The Fertile Crescent mix

Gearbox here with another carpool mix; this time under the mega-theme of Geography. When this mega-theme was announced, we let Brogger choose first because she always does the first mix under the mega-theme, but miraculously she didn't choose "The Fertile Crescent" as her theme to work with, so I snatched it up before anyone else thought of it (*note the sarcasm). The result is a mix of music from the countries that now occupy the space of the "cradle of civilization" - Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Israel. I know what you're saying - "Ahem, what about Iraq?" Well, I found it quite difficult to find great songs from Iraq that fit with the feel of the mix. The majority of the songs come from Turkey, simply because so much awesome music came out of Turkey in the '60s and '70s, and it was artists like Ersen, Selda, and Erkin Koray that I was thinking of when I decided on the theme in the first place.

I should also note that the mix begins with a library music track that features a stereotypical "Middle Eastern" sound, because I thought that it would provide a nice juxtaposition to the full-on guitar rock that was actually being produced in the region at the time.

01 The Ebbinghouse Sound - Turkish Delight

02 Alpay - Seni Dileniyorum

03 Selda - Meydan Sizindir

04 Erkin Koray - Karli Daglar

05 Baris Manco - Gönül Dagi

06 Metin Alatli - Cayda Cira & Intermezzo & Lorke

07 Grazia - Rampi Rampi

08 Ersen - Metelik

09 Gökcen Kaynatan - Beyoglunda Gezersin

10 Onder Bali - Karni Buyuk Koca Dunya

11 The News - From the Moon

12 Omar Khorshid - Rahbaniyat

13 Soli - Music Negar

14 Mahmoud El Esseily - Salam Ya Baladi

15 The Parvarim - Scarborough Fair

*The cover art is a photoshopped version of a Baris Manco 7inch. You can listen to this mix by clicking HERE!!!

Options Class - DANCE!

Under the umbrella theme of High School Options, I chose "Dance". The choice was inspired in part by the request of another carpooler to make a Jukebox mix; the dance theme lends itself well to '50s/'60s pop tunes. The mix itself is heavily weighted in those two decades, but it also travels into the '70s and '80s near the end, mainly because there were Michael Jackson songs and video game crossovers that needed to be added to the mix.

*Trivia* This is the first carpool mix to include a band from Greenland (The Eskimos)

*Trivia* My favourite dance name? The "Uncle Willie" (track 20)

01 Boris Karloff - The Peppermint Twist

02 The Magics - Zombie Walk

03 The Ran-Dells - Martian Hop

04 The Boss-Tones - Mope-itty Mope

05 The orlons - wah-watusi

06 Edd Byrnes - Square Dance for Round Cats

07 Les Megatones - Megatwist

08 Annette - The Clyde

09 Gene & Wendell - The Roach

10 The Mod Moppets - Mexican Hat Dance

11 Frito Lay - The Frito Twist

12 7-11 - Dance the Slurp

13 Kong Ling - South Pacific Twist

14 The Fabulous Echoes - Dancing on the Moon

15 Eskimos - Mr Twist

16 Gianni Morandi - Go-Kart Twist

17 Boris - Hully Gully Holiday

18 The Shandells - Go Go Gorilla

19 Bunker Hill - The Girl Can’t dance

20 The Daylighters - Oh Mom Teach me how to uncle willie

21 Ikettes - Camel Walk

22 The Beagles - Indian Love dance

23 Sly & The family stone - dance to the music

24 archie bell & the drells - tighten up

25 the heyettes - do the fonz

26 jean jacques perrey & daniel longuein - kartoon square dance

27 the jacksons - blame it on the boogie

28 Stepping Tones - I want to dance like michael jackson

29 Buckner & garcia - do the donkey kong

30 Lou Albano - do the mario

I was searching up dances pretty obsessively for a few weeks, so I decided to include some other dances on the comp's cover:

Someone could easily also do a mix featuring 30 variations on the Twist.

Get a copy of this mix HERE

Welcome Back! The Great Carpool Challenge Rides Again!

Why hello loyal followers!

After a wonderful summer holiday, we are pleased to once again be bringing you our carpool mixes. We've made a few changes to the format of our weekly challenge, but I'll let one of the guys explain how it works.

