethroned "The Tourist" and "Fog" as my favorite Radiohead song. Well, as the obvious truth is, I can only fit X songs on an 80 minute CD-R, and I only go with one song per band. "Kid A" is sort of my flavor of the season, since I'm in the process of sort of covering it and, lyrically, it's fairly brilliant.

Hell, while I Postscript this to death, I might as well toss up a few excellent cuts or alternates that were very painfully excised from my original giant iTunes playlist:

• The Antlers - Bear
• The Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
• Battles - Race Out
• Beach House - Gila
• Bibio - Fire Ant
• Boards of Canada - Roygbiv
• Born Ruffians - Kurt Vonnegut
• Brian Eno - By This River
• Crystal Castles - Vanished
• Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
• The Get Up Kids - I'm A Loner, Dottie, A Rebel...
• Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
• Health - In Violet
• Japandroids - Wet Hair
• Jay Reatard - Nightmares
• The Joggers - Every Other Word
• Junior Boys - Last Exit
• Joy Division - Shadowplay
• LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Crass Version)
• Lightning Bolt - 2 Towers
• Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
• Modest Mouse - Gravity Rides Everything
• My Bloody Valentine - When You Sleep (or) Sometimes
• The National - All The Wine
• No Age - Teen Creeps
• Pavement - Gold Soundz (or) AT&T (or) Cut Your Hair
• Portishead - The Rip
• Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot
• Spoon - The Ghost of You Lingers (or) I Summon You
• The Thermals - A Pillar of Salt
• TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
• The Walkmen - The Rat
• Weezer - No One Else (or) Say It Ain't So
• Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater

The Year in Music: March 2010

Favorites of the year, thus far:


Beach House - Teen Dream


Four Tet - There Is Love In You


Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing


Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks


Hot Chip - One Life Stand


Liars - Sisterworld


Local Natives - Gorilla Manor


Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring


The Radio Dept. - Clinging To A Scheme


Rogue Wave - Permalight


Spoon - Transference


Surfer Blood - Astro Coast


Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks


Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

Mux048: March 2010

New month, new mux.

Download or stream off drop.io.

1. Japandroids - Art Czars
2. Local Natives - Wide Eyes
3. Rogue Wave - Solitary Gun
4. The Radio Dept. - This Time Around
5. Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like The Sun
6. Pavement - Stereo
7. Gorillaz - Stylo
8. Hot Chip - Take It In
9. Modest Mouse - Gravity Rides Everything
10. Los Campesinos! - This Is A Flag. There Is No Wind.
11. The Soft Pack - Answer To Yourself
12. The National - Abel

JDK's The Best Mix Ever (2009 Edition)

My taste in music is constantly shifting. If nothing else, on any given year I'll listen to thousands of new songs.

So here are my current favorite songs ever. Note the list tends to skew toward current fare - mostly because I didn't start listening to good music until 2004.

Unfortunately, this beast is over 100 MB, so you'll have to brave the dark waters of Megaupload to download it.

JDK's The Best Mix Ever (2009 Edition) by jdkentala

And thus:

1. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. The Walkmen - The Rat
3. Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI
4. Why? - Fatalist Palmistry
5. The Thermals - A Pillar of Salt
6. Jay Reatard - Nightmares
7. Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time
8. Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver
9. The National - Slow Show
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
11. The Microphones - The Moon
12. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
13. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - In This Home On Ice
14. Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything
15. Frightened Rabbit - Head Rolls Off
16. Smog - Teenage Spaceship
17. Rogue Wave - Endless Shovel
18. Radiohead - The Tourist

Saturday: All the albums I listened to plus my eight most favorites. Sunday: Notable albums that didn't make the top-eight cut.

Mux012: November 2008, the reissue

Still bitching about shot lists.

Stream or download.

1. TV on the Radio - Halfway Home
2. Jay Reatard - Always Wanting More
3. Deerhunter - Vox Celeste
4. The Fiery Furnaces - Tropical Ice-Land
5. School of Seven Bells - Half Asleep
6. Born Ruffians - Sole Brother (Daytrotter Session)
7. Johnny and the Moon - Green Rocky Road
8. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
9. The Arcade Fire - Antichrist Television Blues
10. Rogue Wave - Publish My Love
11. Los Campesinos! - Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s)
12. Marnie Stern - The Devil Is In The Details

Mux015: December 2008, the reissue

Still working on a shot list, so here's another.

