Wow, it's November already. The sky hinted at blue sky today, but as usual, did not come through. That means lots of CCR. I get the feeling I will be listening through the boxed set for the rest of this month. I'm also in the mood lately for a lot of live stuff. My Morning Jacket's Okonokos, Neko Case Live From Austin and Acoustic Bradley Nowell are filling that gap. MMJ and CCR, what other acronyms could I ask for?

Top songs: "Long as I can see the light", "I Put a Spell on You"

September and beyond

This month has been uncommonly sunny, however as the rain and the threat of grey skies grows ever nearer, I have sunk into Fall music mode. That means lots of Neil Young from the Archives series, Okkervill River, newer Bob Dylan and older Joni Mitchell. I've been compelled lately to watch more sad movies and my musical choices are trending in that same direction.

Goodbye, Taylor Swift and the lighthearted social atmosphere of August. September has been a time of work and it predicts that Autumn will be a season of decisions and deadlines.

Dance All Summer

I don't know if it's the run of sunny weather, Fourth of July, the pace of my job, or what, but lately all I've been listening to is electro-pop and dance music. I danced Thursday night away to Natalie Portman's Shaved Head and was pleasantly surprised by their opening act as well; Hey Champ's "Cold Dust Girl" has been stuck in my head ever since.

So like June, July has not been a playlist kind of month. But here's what's on rotation anyways:

Hey Champ- Cold Dust Girl

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head- Sophisticated Sideways Ponytail, Me Yr Daughter

Death Cab- Your New Twin Sized Bed, Bixby Canyon Bridge

Pheonix- 1901

Major Lazer

Jens Lenkman

Songs that I can float in the pool to are a must for this month. Happy July!

Happy Birthday to my sister!

Today is my older sister's birthday, so a shout out to her. I wish all of her favorite songs on the radio today. Appropriately, I gave her a CD, one which I haven't listened to yet but I can still heartily recommend: Your Love Never Fails by JesusCultureMusic. Another CD by the same people/group, We Cry Out, is my worship music of choice.

Other than that, I wanted to comment on the lack of a complete June playlist. I am allowing June to be swept under the carpet as the bland filling my May-July musical sandwich. May's playlist was on heavy rotation in both the car, and on the earphones. However, I blame Sasquatch for inspiring me to switch from a playlist to just a rotation of several new CDs for June.

So although there was no list, there was plenty of fine, fine music this month. I'm finishing out the month with the best thing I've found (musically that is) in a while, free playlists from magazines/websites. UrbanOutfitters.com puts out playlists of 20-23 songs every so often called LSTN and they are available for full download through iTunes or the site itself. Along with their annual music issue, Nylon magazine also had a summer playlist full of new gems, old classics, and a fair share of crappy techno. Most likely my July playlist will be the whittled down versions of these lists with a few of my current fav songs thrown in.

The summery run of weather, coupled with spending a bulk of my time with people aged 12-20 has influenced the genre's I've been listening to so expect lots of obscure/canadian type electro-rap-punk-pop duos with bizarre, intentionally misspelled names and no discernible rhythm. And for those July nights, I predict a lot of live stuff or acoustic guitar. The new M. Ward perhaps?

We shall see! I reserve the right to go wherever the summer wind takes me!

First Date Shuffle

I recently had a first date with a random person for which I had to drive into the city during rush hour. After listening to Bright Eyes' Cassadaga twice through, and in the spirit of spontaneity which was the theme of the whole experience, I let the shuffle on my iPod lend predictions for the evening. I was suprised at the accuracy and sense of humor my iPod had, so I will share the playlist with you now:

Bob Dylan- "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" and yes, it was raining as I drove in...

Yes- "All Good People" which I took as a sign that I would not be meeting with a serial killer

Stereo Total- "Get Down Tonight" a classic cover, however, going into it I knew this prophecy would not be fulfilled...

Beatles- "What Goes On" a good questions for any first date...

