Songs That Remind You of Home

I recently had the privilege of of seeing Guy Madden's film "My Winnipeg", a semi-fictional, pseudo-documentary about his hometown. Madden's film, about the sleep walking capital of the world, inspired me to create this mix.

Within this mix are a collection of songs with a very distinct time or place in mind. All of them are very specific, and yet, in a way where the specificity reminds us of our own hometowns, or childhoods, or families.

Some of the songs which immediately came to mind while I was crafting this list are by Canadian artists, and others were very much a part of my own childhood. I intend for parts of this mix to be specific to me, and hopefully the mix finds a specificity that extends to where you come from. This mix is an ode to the gritty, the dirty, the funny, and the quaint nature of wherever you come from.

original track list
01. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces - Ben Folds Five (Whatever and ever Amen)
02. The Old Apartment - Barenaked Ladies (Greatest Hits)
03. Parklife - Blur (The Best of...)
04. The Way We Get By - Spoon (Kill the Moonlight)
05. Nights of the Living Dead - Tilly and the Wall (Wild LIke Children)
06. Waiting for the 7.18 - Bloc Party (A Weekend in the City)
07. Two Hearts - Danny Michel (Tales from the Invisible Man)*
08. Hangover Days - Jason Collett (Idols of Exile)
09. LDN - Lily Allen (Alright, Still)
10. The Frug - Rilo Kiley (The Initial Friend)
11. Dance Music - The Mountain Goats (The Sunset Tree)
12. Reunion - Stars (Set Yourself on Fire)
13. 1979 - The Smashing Pumpkins (Rotten Apples)
14. In the Garage - Weezer (Weezer)
15. Yellow Brick Road - Raine Maida (The Hunter's Lullabye)*
16. Are You Lookin' at Me? - Colin Hay (Are You Lookin' at Me?)
17. Blinded by the Lights - The Streets (A Grand Don't Come for Free)
18. One Great City - The Weakerthans (Reconstruction Site)
19. You Remind me of Home - Ben Gibbard and Andrew Kinney (Home vol. 5)
20. The Valley Town - Elliot Brood (Mountain Meadows)
21. Wheat Kings - The Tragically Hip (Yer Favourites)
22. Sullivan Street - Counting Crows (August and Everything After)
23. Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch (Time Without Consequence)
24. Sodom, South Georgia - Iron and Wine (Our Endless Numbered Days)
25. Wild Pack of Family Dogs - Modest Mouse (The Moon and Antartica)
26. Los Angeles, I'm Yours - The Decembersists (Billy Liar EP)
27. Riot Van - Arctic Monkeys (Whatever People Say I Am, Thats What I'm Not)
28. The City is a Drag - Hawksley Workman (Los Manlicious)
29. Southtown Girls - The Hold Steady (Boys and Girls in America)

Note: On further inspection of this mix, I have become unhappy with it. I feel that it got a little sloppy, and for this, I apologize. My alterations, for anyone playing at home, are to remove the following:

01. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Faces
05. Nights of the Living Dead
08. Hangover Days
10. The Frug
15. Yellow Brick Road

The reasoning behind this removal is that upon further examination, I feel these songs characterize more the act or experience of growing up and of youth, than of actual home or homelife. My intention was for the songs to convey a distinct time or place and the feeling associated with them, and the removed songs do not do that as strongly as i wished. This is not a commentary on the quality of the songs, however. I love them all, they just did not fit... My bad...