Munday Morning Mux 2 : C'mon, Get Happy!

Stolen from Muxtape, blah blah.

So all of my posts lately have been my silly attempts at making mixtapes and playlists and my whining and moaning in commentary. How boring. I'm sorry.

But I'd like to post new muxtapes on a regular basis, and this week you were going to get my Please Please Please mix (which isn't so great, akshually, hence why it's not getting posted), but the weather has been SO DAMN NICE and it smells like sunshine and barbecues and I'm envious of the daffodils and dammit, I need some happy music!

Thing is, not a lot of my favourite music makes me happy. Okay, I must find some sort of pleasure in all of it, in some way, otherwise I wouldn't be listening to it. But it's quite different for me to think of a song that, say, makes me really happy and one that makes me want to dance, which then makes me happy, or one that is really splendidly written and that makes me happy but the song itself isn't so happy.

So here I'm presenting a mix between my pitiful Happy Mix! (which is all of like, eight songs) and the stuff I've been listening to as of late, which will be Spring '08 mix material.

C'mon, Get Happy!

Mux available here.

Tracklisting/Commentary/Incoherent babbling:

1) "Thomas Window Paine" - DZUSA
Did I have this on my last mux, too? Oops. But it makes me so happy! I just want to dance around a lot.

2) "Pop Song" - The Lashes
Also, more Lashes. The drum-heavy opening always gets me.

3) "Eyes" - Apollo Sunshine
It's so preeeeeeetttyyyy!

4) "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" - The Beatles
God, I love this song. Love love love it. It's very reassuring, as well.

5) "Here Comes The Sun" - The Beatles
More Beatles! Everyone needs more Beatles! And more sun. Yes.

6) "Elevate Myself" - Grandaddy
I'm not so taken with the rest of Just Like The Fambly Cat, but this shit's good.

7) "Young Love" - Mystery Jets
I've just recently written about this song and the adorable video that goes with it. I can't get it out of my head! I listen to it everywhere, on the way to class, at the gym, downtown, everywhere.

8) "Look Me Up" - Georgie James
I wrote about Georgie James relatively recently as well. Still love them.

9) "You're So Damn Hot" - OK Go
Yeah yeah, another OK Go song. This song pretty much started it all. And after four and a half years, I still love hearing it, which is a good thing, I suppose.

10) "A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend
Carefree and summery. Perfect!

11) "Shut Your Eyes" - Shout Out Louds
First SOL song I came across, probably still my favourite.

12) "Sophie" - Scamper
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I LOVE THIS SONG it makes me so happy!!! All of my friends are always like, "This reminds me of 'Stacy's Mom'!" which is DOES, but it really just makes me want to DANCE around all SILLY-LIKE, which I often DO.

(PLEASE NOTE: I wrote the above at like, 2:30 a.m., when I was way too super-tired. Hence the excessive capitalisation and punctuation. Sorry.)

All right, enjoy, loves.

Muxtape 1 : Coupling, v. 1.0

Yeah, I stole that image from Muxtape, you all know it.

So I've gone and joined up with this Muxtape business. Just because I like mixtapes/lists and such. Haven't actually listened to anybody else's mix, but. Whatevs.

I posted my first mux*, which isn't anything hugely special - I just wanted to get something on there. Feel free to go and enjoy while I scramble to get that Fall '06, etc. playlist together.

Coupling, version 1.0

Mux to be found here.


The whole point of this list is to put together songs that, for whatever reason, go together: because of a common theme or story, because one is a “remake” (and not merely a cover), because they remind me of each other, etc.

You can tell I started this a while ago (two years, I think), as there are three OK Go songs (and an SDR song, to boot). This is still a work-in-progress. There are a few more songs on this list on my iTunes (I cut it down to the more important ones, as Mux doesn’t allow you to post more than 12 at a time), and I continually add more as I go along and find more musical “couples,” so to speak.

1) “Maybe This Time” – OK Go
2) “Down For the Count” – OK Go

“MTT” is on OK Go’s second major label effort, Oh No, and has long been one of my favourites due to its simplicity and…well, snarkiness isn’t really the right word, but you get what I mean. I’ve always wanted to strip it down even more, and get a version that relies purely on the glockenspiel (or “rockenspiel,” as Tim Nordwind would put it) and vocal harmonies done in a round. Maybe a tiny bit of percussion. Maybe. “DFTC” came out as a b-side on the UK single for one of the songs from Oh No (though which song that was escapes me at the moment), and instantly became one of my favourites from the entire OK Go catalogue.

I’ve long wondered if these songs had anything to do with each other. They’re like bookend s: “MTT” ends with “Maybe, this time, you were wrong” and “DFTC” opens with “Maybe I’m wrong.”

