As soon as I finally got around to seeing Melancholy For Medicine, an indie flick that I missed at last year’s L.A. Film Fest, and that took a long time to make it to rentable DVD, I knew that I was starting off this month’s mix with Casiotone For The Painfully Alone‘s “New Year’s Kiss.” I must admit to have never fully ‘gotten’ Casiotone. I like an occasional song of theirs that seems like a take on Stephin Merritt-style deep-voiced pop. But I can tell there is more to them than that. “New Year’s Kiss” fits the movie perfectly: both in subject matter and mood. And hopefully it fits this mix as well.
Again this month, a lot of artists that should be familiar from older mixes. Vitalic is a throwback to the sort of electronica Freed used to play when we worked together many years ago. For the record, we also played American Analog Set back then. And Calla too. I still am crazy for the last year’s Wilderness album, even though I know “Own Anything” is probably a bit too post-hardcore for the average hearsay mix, and I may very well get complaints about it.
I promised myself to dedicate a post (it’ll happen…) to Diamond District, so I won’t expound on it much except to say you can expect to see it high on my albums of the year list. “Hologram” is a head nodder that puts me in a good mood every time I hear it.
And then there’s this Charlie Feathers track. Charlie is probably one of the most well known Rockabilly acts, and an good bridge between country folk and rock n roll. Punk kids from the 90s might know him thanks to frequent covers by The Cramps. Today people will probably be most familiar with him thanks to use of his songs in both Kill Bill soundtracks. I love listening to Feathers, especially at work – where I know that the his country twang is too much for some coworkers to take. “Early In The Morning” is centered around painfully obvious subject matter (“Early in the morning it’sa hard to get up”), so much that it is a fantastic song to start the day with. This mix, and this year ends with another Pete And The Pirates track. One of my absolute favorites, and also one of the most Built To Spill-sounding. In the best way possible, short of having Doug Martsch as your singer and songwriter.
[Image by .kimmika. The font is FFF Tsuj by Magnus Cederholm]
December 2009 Mix
01 Casiotone For The Painfully Alone – New Year’s Kiss
02 The American Analog Set – Come Home Baby Julie Come Home
03 Vitalic – Trahison
04 Dirty On Purpose – Fake Lakes
05 Charlie Feathers – Early In The Morning
06 Diamond District – Hologram
07 Calla – As Quick As It Comes/Carrera
08 That Ghost – When There’s No One Else To Sing To You Sing To Yourself
09 Wilderness – Own Anything
10 Pete And The Pirates – Song For Today
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