Music is my life. Everything can be expressed, handled or just felt more deeply with the right chord or phrase. I have been blessed with some amazing friends and am still at that point where my life is an open book. If you’d like, stick around for a bit and help me write a few chapters…A Winter Mixtape
February 23rd, 2010
In a constant obsession to not wind up on the show “Hoarders” (we’ll discuss that later) I found myself digging through my boxes of things previously deemed ‘of great value’ a few weekends back and happened to find a dozen or so cassette tapes that I’ve held on to for at least fifteen and maybe even twenty years. Most of them were quickly thrown away with the knowledge that I owned the cd or mp3s of that album and didn’t need the cassette anymore. However, there were three tapes that were more than just the standard cd precursor but had once been a mixtape created at some time in my childhood. Each in their own way no longer played whether the tape had been torn or stretched or content erased but that didn’t stop me from wondering what treasures each had once held. Back before the Internet, Napster or even cds, musical life in a small town was not one of abundant options. But for a while we did have a radio station that tried to play contemporary music and I remember always having a blank tape in the tape deck in case a song I liked and might want to hear again would come on. And if the tape was really good… you’d share it with your friends or play it in the car.
With the awesomeness of those mixtapes lost in time, my brother provided his own slice of musical gifting in the form of mix cd when I was home for the Super Bowl. Teary-eyed and not wanting to have to say good-bye and head back to ‘real life’, I graciously accepted the disc he handed me as I was leaving. He’d previewed bits of it for us as we’d driven around throughout the weekend, but it wasn’t until I was in my office the next the day that I truly got to experience his collection of Winter songs. That was three weeks ago, and I’ve yet to stop listening to his mix since. It’s now a playlist of each of my iPods (yeah, yeah I have more than one and less than six) and before I share any of the rest of the music I’ve been listening to this past year, you need to hear this modern day mixtape. With sixteen different artists there’s no expectation that you’ve heard them all, but trust me, the rest of their stuff is as good as the songs in this post. So if you’re itching for something new and don’t know what to buy, let this be my suggestion list.
P.S. – Thanks, Zac. You truly are the best musical (and every thing else) brother ever!
Wilco – Jesus, Etc: Go buy Yankee Foxtrot Hotel and then every other album of theirs’ you can find. Trust me.
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Whiskeytown – Sit and Listen To The Rain: My Ryan Adams love knows no bounds especially when it comes to the old Whiskeytown stuff. “Sit around, dream away the place I’m from. Used to feel so much, now I just feel numb” Yeah, that good.
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TV On The Radio – Wolf Like Me: More likely than not you first heard this song advertising the 2010 Winter Olympics and not from TVOTR’s 2006 Return to Cookie Mountain. That doesn’t mean you should pick up the latter.
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Sun Kil Moon – Carry Me Ohio: I’m pretty sure Zac gave me his beloved disc so that I’d finally listen to this song he’d recommended weeks before. But somehow in the hubbub of life, I’d lost his recommendation and grown tired of googling to figure out that weirdly named some from that weirdly named band. And of course, pride would not allow me to ask again. Luckily, he acted with pity on me and provided this gem and highlight of the album. My students may have grown tired of it after three weeks of constant play, but you should hear that stuff they force me to listed to. ::shudders::
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I have a student worker who might just be my long lost pop-culture twin. Of the many things we have in common, our love of Taylor Swift (Tay Tay) sits high on the list. It’s nice to know that at least someone in the office is willing to argue with me whether “White Horse” or “Love Story” is a more reality-based song. (Don’t judge… it’s better than the WoW talk.) Anyway, I was informed that Tay Tay was on CSI tonight and as part of the episode they played a remixed version of “You’re Not Sorry” from her album Fearless. I swear this girl is everywhere and so far without the usual teen star drama. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that she stays successful and doesn’t follow down the dark path of so many before her. Otherwise, you might have too severely depressed fans on your hands.
It’s been way too long since I’ve taken the time to really share new music with you. Last week during my daily wanderings of my favorite blogs (thank you, google reader) I found this compilation of remixes and mashups of some of the biggest songs of 2008 and Grammy nominees and knew you had to hear it. Since then I can’t get enough of this disc and have burned a copy for all I thought might enjoy it. Lil Wayne… Jay-Z…. John Mayer… Adele… Coldplay… these are all some of my top songs and albums of 2008. (A list I’m finally finishing up to present to you next Thursday.) If you ever heard Radiohead and thought Lupe Fiasco could really give this song an edge, than this disc is for you. If you have no idea who Lupe Fiasco is, don’t be afraid to take a listen… you might just enjoy him and so many of the others on this playlist. One warning though… put some headphones on if you’re in the office. This isn’t your typical easy listening station tunage. (Make sure you listen to Mayer and Jay-Z – #12. So hot!)