Once again it’s my turn to prepare this week’s Mix Tape and once again I don’t have a theme to tie the songs I’ve selected together. Let’s just say that each of these wonderful tunes should never leave your iPod.
Nothing pumps me up for a weekend like The Band’s Life Is A Carnival, so we’ll start with the studio version from 1971’s Cahoots. For the second tune of the mix we turn to Zero for a glorious version of Tangled Hangers from their recent Martin Fierro Tribute Concert. Next, we take things down a notch with a tear-jerking rendition of Stella Blue by Warren Haynes. From there, we wind our way into a terrific breakup song, Dave Mason’s Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave from Traffic’s Welcome to the Canteen. The mix comes to a close with MMW’s cover of Sun Ra’s The Golden Lady from May 29, 1998 and Genesis’s anthemic Turn It On Again ripped from the group’s fantastic new When In Rome DVD.
A couple of months back we offered a up a mix tape dedicated some great stand-up comedy. We thought we’d once again take a break from the norm this week and offer a mix tape dedicated to all things funny - because there is nothing like a good laugh. So let’s take a listen to some great indie-comics, as well as a couple of classics…
We kick things off with Louis C.K. ruminating about about road rage and the perils of sitting in traffic. From there, Jim Gaffigan enlightens us about the brilliance that is the Hot Pocket - from his Beyond The Pale album. Let’s head back to the mid ’60s for a bit on mechanical objects from the king of the neurotic Jews - Woody Allen. Next, we got the one, two punch of indie-comedians Eugene Mirman and Maria Bamford riffing on Florida and Comedy Club answering machines respectively. Finally, we close things out Bill Cosby talking about chitlins, tripe and plenty of other dangerous foods. Be sure to sign-in at Imeem…
As we near the beginning of the third year of this sweet blog’s existence, and my writing career for that matter, there’s still plenty left for me to learn. For instance, I just found out what a series of five related works is called: a pentalogy. What does this have to do with this week’s Friday’s Mix Tape? Our mix begins with my favorite pentalogy of all-time about horses.
Ween’s epic Stallion pentalogy starts the mix off with a bang. All five parts of The Stallion come to us from Chocodog’s All Request Live release, an album recorded when the band entered the studio to perform a list of songs hand picked by their most hardcore fans. We keep the energy up with Naked City’s cover of the James Bond Theme. Next, we’ve got a song I can’t stop listening to since reading Some Dude’s Blip entry on The Virgins: Rich Girls. Finally, a DVDrip of Problems by The Sex Pistols off of There’ll Always Be An England sends us on our way with a bark and a sneer.
It only made sense that we’d wrap up our Jamband Graveyard week with a tasty ode to the bands that filled up all those Maxell XL-II’s that came flooding in and out of our mailboxes packed in bubble mailers on a weekly basis back during the tape trading heyday. Sifting through tape lists and getting an unexpected filler from an opening act surely turned a lot of us onto some of the bands we’ve mentioned this week. So sit back and enjoy some great live music…
We kick things off with GSW running through one their signature tunes: Nightingale. This song actually appeared on their first two studio albums. We’ve got a version from August of ‘92 at Bogie’s in Albany, NY. Next up is The Samples from around the time of their peak in popularity with Did You Ever Look So Nice from a 1993 show at Sandstone Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, KS. From there, we’ve got Leftover Salmon’s mash-up ode to marijuana that cribs music straight from the Grateful Dead with Pasta On The Mountain from the The Fillmore in San Francisco. Next, we’ve got Taste Sensation Overload from a Ominous Seapods ‘97 show at the now defunct mecca of jambands: The Wetlands. Finally, we close things out with Deep Banana Blackouta and a blistering twelve-minute long Bump And Sway from Irving Plaza.
We have to thank the unbelievable community of Wilco fans over at the Via Chicago discussion boards and Owl & Bear archives for this week’s Friday Mix Tape. We’ve got seven tracks from the Someone Else’s Songs compilation of covers played by Jeff Tweedy solo or his whole band. You can download FLACs of the whole two-disc compilation over at Owl & Bear, but we’ve got a taste of our favorites.
Let’s start things off with three fun covers played on February 17, 2002: Queen’s We Will Rock You, The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine and SchoolHouse Rock’s Three Is A Magic Number. Next, Tweedy does a marvelous job with Goffin/King’s Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. Jeff takes a shot at Deadheads during an adlibbed diatribe bashing Jerry’s Kids during a botched take on Ripple. After that, the whole band offers up a spot-on version of Steely Dan’s Any Major Dude. We end with a sweet Tweedy solo take on The Beatles’ I’m Only Sleeping.
