Well, me and DC have been waiting for Lily to make a post, but she apparently is a busy girl. I, too have been busy, and I present to you the results of such work.
A dance mix of sorts.
28 songs you may know and love.
And if you neither know nor love them, perhaps you will.
So. Here's the deal. I give you two choices. You can download it track by track and get the track list by scrolling down. Beneath each song is my own little commentary on the band and the track.
I also present it HERE for you in rar format so you could download the entire thing at once, if you happen to want the whole thing. Enjoy.
1.Mass Romantic-The New Pornographers
While A.C. Newman may get a lot of cred for the success of the New Pornographers, Neko Case is undoubtedly a contributing factor, particularly in those early days. After all, I don't hear Mr. Newman too much on one of their earliest hits "Letter from an Occupant" nor this song, the title track for the album Mass Romantic. No matter who made them big, they are undoubtedly dancy.
2.I Let Him Get to Me-Beat Happening
This is a song from their self-titled album. I'm sure you all you read DC's post, so I won't bore you with the details on them.
3.Crayon Box-The Gerbils
From the depths of the Elephant 6 Collective come the Gerbils. They've existed in a variety of forms, as the Elephant 6 bands had a tendency to do, and made pretty pop music the whole way. Their line up and contributors have included Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal), Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel), Scott Spillane (Neutral Milk Hotel), and John Fernandes (The Olivia Tremor Control) as well as tons of other talented people.
4.My Favorite Boxer-Of Montreal
A long time ago, Of Montreal wasn't just an amazing dancy synthy band who sang an unusual amount about Norway. They once told vibrant cute little stories in their songs, and the album The Gay Parade is filled with such songs, including this one. As yet another Elephant 6 Collective band, you can expect them to bring the pop.
5.Who'd Stop the Rain?-Dressy Bessy
Still more Elephant 6 here. Dressy Bessy took the wandering song writing abilities of Tammy Ealom(formerly of the Minders) and put them into a cohesive pop dance band with John Hill, Rob Greene, and Darren Albert.
6.Belly Button-Sufjan Stevens
Even Sufjan Stevens has a sense of humor, and from this early recording he makes it known.
7.Dance, Motherfucker, Dance!-The Violent Femmes
When the Violent Femmes tell you to dance, you better fucking dance.
8.Bedtime for Bonzo-Los Gatos Negroes
"Politically charged thrash punk rockers" is a phrase that's thrown around a lot these days. Appropriately, it's thrown at Los Gatos Negros. That's about all you can say about them, however. No one knows for certain who these crazy cats are, their true identity kept a highly guarded secret.
9.A Suit of Clouds to Ride the Skies-Half-Handed Cloud
John Ringhoffer loves God, experimental pop music, and beards. Check him out.
10.Kill This Monster-Los Gatos Negros
More from the mysterious Los Gatos Negros.
11.Your Retro Career Melted-The Faint
The Faint are one of the danciest, raunchiest bands around. If you like sex, debauchery, dancing, synthesizers, and mad beats, the Faint is the band for you period.
12.Mikey Bass-The Books
The story of this song is that some guy named Mike came and played the bass for the Books. Hence the name.
13.Pysche Rock-Pierre Henry
You might not know his name, but you most likely know this song. You probably think of it as the "Futurama Theme Song." What it is in reality is one of the earliest experimental rock songs in existence. Pierre Henry was the protege of the original experimental artist, Pierre Schaffer. While Schaffer wouldn't necessarily approve of the addition of abstract music, he would've been happy with Henry's progress in the concrete.
14.I Got the Shit-Fatlip
Best known as the guy from the Pharcyde, Fatlip proves his worth on his solo album The Loneliest Punk with his mixture of funk, beats and somewhat confessional lyrics.
15.Slow Ride-The Beastie Boys
At this point in your life, if you don't know the Beastie Boys, shame. That's all. Shame.
16. What's Up Fatlip?-Fatlip
More confessional rhymes from Fatlip.
17.Gravel Pit-The Wu-tang Clan
The Wu-tang Clan, simply put, are not a thing to be fucked with.
18.Release Yo' Delf-Method Man
Method Man raw, before he did all those weird collaborations.
19.Lone Tiger Mantra-Daniel Craig
You all know Daniel Craig.
20.Satan's Saxophones-Sufjan Stevens
Before Sufjan calmed down, he enjoyed noise. This is one such example. Kind of an acquired taste thing.
21.Variation pour Une Porte-Pierre Henry
Another even earlier work by Pierre Henry. This one is purely concrete experimental, using only sound samples from a creaking door. Another acquired taste thing.
22.Symphonie pour une Homme Seul-Pierre Schaffer and Pierre Henry
Early experimental from Pierre Schaffer and Pierre Henry. Schaffer, if you don't know by now, is the originator of Musique Concrete, or "concrete music" and was obsessed with discovering a "new sound." He never discovered the new sound and felt that his life was a miserable failure. However, his work did lead to such things like synthesizers and experimental rock. Still somewhat of an acquired taste, though.
23.Comfy In Nautica-Panda Bear
Panda Bear (AKA Noah Lennox) and his pals Avey Tare, Geologist and Deaken are better known as the Animal Collective. On his latest solo work, Person Pitch, Bear shows his Brian Wilson influence in his drawn out pop songs. This song is actually the shortest on the album, coming in at a bit over 4 minutes.
24.Courage the Cowardly Dog-They Might Be Giants
Keeping in their time honored tradition of doing songs for cartoons and kids shows, John and John do this little track about Courage the cowardly dog for (of course) the show Courage the Cowardly Dog.
25.Trouble with Dreams-Eels
Eels are rather known for their dark and dancy keyboard heavy tones, and this track is no exception.
26.Rubbernecker-Danielson Famile
"Too weird for the Christians and too Christian for the weirdos" is how Danielson Famile frontman Daniel Smith describes their music. Despite their weirdness, or despite their Christianity (depending on whom you ask), they make some mighty good music.
27.We're All Trying-Matty Pop Chart
We've been over Matty Pop Chart.
28.Iowa-John Linnell
John Linnell is one of the Johns of They Might Be Giants. His solo album, State Songs, came from his inability to come up with song titles. He concluded to use state names since that would be 50 names already.
Well, that's it. I hope you enjoyed it. If you didn't I'm sorry. Let me know what you think. Thanks. Tired. Later.
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