Muxtape updates

I have a thing for female singers. PJ Harvey, Beth Orton, Gemma Hayes, Ginny Owens, Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, although I don't listen to Jewel or Alanis Morissette or Beyoncé or Christina Aguilera. Maybe it started back in the 1980's with listening to Tracy Chapman, Suzanne Vega, The Blake Babies, 10,000 Maniacs... who knows. But anyway, my update is four songs sung by women.

"Lucky Night" by The Sugarcubes. It's an absurd song about doing 2 things at a time. But the things are just insane, like driving a car and listening to music: in America, these are the same thing! Add make a call, text a message, put on make-up, sneak a beer, have a smoke, shoot some pictures, eat a burger; and Bjork would have to sing about doing nine things at a time. Really, the lyrics are nonsense, probably because they hadn't learned English yet and didn't understand what they were singing. But what I love about this song is how she starts to shriek at about the 2:13 mark until 2:27. I love the sound of her voice. I listen to that part of the song over and over like I'm convinced it can cure some illness I suffer or some evils I've committed. Too bad Muxtape doesn't let you just FF to that part.

"This Regret" by Caterwaul. Not a whole lot to this song, but I love that voice.

"Bombshell" by Mary's Danish. I really liked them. Can't remember if I ever saw them perform; the 1980's are a huge blur for me. Picked this song because she has "a tattoo of a bombshell." Now, I don't know if she means a woman like Jayne Mansfield or literally, an exploding bomb, but since I have a tattoo of a missile, I picked it for you to hear. (It's a tattoo of a missile, where do you think it is?)

The last song is actually the first on the page, "Human" by The Pretenders. This is the song that I think the women I've known would dedicate to me. I don't want to get into too much detail, but I will share this story: a very long time ago, a friend was giving out presents to all her male friends at a Christmas party. Each guy opened his package to find a bottle of cologne: Halston, Grey Flannel, etc. I opened mine to find a bottle of Brut cologne. I was confused because I'd never worn that fragrance before and asked her why she gave me Brut: "Because you are one," she said.

Muxtape goodness

Saw a tweet from Jessamyn yesterday, "So you can load a bunch of muxtapes into different tabs and play them at the same time. Cacophonously nifty!" And that reminded me that I wanted to find a way to search Muxtape for favorite songs. And it looks like I found a place: Muxtape list.

But looks were deceiving. The custom googly-search doesn't work. Neither does a google with site:muxtape.com.

But at least, this person has a huge list of songs sorted by Artist or Song Title or Muxer. And it looks like it was created recently. So if I want to hear a song, even "Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which seems to be a really popular Muxtrack, I can find it. Wow, and many people posted Andrew Bird (I don't know who that is), and Animal Collective (again, dunno), and Jamie Lidell (I know who that is), Lykke Li (??), and The White Stripes (I know them).

It's really cool to see what people like. Or what they want other people to experience. I know that (most of) the songs on my list have special meaning for me, so maybe other people feel the same about their selections.

If I can just find someone to upload "Ask the Angels" by Patti Smith.

Looky what I found, my Best of Tim Curry CD

I forget lots of stuff, and when I find things that I acquired long ago, it just reminds me how close I am to the warm, sensual embrace of death. And that makes me happy.

So I just found The Best of Tim Curry on CD in a box of stuff. I'm not a huge fan of his music, but it was cool to find (yes, I went to see midnight showings of Rocky Horror in the 1970's). He has a great speaking voice and I love his reading for the Lemony Snicket audio books.

Well, I was just looking at Monster's site and she mentioned some of the songs people have been recording for the presidential candidates. And since Tim has the song, "I do the Rock," I wonder if someone might use that for an Obama song. You probably don't want to sing, I do Barack, at least not until he's in office and you're a White House intern, but you might sing, I choose Barack.

Anyway, I put it on my muxtape page so you can listen and get ideas. I'm not pushing Obama's campaign on anyone, I'm just linking two seemingly unrelated things together. You can use the song for an anti-Obama tune if you want. I'm not Tim Curry's lawyer.

