exercises in self-evisceration -- january 18, 2009

One of my favorite parts of High Fidelity is the idea that our attachment to music is largely autobiographical. I am never quite sure if my attachment to a song at a particular emotional crux in my life is because I had said emotion and then the song fulfilled it, or if I heard the song and felt said emotion in a devastatingly complete way. Put differently, is music my autobiography or am I music's autobiography? If Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons, what does it mean that I measure mine out in chords and verses? And if I make decisions based on the intersection of one particular song into my life at one particular moment, do I still have agency?

In other words, enjoy the self-evisceration. Real emotion makes for good production value.

original track list:

01. "Cath..." - Death Cab for Cutie (Narrow Stairs);
02. "Neither of Us, Uncertainly" - Deerhunter (Microcastle); *
03. "Skinny Love" - Bon Iver (For Emma, Forever Ago);
04. "New Romantic" - Laura Marling (My Manic & I);
05. "It's Not" - Aimee Mann (Lost in Space); *
06. "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" - Coldplay (cover);
07. "I Will Not Sing a Hateful Song" - The Constantines (Kensington Heights);
08. "Crowd Surf Off a Cliff" - Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton (Knives Don't Have Your Back);
09. "Teeth" - Kristin Hersh (Hips and Makers); *
10. "Lost in the Zoo" - Goddamn Electric Bill (Swallowed by the Machines);
11. "Remember Me As a Time of Day" - Explosions in the Sky (How Strange, Innocence);
12. "90-Mile Water Wall" - The National (Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers);
13. "Never Is a Promise" - Fiona Apple (Tidal);
14. "Have to Explode" - The Mountain Goats (Tallahassee);
15. "About Today (Live)" - The National (The Virginia EP);
16. "Little Person" - Jon Brion (Synecdoche, New York OST). *

NOTE: I forget to check that the tracks were all correct. "Cath..." is now actually "Cath...".

Housekeeping

This post is going to take care of some housekeeping for the blog.

Mixwit is unfortunately closing down. We are hoping they may return with some form of paid service, which I would be crazy enough to pay for, but in the meantime we are going to attempt to transition over to Seeqpod. We will see how well this goes, and I may even attempt to convert our old mixtapes into a still-listenable format in Seeqpod as well. (When infinite time presents itself, of course.)

Second, I do not have a mixtape because my computer's hard drive kicked the bucket and my external hard drive is halfway across the country. Hence, I cannot deliver to ye faithful readers the proliferate tapes I had hoped to.

But, here's a video from one of our favorite new bands of 2008 to take you into 2009. God bless Sub Pop.

Songs for Christmas that Don't Suck Santa's Bells

Now I hate Christmas spirit as much as the next self-respecting hipster. However, it seems that we are finally at that point in the season where it is simply inescapable, which drives me up the wall. If possible, I would like to go grocery shopping without hearing Britney or Beyonce's latest rendition of some song that used to be good before it was driven into the ground season after season. Seriously, Elvis did it just fine years ago, thank you very much.

Anyways, in an attempt to make the holidays that much more bearable for you, because I love you all that much, I have somehow managed to pull myself away from studying the evolution of emotion to bring you this: Songs for Christmas That Don't Suck Santa's Bells.

On this list, I hope, is the remedy for all that Christmas spirit. There's some bittersweet, some depressing, some unknowns (maybe), and just the littlest bit of cheer (courtesy of your hipster favorites). Hopefully these are songs that haven't been driven into the floor for you. Also important to note, this is a bit of a personal list, and includes some of the Christmas music that I grew up with. This will explain the Bon Jovi and Tom Petty, so Kathryn stop looking at me like that, I know what you're thinking.

Anyways, have a good holiday season, this will most likely be my last post in 2008 since I am leaving the country for the holidays. See you all in 2009.

track list
01. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Death Cab for Cutie
02. Merry Christmas Baby - Bonnie Rait and Charles Brown
03. That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! - Sufjan Stevens
04. The Christmas Song - The Raveonettes
05. Please Come Home for Christmas - Jon Bon Jovi
06. Back Door Santa - Clarence Carter
07. Christmas All Over Again - Tom Petty
08. Christmas in Hollis - Run-D.M.C.
09. Oi to the World - No Doubt
1o. Santa Clause is Back in Town - My Morning Jacket
11. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Barenaked Ladies ft. Sarah McLachlan
12. Happy Christmas (War is Over) - The Polyphonic Spree

p.s. Isn't that picture ridiculously awesome? That's what you get when you google image search "hipster christmas"

Top 5 Videos for Melancholy Insomniac Nostalgia

These are videos I would rather watch than attempt to work. I would go so far as to call them my 5 favorite videos right fucking now. Not all of them are official because that doesn't really matter, does it? How many artists have made shite videos of fantastic songs? And for some reason, right now moody songs set to film noir appeals to me on a very visceral level.

Top 5 Videos for Melancholy Insomniac Nostalgia

"Violet Hill" - Coldplay: The way that Chris Martin looks at the camera near the end makes me forgive him for x&y, as does the way he thrusts that hammer towards the camera to his phenomenal drum beat. and that faded out sepia is, somehow, intensely moving for me, as are his clumsy steps in that snow.



"Bohemian Like You" - The Dandy Warhols: my mother has pictures in this washed out 70s film. she is not naked in them. i do not think this video could be better for this song. i do not think i could know every single one of those people more than i feel i already do.



"Slow Show" - The National: This is a Godard film, Masculine Feminine, which I will now see. When the frames slow down, you breathe deeply.



"I Will Possess Your Heart" - Death Cab for Cutie: I believe that this song, and this video, may be briefly perfect. watch how melted snow flies off the drums.