I, once again, had the honour of putting together the first mix of the year. We chose the collective theme of "Options Classes" (ie. the optional classes that students can select at Maples) and each picked one. I selected "Fashion":

The Fashion Mix
1. Fashion - David Bowie
2. Brand New Shoes - She & Him
3. Raspberry Beret - Prince
4. Bedouin Dress - Fleet Foxes
5. The Hardest Button to Button - The White Stripes
6. Hand in Glove - The Smiths
7. Brass in Pocket - The Pretenders
8. Short Skirt, Long Jacket - Cake
9. The Dress Looks Nice On You - Sufjan Stevens
10. Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer
11. Dress Up In You - Belle & Sebastian
12. Short Shorts - The Royal Teens
13. Fashion is Danger - Flight of the Conchords
14. Kurt Cobain's Cardigan - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
15. Autumn Sweater - Yo La Tengo

Get dressed here!

Weather Remix - STORM FRONT

Here is my (Gearbox's) remix of the weather theme, originally tackled by the Lifeguard. The merry month of May was "cover someone else's theme", so I chose this doozy, mainly because it could house many many 5 STAR songs in my collection. In fact, below I've put an asterix beside my 5 STAR picks:

01 TV Theme - Chico the Rainmaker*

02 The Rokes - When the Wind Arises*

03 Philamore Lincoln - The North Wind Blew South*

04 Electric Banana - Grey Skies

05 The Left Banke - There’s Gonna Be a Storm

06 Mike Vickers - Rain

07 The Kinks - Rainy Day in June

08 Linda Perhacs - Chimacum Rain*

09 Mike Vickers - Thunder and Lightning

10 Marc Bolan - Dawn Storm*

11 A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Our Change into Rain is No Change At All

12 Waskerley Way - Rain Subsides

13 Dantalian’s Chariot - Sun Came Bursting Through My Cloud*

14 The Poppy Family - Beyond the Clouds*

15 The Pastels - Windy Hill (Cornelius Remix)*

16 Roger Roger Ensemble - Running With the Wind

17 Brian Wade & Dave Cook - Windsurfer

18 Girlsareshort - Chase That Rainbow*

19 Free Design - Kites are Fun*

20 The Rolling Stones - She’s a Rainbow

21 Andy Kim - Rainbow Ride

22 The Grasshoppers - When the Sky is Clear, When the Water’s Clean

Of course, the songs without asterixes are also great...but you don't hafta take MY word for it, download it HERE.

CP Challenge: Fruits!

Funny story: 2 weekends ago my brother and I were in the garage installing a garage door opener, and I put on this mix while we worked (I occasionally force my kid brother to listen to my weird music). Needless to say, it's not really "beer & manual labour" music, but it is upbeat and fun, and this was a sunny day, so why not. Now beside the garage, there happened to be two other dudes putting in a garden bed on our lawn. When the fourth track came on, the younger of the dudes came in to the garage and said, "This is really good, what is this?" For some reason I couldn't bring myself to say that the song was called "Fruity Flutes", so I started into a long, awkward explanation/apology about how this was a mix CD about fruit, and this track was from a library record, etc. etc. When I was done he just shrugged his shoulders and said "Yeah, cool" and went back to his hammering. It was refreshing to run across another dude that was secure enough in his masculinity that he could appreciate promotional kid's music from 40 years ago...and now that I'm looking at the tracklist again, there are quite a few songs directed at kids on this mix. I guess kids and fruit just go together.

01 The Wiggles - Fruit Salad intro

02 Hawaiian Punch - Fruit Juicy

03 Freckle Face - I got 51 Freckles

04 Reg Wale - Fruity Flutes

05 Glazer & Tripp - Why are Bananas Picked Green?

06 Edd Kalehoff - The Big Banana

07 I’m a Chiquita Banana

08 Hoosier Hot Shots - I Like Bananas, Because They Have No Bones

09 Banana Splits - Doin’ the Banana Split

10 Electric Banana - Alexander

11 Legay - The Fantastic Story of the Steam Driven Banana

12 MIA - Ba-na-na Skit

13 Video Kids - Gimme That Banana

14 NES - Banana Title & Gameplay

15 Adam Green - Apples, I’m Home

16 Toby Twirl - Toffee Apple Sunday

17 The Lemon Pipers - Blueberry Blue

18 Jolly Ollie Orange - Laugh Laugh Laugh

19 Billy Hayes - Oranges, Smoranges

20 J. Trombey - Sliced Orange

21 Lefty Lemon - Why I Left Baseball

22 The Move - (Here We Go ‘Round) The Lemon Tree

23 Loudmouth Lime - Hello Hello Hello

24 Mike Sammes - Limehouse Blues

25 Harpers Bizarre - Raspberry Rug

26 Rootin’ Tootin’ Raspberry - A Cowboy Named Fauntleroy

For the cover I image searched "Carmen Miranda" and up popped this guy: http://www.graemebowman.com/

Classic.

