What's the Deal? Sugar Hill!!!

I was digging around through some old cd's and stumbled across this mix that I put together for a friend's birthday party a few years back, and thought it was worth posting.

I made a couple of tweaks here and there, but it is largely the previous mix in it's entirety plus some extra tracks, including my favorite disco era track "I Get Lifted", the KC and the Sunshine Band version. Outside of a couple disco tracks, and maybe one or two roller boogie classics, this is all standard issue classic Soul Train era funk, jazz and hip-hop.

If some of these songs sound familiar, it is probably because minus one or two, they have all been sampled extensively over the years. At least 2 or 3 have been picked up by the Beastie Boys, and a couple by Dr. Dre. In the meantime, feel free to shake yo' ass while you are trying to figure out where you might have heard these songs before.

Enjoy!

Lucky Charms 2010

And the award for editing goes to… not me. I tried to cut this playlist down to about 20 tracks, but just couldn’t do it. I figured that I have been able to crank these things out so few and far between lately that if I could squeeze a couple extras in there, go ahead. Needless to say this thing might not flow the best…

So with this mix I was hoping to highlight some of my favorite new tracks and sprinkle in a few Irish tracks to celebrate St. Patty’s Day. This final draft is significantly different that my original, which featured enough Irish pissers to make me consider going and setting my own car on fire. I decided to scale back with a couple of Sinead O’Connor tracks, one a cheesy but awesome duet with the dentally challenged Shane MacGowan the other her incendiary live cover of Bob Marley’s “War” from SNL that pretty much got the ball rolling against her here in the states thanks to her shredding a poster of the Pope while crediting him as the root of all evil. Elsewhere have a tipple of Guinness while enjoying the Spanish/Celtic acoustic cover of Metallica’s “Orion” by Rodrigo y Gabriela.

On the new music front, 2010 has been off to a killer start. After about 5 years of sparse greatness so far 2010 is on pace to top 2009, which was pretty amazing. Here is a quick roundup:

I cannot say enough good things about the new Xiu Xiu disc. It comes pretty close to topping Fabulous Muscles, and when the smoke clears it might be their best release to date. I never thought I would see Xiu Xiu do bluegrass, but they give it a game try. I have included the title track here which would feel equally at home on a Morrissey disc if it didn’t have so many bells and buzzes. Also on here is my favorite track about giving birth to a cub, or abortion or childbirth or all of the above by The Antlers. I have also thrown in new tracks by Gonjasufi, Ariel Pink, Neon Indian and the stellar leadoff track from Broken Bells (which has been mostly a disappointment).

There a couple additional covers here including Sonnymoon’s hazy take on Drake’s “Houstatlantavegas” and Zooey Deschanel’s take on Nancy Sinatra’s “Sugar Town” (one of my all time favorite songs). Don’t get me wrong, She & Him are a little on the cheesy side, but there is much worse cheese out there (check out the Butch Walker b-side also on here). The ironic thing about Zooey Deschanel is that I love her voice, love to see her in videos, but as an actress I can’t help but want to drop a falcon punch on her. Especially in the movie that this track is from; 500 Days of Summer. I know, I know; everyone loved it. I just found it painfully pretentious. But I digress…

Anyway, the mix is a little long and maybe disjointed but enjoy. A little of the green may make it more palatable (green beer that is).

Btw, this mix sponsored by parentheses.

Enjoy!!

http://countryclubofthezeroseven.blogspot.com

Ryan Bingham & Dead Horses

On first glance winning an award that Eminem, Celine Dion, Jon Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Survivor, Kenny Loggins and Peter Cetera have been up for might seem like a backhanded compliement. But on second thought, being in the same company as Bob Dylan, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Shel Silverstein, Elliot Smith and Isaac Hayes is nothing to sneeze at.

Long story short, thanks to his work as songwriter for the Jeff Bridges flick, Crazy Heart, Bingham is now the owner of a Best Original song Oscar. I have yet to see the movie, but can testify that Bingham is the real deal. I have been preaching about this Topanga Canyon via Austin, TX cowpoke for a couple of years now, and highly recommend anything he has recorded.

He is currently on tour with Jamey Johnson, The Lost Trailers, Jack Ingram and a handful of others, stopping of in Charlotte, NC on 5/27/10.

Here is a small sampling of some of my faves, including the one that earned him the gold statue.

http://countryclubofthezeroseven.blogspot.com

Citay - Dream Get Together

Although it is still too gray, murky, cold and wet to start thinking about spring, the new disc from San Francisco psych rock freakout band Citay helps set the tone for chasing wood gnomes around the forest and helping the May Queen with her spring cleaning.

As a rule I prefer my tripping balls music to be more dark and sludgy (Bardo Pond), and less wondrous and flighty, however "Dream Get Together" works amazingly well.

"Dream Get Together" might best be described as a soundtrack for an evening of Anton Newcombe being seduced, roofied and raped by Pan, at a Terrastock festival, with only a magic flute and Courtney Taylor-Taylor's phone number scratched on a mushroom cap remaining as the sun rises on the dense, sticky moss.

Or it is just a better than average Led Zeppelin ripoff. You can decide.

Enjoy!!

Everyone Wants VD!!!

It has been over a month since I have posted anything, so I am taking a minute to throw up a Valentine's Day mix. Feel free to claim it as your own and score some hot VD nookie. A mix might not be the most original idea, but it is a hell of a lot less expensive than roses dipped in gold and more internet friendly than that video you were thinking about making (I am talking to you John Edwards).

Nothing to sappy on here just a few nice eighties nuggets, some well executed covers and a hodgepodge of others. I fought the urge to drop Young Money's tender ode to puppy love, "Bedrock", but couldn't resist adding some Dr. Octagon.