3) “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” – The Smiths
4) “Please Please Please” – The Lashes

The Smiths one is a classic that I originally discovered because, surprise! OK Go once did a cover of it. (I told you, I started this thing aaaaaaages ago!) The Lashes version is in no way like the original, other than the refrain repeats “please please please let me get what I want” a few times. Think of it as a remake. Whether or not you consider remakes to be bastardizations of originals, that’s up to you, but I like it.

5) “My Window” – Secret Dakota Ring
6) “Thomas Window Paine” – DraculaZombieUSA

Witness the beginnings of my love for Serious Business. “My Window” is one of my favourite and one of the most infectious SDR songs. “TWP” is the DZUSA take on that same song, which means that you’ll probably hit the dancefloor in no time.

7) “Timourous Me” – Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
8) “T’s Song” – OK Go

Two very lovely songs, in their own ways, that share one very sad story. Go look it up to make sense of it all.

9) “Lust a Prima Vista” – The Spill Canvas
10) “Lust In The Movies” – The Long Blondes

Fall versus spring. “Prima Vista” is his take; “Movies” is my response. I just want to be a sweetheart.

11) “Jessie’s Girl” – Rick Springfield
12) “Coughing Up Roses” – Scamper

Sorry, loves- had to do it. If you haven’t heard “Roses,” the relation will become immediately obvious once you have. A friend of mine once started singing “I wish that I had Jessie’s girl” in the middle of the song. (Apparently, it’s really supposed to be “Jessie’s Girl” crossed with “Heat of the Moment,” but I’m only allowed 12 songs. And I don’t have “Heat of the Moment.”)

That doesn’t change the fact that I think it’s pretty brilliant, whether or not it needs a third verse.


*I initially typed "furst mux." Srsly.

For those interested in maybe learning a little too much about me,

I've gone and started posting some old playlists from my junior year over at my LJ.

Since May '06, I've been making 20-track playlists for each season, and they all mean quite a bit to me. I'll eventually start posting them here, but because the first few are very stuck in the past, those will be posted over there instead.

So if you're interested in finding out maybe too much about me and/or hearing what summer 2006 sounded like, feel free to stroll on over here.

Tracklist, if you're interested:

1) "Barcelona" - Scamper
2) "Sometimes The Sun" - The Lashes
3) "My Name Is Trouble" - Nightmare of You
4) "Fidelity" – Regina Spektor
5) "Because It’s Not Love" - The Pipettes
6) "Half Light" - Athlete
7) "Out of Range" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
8) "Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol
9) "Oh Lately It’s So Quiet" - OK Go
10) "Here It Goes Again" - OK Go
11) "Modern Swinger" - The Pink Spiders
12) "Mirror Kisses" - The Cribs
13) "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" - We Are Scientists
14) "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
15) "Start Wearing Purple" - Gogol Bordello
16) "Happier" - Guster
17) "You Got Me" - VHS or Beta
18) "It’s Not The Fall That Hurts" - The Caesars
19) "Jetsetter" - Morningwood
20) "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have" - Panic! At The Disco

And updates soon, I promise promise promise.

Download free stuff this week: Unsacred Hearts, The Lashes

(I mean, not that you don't download free stuff EVERY week, right? Right.)

All right kids, this week ONLY, the Unsacred Hearts are giving away their self-titled, out-of-print debut EP for FREE. That's right, free. The entire thing, too, not just the one preview song or whatevs.

The Hearts write good ol' rock 'n roll songs about, well, just that: rock 'n roll. Known also as SBR01, this was the first release ever to come out of Serious Business Records, way back when in...2004. (Okay, maybe that doesn't qualify as "way back when.")



The year was 2003. It was getting cold outside. We never forgot that because the tiny one room rehearsal shack we'd rented from a friend in Long Island City didn't really have heat. We had it all set up to record in there and we'd get together a couple times a week, never without warm coats or cold Bud tall boys, to make music. Thankfully Joe Willie was on the mic for the first time and we loved it. Since mid '95 he'd been writing lyrics for our several underachieving backyard rock partnerships, all of which Dave and I loudly and proudly rocked for. His words, always honest and poetic, had taken on a new urgency, especially since what it seemed like he was writing about, in some way, was our lives as underachieving rock-band-dudes. Somehow he endowed our continuing musical pursuits with dignity and purpose, and we were genuinely fired up about it. We'd been dosing ourselves with very inspiring sounds, specifically Richard Hell's Blank Generation, lots of Mitch Ryder, Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club, all the bands in Michael Azzerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life. During this period we all lived in Joe's house in Hoboken at the same time and we played our first shows at CBGBs, Maxwell's, Luxx. -Travis

Check out the tracklist and download it here, or save yourself the clicking and download the .ZIP file here, you lazy bums. Get it before this Friday, 29 February, at which point you'll have to shell out for it again.

