February Mixtastic

The New Pornogaphers "Chump Change"
Oasis "Cloudburst"
Weezer "Susane"
Beck "Think I'm In Love"
Franz Ferdinand "Cheating On You"
The Arcade Fire "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)"
Apples In Stereo "Sun Is Out"
The Features "Concrete (live @ Grand Palace)"
The Dandy Warhols "The Dandy Warhols' TV Theme"
The Quik "Bert's Apple Crumble"
The Beatles "Polythene Pam"
The Hives "Main Offender"
Semisonic "Falling"
Wire "Feeling Called Love"
REM "Exhuming McCarthy"
The White Stripes "Party Of Special Things To Do"
Clinic "Porno"
Be Your Own Pet "Wildcat!"
The Walkmen "New Years Eve"
Roxy Music "If It Takes All Night"
The La's "I Can't Sleep (BBC session)"
Squeeze "Slap & Tickle"
Television "Marquee Moon"
Talking Heads "Artists Only (live)"
The Go! Team "Bottle Rocket"
The Kinks "Big Sky"
The Zombies "Care Of Cell 44"
The B-52's "52 Girls"
Devo "Gut Feeling / (Slap Your Mammy)"
The Buzzcocks "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"

Digsy Has VD

I could write a mopetastic post about being alone on this evil holiday, but instead I'm going give VD wishes to those who deserve them. And yes, I'm ripping off mi amigo Trashley. Call me Carlos Mencia. In no order...



Happy VD!
NBC's Thursday night line-up makes my week. You make me all emotional over the sprawling love stories that are Jim/Pam, Jim/Karen, Pam/Roy, Dwight/Michael, Dwight/Angela (especially Dwangela). So much and yet not enough! And thanks for keeping 30 Rock and its old school charm around! This is the show that I was hoping Studio 60 would be. I would much rather work at "TGS with Tracy Jordan" than "Studio 60" and I totally heart seeing my fave UCB peeps in cameos every week. More Tara Copeland! And give Anthony Atamanuik a line!

Happy VD!
Robert Schneider and you lovely (?) boys in the Apples in Stereo (and to ex-Apple Hilarie Sidney, a special VD wish for writing "20 Cases Suggestive Of..."). Your album has given me so much joy to scream and sing and stomp about. I'm seeing you guys tomorrow night, you don't have to return my VD greeting. Just sing "Ruby" and I'll know you care.

Happy VD!
Mr. Whedon, Mr. Joss Whedon, how special you make today. The 20th issue of Astonishing X-Men comes out and I will surely brave the snow so I can accept your comic-shaped VD gift. It's your last arc on the series that has brought me to tears of joy often, but you've been kind enough to give me an upcoming episode of The Office and you're taking over the writing chores on Runaways. You're so good to me.

Happy VD!
I may not be visiting your dimly lit yet charming self until Friday and/or Saturday night, but you gave me a grand old time last night, Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Not only did I see the first performance of the new Harold team Bastian, but I actually felt like a social moth. I talked to people I know, I even heard my name called out by one of my classmates to get my attention! Finally, I'm starting to see people to talk to! Score!

Happy VD!
Murfreesboro, I should have mailed you one of my promotional Norbit VD cards. Instead, I will declare my love for you here. Yeah, I know I left you for a city that's bigger and better-ish, but you still take care of my family and friends. You let them drive their cars, shop at used CD stores (which I have not stumbled across up here, by the way) and eat at Don Pablo's and Penn Station on a regular basis. And don't even get me started on your Mexican food! Me oh my! I don't know when our paths will cross again (at least another five months), but I think of you and your inhabitants daily (this goes for Nashville too) as I listen to Turncoats and the Features on my iPod. Special place in my heart. Next to the chocolate.

Happy VD!
Madrox, my pretty little iPod, you keep me company all day long and provide me with just what I need to hear. Every Oasis song ever in a two day span? Thank you. Making my own musical by stringing together a series of songs to form a plot? Thanks again. The Office and Top Design on the D-train after long nights of improv watching? You know just what I need. I'll take care of you.

Happy VD everyone!

January Mixtastic

I love my iPod. Perhaps too much. I see myself as my iPod's (named Madrox Jr.) overprotective parent who has all sorts of strict rules on their child, placed out of love. I obsessively correct album information (no greatest hits on Madrox, all that is broken up into the respective albums or singles!), years (I know the Zombies didn't have a single in 1997!), and album artwork (my Features bootlegs have no artwork? I'll fix that with photoshop!). I spend way too much time with this thing.

