Part eleven of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
This cover is a staged photo from an old home office. The chair was an old-as-fuck Herman Miller chair that I got from my job. Even though I did clean it for the photo, I’m surprised that it looks as pristine as it does in that photo because the chair was over a decade old and absolutely falling apart. (Note the missing armrest. Also, the backrest was absolutely deteriorating. Yeah, I worked endless hours and days and weeks and months and years sitting in that chair.)
Similarly, the space my wife and myself were renting was held together by spit and baling wire, but did have a very quaint rustic veneer.
If I had to do it over again, I’d tweak the 11 alignment and figure out something better for the longer song titles. Maybe give it a bit more breathing room. Otherwise? I am fucking pleased as punch with it.
And yeah, this is when I glommed onto serif-centric lettering, as evidenced by this site’s current visual theme.
Highlights? VON MAGNET’s ‘Mann Hinter Dem Vorgang’ is an interlaced masterpiece. DIFFERNET’s ‘Survival Kit’ is a gorgeously languid and melancholy five-and-a-half minutes that intentionally stumbles along until it pretends that it finds its confidence. The missed SHRAG’s ‘Forty-Five 45s’ is indie pop perfection, all heartfelt inflection with a steadfast guitarline, and then there’s the vastly underlooked BE YOUR OWN PET ‘Becky’ which is an exceptionally lurid and vibrant reflection of punk 80s verve.
It makes me happy. (Artist / Album / Song):
CAMILLE / Le Fil / Assise
VON MAGNET / Ni prédateur ni proie / Mann Hinter dem Vorhang
LARKIN GRIMM / Parplar / Ride that Cyclone
PALE YOUNG GENTLEMEN / Black Forest (Tra La La) / The Crook of My Good Arm
CROOKED FINGERS / Forfeit/Fortune / Let’s Not Pretend (To Be New Men)
Part ten of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
I know I took this photo while traveling from Chicago to Ohio, as it’s exactly what I’ve seen so many times, but I do not recall doing so.
This cover is fine in print. Just fine. I like the amber tinge. I like the E & T merger, although I probably could have done more there. The digitally resized version? It is practically unreadable.
Godfuckingdamnit I never do myself any favors.
All of that aside, it features one of my motherfucking anthems: BLOOD RED SHOES’ ‘I Wish I was Someone Better’. Saw ’em at Chicago’s Subterranean years ago, a club that is two-tiered but still feels oddly intimate. They performed back-to-back. I don’t mean that in a lineup way — they literally didn’t look each other in the face and one performed facing the left and the other on the right, but it wasn’t hateful or antagonistic. I’ve never seen a performance like that, and the energy was off of the fucking charts.
THE LONG BLONDES’ ‘Big Infatuation’ is absolute pop perfection, all GREASE-influenced but far filthier:
“My back turned to him, showing the ladders of my thighs!
I watched girls within; soaked up the envy in their eyes!”
SLEATER-KINNEY’s The Woods is my absolute favorite album of theirs, all indulgent and resonant hard-rock, and ‘Entertain’ endlessly delights me.
Part nine of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
Fuck. I know what I was going for with this cover: I wanted to recreate old-school medicinal notations and receipts, mostly because I loved this set that we — again — found garagesaling and — again — probably should have purchased. (This will be revisited soon, sadly.)
I absolutely fucked this one up. This is all wrong. It is mostly illegible, even with the drop shadow. It is a misfire; a mess on every level, and I apologize for putting it in front of your eyes.
That said? I’ll remind you? This was only intended for my wife, and I meant it with the best wishes.
It does looks better in-print than on-screen, though.
That aside. This has to be the most exuberant mix I sent along. FIREWATER? THE POLYPHONIC SPREE? ESSER?! PATRICK WOLF and “the major key!!”
This also has one my absolute favorites: THE TING TINGS ‘That’s Not My Name’. I thought everyone except myself forgot about this song until I heard it pop up in the NIMONA trailer which is amazingly appropriate to the point where one might say it’s too on-the-nose because it’s a perfect marriage. I. Fucking. Love. This. Song.