Experience the fruity fun HERE

Spring Cleaning

As the title would suggest, the following mix was inspired by the changing of the seasons (more in theory than in practice at the time). So, for your listening pleasure, here is the Spring Cleaning Mix:

1. The Story of "The Rite of Spring" Pt. 1
2. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most- Kat Edmonson
3. Springtime is the Season - of Montreal
4. Love Goes Home to Paris in the Spring - The Magnetic Fields
5. Spring 2008 - Architecture in Helsinki
6. The Story of "The Rite of Spring" Pt. 2
7. Month of May - Arcade Fire
8. Hummingbird - Imaginary Cities
9. The Story of "The Rite of Spring" Pt. 3
10. So Fresh, So Clean - OutKast
11. Keep It Clean - Camera Obscura
12. Coming Clean - We Are Scientists
13. Dance Yrself Clean - LCD Soundsystem

Clean up here.

Greatest Hits: The Senses

So, one morning as we were carpooling to work, we decided it might be fun to do a "greatest hits" series of carpool mixes where the pooler could pick a previous theme of their choice, and do their own version of it. So, here is my "senses" mix. As the previous pooler who worked on this mix mentioned, it was hard to find songs about the sense of smell! Anyway, from my point of view, this mix sounds like a good one. I can't put my finger on it, but if it was food, it would taste, and smell like something wonderful!

The Great Carpool Challenge Greatest Hits: The Senses
1. Pinball Wizard - The Who
2. I saw her standing there - The Beatles
3. Lookin' out my backdoor - CCR
4. Don't look back - Boston
5. Looking for a place to happen - The Tragically Hip
6. Eat my brain - Odds
7. Taste - Phish
8. That Smell - Lynyrd Skynyrd
9. Listen to the Music - The Doobie Brothers
10. (Listen to the) Flower People - Spinal Tap
11. Can't you hear me knocking - The Rolling Stones
12. Hear about it later - Van Halen
13. Oh What a Feeling - Crowbar

Listen to it here!

421: The Drug Mix

So, in honour of 420, I was given the theme "drugs". The mix was officially unveiled on April 21st (hence the name). Given that there is very little drug use in the music industry I really had to scrounge for tracks to use... Okay. So there was a literal plethora of tracks to choose from as drug use runs rampant throughout the music industry. What I enjoyed most about making this mix is that I was able to use several songs that I really like that I didn't realize were veiled (or not so veiled) drug references. In some ways I also found that kind of sad. Anyway, there are also some parody tracks thrown in for fun. After listening to this mix, I thought it was pretty good. Then I listened to it again, just to make sure. The next morning, I needed a hit of it again. Pretty soon, I couldn't start my day without listening, and I had to have a listen to end my day and before bed. Now I listen to it to relax and before heading out on the town.... I think I have a problem.

421: The Drug Mix

1. Sensimilla street
2. Because I got High - Afroman
3. I want a new drug - Huey Lewis and the News
4. Cocaine - Eric Clapton
5. Cocaine Cowgirl - Matt Mays & El Torpedo
6. One way Ticket - The Darkness
7. The Needle and the Damage done - Neil Young
8. Mr. Brownstone - Guns N' Roses
9. Hash pipe - Weezer
10. This is a call - Foo Fighters
11. I'm Waiting for the Man - The Velvet Underground
12. The Pusher - Steppenwolf
13. Casey Jones - The Grateful Dead
14. 30 Days in the Hole - Humble Pie
15. Let's go smoke some pot - Dash Rip Rock

Spark it up here

CP Challenge - Escape

Not much to say about this one...it begins with escapes from reality, then moves into more literal escapes. The two video game songs included come from games where escape is part of the back story of the game; for example, who knew when you were playing Arkanoid, you were actually trying to escape from a time-space distortion!