Link to mix: VD 2010 Mix

Best of 2009

I had all of these great plans for a big year end best of as well as a decade best of wrap up, which just has not come to fruition yet. The holidays proved to be much more taxing than I had predicted. However, it would be a shame to have been keeping these lists piled up all year/decade and not at least drop them some where.

So without much fanfare, here are my picks for the best of 2009 followed soon by my best of the 2000’s.

Instead of giving a lot of verbiage to these discs, I will just include some tracks and you can decide for yourself what you think:

1.) Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle

Too Many Birds

Rococo Zephyr





2.) The Postmarks – Memoirs at the End of the World

No One Said It Would Be Easy

Thorn In Your Side






3.) Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship

Charteroak Foundation
Monument Six One Thousand






4.) The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

Slight Figure of Speech
Incomplete and Insecure





5.) The xx - XX

VCR

Crystalised

6.) Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport

Surf Solar

Space Mountain

7.) Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies

Midnight at the Movies

Mama's Eyes




8.) BLK JKS - After Robots

Molalatladi

Cusror

9.) The Duke and The King - Nothing Gold Can Stay

If You Ever Get Famous

The Morning That I Get to Hell

10.) Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love

Axis: Thrones of Love

Vampire

11.) Atlas Sound - Logos

Walkabout

Sheila





12.) Lucero - 1372 Overton Park

Can't Feel a Thing
Darken My Door

13.) Pelican - What We All Come to Need

Glimmer
Strung Up From the Sky





14.) Yoko Ono & Plastic Band - Between My Head & the Sky

Waitin' On the D Train
Watching the Rain

Tie:


15.) Discovery - LP

Orange Shirt
So Insane





15.) Passion Pit - Manners

Sleepyhead
Little Secrets

Happy Holidays!!

Is there anything that the world needs more right now than a holiday mixtape? Sure world peace, a cure for cancer and a muzzle for Lane Kiffin would be nice, but what about some holiday love from The Raveonettes, Yoko and Animal Collective? Either way, here is my littering of the interwebs with some choice tunes for the holiday season.

One thing to note as you dig into the mix: as a rule I hate Christmas music. That being said (nice Curb reference), I feel pretty good about the tunes here. They are not all actual Christmas tunes, some are just winter themed - and by winter themed I mean that they could easily end up on Alexa Ray Joel's iPod (too soon? - probably).

A couple of highlights to make sure you catch: Both of the Dylan tracks from his new Christmas disc are great. If you have ever wondered what the holidays would sound like channeled through tinsel, phlegm and a child's cowboy hat you are in luck. The unreleased Bob Marley take on White Christmas is also a nice touch, and asks the age old question,"can I make a bong from a snow globe?". I will have to put on my engineering hat and check that out for next year. Lastly, I included a track by The Duke and The Gent that is not festive in the least, but probably my favorite song of 2009. Consider that my present to you.

Enjoy!!

link to mix:
http://countryclubofthezeroseven.blogspot.com/

Waiting for the D Train

First let me start by saying that I am shocked by how much I have been enjoying the Jimmy Fallon show. He was always the weakest link on SNL, the movies I have seen him in (thanks airlines)are mostly unwatchable, and the first few airings of his show were painful. However he seems to have turned the corner and the show has gotten much better. His skits are still lame, but his uneasiness interviewing his guests is entertaining and he is top notch on bringing in great musical guests.

Before we get carried away and think this was a post to praise Fallon, I better get to the point. On the 11/5, he hosted Yoko Ono and in the process aired one of the musical highlights of what has already served to be a pretty great year for music.

I started writing a review of her new disc "Between My Head and the Sky" when it first came out, but had to stop after I could not fully wrap my head around how amazing the disc is. Plus it came out at the same time as the Beatles remasters, and I knew that anything that I wrote about her would draw some form of backlash from Beatles purists.

Whatever the case, here is a clip of her performance last week and simply put, it was fucking amazing!! At 76, Ono still remains one of the most important voices in avant garde new music.

Enjoy!!

link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR6P3mBlkHY

Kicked It in the Sun

Apologies for the delay in getting a new mix up, but it seems like lately finding time to post has been a bigger struggle than douchebag Congressman Joe Wilson trying to get into Mensa. Anyway, here is the mix in a nutshell. I think it is pretty solid, and flows well considering the fact it has everything from Italian disco, to French ambient to Porter Wagoner and an Eagles cover in the mix. I will say you might have to give it a few minutes to get going, it starts out slow and builds to a nice clip in the middle before winding back down and wrapping up with a Smiths cover from Zooey Deschanel (how can you go wrong with that combo?) and then one of my easy top 5 best tracks of the year by the Raveonettes ("Last Dance"), and then a haunting acapella auto-tune max out from Bon Iver. Also in the mix are stellar new tracks from Juilan Casablancas, Girls, jj and the must hear electro sleaze freak out "Rollerskate".

Artwork from an Emek poster for a Melvins in Israel show.

Enjoy, and as always comments are welcomed!!

http://countryclubfothezeroseven.blogspot.com/

Eternal Summers

With Summer winding down and fall around the corner, I thought I would put together a little mix to help ease the transition. From the chilly, cogs slowly winding down sounds of Kim Hiorthøy to the warm campfire vocals of the appropriately named Eternal Summers and ultimately down to the throes of Antony burning out and Yoko fading away, this whole set should help ease the inflamed melanomas of summer with the soft cashmere sweaters of fall.


Enjoy!

http://countryclubofthezeroseven.blogspot.com/