Perhaps enough time has passed since the last one, or perhaps I've been restless lately, but over the weekend I threw together another mix. As with previous ones, this is a mix of songs that are new, songs that are new to me, and songs that I've had for a while but haven't put in my mix catalogue yet. Break out those earbuds!
- M.I.A. – Paper Planes play Amazon
- Heart – Crazy On You play Amazon
- S.S.H. – Big Blue play
- Jet Lag Gemini – Run This City play Amazon
- B.o.B. – Bet I play Amazon
- Over It – Waiting play Amazon
- Jonathan Coulton – Skullcrusher Mountain play Amazon
- Ke$ha – Your Love Is My Drug play Amazon
- SR-71 – Right Now play Amazon
- Tommy Tutone – 867-5309 play Amazon
- Lady GaGa – Alejandro play Amazon
- Boston – Peace Of Mind play Amazon
- will.i.am featuring Thugnificent – D#@%-Riding Obama* play
- Rick Springfield – Jesse's Girl play Amazon
- Millencolin – No Cigar play Amazon
- The High And Mighty featuring Mos Def and Skillz – B-Boy Document '99 play Amazon
- Paramore – Decode play Amazon
- Jay-Z – Thank You play Amazon
- The Roots featuring John Legend – The Fire play Amazon
- Iyaz – Replay play Amazon
- The Outlaws – Green Grass and High Tides play Amazon
*came from The Boondocks episode "It's A Black President, Huey Freeman," spoofing the coattail-riding songs produced by the black entertainment community during Barack Obama's period as president-elect
Overall, this mix is fairly balanced between genres. Hip-hop, pop-punk, and 70's/80's tracks receiving five tracks a piece, with pop pulling up a close second with four tracks (including the autotune-tastic joke track from will.i.am and Thugnificent). The outliers are Jonathan Coulton's mad-scientist country love song and S.S.H.'s Japanese epic-metal cover of the Big Blue theme from F-Zero.
Invariably, songs from Rock Band end up sneaking their way into my mixes, and this time is no different. Last go-around it was "Ridin' The Storm Out" and "Monster" (yes, Lady GaGa is on Rock Band, and yes, it is awesome), and this time we get "Peace of Mind," "Skullcrusher Mountain," and "Green Grass and High Tides" (yes, this "Green Grass and High Tides"). Also referenced (though not officially counted) are Heart's "Crazy On You" (Guitar Hero II) and Jessie's Girl (Guitar Hero: World Tour).
Also going with the video game theme, we have a pair of tracks from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2: "No Cigar" from Swedish punk group Millencolin and "B-Boy Document '99" from former Rawkus Records members The High And Mighty. Both serve the function of being great songs and serving as nostalgia markers; listening to them reminds me of One-Footed Nosegrinding along the subway tracks in New York City.
At the end of the day, I'm much more satisfied the way this mix turned out, as compared to the previous one. It feels slightly less cobbled-together (mostly because I was able to iterate on the track order more, plus I wasn't limited to my songs like I was in China) and more me-feeling. It just goes to show you how play-testing your mixes will show you small things, like when one song feels just wrong put after another one (this mix had a lot of "This, Not That" moments, where I had to flip-flop several songs, rather than resequence an entire section). Enjoy to your heart's content! Maybe I'll get around to another full-length album sometime, but we'll save that one for another day. Until then, plug in the ol' iPod and git sum!
