Tag: mixtape

New mix: Exfiltration Radio – them Newport beats

Still catching up from Hackathon. I put together a couple of hour-long radio shows that were a lot of fun to build. The first one is an hour of 1970s and 1970s-adjacent jazz. Lots of fun stuff in this, including some electric Vince Guaraldi, tasty jazz organ, some modern finds (Yussef Kamaal for the win), and a little Digable Planets. Enjoy!

  1. Birth Of A Struggle – Wax Tailor (Tales Of The Forgotten Melodies)
  2. Oaxaca – Vince Guaraldi (Oaxaca)
  3. Red Sails In The Sunset – Jimmy McGriff (Groove Grease)
  4. Everybody Loves the Sunshine – Roy Ayers Ubiquity (The Best of Roy Ayers (The Best of Roy Ayers: Love Fantasy))
  5. Mystic Brew – Ronnie Foster (Jazz Dispensary: Cosmic Stash)
  6. Joint 17 – Yussef Kamaal (Black Focus)
  7. Jettin’ – Digable Planets (Blowout Comb)
  8. Ayo Ayo Nene – Mor Thiam (Spiritual Jazz)
  9. Superfluous (LP Version) – Eddie Harris (Instant Death)
  10. Lady Day and John Coltrane – Gil Scott-Heron (Pieces of a Man)
  11. Early Minor – Miles Davis (The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions)
  12. Black Narcissus – Joe Henderson (The Milestone Years)
  13. Infinite Search – Miroslav Vitous (Infinite Search)

New mix: God made me funky

I’ve been working on this one for a while, and today felt like the right day to finish it up. This is an indulgent (over four hours long) tour through at least four different genres, with a common thread of funk.

There’s no particular logic to the sequence except that they’re loosely grouped by genre so as to keep the groove flowing. And the first track might seem odd, but listen to Carleton Coon and Joe Sanders trading scat syllables (in a style that will seem familiar to fans of the Warner Brothers cartoon “Dough for the Do-Do”) and the connection to funk becomes clear.

