Mixtape: Like a Heart Beating

Starting now, a lot of the images I post will be photos that I took myself. Photography has been a fleeting interest of mine for a while, so maybe this will give me an excuse to spend a little more time with it. I took this picture a few months ago in California, and it didn't turn out like I had hoped it would. I thought it was interesting anyway. But enough about that.

I made this mix tonight, mainly out of tracks from albums that I've been playing a lot lately. There isn't really a theme, as far as I can tell, but I think I did a decent job of things anyway (I also get the feeling it will sound great on the road, hence the picture - will be testing it out tomorrow). Of note here is that the Nine Inch Nails track I included is supposedly the 'original' version that never made it onto The Downward Spiral. It's got some amazing female vocals on it, courtesy of Stella Soleil, that really improve upon an already great song. As usual, enjoy.

Title: Like a Heart Beating
Length: 54:22
Download

1. Snowglobe - "Anthem"
2. Bloc Party - "Zephyrus"
3. PJ Harvey - "White Chalk"
4. Los Campesinos! - "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed"
5. Third Eye Blind - "Anything"
6. Eels - "Saturday Morning"
7. R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"
8. Laura Marling - "Ghosts"
9. Beirut - "A Call to Arms"
10. Gnarls Barkley - "Going On"
11. Bon Iver - "Skinny Love"
12. Neutral Milk Hotel - "Holland, 1945"
13. Astronautalis - "Oceanwalk"
14. Modest Mouse - "Black Cadillacs"
15. Nine Inch Nails - "A Warm Place (illum tangendo)"
16. Tilly and the Wall - "Tall Tall Grass"
17. The Polyphonic Spree - "It's the Sun"

Mixtape: Remember to Breathe

I will definitely be making new mixtapes within the next few days (and probably an album review or two), but right now I think I'm going to post a couple of old ones that aren't too terribly awful (hopefully).

This is a tape I made a couple of weeks ago. I guess you could call this a crush tape, at least that's how I tried to set it up. Although this also tells something of a story, so I like to think of it as a concept mixtape, if you will (as an aside, I don't think I could be more pretentious if I tried). I included two songs from the soundtrack of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I re-watched not long before making this tape, so perhaps that film influenced this a little bit. There are some questionable tracks on here, and I am well aware of this (Death Cab and "Hey There Delilah" come to mind). But hey, when a track works, it works. Anyway, enjoy.

Title: Remember to Breathe
Length: 1:00:08
Download

1. Green Day - "At the Library"
2. Woozyhelmet - "Crush"
3. Electric Light Orchestra - "Mr. Blue Sky"
4. The Wombats - "Kill the Director"
5. The Raconteurs - "Hands"
6. Death Cab for Cutie - "I Will Possess Your Heart (7" Edit)"
7. Hole - "Miss World"
8. Third Eye Blind - "Semi-Charmed Life"
9. Elliott Smith - "A Passing Feeling"
10. Jon Brion - "Elephant Parade"
11. The Replacements - "Androgynous"
12. Descendents - "Suburban Home"
13. Husker Du - "Monday Will Never Be the Same"
14. Mirah - "The Sun"
15. Eels - "Last Stop: This Town"
16. Get Set Go - "The Old Ennui"
17. Plain White T's - "Hey There Delilah"
18. Modest Mouse - "Ocean Breathes Salty"
19. Why? - "Whispers Into the Other"

Mixtape: Alone/Alive

Alright, this blog is now back from a very long hiatus. What this will mainly be is a place for me to share the mixtapes that I make on a fairly regular basis (usually about once a week). However, there will also be other posts sometimes, like reviews of albums, movies, or books, and maybe even the occasional random-thought blog post.

So, to start it off, here's a mix I made a few days ago. When I made this, I thought this was going to be a straightforward 'fun' tape, but when I listened to it I realized it had way more venom in it than I had intended (consciously, anyway). I like it a lot more than I thought I would, too.

Title: Alone/Alive
Length: 53:39
Download

1. Modest Mouse - I Came as a Rat
2. R.E.M. - Horse to Water
3. Saul Williams - Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)
4. The Killers - Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
5. Why? - The Hollows
6. Margot & The Nuclear So and So's - Jen is Bringin' the Drugs
7. Starfucker - German Love
8. Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone
9. Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
10. Cat Power - Half of You
11. Architecture in Helsinki - Like it or Not
12. Frightened Rabbit - The Modern Leper
13. The Tallest Man on Earth - Into the Stream
14. Third Eye Blind - Motorcycle Drive By
15. The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony