New Coldplay

You should like Coldplay because they jump around in boxes just like you do. Oh you don’t? Oh…well they do. So like them.

Say what you want about Coldplay, but no matter what you say, they do have legitimate song-crafting talent.

It’s almost a given that the cool indie kids all bash Coldplay. In fact, it’s become so ubiquitous that I think it’s come full circle; you’re now cool and hip if you’re brave enough to admit that Coldplay is actually pretty good…with qualifications, of course. One mustn’t forget the qualifications.

Whatever, without further ado, here is the reason for my post. It’s 3:25 AM and just before heading off to sleep, I stumbled upon the FREE new single from Coldplay’s upcoming album, “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.” Yes, I thought of Ricky Martin too.

I’m likin’ the song and I’m hoping the new album lives up to my expectations.

Song of the Day:

Go get the FREE single! It’s called “Violet Hill.”

Well, it looks like it’s no longer available for free. You can go listen to it though. Sorry if you, like me, didn’t know about this a week ago, and missed out (I got it last minute). I could just upload it, but I’m not testing the RIAA gods on this one. I’m sure they’re out like hawks. Hungry ones.

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Mixtape Time!

I got this cassette tape image at http://says-it.com/cassette/. It’s pretty cool. You put what you want on the label.

I like songs with multiple parts or nice, abrupt but well executed shifts. It’s like getting two or more songs for the price of one. And while going through my music library to make a playlist of my favorite “medley” type songs, I decided I had more than enough to make a nice mixtape out of it. It’s been a while since I made my last mixtape (BDJ Volume 2 is nearly ready!), and I’m long overdue for another one.

So I am pleased to present to you all the first volume of the Melodious Medlies compilation mixtapes. This inaugural volume is culled from music mostly made in this millennium (there were a couple favorites I had to include). All of the tracks are filled with smooth and exciting transitions and bridges that connect their various parts. These multi-faceted songs will make you laugh, they’ll make you cry, and they’ll make you want to hug your loved ones — then dance with them.

As I usually do with mixtapes, I tried my best to arrange the songs so they flow together as smoothly as possible. This one proved difficult because I didn’t know it was going to be a mixtape while I was compiling the songs in a playlist. But I’ll make no excuses. This mixtape is still bloody brilliant. I’m a pretty stingy guy when it comes to my iTunes song-rating system…but ALL of these songs are no less than 4 out of 5 stars…yeah…these songs are gooood.

Update: I just realized that the program I used to calculate the run-time of this mixtape is a piece of crap. The whole thing doesn’t fit on a CD (by about a minute)…which was a big disappointment to me. So, of course, I had to re-work the songs and make it fit. I eliminated a track (to be sneaked into a later volume) to make it fit on one CD, then I decided to take this opportunity to adopt the true cassette tape limit of 12 songs by making the last 2 songs bonus tracks that fit on the “B-Side.”  Those of you who downloaded the first, now discontinued, edition of Melodious Medlies – Volume 1 have a real gem in your hands. I’m sure 20 years down the road, it will be worth thousands, maybe millions, of dollars.

So from now on, Melodious Medlies will be made up of 12 main “A-Side” tracks with a “B-Side” of a couple bonus tracks. Both A and B-sides combined will still fit on a regular burned CD.

Now, wouldn’t it be awesome to make a mixtape with both the A and B sides filled to the brim? I agree…so I’m going to make my bigger “Bomb Diggity Jams” mixtapes 24 tracks, split evenly into A and B sides. A more relevant question would be: Does anyone but me care about all this? In a word, no. But I’m excited about it.

Tracklist for Melodious Medlies – Vol. 1

A-side:
1. The Beatles – “You Never Give Me Your Money”
2. The New Pornographers – “The Bleeding Heart Show”
3. The Postal Service – “Brand New Colony”
4. The Rolling Stones – “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
5. The Format – “Dog Problems”
6. Sufjan Stevens – “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!”
7. Belle and Sebastian – “Your Cover’s Blown”
8. The Decemberists – “The Crane Wife 1 & 2”
9. Radiohead – “My Iron Lung”
10. Anathallo – “Hanasakajijii (Four: A Great Wind, More Ash)”
11. The Polyphonic Spree – “Section 24: The Fragile Army”
12. The Beatles – “The End”

Bonus B-Side:
13. Franz Ferdinand – “I’m Your Villain”
14. Silverchair – “Those Thieving Birds”

Download them all in a .zip file by going to the Divshare download page.

If you can’t download at the moment, or are too lazy and/or want to hear a sample first, here are the first 12 tracks streamed at my Muxtape page.

Why not stream the whole thing at Muxtape? ‘Cos 12 is the maximum number of tracks allowed on Muxtape — that being, more or less, the limit for one side of an actual cassette tape. I made my compilation with the CD-limit in mind…but I kind of like the retro cassette literal mix-tape concept. I might consider that for my future volumes…to pay homage to the mighty cassette tape.