For a larf I also added a secret track to the CD that I played in the car, because one of the 'poolers was in a band that recorded a song called "Escape to the Cape". It's not in the zip file, but if you want to hear it, you can download their whole album HERE. And here is the tracklist for my mix:

01 Mike Sammes Singers - Heineken

02 Alan Feanch - Drunk Man Ballad

03 Cylob - What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?

04 Girlsareshort - Pinacolada

05 Beem - Don’t Bogart That Can, Man

06 Bibio - Puffer

07 Christian Fennesz - Codeine

08 Oval - Dream Over

09 Leafcutter John - Escape from the Globus Playpen

10 Martin Galway - Theme from Arkanoid

11 Rob Hubbard - Auf Wiedersehen Monty

12 Escapehawaii - Crusty Ghosts

13 Mike Vickers - Getaway Car

14 Alan Parker - The Free Life

15 Donnacha Costello - And I got Left Behind

Download and enjoy!

The Weaponry Mix

I'm not really sure how this theme came to be... or why the other poolers were thinking about weapons, but weaponry was the theme. There seemed to be plenty of tracks to choose from and I wound up leaving out several songs that I had thought I would use. I enjoyed making this mix as it allowed me to revisit some songs from bands that were favorites of mine back in high school. Nice to reminisce! During the process, I discovered that AC/DC has many songs that have themes of weaponry, and so, just to annoy some in the pool, I toyed with the idea of making an all AC/DC mix. And, just to prove that it can be done, I'm going to include it as a secondary play list. (I probably won't have time to include this list for download) Hope that you enjoy.

The Weaponry Mix

1. Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim

2. Goodbye Blue Sky - Pink Floyd

3. Maxwell's Silver Hammer - The Beatles

4. One Gun - 54-40

5. Bullet the Blue Sky - U2

6. Guns in the Sky - INXS

7. Gone Shootin' - AC/DC

8. Midnight Rambler - The Rolling Stone

9. I'll Believe in You (or I'll be leaving you tonight) - The Tragically Hip

10. Banditos - The Refreshments

11. God save the Queen - The Sex Pistols

12. Cortez the Killer - The Dave Matthew's Band ft: Warren Haynes

Get the mix here.... Draw!!

The Weaponry Mix: AC/DC alternate version

1. Gone Shootin'

2. Heatseeker

3. Fire your guns

4. Big Gun

5. Night Prowler

6. Jailbreak

7. Shoot to Thrill

8. Thunderstruck

9. Shot down in Flames

10. T.N.T.

11. The Razor's Edge

12. For those about to rock (we salute you)

CP Challenge - Construction

I thought this mix would be a lot easier than it was. There are so many words you could associate with construction: building, concrete, cement, bricks, sledgehammer, etc., but finding songs that aren't corny (read: Pink Floyd & Peter Gabriel) or so corny they're awesome again, proved to be difficult.

I also like some consistency in the mixes, so this one is kinda chunked into electronic, library electronic, then library, 60s rock, then current stuff/Rob Crow. The song titles definitely tell a story though.

01. Mars Production Library - New Homes

02. Maddalena Fagadini - Ideal Home Exhibition

03. Marcel Turkowsky - Another Dreamhouse

04. Pastels - Attic Plan (Mouse on Mars rmx)

05. Phil Young - Science and Industry

06. Ron Geesin - Industrial Jungle

07. Teddy Lasry - Economy

08. T&G Sadler - Metal (full)

09. Davies & Ried - Muscle and Heat

10. John Scott - Rock Breaker

11. Dave Gold - Manpower

12. Group 1850 - Steel Sings

13. Collectors - We Can Make It

14. The Left Banke - Men are Building Sand

15. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Lists, plans

16. Thingy - Blueprint

17. Other Men - Kind of Off to the Side a Bit

D-Load it here!

Plagiarism? I Wrote And Performed Each Of These Songs!

"Inspired" by a number of recent copy/paste indiscretions around our workplace this week's mix is focused upon plagiarism.