Fuck. Transcribing this playlist is going to ruin my eyes even more than they’re already fucked. (Artist / Album / Song):
RATATAT / LP3 / Shiller
AU / Verbs / RR vs. D
FIREWATER / The Golden Hour / Hey Clown
THE POLYPHONIC SPREE / Adidas / HOOPS Yes! (FC Dallas)
ESSER / I Love You / I Love You
Patrick Wolf / The Magic Position / The Magic Position
T.Raumschmiere / E / E
PORTISHEAD / Third / Machine Gun
DAS KABINETTE / Spy Thriller / The Cabinet
DETEKTIVBYRÅN / E18 / Laka-koffa
CLOUD CULT / The Meaning of 8 / Pretty Voice
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS / Heretic Pride / In The Craters On The Moon
ROSTAM BATMANGLI / Campus / Campus
THE SECTION QUARTET / Fuxxbox / Phenomena
LADYTRON / Velocifero / Ghosts
SERVICES / SXSW 2018 / Presenter
GLUKOZA / GTA4 OST / Schweine
THE TING TINGS / We Started Nothing / That’s Not My Name
Part eight of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
We used to live near this intersection and, while I love the angles and blue, the cover feels lackluster to me despite the ND filter effect (look it up!) and nothing about the typography works.
While I may not love the cover, I do love the mix.
MY ROBOT FRIEND’s ‘Robot High School’ is so fucking catchy.
If you’ve ever heard CLOUD CULT? Their songs? 100% trauma and devastation. Their songs will. Make. You. Weep. Saw them at Chicago’s Metro with a live painter interpreting their sound on-stage which? Yeah, that sounds pretentious, but it was so fucking messy and vulnerable, like we shouldn’t have been able to watch it unfurl.
SHOUT OUT OUT OUT’s ‘Forever Indebted’ is so hooky while also so absolutely crushing and escalates wildly while being brutal about finances, which … resonates even harder now.
I vividly remember playing SONS & DAUGHTERS’ ‘Guilt Complex’ to my wife shortly after a New Years countdown clicked down. For some drunken reason I couldn’t help but flail my arms about and sing along with it. Will she know why? Will you? Nope!
Revisiting these mixes, I am gobsmacked at how many of these bands I saw live, and how many memories I have from them. Hell, I remember leaning over the railing at Metro and singing along to THE KILLS. Make your own experiences, y’all.
Keep clapping. (Artist / Album / Song):
FAKE / You Are Not Dead: A Guide To Modern Living / Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results
THE KILLS / Midnight Bloom / Cheap and Cheerful
MY ROBOT FRIEND / Robot High School / Robot High School
aonami / SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artists / MISODISKO
JONATHAN COULTON / Portal OST / Still Alive
ASA-CHANG & JUNRAY / Jun Ray Song Chang / Hana
VAMPIRE WEEKEND / Stereogum Presents… OKX: A Tribute To OK Computer / Exit Music (For a Film)
CLOUD CULT / Feel Good Ghosts / When Water Comes to Life
MAN MAN / Live at 9:30 Club 6/30/06 / Spooky Jookie
SONS & DAUGHTERS / This Gift / Gift Complex
THE VIOLETS / The Lost Pages / In Your Statue
BODIES OF WATER / Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink / Doves Circled the Sky
MIDNIGHT MOVIES / Nights EP / Nights In White Satin
FEIST / Vanshe Technologic Remix / 1234
SHOUT OUT OUT OUT / Not Saying Just Saying / Forever Indebted
GOGOL BORDELLO / Super Taranta! / Wonderlust King
HOLY FUCK / Holy Fuck / Lovely Allen
THE HYLOZOISTS / La Fin Du Monde / The Man Who Almost Was
A companion piece to INTERRUPT PT. 1, if you will. (Read more about the reasoning behind these mixes here!)
Pretty sure the photo came from a garagesaling expedition of ours and this wringer probably cost $5 and I regret not buying it. I’ll note? I do love the texture.
I also really love this mix. I will always go to bat for THE LONG BLONDES and ‘Big Infatuation’ is absolutely one of my favorites. BALKAN BEAT BOX? So energetic. (Not sure if they’re still around, but I loved seeing ’em live as goddamn did they pop and bop.) THE VIOLETS was a criminally underrated post-punk band that released one album and that was it and it was not enough, at least not for me.
