Category archives: playlists

 

 

(a different kind of) Christmas: a playlist

For those who, like me, are lacking in the Christmas spirit department this year, here is an atypical playlist. It may or may not make you happy, but at least it won’t make you more miserable. You can listen to it on 8tracks or Spotify. And if you feel like something more cheerful, why don’t you check out last year’s playlist?

[8tracks width="400" height="400" playops="" url="http://8tracks.com/mixes/480137"]

 

Behind Punk Mixtape #7

My friend Vanya, who runs a music blog called Behind Punk, asked me to collaborate with him by making a CD cover for his new mixtape. He usually posts these mixtapes for free download on his blog, but this one is different. It has been posted on bandcamp instead, it can only be downloaded if you donate, and 100% of  the proceeds will go to a Russian animal shelter. Pretty rad, no?

I didn’t have the time to put together something elaborate, so I played around with a couple of photos that I took earlier this year.

This one won. The photo was taken in Amsterdam, and it’s a kindergarden’s door.

It was chosen because of its references to home and sheltering.

This one was option #2.

But on to the good stuff, here is the tracklist of the compilation. It’s full of bands I like and not unlike the playlists I usually post. You can give it a listen on Bandcamp and donate if you like it. And if you like this idea, please spread the word!

1. Iron Chic – Langoliers
2. Direct Hit! – Say Whatever
3. Timeshares – Sarah, Send Your Driver
4. Death Is Not Glamorous – A Different Vision
5. Astpai – Meanwhile, In Hell (The Flatliners Cover)
6. Buckwheat – Fine
7. Wayfarer – Arts and Warcrafts
8. Bridge and Tunnel – Drill Instructor
9. Eeva – Ego
10. The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die – Bread For Brett
11. Dowsing – Dinos
12. ten speed bicycle – Aw Man, I Don’t Know What I Did With My Dracula Bow Tie
13. forbirds – Wish There Are Continue In Retro Games
14. Warren Franklin – Some Form of Irony feat. Two Knights
15. Devon Kay & the Solutions – W.W.B.C.D.
16. The Front Bottoms – The Boredom Is the Reason I Started Swimming, Its Also the Reason I Started Sinking
17. Lemuria – Pleaser
18. Smile And Burn – Tootles Has Returned To London
19. Crow Bait – Callin’ Yer Bluff
20. Dividers – Me. You. Len. On A Boat. Faliraki ’09
21. Mark It Zero – Maybe We’ll Get it Someday
22. Jet Packs – Buerak
23. Junior Battles – Twenty Five
24. Hold Tight! – Wonder
25. Nona – Tipsy Topsy
26. The Arteries – Dead Sea
27. Rain Over Battle – Sleeping On 69th Street
28. Inky Skulls – My Life
29. Spoonboy – I am a Dog

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May 2011 - a playlist

 

 

A christmas playlist

 

It's that time of the year again (a playlist for cold weather)

It feels like every autumn/winter sees a new melancholic playlist/mix CD from me. This is this year’s. I don’t have any music on my computer at the moment, so I can only offer a spotify link.

CLICK TO LISTEN
01. The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning
02. Jason Anderson – I am like snow to you
03. Braid – Always Something There to Remind Me
04. Archers of Loaf – Floating Friends
05. Elliott Smith – The Biggest Lie
06. Texas is the Reason – Antique
07. Múm – A little bit, Sometimes
08. Guided by Voices – Hold on Hope
09. Bon Iver – For Emma
10. The Mountain Goats – Song for Lonely Giants
11. Cap’n Jazz – Basil’s Kite
12. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Don’t They Have Payphones Wherever You Were Last Night
13. Mogwai – Dial: Revenge

If you want something to download, why not check out last year’s playlist? The cover is my blog’s header, and you can download it here (part I) and here (part II). I made it in January last year and it still gets played often. I swear it’s only a coincidence that the same Elliott Smith song got on both of them

Tracklist:
01. Do Make Say Think – Executioner Blues
02. Death Cab For Cutie – A Lack Of Colour
03. Logh – Exit
04. God Is An Astronaut – Fireflies and Empty Skies
05. The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up – A Deep Deep Lake
06. Lucero – Sad And Lonely
07. Bright Eyes – The Center Of The World
08. A Day In Black And White – Forward/Backward
09. Pygmy Lush – Frozen Man
10. Elliott Smith – The Biggest Lie
11. Wilco – Hate It Here
12. MewithoutYou – January 1979
13. The Secret Society – La Haine
14. Aereogramme – Living Backwards
15. Pavement – Stop Breathing
16. Red Sparrowes – The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer
17. Yage – Ohne Form
18. September Malevolence – Departure