I personally would define plagiarism as "the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work."[1][2] The modern concept of plagiarism as immoral and originality as an ideal emerged in Europe only in the 18th century, while in the previous centuries authors and artists were encouraged to "copy the masters as closely as possible" and avoid "unnecessary invention."[3][4][5][6][7]

The 18th century new morals have been institutionalized and enforced prominently in the sectors of academia and journalism, where plagiarism is now considered academic dishonesty and a breach of journalistic ethics, subject to sanctions like expulsion and other severe career damage. Not so in the arts, which have resisted in their long-established tradition of copying as a fundamental practice of the creative process, with plagiarism being still tolerated by 21st century artists.[8][9]

Plagiarism is not a crime but is disapproved more on the grounds of moral offence.[3][10]

I googled "indie rock blog mp3" and gave myself no more than 20 clicks of the mouse to "create" this "original" piece of "work".

I Wrote And Performed Each Of These Songs.

1. Braids – Lemonade
2. Shigeto – Bakers Blunt Basics
3. A-Trak – Trizzy Turnt Up
4. Twin Tigers – Everyday(Bear In Heaven Remix)
5. Lali Puna – Fast Forward
6. Kaki King – 2 O’Clock
7. The Tallest Man On Earth – King Of Spain
8. Jason Lytle – Yours Truly, The Commuter
9. Wavves – So Bored
10. Kaiser Chiefs – Never Miss A Beat (Yuksek Remix)
11. Tapes ‘n Tapes – Freakout
12. Local Natives – Sun Hands
13. Salim Nourallah– Western Hills

Get the mix here

The Senses of Our World

Here's my "senses" mix. I'm pretty proud of the cover...ain't it slick? This mix coincidently has a "Film & TV" theme, which I didn't notice until after the fact.

We begin with a general introduction by The Bugaloos, then progress straight into the sixth sense (yes, that's Haley Joel Osment on the cover). Next we have the sense of hearing, followed by touch. After that we have two stellar jams about eating - be forewarned, the Kobayashi and Yoshino track from the film "Hausu" will be stuck in your head for days. Also, see that movie, it's amazing (not just for it's climactic ending). After that there's a single song that's vaguely related to the sense of smell, then a whole whack of sight songs. The whole mix is pre-80s, with the exception of the last track; but I couldn't resist putting this Dead Milkmen track on, as it's one of my favourite songs of all time. Out of curiosity I googled this song and found Joe Jack Talcum's website (the singer from DM). He has an INSANE amount of mp3s available for download in his bootleg archive.

...but you can get MY mix here.

01] The Bugaloos - The Senses of Our World

02] Ramases & Selket - Mind's Eye

03] The Dovers - The Third Eye

04] The Move - I Can Hear The Grass Grow

05] Harper’s Bizarre - I Can Hear the Darkness

06] Jackpots - I Hear Trumpets Blow

07] BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Scene & Heard

08] Dave Richmond - Fingers & Thumbs

09] Mood Mosiac - A Touch of Velvet - A Sting of Brass

10] Kobayashi & Yoshino - Cherries Were Made For Eating

11] Tomorrow’s Keepsake - Eat Your Hotdog Boy

12] Les Fleur de Lys - Gong With the Luminous Nose

13] Act of Creation - I've Just Seen You

14] Those Rogues - Wish I Could See You Again

15] One in a Million - Double Sight

16] Honeybus - Delighted to See You

17] The Left Banke - Nice to See You

18] Tintern Abbey - It's Just That the People Can't See

19] Glazer & Tripp - Why Can't I See in the Dark

20] Capt. Paul & The Seafaring Band - I'll Be Seein' Ya in the Movies

21] Dead Milkmen - Dollar Signs in Her Eyes

An attempt to make up for my tardiness.

Yikes, I have truly been a negligent blogger! So, I'm going to go all out here and post my last three (that's right, three) mixes. Perhaps the second semester will see me taking my blogging responsibilities more seriously!

Brogger's Mix #3 - The Hangover Mix (Beginning, Middle, End, and Regrets)
This particular playlist was inspired by an incredibly unpleasant morning brought on by, what else, too much alcoholic indulgence. In an attempt to have all of the listeners experience my pleasure and pain along with me, I structured the mix in chronological order according to the events of the night and following morning:

1. Let's Have A Party - Wanda Jackson
2. Eat That Up, It's Good For You - Two Door Cinema Club
3. Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem
4. Hurricane Drunk - Florence & The Machine
5. Time Stand Still - Cut Copy
6. Yasahisa - Chatmonchy
7. Too Drunk To Fuck - Dead Kennedys
8. Puke & Cry - Dinosaur Kr.
9. Sick Muse - Metric
10. Today Will Be Better, I Swear - Stars
11. I Feel Better - Hot Chip

Live vicariously here.

