“Could you work to build something besides a wall?”

“Just Keep Singing” – Winter 2014/2015

1. David Bowie – Fantastic Voyage
2. Panda Bear – Mr. Noah
3. Mr. Twin Sister – In the House of Yes
4. D’Angelo and the Vanguard – The Charade
5. Bill Withers – Use Me
6. I Love Makonnen – Tuesday
7. Justin Timberlake feat. T.I. – My Love
8. XTC – Making Plans for Nigel
9. Wham! – Everything She Wants
10. Fitz and the Tantrums – Out of My League
11. The Decemberists – The Wrong Year
12. TV on the Radio – Could You
13. Caribou – Silver
14. Kendrick Lamar – The Blacker the Berry
15. The Field – Looping State of Mind
16. Spoon – Rainy Taxi
17. Father John Misty – I Went to the Store One Day

Annotations:

“Real Recognize Real”

“Nothing is Invisible” – Fall 2014

1. Spoon – Outlier
2. Run the Jewels ft. Zack de la Rocha – Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck)
3. Schoolboy Q ft. Kendrick Lamar – Collard Greens
4. Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar – Never Catch Me
5. Kendrick Lamar ft. Jay Rock – Money Trees
6. Caribou – Second Chance
7. Dangerdoom – Bada Bing
8. Tom Vek – Broke
9. FKA Twigs – Pendulum
10. The Field – They Won’t See Me
11. Ty Segall – Tall Man, Skinny Lady
12. TV on the Radio – Trouble
13. Neutral Milk Hotel – Ferris Wheel on Fire
14. De Lux – On the Day
15. Future Islands – Spirit
16. The New Pornographers – Hi-Rise
17. Cold War Kids – All This Could Be Yours

A few annotations:

“I got no urge to fill my head with nonsense”

“High on the Spiral” – Summer 2014

1. Future Islands – Light House
2. David Bowie – Look Back in Anger
3. Tom Vek – Sherman (Animals in the Jungle)
4. St. Vincent – Birth in Reverse
5. The Smiths – What Difference Does it Make?
6. CHVRCHES – Strong Hand
7. Arcade Fire – Flashbulb Eyes
8. How to Dress Well – Face Again
9. Todd Terje – Preben Goes to Acapulco
10. Madvillain feat. Lord Quas – Shadows of Tomorrow
11. The Field – Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime
12. The Strokes – You Only Live Once
13. The New Pornographers – War on the East Coast
14. Phantogram – Bad Dreams
15. Haim – The Wire
16. Caribou – Can’t Do Without You
17. De Lux – Moments
18. Phoenix – Love Like a Sunset (Parts 1 & 2)
19. Spoon – New York Kiss

Annotations after the cut–

“Everyone’s dying but girl, you’re not old yet”

“90 Minutes in Other Lives” – Winter 2013/2014

1. CHVRCHES – Science/Visions
2. Phantogram – Fall in Love
3. M.I.A. – Y.A.L.A.
4. Kendrick Lamar – Backseat Freestyle
5. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Messiah Ward
6. Vampire Weekend – Step
7. The Troggs – Night of the Long Grass
8. Thee SIlver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra – Take Away These Early Grave Blues
9. David Bowie – The Secret Life of Arabia
10. The Smiths – Jeane
11. Holy Ghost! – Okay
12. Danny Brown – Red 2 Go
13. Drake – Hold On, We’re Going Home
14. The War on Drugs – Red Eyes
15. Los Campesinos! – As Lucerne/The Low
16. Arcade Fire – It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
17. Four Tet – Unicorn
18. Autre ne Veut – Play by Play

Annotations after the cut:

“Don’t be such a nerd, we’ll leave it all to chance”

“One Choice” – Fall 2013

1. The Smiths – Asleep
2. Washed Out – It All Feels Right
3. Holy Ghost! – Dumb Disco Ideas
4. Kendrick Lamar – Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe
5. Of Montreal – Belle Glade Missionaries
6. Four Tet – Parallel Jalebi
7. The Dismemberment Plan – Mexico City Christmas
8. Oneohtrix Point Never – Problem Areas
9. White Denim – At Night, In Dreams
10. Okkervil River – Down Down the Deep River
11. Franz Ferdinand – Stand on the Horizon
12. Cults – Keep Your Head Up
13. CHVRCHES – Night Sky
14. Los Campesinos! – Avocado, Baby
15. Drake – Too Much
16. Arcade Fire – Afterlife

Annotations after the cut:

“There’s a Science to Walking Through Windows”

One of my cardinal rules of making season mixes is that I never use the same artist more than once in the same mix. (Not counting guest appearances, the same guy in multiple bands, etc.) This season I had a comical amount of trouble deciding between two songs from so many bands that a perverse thought began to creep through me: What if I not only threw out the rule of no repeats, but made that violation the primary rule for this season? It would all be about twos: two songs from each artist, paired up, across two discs. I even found an appropriate title describing my split energies this summer, between the work I had to do and the work I wanted to do. And when I realized it also worked as a reference to the Twin Labyrinths of a video game I spent way too long playing and thinking about lately, another purposeful aberration from an otherwise painstaking clockwork structure, well, that was enough to cement the deal.

