BOO! A Mystery Mix!

Here's your trick-or-treat, dear readers! A fresh mix tape by Yours Truly with some surprises. The following stats will give you some hints:

22 Tracks
1:19:41 (yep, fits on 1 regular audio CD!)
shortest track: 1:31
longest track: 6:31

3 covers
1.5 spoken word tracks
1 instrumental
1 live version
1 mash-up
1 old skool rap
1 song from VK's namesake artist
1 song for all you WRIMOS starting tomorrow (good luck!!)

oldest song: 1976
newest song: October 20, 2009
60% of songs from 1980-1999

I didn't make this song with any particular type of person in mind, but let's just say that those with an appreciation for 80's new wave, punk, and hipster irony... with a Jersey upbringing... will have the most possible appreciation for this mix. Or not.

1. Dashboard Confessional - El Scorcho (Weezer cover).mp3

2. Pixies - Wave of Mutilation.mp3

3. Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street.mp3

4. The White Stripes - It's True That We Love One Another.m4a

5. Beck - Last Night I Traded My Souls Innermost For Some Pickled Fish.mp3

6. Bright Eyes - Devil Town (Daniel Johnston cover).mp3

7. Ace Of Bace - Don't Turn Around.m4a

8. Elvis Costello - Every Day I Write The Book.m4a

9. Billy Joel - Vienna.mp3

10. Tor / Sufjan Stevens - I Like The Tallest Man (feat. Grad Puba).mp3

11. the Mountain Goats - Houseguest (live cover).mp3

12. Lyle Lovett - Here I Am.mp3

13. They Might Be Giants - Don't Let's Start.mp3

14. Islands - No You Don't.m4a

15. John Vanderslice - Promising Actress.mp3

16. Holcombe Waller - Anthem (Will I Forgive Myself If I Can't Help You Anymore).mp3

17. Skee-Lo - I Wish.mp3

18. Daniel Johnston - Etiquette.mp3

19. Crash Test Dummies - Keep a Lid on Things.mp3

20. Tom Waits - Bad Liver & a Broken Heart.mp3

21. Gunnar Madsen - This Must Be The Place (Native Melody) (Talking Heads cover).mp3

22. Tenacious D - Friendship Test.mp3

NYT: now good for two kinds of recycling!

Note: before complaints arise of me maligning the Gray Lady, let me note that it is merely my own broken dreams of journalism, not the quality of the publication, that allows me to be so bitterly tongue-in-cheek about it. That being said...

On Tuesday, the New York Times ran an article in the Arts section about Daniel Johnston's art and music being transformed into a Frogger-like iPhone app. Needless to say, the time span between me hearing about this article to playing the game was less than 2 minutes.

Not only was it 99 cents well-spent, but it's a delightful and challenging romp into the artistic and musical world of Mr. Johnston. Classic characters that once dryly adorned 80's cassette tapes now leap about to his music. No more Devil Town: he is now a Big Business Monkey. I love it.



If you have an iPhone (or have a loved one who does) and like Daniel Johnston even a tiny bit, then I recommend this joyful time-passer. Daniel Johnston is himself pleased with the game even though the technophobe admitted "I don't even know what an iPhone is."

Cover Song Bacchanalia!

Being the uber-geeky music-tard I am, I was up until the wee hours last night, spurred on the by the idea that, given enough artists covering other artists, that "chains" of covers would appear, and, perhaps, ultimately a "loop" of covers--that is, one artist who covers another, who covers someone else and so on until we get to a band that covers the artist I started with. (Geeky, I warned you!)

Well, while I'm still in search of the ever-elusive loop, I did maniacally scribble out notes for several awesome cover chains. So here they are!

David Crowder Band --->
O God Where Are You Now (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?) --->
Sufjan Stevens --->
The Lakes of Canada --->
The Innocence Mission --->
Follow Me --->
John Denver --->
Song of Wyoming

Fun, eh? Here's another!

Snow Patrol --->
You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will --->
Bright Eyes --->
Devil Town --->
Daniel Johnston --->
I Saw Her Standing There --->
The Beatles --->
Mama You've Been On My Mind
Bob Dylan --->
Hallelujah --->
Leonard Cohen --->
A Thousand Kisses Deep

I'm working on more, stay tuned!