"Lucky You"- The National: I don't know what film noir movie this is, but it's about 12:21 am and I have so far watched this three times. All that movement and the close-ups of that girl's cheek. I love nothing more than any video camera that caresses faces in fragmentary focus: just one cheek, then just the brow.

Songs That Remind You It's OK - - December 1, 2008

Hooray for a triumphant return. Sorry about being absent for so long and neglecting my duties, but I have been neck deep in papers and midterms for a good couple of months.

I'm sure Kath and I aren't well known for our cheery and upbeat musical selections, and seeing as how i have been in a fairly constant state of assignment numbness, it would be easy to create another soul crushingly, moody and somewhat depressing mix for your listening pleasure. However, I am going to break the chain and present a mix to assure you, like i needed to assure myself the past couple of months, that things are going to be ok.

Of course, still being myself, some of the songs on this mix are fairly bittersweet but there is an overall sense that despite how shitty things can get, things usually turn out alright, something that I'm going to try and keep in my mind for my upcoming finals.

track list
01. Returning to The Fold - The Thermals (The Body, The Blood, The Machine)
02. Dig for Fire - Pixies (Wave of Mutilation: Best of Pixies)
03. Don't Panic - Coldplay (Parachutes)
04. Fresh Feeling - Eels (Scrubs OST)
05. Dry the Rain - The Beta Band (Three EPs)
06. Brett Dennen - Darlin Do Not Fear (So Much More)
07. I will survive - Cake (Fashion Nugget)
08. What I Got - Sublime (Sublime)
09. Almost Crimes (Radio Kills Remix) - Broken Social Scene (You Forgot It In People)
10. Dear Prudence - The Beatles (White Album)
11. Sometimes - Michael Franti (Mystery Men OST)*
12. Midnight Train - Danny Michel (Valhalla)*
13. We Will Still Need A Song - Hawksley Workman (Lover/Fighter)
14. Float On - Modest Mouse (Good News for People Who Love Bad News)
15. This Year - The Mountain Goats (The Sunset Tree)
16. When Your Mind's Made Up - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Once OST)
17. We Will Become Silhouettes - The Postal Service (Give Up)
18. You Can Make Him Like You - The Hold Steady (Boys and Girls in America)
19. On The Edge of A Cliff - The Streets (Everything is Borrowed)
20. Calendar Girl - Stars (Set Yourself on Fire)
21. Upward over the Mountain - Iron & Wine (The Creek Drank the Cradle)
22. Three Little Birds - Bob Marley (Legend)
23. Merry Happy - Kate Nash (Made of Bricks)

good morning, midnight -- november 24, 2008

I have a belief that mixtapes exist for three main reasons: the mixtape for a new relationship, the mixtape for a break-up, and the mixtape for a fucking awesome night. This is the third. To be specific: the nights that start off awesome and then somehow just manage to constantly take the most awesome, least plausible route, until you end up somewhere surreal, unbelievable, and ... awesome. And you think, "if I ever forget this, it would have to be because of a head injury."

Note: title is taken from a novel by Jean Rhys named Good Morning, Midnight. There is absolutely no overlap between subject matter. Her novel is about an alcoholic woman in Paris. Mine is about rocking good times. All they have in common is alcohol.

original track list:
01. "Campus" - Vampire Weekend (s/t);
02. "At & T" - Pavement (Wowee Zowee); *
03. "On to You" - The Constantines (Shine a LIght);
04. "Halfway Home" - TV on the Radio (Dear Science...);
05. "Of Moons, Birds & Monsters" - MGMT (Oracular Spectacular);
06. "Tbtf" - Kevin Drew (Spirit If);
07. "The First Big Weekend" - Arab Strap (The Week Never Starts Round Here);
08. "You Only Live Once" - The Strokes (First Impressions of Earth);
09. "Camaro" - Kings of Leon (Because of the Times);
10. "Slow West Vultures" - The Mountain Goats (We Shall All Be Healed);
11. "The Killing Moon" - Echo & the Bunnymen (Donnie Darko OST);
12. "Highway of Endless Dreams" - M83 (Saturdays = Youth);
13. "The Story Of" - Yo La Tengo (I Am Not Afraid Of You and I Will Beat Your Ass);
14. "Civil Twilight" - The Weakerthans (Reunion Tour);
15. "Stay Put!" - The Blood Arm (Lie Lover Lie);
16. "Massive Nights" - The Hold Steady (Boys and Girls in America);
17. "Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie" - Belle & Sebastian (Lazy Line Painter Jane);
18. "Fighting in a Sack" - The Shins (Chutes Too Narrow);
19. "Don't You Evah" - Spoon (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga);
20. "All the Wine" - The National (Alligator);
21. "New Country" - The Walkmen (You & Me); *
22. "Tinsel and Sawdust" - Jason Collett (Idols of Exile);
23. "Gold" - Interference (Once OST);
24. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" - The Arcade Fire (Funeral);
25. "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)" - Broken Social Scene (s/t).

News.

Okay, so big news here, guys - if you are still listening, because we are the worst bloggers ever.



We've been nominated for an award. And because both Torrey and I have been stupidly, stupidly busy (more on that later), we're just telling you. So (although we don't really entertain the possibility of winning - we are modest/realistic, after all) vote for us if you'd like.

Second order of business:



We are basically doing exactly what William Miller is not. And we hate it. And it's paper season. And - just - we will try to update, but life is kicking our asses right now. We still have deep love and high hopes for Cassette Shelf, but right now academic demands are being our high-maintenance girlfriends.

Please still love us. I'm pretty sure I have professors that are freaking me out more than Frances McDormand. And I'm not Russell Hammond, so I have few consolations in life.