Mixtape 6/19/09

A new week and a new number one. Animal Collective reach the top of the Mixtape for the second time this year. "Summertime Clothes" follows "My Girls" as the second 'Tape-topper from the album, "Merriweather Post Pavilion."

Right behind Animal Collective, and holding at #2 for second week, is Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks." Last week's #1, "French Navy" by Camera Obscura slips from #1-4 after a two-week run at the top.

A couple of big moves happen lower down this week. Sonic Youth jumps from #28-13 with "Sacred Trickster" and first-time Mixtapers Deer Tick move from #38-20 in the band's second week on the chart with "Easy," which sounds like a leftover from the Sixties. In a very good way.

A six-pack of new tunes descend upon the 'Tape this week including the first single from the new Wilco album - Wilco the Album - "You Never Know"(32), "You'll Disappear" by New York groove dogs, The Phenomenal Handclap Band (33), and Portland band (aren't they all from Portland these days?) The Nurses enter with their first Mixtape appearance, "Caterpillar Playground" (38).

There are also new entries by Brendan Benson - the singer in the Raconteurs that's not Jack White - with "Feel Like Taking You Home" (37), "Upside Down" by Banjo or Freakout (39) and Ganglians' "Lost Words" (40).


Look for new BLK JKS and possibly more new Wilco on next week's Mixtape. See you next Friday.

1. Summertime Clothes / Animal Collective (1 week @ #1) iTunes MySpace
2. Two Weeks / Grizzly Bear iTunes MySpace
3. Radio Kaliningrad / Handsome Furs iTunes MySpace
4. French Navy/ Camera Obscura iTunes MySpace
5. It's Nice to Know You Work Alone / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
6. 21st Century Breakdown/ Green Day iTunes MySpace
7. Rain On/ Woods iTunes MySpace
8. Psychic City/ YACHT iTunes MySpace
9. Catch and Release / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
10. Murder City / Green Day iTunes MySpace
11. Panic Switch / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
12. Satellite Skin / Modest Mouse iTunes MySpace
13. Sacred Trickster / Sonic Youth iTunes MySpace
14. Skeletons / Yeah Yeah Yeahs iTunes MySpace
15. Borderline/ Flaming Lips iTunes MySpace
16. Chillin' / Wale ft. Lady Gaga iTunes MySpace
17. Zero / Yeah Yeah Yeahs iTunes MySpace
18. Seaside / Kestrels iTunes MySpace
19. Walking on a Dream / Empire of the Sun iTunes MySpace
20. Easy / Deer Tick iTunes MySpace
21. I Want You to Know/ Dinosaur Jr. iTunes MySpace
22. Devotion / Viva Voce iTunes MySpace
23. Fire / Kasabian iTunes MySpace
24. Cheerleader / Grizzly Bear iTunes MySpace
25. Raindrops / Basement Jaxx iTunes MySpace
26. Kind of a Girl / Tinted Windows iTunes MySpace
27. From the Hips / Cursive iTunes MySpace
28. Dream City / Free Energy iTunes MySpace
29. Statues / Clap Your Hands Say Yeah iTunes MySpace
30. 100 Little Curses / Street Sweeper Social Club iTunes MySpace
31. Since We've Been Wrong / The Mars Volta iTunes MySpace
32. You Never Know/ Wilco (NEW) iTunes MySpace
33. You'll Disappear / The Phenomenal Handclap Band (NEW) iTunes MySpace
34. The End Is Near / The Fiery Furnaces iTunes MySpace
35. Silver Among the Gold / Grand Archives iTunes MySpace
36. It Ain't Gonna Save Me / Jay Reatard iTunes MySpace
37. Feel Like Taking You Home / Brendan Benson (NEW) iTunes MySpace
38. Caterpillar Playground / Nurses (NEW) iTunes MySpace
39. Upside Down / Banjo or Freakout (NEW) iTunes MySpace
40. Lost Words / Ganglians (NEW) iTunes MySpace

The Mixtape 6/12/09

Today's the day!!! Get digital or get lost in the technological shuffle. TV officially (finally) moves to the digital age today. Sure, it was supposed to happen in Februrary, but no one was ready. Hell, plenty of people still aren't, but change waits for no one.

As for The Mixtape, not too much in the way of change this week. Camera Obscura is on top for a second week with "French Navy." Grizzly Bear moves from #3-2 with "Two Weeks" and, wait...this just in...change is indeed present on this week's 'Tape. After entering last week at 23, Handsome Furs' "Radio Kaliningrad" leaps up to 3. It's so hard to deny one-half of the Wolf Parade sound. YACHT is this week's other new top ten entry at #9 with "Psychic City," up from #12 last week.

