It has been a couple weeks since I have had a chance to post anything, so I am trying to come out swinging. With Sonic Youth tickets going on sale this morning (which I managed to score 4th row center for WOOHOO!!) for their upcoming small venue tour, I thought I would get things started off with a track from their new disc Eternal. Listening to the disc in its entirety, it sounds like they have dropped some of the hardest, darkest material since the Sister or Evol era, which is a very welcome back to form. On that same note, way down in the mix is a track off of the new Dinosaur Jr disc, and like SY this sounds like a very welcome return to the sound of some of their great early work.
Also in the mix are a handful of covers. I keep promising I am going to put together an awesome covers/originals comp, but always get sidetracked. Here I have a couple of standouts from the Torotoise/Bonnie Prince Billy collaboration, including their takes on Springsteen and Elton John. When you think about covers, you can either do a faithful, risk free rendition (like the Justin Townes Earle, take alson included here,on The Replacements included here - very true to the original plus a little twangy flavor), or you can just completely deconstruct the original and make it your own. Sometimes it works, I think the two BPB tracks here are amazing, and sometimes it sort of works but you just can't be sure; like the Lips cover of Madonna included here. Make sure to also check out the stripped down, what the fuck Of Montreal cover of M.I.A.'s "Jimmy". And especially thanks to Mario for turning me on to the Fight Like Apes cover of the mclusky classic, "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues". It is amazing how having a female take the lead on this faithful cover changes the entire dynamic of the song. It's a nice!!!
That being said the rest of the mix sort of follows the form of the title, Breaking Hearts/Making Babies. Spring fever, and N1H1 are in the air so I was tying to create a healthy mix of booty sweat inducing grooves like the Sebastien Tellier, Chromeo, Franz Ferdinand/Dances with White Girls remix, and the seven minute, haunted house disco breakdown of Bigfoot's "Watch Your Step", and Aaron Neville's jazz funk classic "Hercules". Plus if the one two punch of new British soul heavyweights Adele and Baby Charles can't get the panties dropped you are "f*cking out" (apologies to Kenny Powers), and should proceed directly to the mclusky and Black Lips tracks at the end of the playlist.
Not all tracks fit nicely into the mix, but I have been dying to drop Sister Janet Mead's disco take on "The Lord's Prayer" forever, and since I skipped an Easter mix figured why not now. This is truly one of the best "wait, what?" tracks of all times. The beats are nice if not dated, her voice is ok, and oh yeah it is a nun singing a disco version of The Lord's Prayer. What is not to like? I actually have the 45 for this song at home, and have never fully understood where it came from as my parents are pretty anti-religion, and this disc looks like it has been in my collection since the '70s. I doubt any of my childhood friends were cunning enough to hide Studio 54 indoctrination in my stack o' wax, so it might have been divine intervention.
Lastly, I debated long and hard about whether to wrap up with MGMT's thirteen minute freak out "Metanoia" or Patrick Cowley's ten minute disco opus "Megatron Man". "Megatron Man" sounds like it was crafted by a robot that is equal parts titanium, steel, body glitter and cocaine but ultimately lost out to the Queen meets Phantom of the Park psychedelics of MGMT. I am sure the sex robot will find his place on a mix in the near future.
Enjoy!!
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