Part thirteen of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
I know this is a CGA-ish eyesore. (CGA? An old-school limited computer display spectrum.) I got way too carried away but I think it has a certain charm, even if it gives me a bit of a migraine.
Included is the back and front and an alternate cover — which is even more of a visual headache! — because that’s a thing I used to do for some reason. Also, the initial template, which is far friendlier to one’s senses.
…or not.
There’s a lot of repetition here. A lot of the same tracks from a few prior volumes. I’m gonna chalk that up to a bipolar manic episode because that tracks.
(And yes, I still have a few ‘tape suitcases’ exactly like this, full of second or third or fifth-generation ripped audio works.)
Highlights! EXOCET’s South End [Colombian Connection] is powernoise perfection, all gristle and meaty beats. THE BPA and Toe Jam is so exuberant and ebullient, although 80% of that is instilled solely by David Byrne’s lilt. THE LONG BLONDES’ I’m Going to Hell from their under-heard album ‘Couples’ which features the following:
I didn’t want to risk the chance of someone finding out /
Now I’m going to hell, so I may as well make it worth my while
Yeah, that’s my lifelong anthem.
Yes, I spent a stupid amount of time on all of these works, and that time is not reflected in the end-product!
Part twelve of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
I grabbed this photo while walking around Chicago’s Lincoln Square which …isn’t my favorite neighborhood. I know the term ‘yuppie’ doesn’t carry the same cultural weight it used to, but uh, yeah. It’s a straight-laced yuppie neighborhood with a lot of strollers, smug and self-righteous and self-entitled folks, and littered with antiseptic and bland local businesses.
It used to be predominantly a German neighborhood, as Chicago’s stupidly segregated and that’s where a lot of German immigrants moved to and set up shop. Sadly, almost all of the German restaurants and shops are no longer. The cultural flavor of Lincoln Square simply doesn’t exist any more.
There is the Davis Theater, which used to be a charming and cheap shithole, but they remodeled and cleaned it up. However, it remains one of my go-tos for more mainstream films because it is indie and the employees and clientele are awesome. One helped me out with a very difficult situation when someone got way too handsy with me.
Anyway! I couldn’t resist two clouds sucking face and merging with each other.
That rather sums up the entire cover. I am not proud of it. The numerical styling is weak and indistinct and — apart from the building in the corner — it looks pretty fucking boring. However, it is a thing that exists and something I willed into the world, for better or for worse.
Highlights? CALL ME POUPÉE’s svelte Montreal pop of Rumba Maniak! 90s throwback ELASTICA’s radio session of Hold Me Now! The social anxiety of LOVE IS ALL’s 19 Floors! However, my personal favorite? SHRAG’s Talk to the Left [DJ Downfall Entente Cordiale] which is 100% about handjobs and so catchy.
As usual, here’s the format. (Artist / Album / Song):
LENNI JABOUR & THE THIRD FLOOR / Les Dangereuses / Les Fleurs Mécontentes
PARENTHETICAL GIRLS / Entanglements / Windmills of Your Mind
KATZENJAMMER / Le Pop / Mother Superior
CALL ME POUPÉE / Western Shanghai / Rumba Maniak
FLOGGING MOLLY / Float / Float
TITUS ANDRONICUS / The Airing of Grievances / Fear and Loathing in MahWah, NJ
LOS CAMPESINOS! / We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed / Ways to Make It Through the Wall
ELASTICA / The Radio One Sessions / Hold Me Now [Peel]
LOVE IS ALL / A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At / 19 Floors
THE VIOLETS / The Lost Pages / Forget Me Not
BLOOD RED SHOES / Box of Secrets / It’s Getting Boring by the Sea
EVIL NINE / They Live! / They Live! [Felix Cartal]
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 five of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!
For some reason, my archived playlist kicks off with JÓHANN JÓHANNSON’s ‘The sun’s gone dim and the sky’s turned black’ from his album IBM 1401, a user’s manual. I do not know why I didn’t include it, as my father worked for IBM and I find it to be a very personal song.
So, despite the fact that it’s not actually part of the CD I handed off, I’m including it here.
(It’s worth noting Jóhann is no longer with us, but his music will always remain.)
The cover? A close-up of a porch railing from one of our prior apartments. We were always shocked that it didn’t completely fall apart upon stepping out on it, as it was absolutely carved away by termites.
Highlights? RATATAT’s ‘Lex’ is perfectly constructed to sway to in the middle of the night. SUPERSYSTEM’s ‘White Light White Light’ is a raucous good time. BONDE DO ROLE heavily sample ‘The Final Countdown’ which is nostalgic, well-infused fun. THE LONG BLONDES always entertain and ‘You Could Have Both’ is a very breathless song about lust and desire and allure no matter who it affects, as is par for the course for them.
Lastly? I have no fucking clue how I settled on the title. I’m guessing I may have been suggesting that attention is needed while watching VHS tapes recorded in SP as they’re far shorter than recording in EP format, but I doubt it.
Tracklust, I mean tracklist: Artist / Album / Song!
JÓHANN JÓHANNSON / IBM 1401, a user’s manual / The sun’s gone dim and the sky’s turned black
REGINA SPEKTOR / Begin to Hope / Edit
naomi sample / microballads vol 1 / living auf a satellite
BONDE DO ROLE / Bonde Do Role / Ma´quina de Ricota
null / Okami OST (Vol. 2) / Crimson Helm, Begone!
RATATAT / Classics / Lex
SUPERSYSTEM / A Million Microphones / White Light White Light
Coin-op / null / White Picket
THE LONG BLONDES / Someone To Drive You Home / You Could Have Both
DAVID & THE CITIZENS / S/T / Now She Sleeps In A Box In The Good Soil Of Denmark
MICAH P HINSON / The Baby & The Satellite / The Dreams You Left Behind (Reprise)
DeVotchKa / How It Ends / Such a Lovely Thing
Gál Attila scratch and jew’s harping by Kwikka / Nomada remix album / Aven le Roma! [reCord]
XIU XIU / The Air Force / boy record
MY DAD VS. YOURS / Crossed Soundtrack / Law of Unintended Consequences
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