Yesterday, Scotty offered up a fantastic B-List of albums hitting shelves this month that he’s looking forward to. I thought I’d continue along those lines today with a mix tape chocked full of music that is also being released in the coming months, as we see the leaves turn colors and our days grow shorter. So sit back and enjoy some Feel Good Hits For The Fall…
We kick things off with the first single off of Ray Lamontagne’s third album Gossip In The Grain. Here’s the emotive singer/songwriter with the soul-infused You Are The Best Thing. Next comes some straight ahead rock from the Kings Of Leon with Sex On Fire. From there we move into the gospel tinged Acid Tongue, the title track from the ever adorable Jenny Lewis’ sophomore effort, that features Chris Robinson, M. Ward and others on backing vocals. Then, we’ve got a couple from two former BtN artists Okkervil River with Singer Songwriter (which might be one of my favorite tunes of the year) and Blitzen Trapper with the rootsy, harmonica laced cut Furr. Finally, we close things out with some indie-piano-pop from Ben Folds with You Don’t Know Me which features vocals from Regina Spektor.
Yesterday, we ran an amazing list of HT Contributor / UM Crew Member Wade Ellis Wilby’s favorite fall albums. Wade also noted his favorite track on each album and we’ve compiled those Fall Mix Tunes for this week’s Friday Mix Tape.
Track Listing:
John Mayer-Something’s Missing
DMB-Best of What’s Around
Pearl Jam-Release
Bill Frisell-Gone Just Like A Train
Counting Crows-Raining in Baltimore
Ani Difranco-You Had Time
Smashing Pumpkins-Rhinoceros
Radiohead-Exit Music (To A Film)
Ben Folds Five-Don’t Change Your Plans For Me
Phish-Bliss
In and around 5 PM (PST), the initial edition of the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival gets underway in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. While the historic park has hosted numerous rock concerts over the years, Radiohead will hold the distinction of being the first act to actually play there after sundown. The three-day festie-much like its Tennessee brother-offers up a diverse bill spread across a whopping six stages, so this week’s Mix Tape is dedicated to some of those acts.
We kick things off with one of the bands that actually kick the fest off - San Francisco’s own psychedelic-blues revivalists Howlin’ Rain with Dancers At The End Of Time. How about some hip-hop from another local act? Lets check in with Lyric Born for Callin’ Out. Saturday sees a rare solo set from M. Ward, who has been doing the She & Him thing all summer long. Here’s Matt with Chinese Translation off his fantastic Post-War album. From there we move into one from the night’s headliners, here’s Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers with a live version of his classic American Girl. Early in the day Sunday sees a set from reggae legends Toots & The Maytals who will undoubtedly play their signature tune Funky Kingston. Finally, we close the mix out with a ripping Spiders (Kidsmoke) from Wilco’s career spanning residency at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre.
I’m in San Fran all weekend for the fest, so be sure to become one of our “followers” on Twitter to get loads of updates from throughout the weekend.
This week’s mix tape is a Lazy Susan of Olympic-themed tuneskis. It kicks off with Glory from Umphrey’s, because it’s plain silly that all those Olympic athletes make such a fuss over steroids and HGH. If they were smart, they would realize all they need to do is crank up Jake Cinninger and they’ll cut at least one second from their hundred yard dash or add 100 pounds to their clean and jerk.
In addition, we got one for America, a funked out Olympic theme, one that might surprise you, and one to cheer up the kids who choked their dream.
You’re going down China! Let’s get to the tunes…
Sometime around 1 PM today the initial installment of the All Points West gets underway in Jersey City, NJ. It’s the first major music festival here in the Northeast, and while it’s may not be jammed to the gills with stages and acts like some its other brethren they’re still bringing in a fantastic line up over the course of the three days. With that in mind, this week’s Mix Tape offers up a couple of acts that will grace the Blue Comet, Bullet and Queen Of The Valley stages this weekend.
We’ll kick things off with some indie-pop from The New Porngraphers who give us My Slow Descent Into Alcoholism off their debut album. Next, we’ll go with a song that you’re pretty much guaranteed not to hear on either night from headliners and festie favorite Radiohead with a live version of Creep from Glastonbury in ‘97. From their we’ve got some straight ahead dirty, trashy rock first with The Virgins doing Rich Girls and then Kings Of Leon give us Happy Alone. Sunday sees the major public return of Ernie and Classic TAB, let’s head back to July of ‘01 at Alpine Valley for this version of Drifting that features John Medeski on keys. Finally, mellow surf-rocker Jack Johnson, who closes the festie, closes the mix with Bubble Toes from Bonnaroo 2002.
I’m hitting up the festie tomorrow, while Scotty is heading out on Sunday so make sure to check out our Twitter feed for updates over the course of the weekend.
