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Here is installment #2 in my undeniably an “art-faggy” notion of punk and adolescent aggro-pop. Special thanks to Josie Gray whose adoration of last September’s 9th Grade Detention Mix pushed me to kick out another blast of sonic delinquency!
The dominant players in this selection are Black Francis (with one cut from his underrated solo album Bluefinger and one classic Pixies track), Brian Eno (with one of his own and his ear-bending production on Talking Heads), and Steve Albini (behind the scenes on Pixies, PJ Harvey, Nirvana). Some all-time go-to players for my heavier tastes, such as Fugazi, Sleater-Kinney and Bad Brains as well as bursts by bands I was never quite hip enough to dig more than one cut by like PiL and Motorhead. Enjoy! (Playlist after the fold/right or control click to download)
O’Pinionated Mix – 10th Grade Detention
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So tonight’s mix was created with the post-party late-night chillout vibe in mind. It is good for about the 1 or 2 am spot at a weekend jam or clocking in at say 11 pm on a schoolnight (not coincidentally when I’m posting this). Though it is titled 2 Bougie 2 Smooth Mix #1, it is in every sense a direct sequel to last summer’s mix 2Bougie2Strong #3. In fact back-to-back they work even better.I also think it can be a sweet morning vibe for before the coffee kicks in, with smooth, hypnotic, bass and synth-driven cuts from Boards of Canada, Cee-lo, Underworld and friends of the 2Bougie mix, Boston’s own Voluptuaries. Dig in and enjoy, click and download. (Full Playlist after the jump).
This last installment of Summer Pop for the season follows the “something for everyone” creed of the (now double-digit-yay!) series: There’s 60′s folk and British invasion, 70′s post-punk and neo-disco, 80′s synths and college-rock, 90′s indie and 00′s trendy. Plus it all ends with what is probably my favorite (surprisingly upbeat) cover song of the past decade!
In the past month I’ve been heavily road-testing many of the previous Summer Pop mixes in my commute to the NY Fringe, and hammock-testing them as well during my “Cape recovery” week and Number Ten definitely meets the standard. True, there is a detectable bit of late August/early September anticipation of a coming chill– between the back-to-school-suggesting sound effect at the outset of Prince’s opening cut, to Pavement’s road-weary wandering anthemics and Elliot Smith’s brittle piece of prettyness– but make no mistake this is still Summer Pop, so kick back, or drop the top or jump up and enjoy. (Playlist after the fold.)
O’Pinionated Mix – Summer Pop #10
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My Summer Pop mixes soldier on! From Paul Weller’s city snapshots to Woody Guthrie’s California skies as sung by Jeff Tweedy, this batch is characterized by a surprising number of 90′s entries. But they are surely balanced out by cuts both as nouveau as Sleigh Bells and as retreau as Cat Stevens! Plus… “Some people say that bowling alleys got big lanes. Some people say that bowling alleys all look the same!”
(Playlist after the fold)
O’Pinionated Mix – Summer Pop #9
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For those of you who enjoyed April’s “Jazz & Soul on Outerspace Parole” Mix. This is, in many ways, the sequel but with a refined focus on electronic jazz and instrumental hip-hop. The title is a reference to a scene in my favorite movie of the last decade, 2046. And the mix ends with a classic off of DJ Shadow‘s Endtroducing, the 90′s masterpiece that turned me on to these very subgenres and directions in music. More Summer Pop next week…
(Playlist after the fold.)
2Bougie2Strong Mix #7 – “Tree Secrets & Android Gentures”
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Yes! Another healthy dose of Summer Pop just in time for Memorial Day weekend. White Stripes, Modern Lovers, Gorrillaz and Go-Go’s git down…
Playlist is below the fold.
O’Pinionated Mix -Summer Pop #8
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“Anthony walked to his death because he thought he’d never feel this way again,” begins the Belle & Sebastian opener to my first Summer Pop mix of the season, and it’s a strangely accurate warning of what lies ahead. As always I’ve picked tracks that are hummable, catchy and eclectic, but as I was building the mix an unintentionally dark and even morbid lyrical undercurrent began to appear. I mean, I’ve always thought “Girlfriend in a Coma” was a brilliantly bilious and simultaneously syrupy little ditty, but who knew featuring it in a mix would infect the whole batch?
And then, on top of my mix accidentally morphing into an fun, upbeat, and occasionally danceable downer, somehow two killer latin breakdowns snuck over the border and winded up in Summer Pop-land as well. Who knows? Chalk it up to my personal hydrant-flood of anti-Arizona 1070 sentiment I guess…
…Plus it’s got my all-time favorite Sleater-Kinney song.
Enjoy!
(Playlist is after the fold.)
O’ Pinionated Mix – Summer Pop #7
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For the one-year anniversary of the Mixtape Friday series we’re going back to basics: great songs in the verse-chorus-verse mode by rock outfits and singer-songwriter types.
Much like my first posted O’Pinionated Mix “Lost Verses” and July’s “Lost Causes”, the songs are a combination of classic favorites by folks like Tom Waits and R.E.M. as well as recent discoveries, like Port O’Brien and Boston’s own Hallelujah The Hills (whose Colonial Drones was my favorite rock album of last year). Enjoy…
(Playlist is below the fold.)
O’Pinionated Mix #9 – “Neverending Math Equation”
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For the return of Mixtape Fridays, I have let the jazz and soul masters take command and guide us into the spring. It takes several tangents (many of them African), includes a track Nas did with his father, a Sade song off my favorite new album of 2010, and opens with a great Nina Simone remix, that feels, at times, as much like an argument as it does a recording. Dig it.
(Playlist is below the fold.)
2Bougie2Strong Mix#6 – “Jazz & Soul on Outerspace Parole”
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