Oh, Lord, why did I click on this post? Reading about other people's mix tapes always makes me feel sad, stabby, or both. Indie rock is private and exclusionary enough in itself; mixtapes made from indie rock, being filtered through one individual's taste and interpretation, are bound to be even more so. I'm familiar with ten of these artists but only five of these songs, and reading this post made me feel both musically inadequate and socially isolated.
Shit, what can I do to regain my feelings of aesthetic superiority? I know! I'll say something snarky and mean-spirited about how at least I had the good taste not to lose my virginity to Interpol. Then I'll ironically add that if I had it to do over again, I'd prefer to do it to Dr. Dre.
Indie rock, this is the mentality you've wrought in several generations of people. I love you, but man, you're bringing me down.
Car is "our song" because of a CD I made for our first road trip together 4 years ago. We had only been dating for about 3 weeks at the time. It's been a bit of a bad day today, so thanks for that. The mere mention of that song always makes me grin ear to ear.
Wow you were way cooler than I freshman year. My mix was Dr. Dre, Brittany, Desitny's Child, Digital Underground ( Freaks of the Industry-holla), and countless others that made me and my friends do body rolls and wave our hands in the air like we just didnt care.
So is this like a feature? Do we get to send Sadie our finest mixtapes that capture a time for us? Where have I been?
We roadtripped to Tennessee and those mixes were awesome. Particularly the one on which every song had to reference Nashville, Memphis or Elvis. It was great!
@AndPreciousLittleofThat: Name me some good rock'n'roll. I'm being totally earnest. Many of those bands do not ever make my playlists, so I'd love to hear what you like.
@Ailanthus-altissima: David Bowie, circa "Hunky Dory." Elvis Costello. The Magnetic Fields. Duran Duran (I am not at all kidding). Joy Division.
I'm trying to think about the things in my iPod that aren't strictly electronic or hip-hop. In all honesty, I've been turned off to a lot of stuff currently in the "guitar, bass, drums and vocals" category.
And, yes, I'll say it: Kelly Clarkson is WAY better than the Arcade Fire.
@AndPreciousLittleofThat: I can definitely agree on the Costello/Joy Division front. I don't listen to enough Kelly Clarkson OR Arcade Fire to really know about that.
@heavymetalpizzaparty: LOL? Dated? god my heart just broke. (for the record, I can't listen to it every day like I used to, but it doesn't seem at all dated to me).
@Ailanthus-altissima: ha! me too. ditto for surfer rosa. i still have the cd copy of that i bought in college. it's so scratched that i can only play it on the computer... it's been loved!
@argle-bargle? or fou-ferraw?: Surfer Rosa is so great. I wore that album out. If my memory serves me right, Kim Deal sang on more songs than she did on Doolittle, which is partly why I liked it more. "Gigantic" is such a wonderful song.
The only songs I remember hearing are the ones by the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, and Velvet Underground.
Except the version of Pale Blue Eyes I have on my ipod is a live cover done by a drunken, enraged Courtney Love, who caps off the performance by screaming at the audience "Fuck you shitbags! I hate this town, Kurt hated this fuckin' town! Fuck you". Good times.
@hatepaperdoll: @tomatoheart: I think every Hole bootleg I've ever heard that was recorded in 94-95 ends in Courtney experiencing serious stage rage & cursing somebody out.
@Your Screenplay Sucks: word. Say what you will about Courtney, that girl can swear like nobody's business.
I'm totally out of touch with current music, as I am a fuddy-duddy, but are there any twentysomething Courtneys out there? Or Shirley Mansons or Liz Phairs or Kim Deals or Siouxie Siouxs? (Siouxie Siouxii?) The only way I made sense of my early adulthood was a constant soundtrack of badass women. Not that this particular group of badasses can't also influence today's young women, of course, but I don't hear a lot about young rock goddesses these days.
I am just skeptical of people only putting "cool" music on a mix tape. Please, no shitty, bopping-in-you-seats-and-hollering-along pop? I don't buy it.
@tailfeather: People like different things! My mix CDs usually have one or two great pop songs on them, though. I'm a sucker for 90s girl groups-- En Vogue, etc.