Also, as someone who has seen SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB live? They really fucking know how to roll with flubs:
She’s a dancer!
She dances fine!
I don’t remember my next line!
So … uh, enjoy!
Track listing (Artist / Album / Song):
HENGAR-UNION SACRED HARP CONVENTION / Anthology of American Folk Music / Antioch 277
BALKAN BEAT BOX / Balkan Beat Box / Bulgarian Chicks
BEIRUT / Gulag Orkestar / Prenzlauerberg
SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB / Jesus Let Me Down / Unto the Day [LIVE]
SONS & DAUGHTERS / This Gift / Goodbye Service
THE LONG BLONDES / someone to drive you home / Lust in the Movies
TWO TON BOA / Parasiticide / Cash Machine
PEPINPO / 8bp050 / Faster Than Time
65daysofstatic / Unreleased_Unreleasable Vol. 2 / aren’t we all running [feedle] (Yes, I know I typo’ed that in the art but too late now.)
YUKSEK / The Wax – EP / crosswords
BIT SHIFTER / Half-Life / Antenna
BEAK / amoral mayor earwig ep / i saw two of me
DETEKTIVBYRÅN / Hemvägen EP / E18
DIVISION DAY / Covers/Remixes / Enjoy the Silence
TALL DWARFS / That’s the Short and Long of It / Nothing’s Going to Happen
THE VIOLETS / The Lost Pages / Parting Glances
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS / Live on Fair Game with Faith Salie / The Nun’s Litany [acoustic radio]
As I’ve said before, while I really enjoy all of these mixes, I made all of these mix CDs to pass along to my Greek wife. (You can read more about it here!)
If you can see the mix CD cover? You’ll understand why I went this route. I am not a subtle designer! I believe it coincided with a summertime when there were a lot of Greek street festivals as — in Chicago — there are times where you can’t walk a few blocks without running into Greek dancers, but I could be misremembering.
Anyway. That alleyway? I believe I took that photo when we used to live in the Chicago neighborhood of Ravenswood. It was an alleyway along one of my least favorite rentals.
My wife and I lived in Ravenswood intermittently for a few years which, if you are familiar with Chicago? It’s one of the Chicago neighborhoods where a couple moves to from the Loop or a more single-centric district like Wrigleyville or — at the time — Wicker Park or Bucktown, then they adopt a dog to test their relationship and then live there with the dog until they come to an understanding that they can care for the dog so they can also care for kids.
They then have a kid and walk the kid around the neighborhood with a gigantic carriage that takes up most of Chicago’s narrow sidewalks, their forlorn dog by the side taking up the rest of the space, all while taking advantage of an adjacent culturally vibrant queer community — such as our long-lived neighborhood of Andersonville, a neighborhood I’d be happy dying in — without giving anything back.
When the kid is around three or four? They move to the north Chicago suburb of Evanston and slowly slide into a vastly different, oft-existentially depressing life.
It’s a tale as old as time. I have seen this occur to an absurd extent. I’m witnessing it in real-time with a nearby couple. I may sound bitter, but I have reason to be. These neighborhoods I’ve lived in aren’t meant to be transient launching pads for your 30s and to later say you were part of these communities when you actively were not. I’ve seen neighborhoods bled dry by these actions.
I did not expect to pen that much of a tirade. Apologies for too much information, and to anyone reading this who loves Ravenswood and/or moved to Evanston! You are awesome!
I’ll note that this is probably the one mix where I’ve seen almost all of the bands in-person: GOGOL BORDELLO? BEIRUT? DEVOTCHKA? THE PIPETTES? BISHOP ALLEN? EMILIE SIMON? IMOGEN HEAP? CONVERTER — we brought him to Chicago via a short-lived production group! — and there are more!
We were firing on all cylinders then. Props to fellow members Zoe and DJ KY and my wife, who put up with my hard head.