This has also stretched to playlists. I have "Best Of" compilations for my top 20 favorite artists featuring their 20 best songs. I have a SmartPlayList filled with songs rated 4 or 5 stars that last between 1:45 and 2:15. I have all sorts of playlists designed to introduce me to newer songs, newer songs I haven't listened to, and newer songs that I immediately enjoyed. This has been done to avoid the pesky problem of hitting shuffle and then shuffling my way through hundreds of songs.

The pride and joy of my playlists has to be my monthly mix, my autobiographical journey through song that I compile on the last day of every month and then listen to on the first day of the next. The rules are simple: 30 songs that have been played during the month, 1 per artist, rating of 4 or 5 stars, and no song appearing on any monthly mix more than once (unless special personal reasons apply).

So, for the month of January 2007, the month that started 2007: Kill The Beast, here is the mix and the reasons...

Shout Out Louds "The Comeback" (played @ UCB)
Oasis "Half The World Away" (Emo Personal Junx)
The Rolling Stones "Let's Spend The Night Together" (danced on a bar bench at a birthday party)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" (on my best of 70s mix I made this month)
Belle & Sebastian "She's Losing It" (bought on iTunes this month)
Turncoats "Shoot That Girl" (Murfreesboro band done good, my homesick jam)
Of Montreal "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse" (big huge Emo Personal Junx)
The Kinks "Waterloo Sunset" (Emo Personal Junx)
XTC "Rocket From A Bottle" (bought "Black Sea" this month)
Cold War Kids "Hospital Beds"
The Apples in Stereo "Energy" (made available for download this month)
The Polyphonic Spree "Section 18 (Everything Starts at the Seam)"
The Beatles "Savoy Truffle"
Fiona Apple "Better Version Of Me"
Rage Against The Machine "Testify" (because I testified this month!)
The Pipettes "We Are The Pipettes" (played @ UCB)
The Futureheads "Back To The Sea" (Emo Personal Junx)
Talking Heads "Cities" (I listened to my Talking Heads mix this month)
Jonathan Fire*Eater "When The Curtain Calls For You" (I tried to get into JF*E this month)
The Shins "Turn On Me" (got the new album this month)
M.I.A. "U.R.A.Q.T."
Roxy Music "Triptych" (discovered that Country Life is the first Roxy music album I love from start to finish)
The New Pornographers "Breakin' The Law"
The Strokes "Reptilia"
Arcade Fire "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" (played @ UCB as well as Emo Personal Junx)
Beck "Bad Cartridge [E-Pro Remix]" (played @ UCB)
Clinic "Harvest (Within You)" (got the new album this month)
The Decemberists "The Engine Driver" (Emo Personal Junx)
The Walkmen "Little House Of Savages"
The Buzzcocks "Ever Fallen In Love?" (got the album at the same time as Emo Personal Junx and it's a brilliant song)


January has been a good year for music so far and it's been documented accurately. Hmm...maybe a little too accurately...

iLike

I just discovered iLike, some weird website that attaches to your iTunes like the symbiote did to Peter Parker on the Beyonder's world during the first Secret War. Just, hopefully not without those consequences. It keeps tabs of what you play and all that, making suggestions for other bands you might like (free if the artist is unsigned, buy it in iTunes if they are). This is another time waster. A cool feature is that every song in iTunes is translated to iLike where you can click on a little box and it shows you related videos for each song. I discovered this video of Roxy Music doing the classic "Remake/Remodel." It's genius. 1973, people. 1973.




LAST 3 SONGS ON iPOD
"Why Bother" by Weezer *****
"Jane" by Elf Power ****
"Devil's Haircut" by Beck ****

iPod Love

I forgot to mention in the debut post that I will be keeping up with random iPod minutiae. Curse Apple for installing so many fact keeping devices in iTunes. The play count features dictates a good chunk of my day. My iPod's name, by the way, is Madrox.

Featured at the end of every post, hopefully, will be...

LAST 3 SONGS PLAYED ON iPOD
"Hombre" by M.I.A. ***
"These Little Monkeys" by Jonathan Fire*Eater ***
"Everybody Plays The Mime" by Jonathan Fire*Eater **