@tailfeather: Glad i'm not the only person thinking this. If I'm going to be stuck in a car for more than two hours, you can be damned sure you're going to hear "The Pleasure Principle" at some point.
@Shannon: Yeah, I know. But I remain skeptical. Even my most hipscenester Brooklyn band-plays-at-the-Knitting-Factory boyfriend knew when to throw in a little "Baby Got Back" or "I Want It That Way" or Whitesnake or Wham or whatever.
@tailfeather: My sister and I listen to our old Backstreet Boys albums when we drive together for this very reason. It's amazing, pop that baby in and you instantly remember all the lyrics.
@Recidivistic: Well, exactly, especially if it's a group mixtape. There can be some cutting-edge shit, maybe one or two mopey indie songs, but it's got to be HIGH ENERGY and the best way to keep it up is to mix it up and have enough Old Faithfuls that everyone can get down to.
But, yeah, this was not MY group, so it's just my opinion. I would have been grumbling this whole roadtrip and smoking sullenly out the window with my shades on.
@tailfeather: i'm with you in theory, but these are all serious sing-along songs for me! i can't help but scream along (and dance) to the pixies, and 'car' is one of my favoritest songs EVER.
@brendastarlet is on it: I took a roadtrip last weekend and the BF surprised me with three discs of MoTown Classics. "Please Mr. Postman" and "I Head It Through the Grapevine," etc. Most excellent.
@tailfeather: Your bf is a wise man. Here I Go Again is a must for any mix tape. It is just a shame that one cannot include the video of Tawny Kitaen doing her stripper ballet on a car hood.
03/27/09
Me, I'm in the love camp, and wish to point out, Garcia Marquez won the Nobel prize for literature for that novel....
Although we agreed on almost every other band known to man, my ex- was deeply imbedded in the other camp. Philistine!
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Shit, what can I do to regain my feelings of aesthetic superiority? I know! I'll say something snarky and mean-spirited about how at least I had the good taste not to lose my virginity to Interpol. Then I'll ironically add that if I had it to do over again, I'd prefer to do it to Dr. Dre.
Indie rock, this is the mentality you've wrought in several generations of people. I love you, but man, you're bringing me down.
I'm going off to listen to David Bowie now.
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We roadtripped to Tennessee and those mixes were awesome. Particularly the one on which every song had to reference Nashville, Memphis or Elvis. It was great!
03/27/09
The only thing I know about the Beta Band is that John Cusack said he liked them about five years ago. And that was the end of that.
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I'm trying to think about the things in my iPod that aren't strictly electronic or hip-hop. In all honesty, I've been turned off to a lot of stuff currently in the "guitar, bass, drums and vocals" category.
And, yes, I'll say it: Kelly Clarkson is WAY better than the Arcade Fire.
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(still listen to it though...)
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In college, my bff and I listened to Backstreet Boys.
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Except the version of Pale Blue Eyes I have on my ipod is a live cover done by a drunken, enraged Courtney Love, who caps off the performance by screaming at the audience "Fuck you shitbags! I hate this town, Kurt hated this fuckin' town! Fuck you". Good times.
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03/28/09
I'm totally out of touch with current music, as I am a fuddy-duddy, but are there any twentysomething Courtneys out there? Or Shirley Mansons or Liz Phairs or Kim Deals or Siouxie Siouxs? (Siouxie Siouxii?) The only way I made sense of my early adulthood was a constant soundtrack of badass women. Not that this particular group of badasses can't also influence today's young women, of course, but I don't hear a lot about young rock goddesses these days.
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seriously, the biggest neutral milk hotel fans i know are underfed, brooding, hypersensitive manl-children.
03/27/09
dammit!
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But, yeah, this was not MY group, so it's just my opinion. I would have been grumbling this whole roadtrip and smoking sullenly out the window with my shades on.
03/27/09
yea i'm a hipster asshole when it comes to music taste and mixtapes, but i always throw in some fun jams, like the latest britney or some big pimpin'.
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Also, I don't know why two of my comments have mysteriously added a dotdotdot... after "pop" and "boyfriend".
That was not me. ALIENS IN THE COMPUTER.
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