 

The Sound of Summer 2010

 

This is my summer mix. You can listen to it on the player below, but keep in mind that it will only respect the tracklist the first time you listen, so if you like it I recommend you download it. As usual, if you like any of the bands please support them, buy their records, go to their shows and send them love messages on myspace.
01. Intro
02. Off With Their Heads – Die Today
03. Fake Problems – Heck Yeah Summer!
04. Snowing – Pump Fake
05. Latterman – Rebellion vs The Alarm Clock
06. Silver Scooter – Brain & Heart
07. Above Them – Keep Smiling
08. Descendents – In Love This Way
09. Avast! – Ahab
10. Defiance, Ohio – Chad’s Favourite Song
11. Peter & Craig – Let’s Go Surfing
12. The Promise Ring – The Deep South
13. Algernon Cadwallader – Some Kind Of Cadwallader
14. Surfer Blood – Twin Peaks
15. Apologies, I have none – 100 Club
16. Calvinball – A Toast to Those Who Drink the Most
17. Dillinger Four – Doublewhiskeycokenice
18. The Ergs! – Honolulu Hornrims
19. American Football – The One with the Tambourine
20. Pirouette – Yellow Car I Called It
21. Teenage Cool Kids – Speaking in Tongues
22. Dauntless Elite – Energy Kids Rule Forever
23. Pennines – Does Not Want
24. Chuck Ragan – Done and Done
25. Tigers Jaw – I Saw Water
26. Iron Chic – Steel Wall Method
27. Delay – Name That Feeling
28. Grown Ups – Surprise Party
29. Stapleton – Shoulder Length Summer
Have you made a summer mix? And more importantly, can I have a copy?

 

It's all about weddings

 

My favourite cousin (I swear I’m not only saying this because she reads the blog) got married a few weeks ago. Knowing the crap that DJs tend to play at weddings, we made a playlist on Spotify that we later copied onto a CD. We got a bit carried away and spent hours (literally, hours) choosing the songs and frantically messaging each other on facebook. The result was a compilation of over 8 hours of music. Obviously not all of it got played (no, the wedding wasn’t THAT long) and I feel a bit sorry for the songs that didn’t get played, so I’m sharing the playlist here in hopes that someone will use it at some point.
Going on with the wedding theme, I hate wedding dresses. However, when I was little my mum and me would browse through Hello! magazine looking for wedding and first communion dresses because they were the only things in the magazine that would keep my attention. The best day was when some special anniversary issue came out documenting the best moments of the magazine’s life. It included photos of Hollywood stars and royal and I simply fell in love with the dresses. Here are some weddings that might or might not have been on that magazine but I love nonetheless:
Norma Jean on her first marriage, before she went blonde.

Marilyn Monroe looking wonderful on her wedding to Arthur Miller. One of my favourite couples.

Elizabeth Taylor in one of her many weddings and a slightly dirty picture.
(Life Magazine)
I love it when couples dress more casual showing that you don’t need a ridiculously elaborate dress to look beautiful.
Marilyn Monroe again, on her wedding to Joe Dimaggio, getting married in black.
(Life Magazine)
Audrey Hepburn in looking adorable shocker.
Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Gotta love that collar!
Elizabeth Taylor showing that lively colours can also be appropriate.
(Life Magazine)
Rita Hayworth’s fourth wedding. I guess when you reach your forth dressing up is not such a big deal.
George Harrison and Pattie Boyd looking absolutely adorable despite the lack of wedding dress. I love her hair!
(Life Magazine)
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner.
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, one of my favourite Hollywood couples.
(Life Magazine)

When it comes to over the top weddings, I also have my favourites.

I’m not for bridesmaids, but my cousin and me used to be obsessed with this dress when we were kids. Not a fan of Tori Spelling’s boobs, though.
If you’re going to wear a veil, you might as well go for a MEGAveil like Priscilla did when she married Elvis. PLUS the ceremony was only 8 minutes long. Sounds like my type of wedding.
(Life Magazine)

And finally, my absolute favourite, Grace Kelly’s real life fairytale.

Do you have a favourite celebrity wedding?