Too Much Monkey Business

"Why monkeys?" you might ask; "Why not?" I will respond. While I couldn't find too many songs about poop-flinging, banana-eating, ebola-having antics in general, any monkey namedropping will always do the trick. Enjoy the follow collection of songs dedicated to our primate kin.

Dave Matthews Band - Proudest Monkey.mp3
Chuck Berry - Too Much Monkey Business.mp3
Pixies - Monkey Gone to Heaven.mp3
Sufjan Stevens - Year of the Monkey.mp3
Beastie Boys - Brass Monkey.mp3
Cracker - Guarded By Monkeys.mp3
Daniel Johnston - Big Business Monkey.mp3
The Beatles - Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey.mp3

EDIT- Here's one more super-obvious choice:
The Monkey Song - The Mountain Goats

Mix tape!

There's about 23,984 birthdays happening right now, so what's better than the gift of music? Here is a mix a made for one person. (Another will follow shortly.)
21 tracks / Total time: 1:17:04 (yes, it fits onto one Audio CD!) Enjoy!

Side "A"
I'm From Barcelona - The Painter.mp3 (from Let Me Introduce My Friends)
a 29-member band from Sweden. They are so happy with their limited English!

Little Horse - Running Just Ahead Of The Devil.mp3 (from Perils And Thrills EP)
This is how Ben Folds would be if he were brothers instead of one guy, and some Spanish flair.

Cibo Matto - Birthday Cake.mp3 (from Viva! La Woman)
"Cibo Matto" meaning "strange food." Who wouldn't want a birthday cake with "extra sugar, extra salt, extra oil and MSG!"

Franz Ferdinand - Michael.mp3 (from Franz Ferdinand)
Namedropping for the person this mix is for.

Sufjan Stevens - In the Words of the Governor.mp3
You wouldn't believe this was Sufjan if I didn't tell you, but it's his newest song. Harkening back to his "Enjoy Your Rabbit" days, does the phrase "screamo" mean anything to you?

Saul Williams - Grippo.mp3 (from Saul Williams)
The last song reminds me of this one, sonically.

Patrick Wolf - The Libertine.mp3 (from Wind In The Wires)
Taking it down a notch somewhat, I love the pulsing rhythym, the unusual instrumentartion and strained strings.

Joe Jackson - Angel (Lust).mp3 (from Heaven & Hell)
"Heaven&Hell" came out nearly a decade ago and it still awes and amazes. Seven songs for seven deadly sins, each lyrically and acoustically appropriate to its topic. Here, we have a saucy Suzanne Vega on vocals catcalling men.

Lyle Lovett - Here I Am.mp3 (from Lyle Lovett and His Large Band)
I have long considered performing the spoken parts as a monologue. Perhaps at an audition. Anything. I just want to say these words in front of large groups of peole with the passion that Lyle delivers here.

Jeff Buckley - New Year's Prayer.mp3 (from Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk)
Jeff Buckley needs neither reason nor explanation, expecially for such a darkly ethereal track.

Side "B"
Bascom Lamar Lumford - I Wish I Were a Mole in the Ground.mp3 (from Ballads, Banjo Tunes and Sacred Sons of Western North Carolina)
BLL was a lawyer during the Great Depression. He wrote one fantastic album, and this is my favorite cut off it.

Daniel Johnston - Etiquette.mp3 (from Continued Story)
Daniel Johnston speaks to me. Here he offers the lowest-of-the-fi kind of song with his buddy: simple, happy and fun with some good advice on "how to make friends and influence people."

The Mountain Goats - Golden Boy.mp3 (from Ghana)
More ultra low-fi. John Darnielle must REALLY love these peanuts. I've never had them myself, but I'm obsessed with the funniness of the song, so I think today I might go out of my way to find a pan-Asian supermarket to find those golden boys from Singapore.

The Magnetic Fields - Strange Powers.mp3 (from Holiday)
This song contains such amazing imagery.

Les Sexareenos - Everybody Sexareeno!.mp3 (from Live! In The Bed)
They are putting the FUN back into RAWK. I especially love the "Hang on Sloopy" part in the middle.