So here it is. It’s sprawling, probably way too long and not incredibly well sequenced, and it might have run scorched earth on song possibilities for next season, but what the hell, it was a blast to put together.

“Two Masters” – Summer 2013

Disc One
1. The National – This is the Last Time
2. The National – Graceless
3. Fuck Buttons – Brainfreeze
4. Fuck Buttons – The Red Wing
5. Queens of the Stone Age – I Sat by the Ocean
6. Queens of the Stone Age – My God is the Sun
7. Sigur Ros – Isjaki
8. Sigur Ros – Hrafntinna
9. The Smiths – The Queen is Dead
10. The Smiths – Still Ill
11. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young
12. Vampire Weekend – Hannah Hunt
13. Phoenix – The Real Thing
14. Phoenix – Bourgeois
15. !!! – Californiyeah
16. !!! – Station (Meet Me at the)

Disc Two
1. Hot Chip – Dark & Stormy
2. Hot Chip – Jelly Babies
3. Kanye West – I Am a God
4. Kanye West – New Slaves
5. Atoms for Peace – Dropped
6. Atoms for Peace – Ingenue
7. Local Natives – Breakers
8. Local Natives – Heavy Feet
9. Primal Scream – River of Pain
10. Primal Scream – Turn Each Other Inside Out
11. Savages – City’s Full
12. Savages – Husbands
13. Daft Punk – Doin’ It Right
14. Daft Punk – Motherboard
15. Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal
16. Jon Hopkins feat. Purity Ring – Breathe This Air

Annotations:

“Is this the fate that half of the world has planned for me?”

“Wrong Limits” – Spring 2013

1. Savages – Shut Up
2. Mikal Cronin – Shout it Out
3. Vampire Weekend – Unbelievers
4. !!! – One Girl/One Boy
5. Purity Ring – Fineshrine
6. Justin Timberlake – Tunnel Vision
7. Phoenix – Chloroform
8. The Knife – Without You My Life Would Be Boring
9. Four Tet – Ribbons
10. The Flaming Lips – Look… the Sun is Rising
11. Suicide – Ghost Rider
12. Toro Y Moi – So Many Details
13. The National – Sea of Love
14. Okkervil River – We Need a Myth
15. Elbow – Weather to Fly
16. Local Natives – Wooly Mammoth
17. Daft Punk – Get Lucky
18. The Smiths – There is a Light that Never Goes Out

Annotations:
-This is another mix that deals with opposing viewpoints. But unlike the progression of last season, this one is purposefully more muddled and contradictory. Maybe because the “more correct” viewpoint, if there is one, isn’t as clear to me. When is it time to Shut Up? When is it time to Shout it Out? Hell if I know; I’m still figuring all this out. The mix title can be read a few different ways, but to me the main takeaway is that we too often impose a black/white dichotomy on people, plans, thoughts and actions; something may not work out the way you wanted or expected, but that doesn’t make it objectively wrong or bad. I’m finding that communication these days is becoming more knee-jerk, hyperbolic and combative every day. And, more than most things, we need to be able to step back and take the time to try to understand and accept other people – and ourselves.
-This mix actually came together amazingly fast. The run from !!! all the way through Flaming Lips, that basically wrote itself from minute one. I don’t know why the progression works so well, especially through those early banger tracks, but I’m grateful for it. Lots of great new music this season!
-Speaking of: tracks barely not making the cut were “All You’re Waiting For” by Classixx, “Line of Fire” by Junip, “Available” by The National, and maybe “Doin’ it Right” by Daft Punk. “Get Lucky” isn’t really my favorite song off their album, but it was everywhere this season and soundtracked a lot of good times with friends, so I have it here as more of a memento to the memories than as a track that’s been in my heavy rotation for forever. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

“Play with matches, if you think you need to play with matches”

“Ego to Bear” – Winter 2012/2013

1. Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless
2. Hot Chip – Motion Sickness
3. Ultraista – Bad Insect
4. LCD Soundsystem – Big Ideas
5. Tame Impala – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
6. The Smiths – Hand in Glove
7. Talking Heads – Making Flippy Floppy
8. Tune-Yards – Riotriot
9. New Order – Age of Consent
10. Pantha du Prince and the Bell Laboratory – Photon
11. Toro y Moi – Harm in Change
12. The Whitest Boy Alive – Burning
13. The Mountain Goats – Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1
14. David Bowie – The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
15. Scott Walker – It’s Raining Today
16. Stevie Wonder – Ordinary Pain
17. My Bloody Valentine – Wonder 2
18. Local Natives – Colombia