Nada Surf- "Blackest Year"

Black Seeds "So True"

James Taylor "Sun on the Moon"

Erykah Badu- "On and On remix"

Nada Surf- "In the Mirror"

So not every title conveys the appropriateness or humor that each song held for me, but on closer listen, maybe you'll see why I was so pleased with iPod for its selections. I took the whole thing as a sign of good things to come.

The date was just ok, and I'm sure iPod would have comforted me appropriately had I given it the chance driving home. Next time I'm in this situation, I will be sure to do a post-date shuffle as well. I actually may incorporate iPod shuffle predictions into more of my life situations... we'll see...

Sneaky June

Here we are, over a week into June and I am still listening to an eclectic mix of May tunes and random CDs inspired by Memorial Day weekend at the Sasquatch Festival. No formal June playlist has been created as a result, but here's my preliminary thoughts based on what has been on heavy rotation in my car:

Santigold

Dark was the Night

Neko Case- Middle Cyclone

Mos Def- Quiet Dog

Just heard that last one on Pitchfork.com and haven't decided whether to spring for the whole album or not... we shall see, and more picks to come!

6/11 Update

Adding to the rough draft:

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band: Difference is time and Nikorette

MAY 2009

After listening in the car and realizing what songs I just put on because I like and not because they truly embody "May2009" to me, I have arrived at what is a concise summary of the month, and it must be right because it ended up being the perfect length for a single CD.

ABBA- Take A Chance On Me

Elvis Costello- Tart

The Cardigans- Carnival

Stars- Reunion (Do You Trust Your Friends? version)

The Vision of a Dying World- Barges

Cloud Cult- The Ghost Inside Our House

Brian Eno and David Byrne- Life Is Long

Eric Hutchinson- Rock & Roll

Josh Ritter- Girl In The War

Cage the Elephant- Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

MGMT- Electric Feel

The Kinks- The Village Green Preservation Society

Brian Eno and David Byrne- Everything That Happens

Bright Eyes- If The Brakeman Turns My Way

Tom Petty- Free Fallin'

Gomez- Notice

Andrew Bird- Fitz and the Dizzyspells

The Airborne Toxic Event- Sometime Around Midnight (acoustic version)

Over The Rhine- If A Song Could Be President

Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band- White Shoes (made the list as a nighttime specific May song)

Brian Eno and David Byrne, Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band, and Cloud Cult have all been my favorites for May so far, so they will also be on heavy rotation and I'm sure more of their stuff will appear as summer gets into full gear. Excitement!

Austin still is Texas

Seeing Over the Rhine live had to be the musical highlight of the trip but I also accumulated some non-OTR to add to the May playlist.  These songs just struck me as right either while driving through country, searching out the best tacos or laying in the park.

Tom Petty- Free Fallin'

Over the Rhine- If A Song Could Be President; If Nothing Else

Stars- Your Ex-Lover Is Dead, Reunion

Gomez- Notice

Jenny Lewis

Cowboy Junkies

Clearly I had a little country influence in my time in Texas.  There was also a song that said something along the lines of "God is great, beer is good, people are crazy" that was something of an anthem, but out of the Texas-context I think it's lost.

Background Playlists

So the whole playlist every month really started in February when I wanted to make a valentine's day playlist just to keep on-hand in case I had to spontaneously DJ something.  Anyhow, I had a lot of fun rediscovering some crazy awesome music and it just led into the creation of several occasion-themed playlists that I'd been thinking about for a while but hadn't brought to life.  

At the same time, I had bought some individual songs on iTunes or found some gems during my V-day search that weren't love themed but powerhouse nontheless and wanted to put em all together for easy car-listening.  I'm one of those people who, even though I got the deck with the auxilary jack, I still prefer to just throw in a CD than endangering fellow-drivers with searches on my ipod.  

Here is what I came up with, calling it "random mix" when I made it, but writing "Feb 09" on the disc to differentiate it from the several blank silver CDs that have amassed in my car. Thus the playlist of the month was born.  