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And while you're at it, download Higgins' new single, "Yes I Know", too, 'cause it's super-good and all Beatlesyish.

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Oh, and remember how the Lashes released side of their new record Thank You on 1 January? Well, they're giving that away for free, too. You can snatch that up at their 'Space.

Holiday song thinger: 7, 8, 9, and 10 December

Sorry to all three of you that read this on any sort of regular basis- I haven't been keeping up with this project so well because my new job has kind of started eating my life. Om nom nom. Yay for working retail during the holiday season!

I do owe you at least three holiday-esque songs, yes? I do. I was at a friend's house recently and realised why all those friends of mine don't like Christmas music- a lot of it is really lame and sappy. So, in attempting to avoid the "lame and sappy" vein, I think today's theme will be "amusing Christmas songs," because, why not?

I heard "The 12 Pains of Christmas" for the first time at a friends' house when I was about 12. Maybe 11. I was still living in Manville, in any case, and I moved out of there when I was almost 13. At the time, I had no fucking clue what a "hangover" was, and I went home yelling things like, "NOW WHY THE HECK ARE THEY BLINKING?!?!" (Because I was 11 and couldn't say "hell.") ANYWAY. I've had a soft spot for this song ever since.

Bob Rivers Comedy Corp - The 12 Pains of Christmas

My mom's favourite Christmas song, and one of mine, is "Santa Baby," but only the Eartha Kitt version, because La Kitt is pretty much amazing. And it's perfect for our ridiculously expensive tastes. Hey, I can't help it if I was brought up with Veuve Cliquot in the house. Like mother, like daughter.

Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby

I downloaded Holly Golightly's "The Christmas Tree's On Fire" from Brooklyn Vegan's 2007 Holiday Mix. Maybe it's really an after-holiday song, since it's set in February. But it's a laugh, I promise you.

Holly Golightly - The Christmas Tree's On Fire

Um. So I don't really know if this last song is really a Christmas song, nor is it particularly amusing, but I've already given you "Christmas Wrapping" and "Christmas Number One," and besides, I like the title's play on X-mas. Also, I've been posting about The Lashes a bunch, so...here ya' go.

The Lashes - Ex-Mas (Young In Love)

New release/New shows: The Lashes, Thank You side A

More about that upcoming Lashes release on New Year's: apparently they're being little show whores and having three record release parties.

31 December 2007 Record Release @ The Comet Seattle, Washington
1 January 2008 Record Release @ Sonic Boom: Ballard Seattle, Washington
5 January 2008 Record Release @ Vera Seattle, Washington

The show at The Comet is 21+; the rest are all ages.

Here's the cover art for Thank You:



Guyliner! So much guyliner! Hello, unhealthy obsession with boys in make-up!

Rumoured new Lashes release.

Word on the street is that Seattle powerpoppers The Lashes are releasing some sort of record when the ball drops for 2008. (Actually, it'll probably happen about three hours after that happens, considering the time difference and all.)

Here's the bulletin Ben sent out:

Subject: 1-1-08
the new lashes rcord "THANK YOU" side A will be release on new years day at midnight.

stay tuned.

Their gig on 31 December will be at The Comet in Seattle.

Check out guitarist Eric Howk's solo project, Palmer, AK, because I told you to do so.

Check This : I heart Eric Lashes.

Or perhaps we should just refer to him by his real name, Eric Howk, because we're not talking about The Lashes here, but his solo outfit, Palmer, AK. Though maybe we need some Lashes context here: Eric, for those of you who don't know, is guitarist for The Lashes, and, due to an accident, is now in a wheelchair, although, as he puts it, "it hasn't affected my ability to play an acoustic guitar and whine about girls."

And today, fellow bandmate Ben Lashes (or Clarke, whatever) sent out a bulletin with the video for Palmer, AK's "Same Rain/Noelly," recorded with Eric's own cell phone. According to Ben, "His cell phone will only take 10 second video clips yet somehow he may have just made the best music video ever. Watch it!"



I really love the '80s, DIY feel to that, in both the song and the video. I feel like I'm watching old school MTV (as if I ever watched old school MTV at like, a year old). I could do without looking up Eric's nose while he pretends to whistle, but other than that...I mean, the man kisses a plastic dinosaur! What's not to love?

The rest of Palmer, AK's have that acoustic, made-at-home feel, probably because "all Palmer, AK songs start off as 4-track cassette tape demos before being modernized to fit the needs of our urban Myspace mp3-demanding lifestyles." How dreamy, how gentle.

You can download "Same Rain/Noelly" from Palmer, AK's 'Space.