For the past 7 or so summers, I've pieced together a mix CD for my wife and our sisters that's my attempt at, well, a Summer mix for that summer. I try to put together a pop collection of stuff I think is good and will be popular with all of us. (And I try to keep the lyrics kid-friendly.) I generally stick to broadly-defined "Pop," but that has included everything from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy to Buju Banton, White Stripes to Kanye West, Justin Timberlake to Zola Jesus, Taylor Swift to Sleigh Bells, and Grizzly Bear to Gang Gang Dance.
I'm just putting my thoughts together for this year (mix usually ready for the 4th of July), but here's what I've got so far:
EMA "Milkman"
Hooray for Earth "No Love"
Nicki Minaj "Super Bass"
Eric Copeland "Puerto Rican"
JKR70 presents Clay Hughes "The Love I Gave Ya"
I'm also thinking of maybe some Current 93, Fovea Hex, Andy Stott, and Gang Gang Dance, but that's already way too much weird for a year's worth of summers. I'm going to look into Adele (I haven't heard anything other than that she's HUGE), and maybe find good summer songs of the new Thurston Moore and Low LPs, but I'm very short on actual pop. I tried listening to about 15 minutes of KDWB and whatever became of B96, but that was difficult and those songs stunk.
So, you got any suggestions of upcoming new things that would be good? (I can especially use some help finding my obligatory country single.) Thanks much!
I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but maybe you can find an obligatory country single in my random ten today:
01. Agalloch - "The Lodge", The Mantle
02. Amon Amarth - "Bleed For Ancient Gods", The Avenger
03. Dark Tranquillity - "Nothing To No One", Fiction
04. Testament - "Perilous Nation", Practice What You Preach
05. Iron Maiden - "Public Enema Number One", No Prayer For The Dying
06. Danzig - "I Luciferi", Danzig 777: I Luciferi (promo)
07. King Diamond - "Follow The Wolf", House Of God
08. Atheist - "Life", Piece Of Time
09. Jotenheim - "Hyborian Dreams", Jotenheim
10. Game Over - "Little Mac's Confession", Nintendo Metal
Testament sounds like they might be a gospel group. Could be close enough... is that a recent release?
With either a time machine or 20 years of amnesia it could be considered recent...
I got a new laptop this week. The transition of bring tunes over has been a slow one so we are only working from around 3,000 songs compared to the usual 6,000 or so on the last computer.
The Jayhawks "Tailspin" Rainy Day Music
The Rentals "Waiting" Return Of
Broken Social Scene "Fire Eye'd Boy" Broken Social Scene
The Whigs "So Lonely" In the Dark
Dexter Gordon "Like Someone in Love" Our Man In Paris
Sloan "With Bells On" Twice Removed
Tom Waits "Aint' Goin' Down To The Well" Orphans
The Lilys "Oicur" Everything Wrong is Imaginary
The Doves "Darker" Lost Souls
Jens Lekman "Rocky Dennis In Heaven" Oh, You're So Silent Jens
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* Past is Past - Demdike Stare - Triptych (1)
* Here Comes a Regular - The Replacements - Tim
* Sliver - Nirvana - Incesticide (2)
* Aurora Borealis - Meat Puppets - II
* Westbound Sign - Green Day - Insomniac
* F.W.T.B.T. - Sunn O))) - Flight of the Behemoth (3)
* Dead and Bloated - Stone Temple Pilots - Core
* Red Rain - The White Stripes - Get Behind Me, Satan
* Them Bones - Alice in Chains - Dirt
* Oh The Guilt - Nirvana - With the Lights Out
(1) - Final track on the massive 3-CD album of some of the creepiest ambient/techno I've heard.
(2) - Grandma, take me home. Grandma, take me home. Grandma, take me home. Grandma, take me home.
(3) - Metallica cover (For Whom The Bell Tolls)
(2) - Couldn't chew my meat too good...
Man, I feel like I lived that song a few times.
(As long as you don't look for subtext in the song that Grandpa Joe is a creep. G&G's house was just incredibly boring.)
I'm in the exact same boat as FThitmanLT...I'll see what I can see about the Summer Mix "pop" song.
You Shook Me All Night Long AC/DC
Killboy Powerhead The Offspring
She’ll Hang The Baskets Cake
Life For Rent Dido
Blood On The Ground Incubus
No Excuses Alice In Chains
I Will Possess Your Heart Death Cab For Cutie
Murder Ink Dr. Dre
Tides Megafaun
When I’m Gone 3 Doors Down
That DeathCab song made a summer mix when it came out.
No music for me today. My iPod is at home. I'm flying to Tejas for a history conference at UT and I want to keep the thing fully charged for the flights.
I got nothin'. As you can tell by my weekly lists, I'm out of touch with currrent pop music.
01 Not One of Us - Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (3)
02 Let It Down - George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
03 Este Mundo - Gipsy Kings - !Volare!
04 The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Pogues - Rum Sodomy and the Lash
05 Dirty Life and Times - Warren Zevon - The Wind
06 Session Man - The Kinks - Face to Face
07 FM - Steely Dan - A Decade of Steely Dan
08 5:15 - Who - Quadrophenia
09 Let's Make a Better World - Dr. John - Definitive Pop Collection *
10 Nervous on the Road (But Can't Stay at Home) - Brinsley Schwarz - Surrender to the Rhythm
Bonus Sole Salvation - English Beat - Special Beat Service
* I always find in amusing this Dr. John compilation is called "the Definitive Pop Collection" It's a great 2-disc compilation, but I've never really thought of the good Dr. as "pop".