I like the above card I designed that we left at any place in Chicago that would allow it, but we did have issues because I didn’t allow for enough bleed. (We made it work.) Also? That’s the back, hence the lack of venue address. I don’t love the front enough to bother posting it. (Good, vibrant colors. Bad vector conversion regarding the primary photo though.)
And no, that URL no longer works.
I’ve veered wildly off-topic! I don’t love this CD mix cover. The leading sucks. The alleyway isn’t as striking as I’d hoped. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t quite capture one’s attention.
Highlights? Most of those are about poignancy and melancholy, because maybe I was going through some shit at the time? CAMERA OBSCURA’s late 60s-early 70s throwback bop ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken’. IMOGEN HEAP’s heartbreaking ‘Glittering Heap’. SHRAG’s ‘Hopelessly Wasted’ which feels like one of the most dispirited prom songs ever. Also, the extraordinary sad tale of living life over time via THE DIVINE COMEDY’s ‘Lady of a Certain Age’.
Anyway. Enjoy, despite the fact that I misspelled CONVERTER on the album cover. Sorry about that, CONVERTER! (Your live version of ‘Denogginizer’ is a banger!)
Track listing: (Artist / album / song)
JUF / Gogol Bordello Vs. Tamir Muskat / Super Rifle [BALKAN EXPRESS TRAIN ROBBERY]
BEIRUT / Gulag Orkestar / Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)
Devotchka / Supermelodrama / Curse Your Little
THE LONG BLONDES / Someone to Drive You Home / Separated By Motorways
LOVE IS ALL / Nine Times the Same Song / Used Goods
THE PIPETTES / We Are The Pipettes / Dirty Mind
CAMERA OBSCURA / Let’s Get Out Of This Country / Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken
THE BLOOD BROTHERS / Young Machetes / Spit Shine Your Black Clouds
VALENTINOS / Kitsune Maison 3 / Kafka [Bag Raiders What Y’all Kno ‘Bout Seven] (Erroneously labeled above)
JON SHEFFIELD / One Winter Is Notenuf / Air Supplies, Toothbrush, Etc.
Part four of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
If you’re wondering about the title? It’s because we were driving through Madison, WI and I took a pic when we pulled aside and bought some gasoline.
That’s it.
That’s the entire story.
Also? Not my favorite cover. Feels a bit too forced and anti-septic, but it is what it is. Could be worse. At least I like the font.
Also? I fucking enumerated it this time.
Highlights? D.A.T. POLITICS’s ‘Viper Eyes’ is one hell of a bop. SABREPULSE’s ‘Famicom Connection’ is a whimsical 8-bit delight, and COIN-OP’s ‘Hey Uri!’ is a thrill ride that tears Uri Geller a new one.
Unfortunately, a fair number of tracks are unavailable to stream. My apologies.
Part three of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
Gotta admit, this is one of my favorites mix CD cover designs, both back and forth. I love me my structural neon pink + minimalism, to the point where it has made some folks very angry at me.
(When I redesigned one of my sites to feature a similar hot pink — this was over a decade ago — and wow, readers were pissed to the point where I gave in and added an aqua blue theme toggle. Fuck ’em! No regrets! Love the pink!)
I do wish I had thought of the phrase ‘The Joy of Repetition’ as I’ve harped on the virtues of repetition in prior posts while discussing videogames many moons ago, but no: I 100% stole it from the featured HOT CHIP track ‘Over and Over’.
Not to back-pat myself too much, but I love this mix. I could listen to this for days, even weeks on end. JAMES FIGURINE’s 55566688833 is the stand-out here; an absolutely emotionally brutal slice of electronics that is very, very much of its texting-time in ways that is incredibly exacting.
When we disagree? We fight in capital letters.
I have to type a lot of numbers into my cellphone, just to make it spell LOVE so I usually don’t.
Track list (Artist / Album / Song):
JM / [plpl000] Various – Hello World / The Circle Machine
ZIGGY KINDER / Akrobatik / Paarartistik
ELLEN ALLIEN & APPARAT / Orchestra of Bubbles / Do Not Break
WAX TAILOR / Tales of the Forgotten Melodies / Que Sera
HOT CHIP / Over and Over EP / Over and Over
I AM THE WORLD TRADE CENTER / The Cover Up / Future Sightings
RODRIGO Y GABRIELA / Rodrigo Y Gabriela / Tamacun
DATA / Trop Laster EP / Master Level
JAMES FIGURINE / Mistake, Mistake, Mistake, Mistake / 55566688833
INKLEIN QUARTET / Brave New World / Lonely Whale Song
(Somehow the Sigur Ros track went missing.)