****

Brogger's Mix #4 - Looking Back: The Mix to End 2010

To ring in the New Year, I was commissioned to create a mix about reminiscing. Sometimes it is difficult not to spend too much time looking back at what choices and mistakes we've made in the past, especially at the end of the calendar year, but I hope this mix provided its listeners with some happiness and started their year off right.

1. With Every Heartbeat - Robyn ft. Kleerup
2. Don't Look Back - Teenage Fanclub
3. Don't Look Back in Anger - Devendra Barnhart
4. Take It Back - She & Him
5. Look Back In Anger - David Bowie
6. In the Backseat - Arcade Fire
7. Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth - Neko Case
8. Night Windows - The Weakerhans
9. Come Back Home - Two Door Cinema Club

Remember the New Year here.

****

Brogger's Mix #5 - The Terminal Mix


This particular creation was inspired not by "the end" or "death" as the theme might suggest, but by a music venue in New York's Hell's Kitchen. This club - Terminal 5 - is somewhere I have longed to go for a very long time. Terminal 5 features performances from folk and indie bands, many of which I have desperately wanted to see. So, in honor of their incredible schedule over the next few months, I present the Terminal 5 Mix:


1. New York, New York - Ryan Adams
2. Fancy Footwork - Chromeo
3. Kathleen - Josh Ritter
4. Good Arms vs Bad Arms - Frightened Rabbit
5. Heart it Races - Dr. Dog
6. For Nancy - Pete Yorn
7. Upon Viewing Bruegel's Landscape With the Fall of Icarus - Titus Andronicus
8. Not In Love (feat. Robert Smith) - Crystal Castles
9. Heart On Fire - Cut Copy
10. Barely Breathing - The Hold Steady
11. Love You Madly - CAKE
12. Total Life Forever - Foals

Take a trip to NYC here.

xo
Linds

3-mix

So, in honor of this being my last mix before the birth of my first child, I was awarded the theme 3 to signify that my family will now consist of three members. This mix was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. Perhaps I felt compelled to make it a good one as it does carry a certain significance with it. The mix consists of some songs simply with the number three in the title or in the song, some songs from albums titled simply three, some matchbox 30 (specifically for Brown! Wink!) some songs that were thrice titled, a "triple play" of sorts and lastly a trio of songs that sing of a new child. I hope that you enjoy the mix. I gotta go soon. Wish me luck!!

3-mix

1. Three's Company Theme
2. Three Cool Cats - The Silver Beatles
3. ABC - The Jackson 5
4. That's the Way - Led Zeppelin
5. 3 AM - Matchbox 20
6. 3 dressed up as a 9 - Trooper
7. Three Pistols - The Tragically Hip
8. Wait, Wait, Wait - Joel Plaskett
9. Say Say Say - Paul McCartney
10. Shambala - Three Dog Night
11. Triple Trouble - Beastie Boys
12. Three Minute Song - Grady
13. Cats in the Cradle - Harry Chapin
14. Daughters - John Mayer
15. Beautiful Boy - John Lennon

Ready to hear the mix? 1-2-3 Go!

The Missing Mix

Why the missing mix? Why, because I was missing! On this particular Friday I had abandoned my co-workers for an Arts conference, and so in my absence they decided that "missing" would be my inspiration for the week. At first it seemed daunting, then I realized that there were lots of songs about missing people, then I remembered that I don't like those songs, then I struggled. In the beginning I came up with a lot of goofy rap songs ("I missed the Bus", I Left my Wallet in El Segundo", "Tune From the Missing Channel"), but when I heard Chris Clark's song "Absence", I knew I needed to find songs that complemented this amazing track. It wasn't until the night before that I realized I could use untitled tracks because they were missing titles, and so the mix was beefed up with a classic song from Gas' Pop album, and some dancefloor glitch from Saskatoon (Knar).