  1. Roodles – The Coon-Sanders Nighthawks (“Radio’s Aces”)
  2. Calling On My Darling – Albert King (Chess Blues 1960-1967)
  3. Grab This Thing (Part 1) – The Mar-Keys (The Stax Story)
  4. Black Boy – Roebuck ‘Pops’ Staples (The Stax Story)
  5. I Have Learned to Do Without You – Mavis Staples (The Stax Story)
  6. Sissy Walk (Full) (Vocal) – Eddie Bo (The Hook and Sling)
  7. Tighten Up Tighter (Feat. Roosevelt Matthews) – Billy Ball and the Upsetters (The Funky 16 Corners)
  8. Dap Walk – Ernie and The Top Notes Inc (The Funky 16 Corners)
  9. Check Your Bucket (Full) – Eddie Bo (The Hook and Sling)
  10. Sock It To ‘Em Soul Brother – Bill Moss (Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label)
  11. Hey Pocky A-Way (A Way) – The Wild Tchoupitoulas (The Wild Tchoupitoulas)
  12. The Meters – Here Comes The Meter Man – DJ Jedi (Blowout Breaks)
  13. The Headhunters – God Made Me Funky – DJ Jedi (Blowout Breaks)
  14. Honky Tonk (Parts 1 & 2) – James Brown (Messing With The Blues)
  15. Outer Spaceways Incorporated – Sun Ra (Space Is The Place (Original Soundtrack))
  16. Umbrellas – Weather Report (Weather Report)
  17. Red China Blues – Miles Davis (Get Up With It)
  18. Harvey Mason – Hop Scotch (1975) – Herbie Hancock (Herbie Hancock – Man With a Suitcase)
  19. Eddie Henderson – Ecstasy (1978) – Herbie Hancock (Herbie Hancock – Man With a Suitcase)
  20. Whitey on the Moon – Gil Scott-Heron (Small Talk At 125th and Lennox)
  21. The Last Poets – Black Is – Chant – DJ Jedi (Blowout Breaks)
  22. Ku Mi Da Hankan – The Elcados (Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-rock & Fuzz Funk In 1)
  23. Everybody Likes Something Good – Ify Jerry Crusade (Nigeria 70 – Lagos Jump)
  24. Live in Another World – Itadi (Afro-Beat Airways)
  25. The Things We Do In Soweto – Almon Memela (Next Stop Soweto 4: Zulu Rock, Afro-Disco & Mbaqanga 1975-19)
  26. Do The Afro Shuffle – Godwin Omabuwa & His Casanova Dandies – Godwin Omabuwa & His Casanova Dandies (Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sound In 1970&#0)
  27. Sex Veve – Verckys & L’Orchestre Vévé (Congolese Funk, Afrobeat & Psychedelic Rumba 1969-1978)
  28. Kenimania – MonoMono (Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-rock & Fuzz Funk In 1)
  29. Afro-blues – Orlando Julius & His Afro-sounders – Orlando Julius & His Afro-sounders (Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sound In 1970&#0)
  30. Khomo Tsaka Deile Kae? – Marumo (Next Stop Soweto 4: Zulu Rock, Afro-Disco & Mbaqanga 1975-19)
  31. Nuki Suki – Little Richard (King of Rock & Roll: The Complete Reprise Recordings)
  32. Home Is Where the Hatred Is – Gil Scott-Heron (Pieces of a Man)
  33. Mommy, What’s a Funkadelic? – Funkadelic (Funkadelic)
  34. Maybe Your Baby – Stevie Wonder (Talking Book)
  35. Funky Dollar Bill – Funkadelic (Free Your Mind…And Your Ass Will Follow)
  36. Ride On – Parliament (Chocolate City)
  37. Everybody Loves the Sunshine – Roy Ayers Ubiquity (The Best of Roy Ayers (The Best of Roy Ayers: Love Fantasy))
  38. So Ruff, So Tuff – Zapp (Historia de la Musica Rock: Locas)
  39. I’ve Got My Eyes On You – The Girls (Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound)
  40. Higher – The Lewis Connection (Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound)
  41. Feel Up – Grace Jones (Lives of the Saints 5)
  42. Contagious – Ronnie Robbins (Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound)
  43. Cloreen Bacon Skin – Prince (Crystal Ball)
  44. Sexy M.F. – Prince (The Hits/The B-Sides)
  45. Tribe Vibes – Jungle Brothers (Done By the Forces of Nature)
  46. Doin’ Our Own Dang – Jungle Brothers (Done By the Forces of Nature)
  47. Can I Kick It? – A Tribe Called Quest (People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (25th Anniversary Edition))
  48. Rhythm (Devoted to the Art of Moving Butts) – A Tribe Called Quest (People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (25th Anniversary Edition))
  49. The Magic Number – De La Soul (3 Feet High And Rising)
  50. Where I’m From – Digable Planets (Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time & Space))
  51. Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) – Digable Planets (Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time & Space))
  52. God Lives Through – A Tribe Called Quest (Midnight Marauders)
  53. Jettin’ – Digable Planets (Blowout Comb)
  54. Gold Chains – Beck (Odelay (Deluxe Edition))
  55. Manteca (The Funky Lowlives Extended Remix) – Dizzy Gillespie & Funky Lowlives (Verve Remixed 2 – Exclusive EP)
  56. Show Me – Mint Royale (Dancehall Places)

New mix: don’t put no headstone on my grave

I struggled with this mix for quite a while, and probably have two other mixes of rejected tracks even though the final version clocks in at 2 CDs’ length. The hard bit is always mood. Summer is easy mixin’ weather; winter, especially this winter, was hard.

And a lot of this mix struggled with the challenge of a world turned upside down. So there are a few more instrumental tracks, a few more down tracks. But it starts in a place of fragile hope, with Lou Reed’s incredibly timely song of transsexual identity which is equal measures crisis and birth of the new, and ends in a place of defiance. And maybe that’s what we have left to ourselves right now.