1. Neotropic “Rote” La Prochaine Fois
2. Coldcut “Rubiaiyat” Let Us Play!
3. Bobby Bare Jr's Young Criminals Starvation League “Things I Didn't Say”*
4. Black Dice “Chicken S#!+” Repo
5. Soundgarden “Mind Riot” Badmotorfinger
6. Howie B. “Nordleed”* Jockey Slut Jukebox
7. Meat Puppets “The Spider and the Spaceship” Lollipop
8. Dave Aju “Xibalbanasazi” The Tables Turn
9. Ani DiFranco “Shameless (Bathtub Mix)” More Joy Less Shame
T. Tim Hecker “Atlas Two” Atlas
B. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy “Rich Wife Full of Happiness” Ease Down the Road
*Notes
3. Written by Shel Silverstein
6. Rare compilation-only track that is my favorite Howie B. track. I looked for and couldn't find a streaming version online to link to. (He's the guy famous for producing Pop for U2, Redboy for Robbie Robertson, and parts of Tricky's Maxinquaye and Björk's Post and Homogenic.)
I would definitely check out Adele. Rumor Has It is a big hit that may work. As for the obligatory country single are you thinking something recent or classic? Lucinda Williams would easily fit the bill.
1. We Dance -- Pavement
2. Shirley's Looking Down -- Magnolias
3. Have Mercy -- Loretta Lynn
4. Ester's Day -- Guided By Voices
5. A Snowflake Fell -- Glasvegas
6. Kaw-liga -- Hank Williams
7. Queen of the World -- The Jayhawks
8. Kneeling Drunkards' Plea -- Johnny Cash
9. Relaxin' at Camarillo (take c) -- Charlie Parker
10. The Caretaker - Johnny Cash
Bonus: Train of Love -- Neil Young
What does Lucinda have out that's new? Any singles that have crossover potential?
Listening to the Adele now... I'll have to let it settle around. It reminds me of 2006-07 (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson and all).
LW has a new album out called Blessed and actually her first single Buttercup was the free i-tunes download of the day a couple of days ago.
Adele is definitely an Amy Winehouse knock-off without the tats and drug addiction.
it's a pandora day for me. I have two "professional development days" (no, not "vacation days" or "holidays" -- the legislature eliminated two holidays and instead gave us two days to develop our professional I have to use or lose by June 30. today is one. I'm professionally developing a shopping list for a weekend in Tahoe, and I'm going to take a professional nap. Maybe I will professionally watch some recorded shows on the DVR.
1. "September Song", Dave Brubeck, Indian Summer
2. "The Search," Pat Metheny, American Garage
3. "Cinema Paradiso (Love Theme)," Pat Metheny, Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories)
4. "Sunday Morning," Fourplay, X
5. "Feeling Good," Michael Bublé, It's Time
6. "Here We Go Again," Ray Charles (featuring Norah Jones), Genius Loves Company
7. "Sous Le Ciel De Paris," Duo Gadjo, Meet Me in Paris
8. "Don't Cry Baby," Madeleine Peyroux, Careless Love
9. "Takin' Care of Business," Bachmann-Turner Overdrive,
10. "If 6 Was 9," Jimi Hendrix, Experience Hendrix -- The Best of Jimi Hendrix
B. "Gone, Gone, Gone," Bad Company, Desolation Angels
double bonus: People of Walmart!!!!1111one111!!!!
Seeing the first song on your summer list, AMR, I feel compelled to share that I can't stop listening to EMA (it's been going on for a couple weeks now).
"The Grey Ship" is a great song. I believe it was Zack who originally pointed her out to me. Thanks, Zack.
I'm not sure about the rest of the album. Pitchfork.tv hosted the "Milkman" video and I really dug that. I'll need more time on the rest, it's not as immediate.
It's all dreary and rainy here today, so I definitely think that today is a perfect day to listen to this album. I think I will do that once I get out of meetings.
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01. Xiu Xiu - "Hives Hives" from Knife Play
02. The Streets - "Same Old Thing" from Original Pirate Material
03. Scarface - "One Time" from The Diary
04. Dead Kenndys - "California Über Alles" from Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
05. Curren$y ft. Smoke DZA - "Life Instructions" from Covert Coup
06. HEALTH - "Courtship" from HEALTH
07. Harlem - "Be Your Baby" from Hippies
08. Gunplay - "Miss Me" from Inglorious Bastard
09. Crocodiles - "Here Comes the Sky" from Summer of Hate
10. Project Pat - "Up There" from Ghetty Green
I had HEALTH's "USA BOYS" on last year's summer mix, and the Streets' "Fit But You Know It" on the inaugural 2004 mix (there was a mix in 2003, but that was put together after the summer for my sister in AK who really lost touch with pop culture when I was keying in on it).
I dont know a whole lot about current music anymore, but I picked up an album called Rock and Roll Backlash by some group called The Woggles at a Best Buy for 5 bucks. Its got a 60's garage rock sound to it
So after a little research, I did find a few "pop" songs that I can safely recommend for a summer mix. Some are a bit older, some are newer (or at least new to me) and I'm fairly sure that all are non-explicit though I don't know if all the themes are "kid-safe".
I'd like to see your finished track list; I may turn this into one of my own:
Martin Solveig & Dragonette Hello
Fitz & The Tantrums L.O.V.
Neon Trees Your Surrender
Mike Posner Please Don't Go
Raphael Saadiq Stone Rollin'
The Black Keys Tighten Up
Foster The People Pumped Up Kicks
Adele Rolling In The Deep
The Script For The First Time
Edward Maya Stereo Love
Bonus:
Florence + The Machine You've Got The Love