Mux185: Mr. Mux Trims The Tree

Download or stream. The choice is yours.

I changed the lineup approximately 27 times, so I figured just to release it into the wild. It's not that I couldn't get a sequence going but I just kept finding better songs. Basically there were at least five different viable versions of this.

Also, apologies that the "Flora > Fauna" into "Pastel Assassins" butt-cut is really intense and jarring. It worked better in my head when they were the same tempo. I tried fading out "Flora" but it's just too short to cut shorter. But how about that sweet transition from the Neon Indian outro into the SFX of the "Puzzles" intro? Butter. Also: No one cares.

The Upstream Color soundtrack is also on my writing playlist (e.g. the roughly two hours daily I spend writing the final Chronicle book, my next screenplay, and a freewrite that's starting to take shape as... something?), and beyond the gimmick of Shane Carruth doing the score, it's actually really fucking good. Glad I picked the track with the shortest Walden quote as its title. He really upped his game with the soundtrack and cinematography since Primer. Let's just hope The Modern Ocean, with all its star power, comes out within the decade.

Oh, right, I'm supposed to be talking about music. Well, I think I greatly improved my sequencing in 2015, and while it'll still technically be 2015 when I do it, I'm sure Christmas will come early in the form of Mux186: January 2016. That is, if your idea of Christmas is a 45-minute-ish mixtape that's whim to my mad-scientist leanings. As for continuing on into 2016, the rules will remain the same, even though I recently routed them when Battles dropped and for a while was completely irresistible. I'll hit Mux200 in summer and am already stockpiling tracks for Retromux 2; hard to do considering that two of the bands on 001 and 100 have broken up, other bands have gone crap, and some barely put out music. But hey, if I have to do it once every four years, I think I can manage. I'm sure a few lite themes might make a guest appearance, like another Rookies. No promises on that front, but barring some cataclysm, expecting two muxes a month as always, lest someone finally gives me a DMCA takedown. And then, shit, I'll just use my secret email list to hit everyone up for their sweet pirate mux action.

1. Ty Segall - Finger (Melted)
2. Wavves - Heavy Metal Detox (V)
3. Beach Slang - Ride The Wild Haze (The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us)
4. Hop Along - Sister Cities (Painted Shut)
5. Ryan Adams - All You Had To Do Was Stay (1989)
6. Wilco - Radio Cure (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
7. Shane Carruth - I Love To Be Alone (Upstream Color Original Soundtrack)
8. Battles - Flora > Fauna (La Di Da Di)
9. Prefuse 73 - Pastel Assassins (Surrounded By Silence)
10. HEALTH - L.A. Looks (Death Magic)
11. Neon Indian - Techno Clique (VEGA INTL. Night School)
12. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Puzzles (Multi-Love)

TRT 45:00 on the nose.

Rookies: Beach Slang, Hop Along, Shane Carruth

2015 music: Battles, Beach Slang, HEALTH, Hop Along, Neon Indian, Ryan Adams, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Wavves