On Another Trip around the Sun

As we continue music week at INOTBB, long-time readers know I still put together a mixed cassette, yes, that funny plastic thing with tape in it, for my birthday. Although I rarely do it around my birthday--this year it only took 5 extra months, which still beats last year, so either I'm getting quicker as I get older or I have less to do. Or I'm more willing not to do something I should be doing. (I'm clearly just as decisive about my personal mien.)

I Ache in the Places That I Used to Play

side A
Neko Case "Animal"
Marshall Crenshaw "Passing Through"
Leonard Cohen "Tower of Song" (live)
Stars "Going, Going, Gone"
Shannon McArdle "Poison Cup"
Regina Spektor "Eet"
The Bird and the Bee "Birthday"
The Pipettes "Because It's Not Love (But It's Still a Feeling)"
Detroit Cobras "As Long as I Have You"
Jenny Owen Youngs "Hot in Herre"
David Byrne/Brian Eno "Wanted for Life"
Crooked Fingers "Your Control"

side B
Bishop Allen "The Ancient Common Sense of Things"
Earl Greyhound "It's Over"
Portastatic "Through with People"
John Cooper Clarke "I Don't Want to Be Nice"
The Wombats "Let's Dance to Joy Division"
Los Campesinos! "Miserabilia"
Okkervil River "Pop Lie"
Nick Cave the Bad Seeds "Lie Down Here (and Be My Girl)"
Rhett Miller" Happy Birthday Don't Die"
The Baseball Project "Past Time"
A.C. Newman "The Heartbreak Rides"
Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele "College Town Boy"
Nick Lowe "Nutted by Reality"

It's Not the Question, It's Who You Ask

OK. Had a productive week last week and people said nice thing and now I'm a slacker. Sorry. Did have to crank out 3500 words this week for people who nomnially pay me for it, so it's harder to do this too.

Which means today, we look at a blast from the past, a mixed tape from April 1991 that still plays. Which is a good thing, as I like it. A bunch. Name the song this post's title is from and you win a kewpie doll (it is summer fair time, isn't it?).

A Full Moon, an Empty Glass, and You

side A
Golden Palominos "(Kind of) True"
Spanic Boys "Keep on Walking"
The Replacements "I Will Dare"
Gang of Four "We Live as We Dream, Alone"
Nick Lowe "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass"
The The "Uncertain Smile"
Lightning Seeds "All I Want"
Graham Parker "And It Shook Me"
Schramms "The Way Some People Die"
Velvet Underground "Beginning to See the Light"
Feelies "Sooner or Later"

side B
Pete Hammill "Sitting Targets"
Blackgirls "A Visit to the the Behaviorist"
Billy Bragg "Tank Park Salute"
The Mekons "Wild and Blue"
Rain Tree Crow "Blackwater"
Tom Waits "Clap Hands"
Garland Jeffreys "35mm Dreams"
Elvis Costello "Blue Chair"
The Chills "Tied Up in Chains"
John Wesley Harding "The World and All Its Problems"
X "The World's a Mess It's in My Kiss"
Flamin Groovies "Shake Some Action"

Nice, no? And why aren't the Lightning Seeds available on iTunes? (I have that album on cassette only.) Plus, listening to this reminded me once again that the Jools Holland piano solo on "Uncertain Smile" is the closest thing to recorded orgasm (you can keep your "Bolero"--way too steady for a truly good, spontaneous time). There's no good live version of the band doing it with Jools, but here's a YouTube with the audio, if you've never heard it. Have your cigarette at hand for the finish.

A Place Where Even the Old and Used Can Hide

At long last got around to making my birthday tape, even though that day was almost exactly 8 months ago. I figure if you're using semi-archaic technology in the first place, why rush. (Here's last year's, which links to the year before that.)

Just Practicing My Absence

side a
Truckee Brothers "Planning for the 21st Century"
Los Campesinos! "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed"
Portastatic "Sour Shores"
Ian Hunter "When the World Was Round"
Alejandro Escovedo "Sister Lost Soul"
Elvis Costello "45"
Fountains of Wayne "New Routine"
Okkervil River "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe"
Matthew Sweet "Time Machine"
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks "Gardenia"
Andrew Bird "Darkmatters"
Magnetic Fields "Courtesans"

side b
New Pornographers "Adventures in Solitude"
Shout Out Louds "Impossible"
Rilo Kiley "Silver Lining"
I'm from Barcelona "The Painter"
The Mekons "Give Me Wine or Money"
Kathleen Edwards "Scared at Night"
Jason Isbell "The Magician"
Bright Eyes "If the Brakeman Turns My Way"
The Mendoza Line "Aspect of an Old Maid"
Colin Meloy "The Engine Driver"
Calexico "Fractured Air (Tornado Watch)"

Thwacked in the Head by a 44

I've explained before that I still make mixed tapes. No, not playlists--mixed tapes. Those funny plastic things with stuff spooled inside. Sure, random is fun, but why not have a bit of control over things now and again? I especially like to make birthday tapes, so here's this year's, a bit more mellow than I would want to say is a reflection of me. At least I'm better off than last year, when it took me until July to make the birthday tape.

I Don't Care if Forever Never Comes

side A

Andrew Bird "Heretics"
New Pornographers "The Bleeding Hearts Show"
Portastatic "You Blanks"
Mott the Hoople "All the Young Dudes"
Drive-By Truckers "Gravity's Gone"
The Hold Steady "Hot Soft Light"
The Pooh Sticks "On Tape"
The Futureheads "Favours for Favours"
Gothic Archies "How Do You Slow This Thing Down?"
Dean and Britta "Words You Used to Say"
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?"
Camera Obscura "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken"

side B

Of Montreal "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger"
Beck "Strange Apparition"
Yo La Tengo "The Weakest Part"
T Bone Burnett "Trap Door"
Guster "The Captain"
Neko Case "That Teenage Feeling"
Lucinda Williams "Mama You Sweet"
Handsome Family "After We Shot the Grizzly"
Lambchop "Crackers"
Eric Bachmann "Little Bird"
Peter Blegvad "Swim"
The Decemberists "The Crane Wife 3"