GODSPEED! YOU BLACK EMPEROR / Yanqui U.X.O. / Motherfucker=Redeemer (Part Two)
Part two of a series of music mixes! Learn more here!
Apart from the pink, I do not love this very, very old cover, designed around the end of the modern grunge design movement. The kerning sucks and there’s no enumeration for the tracks. I have no idea what I was thinking apart from probably trying to kill some 3AM insomnia boredom.
Also, I was probably altered, as is pretty much bog-standard for 3AM insomniacs.
However, I will note that — like almost all of these cover designs — the photo is from my library (albeit heavily tweaked) so it has that going for it.
Also, it does have my favorite SLEATER-KINNEY song — ‘Hollywood Ending’ which, admittedly is probably no one else’s fav SLEATER-KINNEY song. (Seriously, one of these days I’ll figure out how to emblazon the lyrics “WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE SHOUTING?! YOU SEE MY SKIN!!” on me.)
It also features a track from one of the best named bands ever: CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE.
Anyway, here’s the proper track listing! (Artist / album / song title):
JUN FUKUDA / KILLER7 OST / Techs Mecks
VITALIC / OK Cowboy / U & I
PAAVOHARJU / Summer and Smiles of Finland / Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Läpi
AKIRA YAMAOKA / SILENT HILL 2 OST / True
YEAH YEAH YEAHS / Show Your Bones / Gold Lion
MORNING MUSUME / OSU! TATAKAE! OUENDAN! OST / Koi no Dance Site
SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB / Jesus Let Me Down / Hold My Head [Live]
SLEATER-KINNEY / One Beat / Hollywood Ending
FREEZEPOP / Hi-Five My Remix / Stakeout [Donnerschlag]
BIT SHIFTER / Information Choice / Hexadecimal Genome
SASKROTCH / Nintendo Breakz Volume One / In The Next Room Lies Our Destiny
CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE. / Etiquette / Scattered Pearls
J.U.F. / Gogol Bordello Vs. Tamir Muskat / Onto Transmigration
SONS & DAUGHTERS / The Repulsion Box / Rama Lama
MASAFUMI TAKADA / KILLER7 OST / Visionary Community
B. FLEISCHMANN / The Humbucking Coil / Broken Monitors
Gonna try something a bit different, especially since I’m feeling burned out at the moment.
If you are of a certain age, you may fondly remember mix tapes or mix CDs.
You know? Actual physical items that you had to spend a lot of time and effort to pass off to someone in hopes they’d like your musical taste? And once you did so, it was nothing you could reclaim? It wasn’t just a fucking Spotify click?
I made my wife a lot of mix CDs.
A LOT. Can’t even enumerate them via all of my digits.
I’ll note? We both were pretty hardcore about our goth/industrial music scene and we both booked acts and DJed and all of that, so … not unwanted. I wasn’t that dude. (I’ll briefly note? It’s sad that these spaces are few and far between now. I have no idea how other misfits find each other in this day and age. Apparently they …just don’t?)
It was just something I did because it was fun! Can’t we all have some fun without expectations?
(This is actually why I created this blog.)
I’d also design covers for said mixes before pressing it into her hands. The image above? Me.
I’ve been rediscovering a lot of the albums and cover art as of late and, not to toot my own horn but I’m really enjoying this trip down memory lane!
So if I have to have my fun, you do too!
A brief aside: I do not have all of the covers for each and every mix. (Cut me some slack! It’s been over a decade!)
Also, this will be an intermittent feature, simply because prepping all of the artwork, hunting down the necessary tracks, writing remembrances, etc. will be exhausting. I hope ya enjoy it, though!
Lastly: I’ll note that, despite the label for this being ‘Electroclature’? Not all of the tracks are electro! Please do not be upset or pedantic about that. My blog, my rules!
