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!