  1. Candy Says (Closet Mix) – The Velvet Underground (Peel Slowly and See)
  2. Silver – Echo & The Bunnymen (Songs To Learn & Sing)
  3. Boys Keep Swinging – David Bowie (Lodger)
  4. Damaged Goods – Gang Of Four (Entertainment!)
  5. Devotion – Mission of Burma (Signals, Calls and Marches (Remastered))
  6. World Cup Drumming – Mclusky (My Pain and Sadness Is More Sad and Painful Than Yours)
  7. Electioneering – Radiohead (OK Computer)
  8. The Great Curve (live) – Talking Heads (Jaap Eden Hall, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 11, 1980)
  9. Wish Fulfillment – Sonic Youth (Dirty)
  10. As I Went Out One Morning – Bob Dylan (John Wesley Harding)
  11. Time, As a Symptom – Joanna Newsom (Divers)
  12. Morning Lake – Weather Report (Weather Report)
  13. Sense Of Doubt – David Bowie (Heroes)
  14. What Will You Say (feat. Alim Qasimov) – Jeff Buckley featuring Alim Qasimov (Live at L’Olympia)
  15. This Room – The Notwist (Neon Golden)
  16. Politician Man – Betty Davis (The Columbia Years 1968-1969)
  17. For What It’s Worth – Talk Talk (The Very Best Of)
  18. Above Chiangmai – Brian Eno (Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror)
  19. Magpie to the Morning – Neko Case (Middle Cyclone (Bonus Track Version))
  20. State Trooper – Bruce Springsteen (Nebraska)
  21. Daphnia – Yo La Tengo (I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass)
  22. The Sky Is Broken – Moby (Play)
  23. Here Come the Warm Jets (2004 – Remaster) – Brian Eno (Here Come The Warm Jets)
  24. Give Me Cornbread When I’m Hungry – John Fahey (The Dance Of Death & Other Plantation Favorites)
  25. After Awhile – Swan Silvertones (Love Lifted Me / My Rock)
  26. The Last Broken Heart (Prop 8) – Christian Scott (Yesterday You Said Tomorrow)
  27. Mystic Brew – Vijay Iyer Trio (Historicity)
  28. Why Was I Born? – Kenny Burrell And John Coltrane (Kenny Burrell With John Coltrane)
  29. Meeting in the Aisle – Radiohead (Airbag/How Am I Driving?)
  30. The Last Ray – This Mortal Coil (It’ll End in Tears)
  31. Cedars of Lebanon – U2 (No Line On the Horizon (Deluxe Edition))
  32. We Float – PJ Harvey (Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea)
  33. No Headstone On My Grave – Esther Phillips (Oxford American 2003 Southern Music CD No. 6)

New mix: i’ve come all this way to hold your hand

This has been germinating for a while, and I had to drive to North Carolina and back to finish it. This was the mix of no rules, as you can tell by the length.