 

8tracks mix #1 - Music to write essays to

Tracklist (on first listen)
01. The Moirai – Dear Alison, I am not a cynic
02. Damien Rice – Coconut Skins
03. Eluvium – Perfect Neglect in a Field of Statues
04. Aloha – You’ve escaped
05. Bob Dylan – Fourth Time Around
06. Pygmy Lush – Frozen Man
07. Elliott Smith – Waltz #2
08. Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) – Year of the Rabbit
09. God is an Astrounaut – Fireflies and Empty Skies
10. Iron & Wine – Love and Some Verses
11. American Football – But the Regrets Are Killing Me
12. Neil on Impression – Ode to Bigriver
13. Jason Anderson – You Already Have
14. The Appleseed Cast – Mare Mortis
15. Wilco – Please Be Patient with Me
16. Do Make Say Think – Executioner Blues

My friend Alex introduced me to 8tracks yesterday. It’s one of those websites where you can upload playlists. There are some rules like the playlist needs to be over 8 songs and when the same person listens to your mix for the second time the song order changes. Still, I think it’s pretty cool. You can embed mixes, lastfm scrobbles the stuff you listen to on the website (!!!) and there is an option to update your twitter automatically whenever you post a new mix. I’ve been browsing it a bit and this website needs more awesome, so I encourage all of you to join and make brilliant mixes for me to listen to. Above you can see my first one, it’s a mix I made to listen to while writing essays on a Saturday night while my friends are at a festival seeing awesome bands. Here’s a link to my profile on 8tracks. Also, check out the mixes Alex made. They’re brilliant.

 

Nuevos horizontes para niños retrasados: a mix CD

 

>Untitled Mix CD

>


bigger cover @ flickr

It snowed yesterday. I hadn’t seen snow since I was living in Munich, and that mixed together with the fact that exams are about to start and I feel a bit overwhelmed about everything put me in a really melancholic mood. So, what did I do? Make a playlist to go with it, of course. I burnt it on a CD, made the cover you can see above and listened to it a million times. I officially declare it my revision CD.

Tracklist:
01. Do Make Say Think – Executioner Blues
02. Death Cab For Cutie – A Lack Of Colour
03. Logh – Exit
04. God Is An Astronaut – Fireflies and Empty Skies
05. The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up – A Deep Deep Lake
06. Lucero – Sad And Lonely
07. Bright Eyes – The Center Of The World
08. A Day In Black And White – Forward/Backward
09. Pygmy Lush – Frozen Man
10. Elliott Smith – The Biggest Lie
11. Wilco – Hate It Here
12. MewithoutYou – January 1979
13. The Secret Society – La Haine
14. Aereogramme – Living Backwards
15. Pavement – Stop Breathing
16. Red Sparrowes – The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer
17. Yage – Ohne Form
18. September Malevolence – Departure

 

2008: What I've been listening to

 

I have been complaining about end of the year lists for about 2 weeks now, when I realised that it is only now that I’m ready to make a 2007 list, not a year ago. That’s why this year I decided to make a playlist instead. These are not the best songs of 2008 and most of them definitely do not belong to what I consider to be the best albums of the year so far. It’s just a collection of songs released in 2008 that I have enjoyed a lot and listened to compulsively. They’re not meant to be in a certain order.

Off With Their Heads – Self Checkout from From The Bottom
Russian Red – Cigarettes from I Love Your Glasses
Brook Pridemore – Fake Brains from the Ghost Mice/Brook Pridemore split
Life At These Speeds – Younger Monkey from the Life At These Speeds/Thank God split
The Gaslight Anthem – Great Expectations from The 59 Sound
Adorno – Theoretically Driven from the Adorno/End Of A Year split 7″
Algernon Cadwallader – Some Kind Of Cadwallader from their self titled album
The Ergs! – Piltdown Man from That’s It…Bye
Iron Chic – Steel Wall Method from their demo
Sinaloa – Ashes of Giants from Oceans of Islands
The Birds Are Spies, They Report To The Trees – Fixer-Upper from Single Series
The Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride from Heretic Pride
Conor Oberst – Lenders In The Temple from his self titled album
This Bike Is A Pipebomb – Roscoe Arbuckle from Convertible
Mike Hale – Love Is Disappointment from Broken With No Hope
Kids Explode – Ask Me from the 4-way shokei/Petethepiratesquid/The Falcon Five/Kids Explode split
Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves – Oh Whatever from the self titled album
Tilly And The Wall – Dust Me Off from O
Okkervil River – On Tour With Zykos from The Stand Ins

Bands I’ve listened to the most according to lastfm:
1. The Gaslight Anthem
2. Jawbreaker
3. Braid
4. Defiance, Ohio
5. Mogwai
6. Hot Water Music
7. Nothington
8. The Weakerthans
9. Life at These Speeds
10. Gunmoll
11. Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson
12. Okkervil River
13. Kids Explode
14. Do Make Say Think
15. Lemuria