Spotlight Singles:

Radio Kaliningrad / Handsome Furs (#3)

Dan Boeckner is better known (at least in some circles) as half of the vocal duo that gives Wolf Parade its distinctive sound. With his wife, Alexei Perry, Boeckner moonlights as Hansome Furs. "Radio Kaliningrad" is off their second album, Face Control - a semi-conceptual piece revolving around the Russian practice of turning away bar patrons based soley on appearance, also known as Face Control. The song can't be denied. Boeckner's voice and the tune's moodiness evokes some of Wolf Parade's finest moments, and really, almost all Wolf Parade moments are F-I-N-E fine. My apologies for the Aerosmith reference for those who catch it. I swear I've heard the melody before. I just can't place it among the static.

21st Century Breakdown / Green Day (#7)

Granted, this song sounds better in the context of GD's album of the same name, but this song is a great summation of Billie Jo, Mike, and Tre's influences; spanning anthemic, stadium ready rock, Ziggy Stardust-esque ambition and emotion, skewed punk ala Flogging Molly and The Clash, and back to the stadium for a big finish, all the while sounding very Green Day. All within a five-minute window.

I Want You To Know / Dinosaur Jr. (#22)

Death and taxes aside, few things are a given in this life. As time has taught us all, one unavoidable inevitablility is the cylcic nature of nostalgia. It seems like we work in 15-2o year cycles. I'll save the details for a future post, but rock and roll is definitely looking back to the 90s right now as a touchstone for inspiration.

Silversun Pickups are what Billy Corgan wishes the Smashing Pumpkins still were. Camera Obscura draws from the same sense of timelesness that made Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs critical and fan favorites. Hell, Sonic Youth, Dino Jr, and Green Day, all on this week's chart, were all on a pre-internet version of The Mixtape 15 or so years ago. If you're too young to remember, check out Dirty, Where You Been, and Dookie respectively. They all still kill most of what passes for "alternative" these days. Or maybe I'm just nostalgic.

But back to Dinosaur Jr, this track sounds like J. Mascis and co. have a time machine that enables them to ignore each and every musical trend that's been born and faded away the last decade-and-a-half. Thankfully, "I Want You to Know" has the same slanted pop sensibilities peeking out behind walls of guitar aesthete that endeared "Feel The Pain" and "Out There" to a flannel-clad generation of Lollapalooza-goers in the early Nineties.

Have a great week and Kill Your Television! Or at least upgrade the dang thing. The economy sucks...there must be a sale somewhere. Here's this week's Mixtape:

1. French Navy/ Camera Obscura (2 weeks @ #1) iTunes MySpace
2. Two Weeks / Grizzly Bear iTunes MySpace
3. Radio Kaliningrad / Handsome Furs iTunes MySpace
4. It's Nice to Know You Work Alone / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
5. Summertime Clothes / Animal Collective iTunes MySpace
6. Rain On/ Woods iTunes MySpace
7. 21st Century Breakdown/ Green Day iTunes MySpace
8. Panic Switch / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
9. Psychic City/ YACHT iTunes MySpace
10. Catch and Release / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
11. Chillin' / Wale ft. Lady Gaga iTunes MySpace
12. Murder City / Green Day iTunes MySpace
13. Satellite Skin / Modest Mouse iTunes MySpace
14. Borderline/ Flaming Lips iTunes MySpace
15. Zero / Yeah Yeah Yeahs iTunes MySpace
16. Cheerleader / Grizzly Bear iTunes MySpace
17. Seaside / Kestrels iTunes MySpace
18. Walking on a Dream / Empire of the Sun iTunes MySpace
19. Skeletons / Yeah Yeah Yeahs iTunes MySpace
20. Kind of a Girl / Tinted Windows iTunes MySpace
21. From the Hips / Cursive iTunes MySpace
22. I Want You to Know/ Dinosaur Jr. iTunes MySpace
23. Devotion / Viva Voce iTunes MySpace
24. Statues / Clap Your Hands Say Yeah iTunes MySpace
25. Fire / Kasabian iTunes MySpace
26. Houses / Great Northern iTunes MySpace
27. Heavy Cross / The Gossip iTunes MySpace
28. Sacred Trickster / Sonic Youth iTunes MySpace
29. Raindrops / Basement Jaxx iTunes MySpace
30. Buddy / Iran iTunes MySpace
31. Dream City / Free Energy iTunes MySpace
32. 100 Little Curses / Street Sweeper Social Club iTunes MySpace
33. Since We've Been Wrong / The Mars Volta iTunes MySpace
34. Stay Wide Awake / Eminem iTunes MySpace
35. Kinda Like a Big Deal / Clipse ft. Kanye West iTunes MySpace
36. Now We Can See / The Thermals iTunes MySpace
37. Silver Among the Gold / Grand Archives (NEW) iTunes MySpace
38. Easy / Deer Tick (NEW) iTunes MySpace
39. It Ain't Gonna Save Me / Jay Reatard (NEW) iTunes MySpace
40. The End Is Near / The Fiery Furnaces (NEW) iTunes MySpace

The Mixtape 06/05/09

A Perfect 10 Denied, Married Musicians Moving Up, and War Is Waged Against a French Navy.