Tracks for February 09 as follows:

MGMT- Kids

Peter Bjorn & John- Young Folks

Tim Fite- Big Mistake

The Killers- Spaceman

The Killers- Human

The Boxer Rebellion- Evacuate

MGMT- Time To Pretend

Jack White & Alicia Keys- Another Way to Die (Bond theme)

Eric Hutchinson- Rock & Roll

Death Cab For Cutie- I Will Follow You Into The Dark

I listened to it so much without having to skip any songs that I made another one for April:

Sam Sparro- Black and Gold

The Sundays- Wild Horses

Jason Mraz- Summer Breeze

Neil Young- Unknown Legend

Paul Simon- Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes

The rest was a free to download CD on Amazon: "The Slumberland Set" most of which was mediocre but the ones I really liked were

The Lodger- The Good Old Days

The Aislers Set- One Half Laughing

The Natural- Nord Express

The Aislers Set- California

There it is, two months of happy listening for me.  As the weather gets sunnier, so does the feel of what I like; I'm more open to crazy pop when the sun shines, but I have a very specific idea of what summer/spring nights require as well. On with the show! 

May first draft

The weather is finally getting more predictable here, predictably lame if you ask me, but at least the sun has made a few appearances. So May needs some upbeat stuff, light and airy. There are a few birthdays this month too, so I can't be too much of a downer. I predict some Sasquatch artists will make the cut as I prep for Memorial Day weekend, as well as some in-the-car-alone singable sunny day tunes.


Abba- Take a Chance On Me
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Zero
Elvis Costello- Tart
The Cardigans- Daddy's Car
Stars
TV on the Radio
Cloud Cult

We'll see how this continues to take shape as May day approaches.

Adds:

Peter Sarstedt- Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)

The Kinks- Sitting by the Riverside

Eric Hutchinson- Rock & Roll (I know this was in April too but it's so happy)

Brian Eno & David Byrne- Life is Long (and pretty much the rest of that CD)

Josh Ritter- Girl in the War

Cage the Elephant- Ain't No Rest For The Wicked

MGMT- Electric Feel

5/8/09

Just got the Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band cd... love it.  I think this may become one of the summer soundtrack cds. Here's the add for May:

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band- White Shoes

Especially for an uncommonly warm May night.

5/9/09

Ok, so I just added the following 3 to the draft:

Andrew Bird- Fitz and the Dizzyspells

Wynton Marsalis- School Boy

The Airborne Toxic Event- Sometime Around Midnight (Acoustic Version)

Really, they only are on there because I got them from the free Starbucks pick of the week thing and I like to put those into whatever playlist I'm making just to see if I actually like them.  So far, they're holding their own, I'll put the May playlist to the test right now since it's pretty much the perfect May day.  Anything that gets skipped is going to be booted from the list and I'll have something final so I can just start sitting back and enjoying my work instead of continuing to labor over this thing...

Mendacem Memorem Esse Oportet

Starting things off with a nice Latin phrase always seems right. And how great is the internet that I can simply type "latin quote" into Google, and get a list of everything from legal jargon to "beam me up, Scotty!" in the ancient father-tongue.

Not only does my quote sound pregnant with importance, it is also coincidentally relevant to the content of this blog. "A liar needs a good memory," I couldn't have said it better myself, Quintilianus. Although I wouldn't call myself a liar, and my memory has proved itself to be capable according to american educational standards, my iTunes library is huge. So huge, in fact, that I usually end up listening to whatever random artist is on my mind, or one whose name starts with "A."

So for my own sensibilities, I have decided to make monthly playlists so that I can enjoy my music and customize my listening according to the weather, my mood (the two of which are inextricably linked.. stupid Washington), and any other cultural influences that may crop up.

I make no claim in regards to a genre of choice, I exercise my right to love both Joni Mitchell and Jack White, Britney and the Black Keys. I am an appreciator of music, and this is about me, what I am interested in and inspired by at a certain point in time. Sometimes ridiculous music just makes me happy, and I will apologize to no one for it! Having said that, rest assured that I have excellent taste and I'm convinced that the music industry will give a collective sigh when they find out about me and see some of my choices.

Welcome to my year of playlists.