This is a much warmer electronic mix than the Silence mix of two rotations back, mainly because most of these characters are using real instrumentation as their source (even Oval now!). This is also the first mix where every track came from my existing collection (with the exception of the Clark track):

01 Marc Bolan - Untitled Poem

02 Fennesz - Herbert Missing

03 Odd Nosdam - Untitled One

04 Piano Overlord - You stole my stereo outro

05 Dylan Group - An Indolent Appreciation of What You Left Behind

06 Secret Mommy - Surgery (Medieval Rural Denture Rmx) by Piers Whyte

07 Knar - untitled (knar’s pop quiz theme)

08 Christopher Willits - order (no blueprint)

09 Oval - Emocor

10 blunderspublik - glimse

11 F.S. Blumm - Ohne Orte

12 Savath y Savalas - Untitled

13 The Books - Motherless Bastard

14 Clark - Absence

15 Gas - Untitled #01

16 Tujiko Noriko - Endless End

Grab it here!

I Don't MIND GAMES

I never liked playing Mastermind, because I always lost.
I like playing 20 Questions, although I quickly get bored.
I won't play chess because I get too impatient to stick to any strategy.
Do I Like Mind Games? Yes, I do. And I hope you do too.

1) What You Think Will Happen? - Heather Perkins
2) What Think You? – Walt Whitman
3) Paul Cries – Think About Life
4) Her Psychology Today – Guided By Voices
5) If We Don't Make It We'll Fake It - Death From Above 1979
6) Hypnotize – The White Stripes
7) Courtesy Laughs – Phoenix
8) Going Against Your Mind – Built To Spill
9) Familiarity / Manipulation - unknown
10) Use The Same Old Song – Mighty Mike
11) Your Silent Face – New Order
12) Death - White Lies remixed by Crystal Castles
13) 10 Month Psych Out - Megaheadphoneboy
14) Fake Away – Transistor Sound and Lighting Co.
15) It’s All In Your Mind - Beck

click here to download

The White Out Mix

In honour of the first snowfall (although I don't know if I agree that such an event should be honoured) I was given the theme "whiteout". It turned out to be a doozey! (Both the first snow and the mix!) Thematically, I went with songs that deal with snowy or cold subject matter, or have a tie in to snow and cold in some way. In addition, I added some tracks that deal with the colour white. So, although I'm sure no one was really excited about the first snow fall, I hope that listening to this mix (perhaps while curled up in front of a blazing fire while sipping a brandy or maybe just stuck in your car on your way to work with the heat cranked up) will help keep you warm!

The Whiteout Mix

1. Take Off - Bob and Doug McKenzie (with Geddy Lee)

2. White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane

3. A Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum

4. A Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon & Garfunkel

5. White Room - Cream

6. White Wedding - Billy Idol

7. Play that Funky Music (White Boy) - Wild Cherry

8. Snow (Hey Oh) - Red Hot Chili Peppers

9. Girl with a Problem - The Northern Pikes

10. Prairie Town - Randy Bachman

11. Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground - White Stripes

12. Ob La Di, Ob La Da - The Beatles

Put on your toque and head out into the cold!

Hot & Cold

Because I received a double theme this week, I decided to split my mix into a Hot side and a Cold side...and as if that wasn't limiting enough, I added the restriction that each side would feature the same artists. I was inspired by the realization that The Cure have a lot of hot and cold themed songs. Here's what I came up with:

I was also motivated by a complaint that a co-carpooler made last year that I had "forgotten my roots" - meaning that I wasn't putting much electronic music in my mixes, so this mix is predominantly electronic, and occasionally peppered with guitars. I had to throw Witchypoo into the mix because it was the first song I thought of when I heard the theme, and I love anything Sid and Marty Krofft.

This one's also mixed - enjoy!

You can get it here!

Tricks or Treats!!

Hey all.

I was given the honour of creating the Halloween themed mix this year. (I think mostly because it was my turn during the week of Halloween) For this mix I decided that I would pick songs that were either tricks or treats. Some may even play tricks with your mind. Also, I picked some songs that were by some "creepy" type artists. To top it all off I book-ended the mix with a couple of Scary Soundtrack items. I hope you enjoy!

P.S. the image in the cover is my pumpkin from this year. It took a long time to carve that...

1. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.

2. Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground

3. Candy Store Rock - Led Zeppelin

4. Surrender - Cheap Trick

5. The Garden - Guns N' Roses

6. Welcome to my Nightmare - Alice Cooper

7. Fly the Orient - Tricky Woo

8. Paranoid - Black Sabbath

9. Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett

10. Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon

11. (Don't Fear) the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult

12. Time Warp

Got your costume? Begin your Trick or Treating here!