I think I might be switching from CDs to playlists. Being unemployed, I can’t justify purchasing music as often as I like to acquire it, and Soulseek seems to have died while I was in Africa. No worries, though. I now have Grooveshark for all (err, most) of my music needs.

So far I’ve made one playlist, for a friend of mine, called Christopher. Here’s the tracklisting:

“Songs for the Fog”
1. Lordy – Dirty Three & Low
2. Birds Flying Away – Mason Jennings
3. Wonderlust King – Gogol Bordello
4. Float On – Iron Horse (Modest Mouse cover)
5. I Will Not Apologize – The Roots
6. I’m Your Man – Nick Cave (Leonard Cohen cover)
7. Numb – Jamelia (Linkin Park cover)
8. O Green World – Gorillaz
9. Beggin’ – Frankie Valli
10. Le Jour D’avant – Yann Tiersen
11. I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow – Soggy Bottom Boys
12. Stairway to Heaven – Dolly Parton (Led Zeppelin cover)
13. Ocean – Nina Nastasia
14. Afraid of Everyone – The National
15. Close Your Eyes and You’ll Burst Into Flames – Kaki King
16. M’Bifo – Rokia Traoré
17. The Wandering Boy – Roscoe Holcomb

The cool thing about Grooveshark: If you’d like to listen to this playlist, you can! 2 years ago

This is pretty much cross-posted from my Last.fm account:

I was studying abroad for a semester with Semester At Sea. In the spring of 2007, my life got way cooler.

Most of the people on the ship were jackasses to the extreme. Absolutely. I mean, honestly, out of a student body of 702, you’d expect at least five percent of them to be awesome. Noop.

One person who was awesome was Joe, the videographer for the programme. His job was to record footage of the ship, ship life, the countries we visited, etc etc. He was one of the relatively few people I enjoyed talking to, or listening to. He reminded me of David Cross and his cynicism was spectacular.

Anyway, I was in a random fucking fabulous mood on the day that happened to be his birthday, so I pulled a few songs from my ipod and made a mix I thought he’d enjoy. It only took a few hours to find and organize, and I didn’t know too much about what kind of music he listens to, so it wasn’t amazing. I put it on his cabin door, anonymously. The next morning, he came up to me and said “thank you.”

It looked like this and that’s probably why.

A few days later, while we were talking, he said “I finally got a chance to listen to your cd and I was actually surprised. You put some stuff on there that I really like, and you don’t know anything about my tastes. Good job.”

It made me happy.

1. The Passenger – Iggy Pop
2. Nietzsche – The Dandy Warhols
3. Waiting Room – Fugazi
4. Bone Machine – Pixies
5. Electric – Boris
6. Ccec – Autechre
7. Clap Hands – Tom Waits
8. They’re Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa! – Napoleon XIV
9. Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down) – Ween
10. I’m Your Man – Nick Cave (Leonard Cohen cover)
11. Drunken Lullabies – Flogging Molly
12. I Can’t Get Behind That – William Shatner with Henry Rollins
13. Le Jour D’avant – Yann Tiersen
14. Blue Flowers Revisited – Dr. Octagon
15. Vordhosbn – Aphex Twin
16. Teardrop – Massive Attack
17. Bad Penny – Big Black
18. Wasting Away – The Brian Jonestown Massacre
19. Missing My Son (spoken word) – Tom Waits 5 years ago

He’s just like me; I always need to wait for the right time to listen to something someone’s made for me. He totally dug it, which gives me some happiness inside. He said:

i finally listened to your awesome mix which was, quite seriously, very awesome. me and mary listened to it in the car, and we both thought it ruled (she’s demanding a copy of it).

Can you give me a playlist? Also, the first song is probably my favorite. And I appreciate the Xiu Xiu and Eels.

Love,
bq. Nick

Awesome. This makes me quite the pile of smiles. 6 years ago

I just got word that Nick received his cd in the mail.

The story behind his cd is a little something like this: I made the cd. I went to go visit him. I didn’t bring the cd with me. It was wet and/or raining the entire time I was there. I came home. I gutted the cd’s tracklisting. The cd is now completely rainy day nap music.

However, I realized the other night while driving around with Seth that it also passes for lazy summer evening music (made m’self a copy as well).

Nick’s CD – sent July 2006:

1. My Man’s Gone Now – Nina Simone
2. It’s Not Your Fault – The Boats
3. Lying in the Street – Mrs. Pilgrimm
4. Salt – Mugison
5. Camelia – Buried Beds
6. Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor – Eels
7. Alameda – Elliott Smith
8. One Day – Petra Jean Phillipson
9. Haunted by a Freak – Mogwai
10. You Are My Sunshine – Johnny Cash
11. Baby Bitch – Ween
12. Ballad of Paula and Sheila – Mason Jennings
13. Lordy – Low with Dirty Three
14. A French Galleasse – Rachel’s
15. Halfway to the Handshake – The Roots of Orchis
16. Satan Was Way Cool – Beck
17. Francis Locrius – Bablicon
18. The Charles C. Leary – Devendra Banhart
19. Fabulous Muscles [Mama Black Widow Version] – Xiu Xiu
20. Make it Hot – Mirah
21. The Recognition Scene – The Mountain Goats 6 years ago

I get really into them. Even if the playlist is weak, the person can count on it being a very thoughtful mixed cd which took me at least many hours here and there to put together.

The first one I ever bothered making was for my ex, who was only a friend at the time. Our friendship pretty much grew on trading those albums and hand drawn booklets.

I have to make a few more for the following people in my life:
Gabrielle, who has already given me two
Seth
Michael
maybe Jesse
Christopher, who is making one of me – we’re trading folk types. 6 years ago

I’ve finished making a batch of mixed CD’s for ten of my friends who asked for one. I’ve had a lot of fun trying to piece together songs that they haven’t heard but that should still fall into their range of taste. It’s been harder for some of my friends who I’m less familiar with as far as their musical inclinations go, but I’ve found it a challenge to my own tastes and collection to be able to pick from it mindfully. Narrowing down to 80 minutes of music for the audio CD’s was really tough since I’m used to planning out playlists that go on for days, often with blocks of full albums. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this project, it’s that my personal collection is far less expansive than I thought, though compared to most folks’ libraries it’s vast. I think I need more blues, country and new wave. 8 years ago

To most anyone who knows me well, it’s obvious I love art of various kinds; music, literature, visual art and craft work facinate me. Part of the joy of discovering new art is sharing it with others. I’m always telling my friends of new music and books I’ve come across and I try to write about the same often in my online journal.
When I can give people art I do so, and mixed CDs are a wonderful means of doing this. I’m always happy to receive a mix from others; there’s a special sense of discovery in listening to a mix that isn’t there in other ways of finding music.
Last week I found a book of stamps I didn’t know I had. Not having a plan for the stamps, I decided to use them to send CDs to some of my friends. I asked around and soon had a list of ten people who I’ll soon make mixes for.
It’s been interesting to me to see the sorts of music each of my friends have the keenest interest in. I have a wide musical taste so I can confidently fill a CD with music the receiver is bound to enjoy. I’ll be composing mixes for individuals who requested movie scores and new wave; anything but hardcore and rap; absolutely anything, except I’ve been warned not to include any country; slow, ambient, industrial and darkwave, or a CD of nothing but ocean sounds; and a blend of hip hop in the vein of Gorillaz and post-rock in the vein of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. My friends are an odd bunch. Isn’t it obvious why I love them? 8 years ago