Bonus Songs:

And just so no one rolls over in their graves or anything, I guess I have to give some representation to the O.G. experts at this multi-part song business:

Ludwig Van Beethoven – “Symphony #5 In C Minor, Op. 67 – 1. Allegro Con Brio”
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky – “Piano Concerto #1 In B Flat Minor, Op. 23”

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Two Mistakes of 2007

Looking back on 2007 with the distance and perspective a few months provide, there are of course the bright spots and good memories that pop up. But it’s oftentimes the regrets and mistakes that we end up dwelling on. And I will share with you two of mine: Loney, Dear and Delta Spirit.

I missed out on these two bands for my fairly lengthy “Top 28 Albums of 2007” list.

Emil Svanagen, aka “Loney, Dear” (photo by Peter Beste)

I’ll start off with Loney, Dear, which is the performing/artist name for Swedish singer-songwriter, Emil Svanangen. His music is a swirling mixture of light electronic lo-fi rock, each song built on layer upon layer of itself with things like tambourines, bells, xylophone, horns, accordion, harmonica, hand-claps(!), and other happy-endorphin arousing sounds. And his airy, endearingly (and not annoyingly) earnest voice floats in and out of the music throughout, accompanied by his team of back-up singers and musicians. Independent label Sub Pop have signed him and is distributing his back catalog as well. The current album is Loney, Noir and he is working on a new one as I write this. You can get Loney, Noir straight from Sub Pop.

I found out about Delta Spirit in a most unexpected way. Cruising through blogs one day, I came upon one of life’s biggest pieces of crap: auto-start music/video/anything on blogs. I clicked onto this obnoxious person’s blog and the music started up within seconds (luckily I didn’t have my volume turned up nor was I listening to any music of my own). So I reacted how I normally do, immediately moving my cursor to ‘x’ out of the blog…but I kind of liked the song. So I let it play out. Then I googled the lyrics which landed me on the band’s Myspace. I listened to a couple more of their tracks, then I took out my credit card to place an order for their album, Ode to Sunshine, which was released last year.

Soon after, I found out they were the touring mates of the Cold War Kids, who I enjoy quite a bit. It wasn’t too surprising as their sounds are somewhat similar: bluesy and stripped down yet still loud, with a raw, bare rock sound. But Delta Spirit have more of a country-folk twang (I think it’s the “twang” that sets them apart) to many of their songs, which adds a certain rustic, somewhat timeless quality to their music. They can certainly get you up and dancing too. The sample tracks I’ve chosen are the more upbeat songs, ‘cos I like them the most. You’re going to have to get the album to get the quieter, more folksy songs. Buy Ode to Sunshine from the band and receive a free poster!

Songs of the Day:

Loney, Dear – “I am John”
Loney, Dear – “I Won’t Cause Anything at All” /  (album link)

Delta Spirit – “Tomorrow Goes Away” – the song I heard on that blog
Delta Spirit – “People C’mon” /  (album link)

Delta Spirit – “Streetwalker”, off the I Think I’ve Found It EP, which is strangely unavailable anywhere except iTunes. So I don’t have the complete EP yet. I’d be willing to buy it off anyone willing to sell it.

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Stuff White People Like…The Novel!

Christian Lander, (co?)creator of Stuff White People Like, pictured here doing something white people enjoy doing.

So I hear the the Stuff White People Like blog is being turned into a book. (I also just realized that their blog uses the same site-theme as mine.) Random House, who are known to take some risks (especially with bloggers), have signed Christian Lander, the creator/author of Stuff White People Like, to what is reportedly a six-figure book deal (here’s a link to the to-be-released book). I can just picture Lander doing a little white person jig of joy and celebration.

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Randomness

“Random Numbers (#1)” 2002, by Mel Bochner

This is a post of randomness.

I was surfing the Internets recently (like I do for most of my waking hours), and I came across this nugget of wisdom:

Writing is 1% inspiration and 99% not being distracted by the Internet…

I cannot emphasize enough how true that statement is for me (and too many others). When I have something important to do (usually a big paper, or story, or article, or report, or something related to my increasingly useless-looking major), I freakin’ waste time in every way imaginable — everything from blogging, music, driving around after I convince myself I have to go somewhere, doing laundry and not folding the clothes for hours, etc.

Half the time, the internet and my computer are what keep me occupied. And I’m either blog-hopping, reading about music and bands ad nauseum, or going on a never-ending train of “Hmm…I’ve always wondered about that, I’ll look it up!” Then I go to bed cussing myself out for wasting the whole day away, and I vow never to do it again. The next night usually ends the same way.

* * * *

On another note (pun most enthusiastically intended), are there any songs with “Michael” in the title or lyrics?

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