The Beatles - What Goes On.mp3 (from Rubber Soul)
Some classic but not cliche Beatles, to sort to tie things together with a shred of familiarity.

Nickel Creek - Spit On A Stranger.mp3 (from This Side)
This is their cover of a Pavement song. It's much better than their cover of a Britney Spears song.

The Divine Comedy - Gin Soaked Boy.mp3 (from A Secret History)
The happiest, most positive and rhymingest song, with the BEST second-to-last-line EVAR.

The Smiths - Reel Around The Fountain.mp3 (from The Best Of The Smiths, Vol. 2)
Awwww, Morrisey attempts to be somewhat non-melancholic!

Mirah - La Familia.mp3 (from Joyride: Remixes)
A song I am obsessed with from an [Ever]Greener Grad. It's always important to distinguish, with a chorus like this, that it is a PONDERANCE ONLY and not a proposition.

Future Bible Heroes - The Lonely Robot.mp3 (from The Lonely Robot EP)
Epic story-songs always make for the best end credits.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a documentary I saw recently. After Jess' brief musical education, I sought out a few more tunes, then added the film to the top of my Netflix queue. Now I'm hooked on the man's songwriting genius.

Daniel Johnston is almost the quintessential crazy-genius artist. He draws, he writes music. Brilliant music. His simple, folksy tunes frequently touch on topics close to his heart: lost loves, Casper the friendly ghost, religion, friendship, Captain America and everyday life.

His promising career has been derailed dozens of times from his battle with Bipolar Disorder. Deeply religious, Daniel became obsessed with the devil and often believed those around him were evil and trying to hurt him. Through years of disastrous medications and frightening manic episodes, his unquenchable songwriting brilliance revealed his brightest dreams and darkest nightmares.

This film, gorgeously shot and directed by a former maker of commercials, combines Johnston's home movies and audio-diary tapes from the '80s and '90s with contemporary interviews with his family, friends and professional associates. The result is a painfully clear but sympathetic look at the life of a genius barely recognized in his time. I really liked and highly recommend this movie.



Daniel Johnston - Go.mp3
Daniel Johnston - Devil Town.mp3
Daniel Johnston - The Sun Shines Down On Me.mp3

And here's one of Daniel covering a classic Schoolhouse Rock! song:
Daniel Johnston - Unpack Your Adjectives.mp3
I like it better than the original!

Some might be turned off by the fact that Johnston's singing and playing skills are so mismatched with his songwriting. That is, he lends himself easily to covers. This is just a tiny sample of what's out there. The film estimates he's been covered by about 150 artists.

Sparklehorse & The Flaming Lips - Go.mp3
Bright Eyes - Devil Town.mp3
Guster - The Sun Shines Down on Me.mp3
Daniel Smith & Sufjan Stevens - Worried Shoes.mp3

Daniel put out tremendous amounts of material--dozens of albums on cassette tape alone. In addition to Fun and 1990, recommended in Jess' post, here's a few others of interest:
Continued Story/Hi, How Are You
Fear Yourself (with Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous)

Cover/Tribute albums:
Kathy McCarty: "Dead Dog's Eyeball: Songs of Daniel Johnston"
Various Artists: "I Killed the Monster: 21 Artists Performing the Songs of Daniel Johnston"
Various Artists: "Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered"

This one's for June

Two important pieces of information were recently brought to my attention.

1. Miss June had a pretty rotten Monday.
2. She has also never heard any songs by Daniel Johnston.

While I myself have only heard a smattering of songs by the talented, yet mentally troubled singer-songwriter, it is imperative my fellow blogger and readers alike listen to this handful of songs.

Lousy Weekend - Daniel Johnston
Couldn't find a single friend, friend. Had my heart set on disappointment.
I swear the first five seconds of this song sound exactly like the Mountain Goat's "Dance Music". However, considering it was initially released in 1994 it's clearly not ripping off the goats. You'll be hooked from the manic jangle, self-deprecating lyrics and oh that fiddle.
Off Fun

True Love will Find You in the End - Daniel Johnston
This is a promise with a catch...

Very few singers could get away with singing the title sentiment. Daniel Johnston is one of them.
Off 1990