  1. Baby, I’m In the Mood for You – Bob Dylan (The Bootleg Series, Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964) A demo of Dylan’s raunchiest, most rural love song? Sure, why not.
  2. Bring it On Down to My House – Warner Williams with Jay Summerour (Classic African American Songsters from Smithsonian Folkways) A raunchy blues song? Sure, why not.
  3. Jake Leg Rag – Narmour & Smith (Lead Kindly Light) A fiddle tune? Sure, why not.
  4. Where Shall I Go? – Sister Marie Knight (When the Moon Goes Down in the Valley of Time: African-American Gospel, 1939-51) A gospel tune that lifts off into the stratosphere? Sure, why not.
  5. Little Island Walking (Peel Session) – Jim O’Rourke (Peel Session) Jim O’Rourke doing a straight-on John Fahey pastiche? Sure, why not.
  6. We Would Be Building – Daniel Bachman (Orange Co. Serenade) Primitive guitar cover of a Methodist hymn? Sure, why not.
  7. On The Banks Of The Owichita – John Fahey (The Dance Of Death & Other Plantation Favorites) A primitive guitar evocation of the slow river? Sure, why not.
  8. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free – Nina Simone (Nina Revisited… A Tribute to Nina Simone) A landmark Nina Simone tune? Sure, why not.
  9. Peace And Love – Gary Bartz And NTU Troop (I’ve Known Rivers And Other Bodies). “We got a hand for the Bronx”? Sure, why not.
  10. The Raven Speaks – Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett (Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett) A funk number with Keith Jarrett on the Fender and Burton on vibes? Sure, why not.
  11. Brown-Baggin’ – 24-Carat Black (Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth) Straight ahead funk from a very strange concept album? Sure, why not.
  12. Disrobe – Medeski, Martin & Wood (The End of Violence) A groove I’ve been sitting on for a very long time? Sure, why not.
  13. Doing It to Death, Pt. 1 (Single) – The J.B.’s & Fred Wesley (Pass the Peas: The Best of the J.B.’s). “In order to get down, I got to get in D”? Sure, why not.
  14. You Can’t Blame Me – Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum, & Durr (Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label) The world’s weirdest soul hook? Sure, why not.
  15. Everybody Loves the Sunshine – Roy Ayers Ubiquity (The Best of Roy Ayers (The Best of Roy Ayers: Love Fantasy)) A blissed out fusion number? Sure, why not.
  16. Blue Lines – Massive Attack (Blue Lines) A genre-creating Tricky rap? Sure, why not.
  17. The Sad Punk – Pixies (Trompe Le Monde) Changing gears abruptly? Sure, why not.
  18. Marrow (Live) – David Byrne & St. Vincent (Brass Tactics EP) St. Vincent backed by a freaking great horn section? Sure, why not.
  19. What We Loved Was Not Enough – Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (F*ck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything) Heartrending Canadians? Sure, why not.
  20. Roked – Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express (Junun) Israeli composer, Indian musicians, Radiohead guitarist? Sure, why not.
  21. %%%%%%%%%% $$$$$$$$$ >>>>>>>> >> >> >> @@@@@@@ – The User (Symphony #2 For Dot Matrix Printers) Dot matrix printer music? Sure, why not.
  22. Do the Dog – The Specials (The Specials) Do the dog, not the donkey? Sure, why not.
  23. You Satellite – Wilco (Star Wars) Wilco does late period Sonic Youth? Sure, why not.
  24. Nothing Clings Like Ivy – Elvis Costello & The Imposters (The Delivery Man) Plaintive country rock from a London kid? Sure, why not.
  25. Just One Thing – My Morning Jacket (It Still Moves) Unabashed Southern rock? Sure, why not.
  26. Are You Okay? – Dum Dum Girls (Too True) Can’t be flip about this track. The bridge kills me: “I’m reckless at night/I’m sorry for days.”
  27. Shake It Off – Ryan Adams (1989) A dark rewrite of an infectious Taylor Swift original? Sure, why not.
  28. One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) – Wilco (The Whole Love) Eleven minutes of a murder mystery wrapped up in an NPR-friendly arrangement? Sure, why not.
  29. Moonshine Blues [live 1962 10 at Gaslight Café, New York City] – Bob Dylan (The Gaslight Tapes [live 1962 10 at Gaslight Café, New York City]) A stark folk original and probably the most harrowing version ever recorded? Sure, why not.
  30. Bladesteel – Daniel Lanois (Here Is What Is) Four minutes of slide guitar with New Orleans drums by Lanois? Sure why not.
  31. Amy – Ryan Adams (Heartbreaker) A track that opens with Adams’ most annoying verse melody, but transitions into his most heartbreaking chorus melody? Sure why not.
  32. Stanwell Perpetual – David Grubbs (The Spectrum Between) Three minutes of unresolved tension building with the horn section from Camoufleur? Sure, why not.
  33. The Things I Say – Joanna Newsom (Divers) A straight folk track that resolves to an ascending backtracked vocal cliffhanger conclusion? Sure, why not.
  34. Untitled – R.E.M. (Green) Michael Stipe’s paean to his parents? Sure, why not.
  35. Sun Is Shining – The Fireman (Electric Arguments) Electronica by Paul McCartney and Youth? Sure, why not.