It has happened. It took an army to dethrone Silversun Pickups before they could reach a double-digit stay at the top of The Mixtape. Actually it took a Navy. A French Navy courtesy of Camera Obscura who sit at the top of this week's 'Tape for the first time ever.

Silversun Pickups still have three songs in the top ten, but it doesn't look like "It's Nice To Know You Work Alone" (4) or "Catch and Release" (10) will be following the nine-week number-one run of "Panic Switch." That would be an impressive feat given Grizzly Bear's climb from #6-3 with "Two Weeks," Green Day's ascension from #14-6 with the title track of their latest epic, and Animal Collective's leap from #19-7 with "Summertime Clothes."

Not to mention that two other songs are making serious moves toward the summit. YACHT makes a downright impressive jump from #40-12 with "Psychic City" and Modest Mouse move quite respectably from #34-19 with "Satellite Skin."

It's a good week for husband/wife combos on The Mixtape. Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon celebrate 25 years of marriage this year) move from #39-34 with "Sacred Trickster," Kevin and Anita Robinson's Viva Voce climb from #35-26 with "Devotion," and Dan Boeckner (along with wife Alexei Perry) sees 'Tape action in the form of a band that's not Wolf Parade, his day job that's enjoyed much Mixtape success. Boeckner and Perry's Handsome Furs leads the week's new entries at #23 with "Radio Kaliningrad" from their second album, Face Control.

The other new entries appear at the bottom of the 'Tape. The Mars Volta's first single from upcoming album Octahedron, "Since We've Been Wrong," enters at #39 while Free Energy appears on the Mixtape for the first time with "Dream City" at #40.

The inevitable battle between Camera Obscura, Grizzly Bear, Green Day, and Animal Collective for the top spot will make the next few weeks quite interesting. YACHT, Modest Mouse, and Handsome Furs all seem destined for the top ten as well. Let the Summer Games begin!

1. French Navy/ Camera Obscura (1 week @ #1) iTunes MySpace
2. Panic Switch / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
3. Two Weeks / Grizzly Bear iTunes MySpace
4. It's Nice to Know You Work Alone / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
5. Rain On/ Woods iTunes MySpace
6. 21st Century Breakdown/ Green Day iTunes MySpace
7. Summertime Clothes / Animal Collective iTunes MySpace
8. Chillin' / Wale ft. Lady Gaga iTunes MySpace
9. Borderline/ Flaming Lips iTunes MySpace
10. Catch and Release / Silversun Pickups iTunes MySpace
11. Zero / Yeah Yeah Yeahs iTunes MySpace
12. Psychic City/ YACHT iTunes MySpace
13. Kind of a Girl / Tinted Windows iTunes MySpace
14. Cheerleader / Grizzly Bear iTunes MySpace
15. From the Hips / Cursive iTunes MySpace
16. Murder City / Green Day iTunes MySpace
17. Walking on a Dream / Empire of the Sun iTunes MySpace
18. Seaside / Kestrels iTunes MySpace
19. Satellite Skin / Modest Mouse iTunes MySpace
20. Statues / Clap Your Hands Say Yeah iTunes MySpace
21. Skeletons / Yeah Yeah Yeahs iTunes MySpace
22. Buddy / Iran iTunes MySpace
23. Radio Kaliningrad / Handsome Furs (NEW) iTunes MySpace
24. Houses / Great Northern iTunes MySpace
25. I Want You to Know/ Dinosaur Jr. iTunes MySpace
26. Devotion / Viva Voce iTunes MySpace
27. Heavy Cross / The Gossip iTunes MySpace
28. Fire / Kasabian iTunes MySpace
29. Stay Wide Awake / Eminem iTunes MySpace
30. Kinda Like a Big Deal / Clipse ft. Kanye West iTunes MySpace
31. Now We Can See / The Thermals iTunes MySpace
32. Shimmer and Shine / Ben Harper & the Relentless 7 iTunes MySpace
33. Raindrops / Basement Jaxx iTunes MySpace
34. Sacred Trickster / Sonic Youth iTunes MySpace
35. Who's Asking? / Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band iTunes MySpace
36. 100 Little Curses / Street Sweeper Social Club iTunes MySpace
37. Cemetery Songs / The Archibalds iTunes MySpace
38. Night Lights / Golden Bear iTunes MySpace
39. Since We've Been Wrong / The Mars Volta (NEW) iTunes MySpace
40. Dream City / Free Energy (NEW) iTunes MySpace