Annotations:
-New record for variety: only 2 of the bands from last season’s mix made it on to this one as well. That means my tastes are branching out, right? Or, at least, going backwards. Which I guess is appropriate given this tracklist.
-This mix also probably sets a record for amount of track #1s in a single season. So it’s a little odd that none of them ended up being track #1 here. But “Stay Useless” is just such a perfect anthem for where my head has been at lately, about needing to find time away from everything, and not always to be productive, but sometimes to just let your mind wander because you need that to stay sane. I also think it forms a pretty perfect bookend against “Colombia,” which explores a different area of my headspace lately; it’s no coincidence that the first theme on here is “give me time!”, but the disc ends with the question “am I giving enough?”
-Honorable mentions: “Audience with the Pope” by Elbow; “Gun-Shy” by Grizzly Bear; a fuckton of other Smiths songs

“Visualize Success, But Don’t Believe Your Eyes”

“At the Bottom of Today” – Fall 2012

1. Beach House – Myth
2. Talking Heads – Crosseyed and Painless
3. Clinic – The Equaliser
4. Dirty Projectors – The Socialites
5. Elbow – The Bones of You
6. Yeasayer – Demon Road
7. Animal Collective – Pulleys
8. Portishead – We Carry On
9. El Ten Eleven – My Only Swerving
10. The War on Drugs – Comin’ Through
11. White Rabbits – They Done Wrong/We Done Wrong
12. School of Seven Bells – Secret Days
13. Kendrick Lamar – Swimming Pools (Drank)
14. Tanlines – Brothers
15. Twin Shadow – Run My Heart
16. The New Pornographers – Jackie
17. Hot Chip – Always Been Your Love
18. Grizzly Bear – Yet Again

-Couldn’t find a link for “Pulleys”, unfortunately. Too bad: AC’s new album has been unfairly lambasted for not topping Merriweather Post Pavilion, but I think it’s still pretty great.

-Almost made it this season: “Lion” by Four Tet; “Flaggin a Ride” by Divine Fits; “Pyramids” by Frank Ocean; “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac (I dunno, too on the nose?); about sixteen other Talking Heads songs, seriously, I listened to so much of them this season

“Use Your Intuition, It’s All You’ve Got”

“Blood Hot” – Summer 2012

1. Japandroids – The House that Heaven Built
2. Dan Deacon – True Thrush
3. Hot Chip – Don’t Deny Your Heart
4. Animal Collective – Today’s Supernatural
5. Here We Go Magic – Made to Be Old
6. The Walkmen – Heartbreaker
7. !!! – Wannagain Wannagain
8. M83 – Raconte-moi Une Histoire
9. Broken Bells – The Mall and Misery
10. Grouplove – Tongue Tied
11. Fleetwood Mac – Dreams
12. Yeasayer – Longevity
13. Passion Pit – I’ll Be Alright
14. Kanye West (ft. everyone) – Monster
15. Peaking Lights – LO HI
16. Delicate Steve – Afria Talks to You
17. Twin Shadow – Five Seconds
18. Dirty Projectors – Unto Caesar

Annotations:
-I don’t usually watch music videos anymore, but Dan Deacon’s True Thrush video is a ton of fun, it’s the kind of thing my friends and I would do in real life. In case you didn’t click on it above, here’s the link again.
-Grouplove is such a strange band to me because I have no idea what kind of music they want to make. Listening to their full-length, it’s nothing at all like what I expected from their EP. And surprise is good, I guess, except that there are so many styles of songwriting that it never gels into anything cohesive. Some of it’s great, and hoo boy, some of it ain’t, but when you write songs as good as “Tongue Tied”, I think you’ve probably earned at least one more album to figure out where you’re going, eh?
-Passion Pit’s album is another strange beast for an entirely different reason. The lyrics are darker, which the critics love (sad lyrics against happy beats, oooh!), but, man, a lot of this is maybe too depressing even for me. And this is coming from the guy who prefers his artists when they’re sad. Maybe it’s because Michael Angelakos really is a hair’s breadth away from suicide on a bad day? Maybe it’s because I selfishly just want jams from this band and jams only? Or maybe because I’m getting older and… dare I say it… happier?
-Runners up for this mix: …not much, actually. I’ve had this one locked down for a while, just took forever to name. Man, I dunno. It’s getting way harder these days to write about music and I’d rather just spend more time listening to it. If you’ll excuse me, then.