New mix: My timing that flawed

Midsummer, so time for another mix. At some point I’ll break this meta-thing I have where the mix starts out party and ends up somber, but this will not be the mix to break the pattern.

A few track notes in line below.

  1. Blind Man Can See It – James Brown (In the Jungle Groove). This is a classic James Brown groove with nothing much else going on, but it’s on here for the first 30 second snippet of Brown talking with the drummer. Dag-a-dag-a-dag-a…
  2. Jungle Grove – Buckshot LeFonque (Music Evolution). I had written off Buckshot LeFonque as a kind of lazy exercise after the first album. I finally got around to checking out the second (and last) platter Branford’s gang waxed, and I’m glad I did. This track features some seriously hot playing as the group plays some live jungle.
  3. Blue Line Swinger – Yo La Tengo (Prisoners Of Love). Yeah, I know, there are probably a bunch of live cuts of this that are better, but this is the one I first learned to love.
  4. Lotus Flower – Radiohead (The King of Limbs). Get your Thom Yorke dance on.
  5. Song Of The Stars – Dead Can Dance (Spirit Chaser). Get your mid-90s cultural appropriation dance on.
  6. The Great Curve – Talking Heads (Remain In Light). I think this is the only track on this album that hadn’t previously made it onto a mix tape.
  7. Optimistic – Radiohead (Kid A). To think that I once considered this the happy song on this album.
  8. Idioteque – Virginia Sil’hooettes (Best of BOCA: The First 20 Years). I know, I know. But honestly I was blown away by what these Hoos could do in the studio.
  9. Ascension Day – Talk Talk (Laughing Stock). I’m still not sure what this song is about, but I do know that I haven’t been able to stop playing this album since I finally picked it up a few years ago.
  10. Total Trash – Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation). Is it bad that reading Kim’s autobiography made me want to listen to Sonic Youth songs that weren’t sung by Kim?
  11. You Get What You Deserve – Big Star (#1 Record – Radio City). Ditto the comment on track 6.
  12. Nicotine & Gravy – Beck (Midnite Vultures). Okay, here we go. I enjoyed this album ironically when it came out, now I just enjoy it. “I’ll feed you fruit that don’t exist/I’ll leave graffiti where you’ve never been kissed/I’ll do your laundry, massage your soul/Then turn you over to the highway patrol.”
  13. Beykat – Youssou N’Dour (Joko From Village To Town). I could listen to Youssou sing anything, even a track that would be at home on a Europop radio station.
  14. Rose Parade – Elliott Smith (Either/Or). Haven’t been able to let go of this one.
  15. Prïtourïtze Planinata – Bulgarian State Television Female Choir (Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares). Another album I came to late, and can’t stop listening to.
  16. Love Will Tear Us Apart – June Tabor & Oysterband (Ragged Kingdom). Surprising how well this works.
  17. Nothing But Heart – Low (C’mon). Fighting through.
  18. Cherry Chapstick (Acoustic Version) – Yo La Tengo (Today Is the Day! – EP). Have loved this tune for a long time in its original form. The acoustic is wistful and summer afternoonish.
  19. Into Dust – Mazzy Star (So Tonight That I Might See). Another track that echoes around my head when it’s quiet. 
  20. Fading Away – The Church (Gold Afternoon Fix). This may not have been the album that The Church wanted to make—stories of their fights with the producer and their despair at LA and their label are plenty—but it’s still an album that I know almost every track on.
  21. Bye Bye Beauté (Coralie Clement) – Nada Surf (if I had a hi-fi). Not the first time I’ve bought an album based on a cover. I originally wasn’t taken by too many songs on this cover album but this one kept at me, thank goodness.
  22. A Mother’s Last Word To Her Daughter – Washington Phillips (The Half Ain’t Never Been Told, Vol. 1). Very little dulcimer work in the gospel music I’ve heard. This is a fascinating track to sign off this mix as we go and see the King.