1. Caesars - Strawberry Weed
2. Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
3. Tokyo Police Club - Tessellate
4. M83 - Graveyard Girl
5. David Holmes - Melanie
6. Rivers Cuomo - I Don't Want To Let You Go (Solo Version)
7. The National - Ada
8. My Bloody Valentine - Don't Ask Why
9. Jay Reatard - Let It All Go
10. Rogue Wave - 10:1
11. Marnie Stern - Roads? Where We're Going We Don't Need Roads
12. Deerhunter - Oh, It's Such A Shame (Jay Reatard Cover)

Mux013: Black Friday, the resissue

In honor of the most ridiculous calendar day of American consumeristic greed, I'm reissuing last year's Black Friday "schizomix" with a bit of retconning. See, when I first made it, I included the title track from the abortion that is Guns N Roses' Axl Rose's Chinese Democracy as a grand, limp-fish joke. I might have actually deluded myself into thinking I could enjoy such a cock-rock single, but my enjoyment with the song lasted a mere handful of days. And keeping in line with a good mix rule of thumb to keep things under forty-five minutes, it has been graciously axed from this fine array of songs.

Thus, the link, which I'm contractually obligated to say is hosted by the fine folks at drop.io.

1. Jay Reatard - Blood Visions
2. Wolfmother - The Joker and the Thief
3. Marnie Stern - The Package Is Wrapped
4. Weezer - Pork And Beans
5. Final Fantasy - This Lamb Sells Condos
6. Blitzen Trapper - Not Your Lover
7. Rogue Wave - Harmonium
8. Deerhunter - Agoraphobia
9. Brendan Canning - Hit the Wall
10. Nirvana - All Apologies
11. Radiohead - Let Down

Mux040: Happy Birthday, Asshole

When I started using iCal early in the year, I guess I put my birthday up on the calendar. I forgot, however, that I had written "Happy birthday, asshole."

Hence, the title of this mux.

Download over ye olde drop.io

1. Blonde Redhead - 23
2. Broken Social Scene - Stars and Sons
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cheated Hearts
4. Dirty Projectors - No Intention
5. The xx - Islands
6. Menomena - Wet and Rusting
7. Sonic Youth - The Empty Page
8. The Microphones - The Moon
9. WHY? - Eskimo Snow
10. Rogue Wave - Endless Shovel

The end track is one my favorite songs, and while it's been on a number of mixes, I'm pretty sure its not on any mux proper, so I tossed it in as the grand closer.

The Best Mix Ever (as of July 15, 2009)

Download via drop.io.

Very flavor-of-the-year, but that's the beauty of it. Also, omitted "The Tourist" by Radiohead, which is my Favorite Song Ever but doesn't really fit anywhere.

Oh right, the occasion: Yet another drive to Chicago tomorrow for, among other things, the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival. This should kick things off to a good start.

1. The National - Fake Empire
2. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
3. The Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis
4. Pavement - Cut Your Hair
5. Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI
6. Jay Reatard - Nightmares
7. No Age - Everybody's Down
8. Radiohead - Fog
9. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
10. My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes
11. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
12. Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time
13. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - In This Home On Ice
14. Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver
15. The Thermals - A Pillar of Salt
16. Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything
17. Spoon - Finer Feelings
18. Rogue Wave - Endless Shovel

Mux013: Black Friday Schizomix

If the sudden mad rush of the holiday season had a part-rock, part-slow, part-obligatory-guilty-pleasure-Chinese-Democracy-song, part-weird soundtrack, this might be it:

1. Jay Reatard - Blood Visions
   
2. Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
   
3. Wolfmother - Joker and the Thief
   
4. Marnie Stern - The Package Is Wrapped
   
5. Weezer - Pork and Beans
   
6. Final Fantasy - This Lamb Sells Condos
   
7. Blitzen Trapper - Not Your Lover
   
8. Rogue Wave - Harmonium
   
9. Deerhunter - Agoraphobia
   
10. Brendan Canning - Hit the Wall
    
11. Nirvana - All Apologies
    
12. Radiohead - Let Down

Mux012: November 2008

Now some time since Dear Science came out, I finally figured out that the only way to properly include "Halfway Home" on any mix is to take the album's advice and stick that cut at the top. A little awkward transitioning into a Jay Reatard song, but when is that ever easy? "Always Wanting More" has such a triumphant riff that I can't deny it the eternal glory of finding its way onto JDK's Mux012. And while I'm still enjoying Deerhunter's Microcastle in its entirety, I'll save some of its better standalone tracks for later, and here I'll offer up the shoegaze jam "Vox Celeste," one of the few accessible songs off Weird Era Cont., Microcastle's ugly b-sides cousin that masquerades as an "album."

Here's my November mix/mux/muxtape/whatever and the tracks:

1. TV on the Radio - Halfway Home
   
2. Jay Reatard - Always Wanting More
   
3. Deerhunter - Vox Celeste
   
4. The Fiery Furnaces - Tropical Ice-Land
   
5. School of Seven Bells - Half Asleep
   
6. Born Ruffians - Sole Brother (Daytrotter Session)
   
7. Johnny and the Moon - Green Rocky Road
   
8. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
   
9. The Arcade Fire - Antichrist Television Blues
   
10. Rogue Wave - Publish My Love
    
11. Los Campesinos! - Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s)
    
12. Marnie Stern - The Devil is in the Details