My Muxtape, annotated

Other than things I find funny or annoying, there isn't much truth on this blog. Any "facts" I claim about me are probably made-up. But I posted some songs to that Muxtape site, and I will tell a little about myself through them:

Big Dipper/ Another Life. This is one of my favorite songs. As with most of my favorite songs, I don't have any idea what it's about and probably couldn't sing it or recite more than a few words of lyrics. But I love it. I don't try to analyze what I love. I had a painting class in college and I made one painting of a woman growing out of a tree. It wasn't very good since I'm not good with anatomy and I didn't own any paints that could be mixed into a decent flesh color. But still I'm proud of it. And I titled it, Another Life, after this song. If I ever did something that made me famous, when it was finished, like if I wrote something that got made into a movie, I would dance at the end to this song. From the bouncy beat to the jangly guitar to words like, "left her body," I love it. Even if you reported that it was written by Heinrich Himmler for Eva Braun's 30th birthday, I would have difficulty giving it up. So if you have that information, please keep it to yourself and don't try to ruin my day.

Four Tops/ Are You Man Enough? (theme from Shaft in Africa). By the time they hit the first "are you man enough, big and bad enough" you should be pumping your fist in the air. This songs makes me think I have the balls to be there for you when you need me. No, not to help you paint the living room. But to help you kick ass. But most likely to help you kick-turn-kick-spin in synchronized Motown dance steps.

Too Much Joy/ Susquehanna Hat Company. This is a song that spans generations. Search for video on the Abbott and Costello routine of the same name to see what I mean. That's why I love it, you need to know the history to get the joke. And so much American culture is lost. In case you don't find it, in the comedy routine, whenever someone hears the words, Susquehanna Hat, they go nuts for and destroy the hat that Lou is holding. For each person, the Susquehanna Hat holds a bad memory. So in the song, a girl named Susquehanna Hat Company makes everyone go batshit. At the end of "the novel of which we dare not speak," I congratulate the reader for finishing the book and announce that it's time to dance, and to cue up this song.

Meco/ Disco Starwars. No reason. Just seemed funny.

Switchblade Kittens/ Ode to Harry Potter. No reason. Just for book nerds.

Boa/ Duvet. The opening credit song for the anime (Serial Experiments)- Lain. It's just a lush, haunting song that makes the show even better. I love how the song just starts like we're already in the middle of the story: "and you don't seem to understand..." Very cool.

Yatsura/ Slain by elf. Not sure why I like this, but it has something to do with when Homer Simpson goes to college and while playing Dungeons and Dragons is slain by an elf. It's just sounds funny.

Dragon Ash/ Battle Royale closing credits. I don't know what this is because it's in Japanese. But Battle Royale is one of the awesomest movies ever. High school students are drugged and taken to an island where they are forced to kill each other so that one will survive and be welcomed back into society. Japanese teenage girls in school uniforms carrying Uzis: nuff said. I imagine the lyrics are something like: "I've loved you secretly and now I have to kill you. Our days of carefree youth have been stolen away. Run with me because I have a plan." If you don't have a renewed love of life after watching these kids shoot the crap out of each other for 90 minutes, then you're already dead.

Oingo Boingo/ Better Luck Next Time. From the soundtrack to The Last American Virgin. What a movie. Kid falls in love with pretty girl. Pretty girl falls for bad boy best friend. Bad boy knocks up girl. Kid spends money and time on girl and gets her an abortion. Kid thinks girl will love him for this. But he is so wrong. I decided long ago that Oingo Boingo is my favorite band because they happened to be there at the right time.

Diane Izzo/ Ground. I love the earthy predatory prowl of this song. I always get the lyrics wrong when I imagine that she sings, "I wanted love to be blind." I'm not sure what this song is about, but it makes me sorry for all the times I told a girl I didn't like her because she was ugly. For the record, I think I only did it once, but that was one too many. And the look on her face has haunted me ever since. But she got me back when she called and left a message that she was Rita, a hot cheerleader, and she wanted to talk to me. In my defense, my mom made me call because it was rude to ignore phone messages, but I got Rita's number from the phone book and called her only to have her ask, "Effing, who?" Don't piss off ugly girls; they have boxes full of revenge to get you back with.

Spookey Ruben/ Wendy McDonald. Just fun.

So. Let's hang out. Okay?

...I'll make you a tape...

...And with those words, countless losers attempted to win your heart.

"So I made you a tape. Don't listen now. Wait until you get home so you don't have any distractions. Then listen. But no pressure. Take your time. And yeah, you noticed the tape. I didn't have any fresh tapes, so I recorded over The Klingon Way: a warrior's guide. But it's okay. There wasn't any translation on it for, "You have a butt that would make Kahless weep." Ha ha! Just kidding. Not really. It's just you're so beautiful. And... and... well, I gotta go or I'll be late for band practice. Gotta keep my lips in shape! Ha ha ha!"

It's here. Yes, I know everyone is hosting tracks there. Yes, I know it doesn't look cool.