Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll AND DEATH!

This is a special mix your resident Volume Knob heathen just made for a friend. It was tentatively titled "Michael in 2008!" but with the record of indulgences that rank unpopularly with the voting circuit, I decided to call a spade a spade and title this mix what it's really about: Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll, and Death.

22 tracks total / 1:19:53 total time

Side A:
1 Placebo - Pure Morning.mp3
I’m fairly certain this song has a little bit of everything.

2 The 6ths - The Dead Only Quickly.mp3
By Stephin Merritt. To know him is to love him.

3 The Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You.mp3
“up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start” I heard this cheat code for the first time a few weeks ago. So the theory goes that every male under the age of 30 has the Konami Code embedded in his DNA. True?

4 Matt & Kim - Yea Yeah.mp3
Such an addictive song! And the video is really fun. Also, go onto YouTube and pull up the super cracked-out remix of this. It’s like Sesame Street on 2C-I.

5 Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire.mp3
Another song-like-crack-like-whoa. It sounds totally 80’s but I think it came out in ’06. Those crazy Australians!

6 Jens Lekman - Into Eternity.mp3
My favorite track off the best album of last year. During the last part of the song, with the cowbell and drums and claps, I think all you need to do is add a whistle and it’ll sound like a Brazilian street party. And thus concludes the “super happy dance-y” part of the mix.

7 Jukebox the Ghost - Hold It In.mp3
I saw this band live in NY—the lead singer emotes with his entire face. It’s incredible.

8 Tori Amos - Happy Phantom.mp3
The happiest song about death EVER!

9 Peter Peter Hughes - I Don't Smoke.mp3
A solo-act song by my friend Peter (of the Mountain Goats). I think the lyrics are apt.

10 a-ha - Take on Me.mp3
lolololol. Forever on I will think of that scene in Family Guy when I hear this.

11 Beirut - Scenic World.m4a
I am currently SO obsessed with this song. I will listen to it on repeat and and the swaying, bouncy strings just keep capturing me, especially with the paired-down percussion and that brass.

12 Manu Chao - Me Gustas Tu.mp3
I took two years of Spanish in high school. I like this song because I can understand 90% of the lyrics. “I like your kitchen?” Whatever. It’s damn catchy.

13 The Cat Empire - Hotel California.mp3 (Eagles cover)
I’m hoping you don’t have this song. Je ne parle pas Français.

Side B:
14 the Mountain Goats - Two-Headed Boy.mp3 (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)
The Mountain Goats! Covering NMH!!! Be still my heart!! (Yes, this is a blatant attempt to butter you up and say “Cooooome to the PDX showwwww!”)

15 Justin Timberlake - Lovestoned.mp3

...The Sincey is what allows us bloggers to tell everyone, “Look, I’m not just some narrow-minded indiephile, I am open to all music,” but the obligatory nature of the annual practice and the nerdiness by which we go about explaining our mainstream affection merely reaffirms our individual hipster personas.

It reminds me of the time one super hipster co-worker of mine played a mix on her iPod, and the songs were, in order, a really obscure Stereolab song, a really obscure Magnetic Fields song, and then “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes, complete with an instant “I don’t care what anyone says, I love this song” disclaimer.

Part of being a hipster is being deliberately mainstream at optimally calculated opportunities, and as long as that remains the case, I’m sure I’ll continue to find myself arguing in favor of the “unadulterated pop greatness” of “Hey Ya” with my T-shirt-clad peers at many a Brooklyn bar in the forseeable future.

16 Flight of the Conchords - Banter.mp3/Robots (live).mp3
This is what you missed when you were, um, busy.

17 Avenue Q - I Wish I Could Go Back to College.mp3
You don’t know how good you have it right now! I secretly suspect this song is the driving force behind my going to grad school.

18 Sufjan Stevens - Size Too Small.mp3
I don’t know if you have the album Seven Swans. It lacks some of the highs of Illinois and A Sun Came! but is by far a more consistent, cohesive opus. It’s my favorite album by Sufjan, and one of my 10 “desert island” albums.

19 Knife/Heartbeats (Grizzly Bear vs The Knife).mp3
One of the most fantastic and masterful mash-ups of recent.

20 The Magnetic Fields - Take Ecstasy With Me.mp3
I’d like this.

21 Tom Waits - Cemetery Polka.mp3
This song sneaks onto a lot of mixes because it’s short. Also, death. Also, I love the line “as independent as a hog on ice.” Also, Tom Waits is who you’ll sound like if you smoke Lucky Strike unfiltereds for 30+ years.