The good goo of mixed spring and summer soundtracks. The whole thing on Spotify (minus those songs that do not exist on Spotify). The old-school actual CDs and paper copies of the track listing went out in the post this weekend (for those for whom I have a mailing address…)

Random Gum
Spring Forward/Summer Moving 2013

1. Albin de la Simone – “Ton Pommier”
Thanks to and for Mathilde. (And Laurent for the assist on getting this one.)

2. Camille – “She Was”
One of several songs attributable to dear Mathilde, my little woodworker!

3. Timber Timbre – “Lay Down in the Tall Grass”
Thoughts of Mathilde and those first January days in Gothenburg.

4. Glasvegas – “Geraldine”
Song originally attributable to Roxane, my obsession with Scottish accents hit full speed early in 2013, making the two Glasvegas tracks here indispensable.

5. I Am Kloot – “To You”
Memories – wind-whipped, salted-air walks, Seltjarnarnes, people like Alex, Paolo, and others who earned dubious nicknames. Thanks to Naomi. Nostalgia for the ache of the early 2000s.

6. Glasvegas – “Fuck You, It’s Over”
Hear the Scottish in those vowels in “now”/”how” – a year ago I was imitating Scottish accents for Bruno and now longing to listen to it every day – no idea why (except I had a little, passing crush on a Scot (not to be confused with men named Scot(t) who insist it has one t)

7. The Morning After Girls – “Hidden Spaces” …I know it’s hard to let things go/Especially when thoughts won’t flow/Just never take advice from me…

8. Liam Finn – “Better to Be”
Sounds so much like his father, it is like having a whole, new, fresh Neil!

9. Prince & the Revolution – “Kiss”
Somehow this song is catchy and makes me think of winter-dark wanderings through Göteborg in my early days living here. And somehow, in a roundabout way, makes me think of New Zealand. I had gone with friend Kimberley to a day festival in Auckland back in 1999. It featured beloved Neil Finn and a number of other Kiwi bands – yet there was also a rather annoying American band from Minneapolis (whose name escapes me now – Semisonic?) who announced proudly, “Now we are going to play a little something from our hometown.” I immediately thought, “Oh, god, no, not Prince!” Yet, it was. On the same theme, I once involved myself with someone without realizing for well over a year that his ENTIRE music collection consisted of the complete discography of Prince – and nothing else. Warning sign? Hell yes.

10. Orgy – “Social Enemies” …Here to save the freaks, again you think…

11. Art Brut – “Lost Weekend” …I’m sorry if I embarrassed you/by saying something stupid like I love you…
Effectively seizes that spirit-of-the-moment feeling when you don’t want something (weekend or otherwise) to end.

12. The Wedding Present – “You’re Dead” …This time you went too far and I know exactly what you are/I understand you – and I can’t stand you…
“How come during times like this I still want your touch and I want your kiss?/It’s insane and I can’t explain why. You’re not the one for me, although I just can’t seem to let you go/You appall me – okay, call me”. Going back again and again to things, people one should leave well enough alone already.

13. Foxygen – “San Francisco” …I left my love in San Francisco/that’s okay, I was bored anyway…
For beloved Annette.

14. The Blood Arm – “She’s a Guillotine”

15. The Velvet Underground – “Oh! Sweet Nothing”
“Just like a cat she landed on her feet.” I always liked this song, but it sprang to mind when I sort of landed softly and on my feet, as I usually do these days in professional situations, and a Norwegian guy commented that he sees me a “workplace cat” (or something similar) in that I will always land on my feet.

16. Rufus Wainwright – “Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M’En Vais”
One of my favorite Gainsbourg songs with a Rufus spin. Love it.

17. Lucius – “Go Home”
With love and thanks to Camille – all the congrats in the world to her.

18. Summer Aviation – “Love So Fine”
Poppy way to get through the windy winter. Thanks to Kevin.

19. Grandaddy – “The Crystal Lake”

20. Stone Roses – “Shoot You Down” …I never wanted the love that you showed me/it started to choke me…

21. The Echo Friendly – “Same Mistakes” …I make the same mistakes/Feels like I never learn/Always give way too much for little in return/I haven’t changed a bit/I’m still not over it/I make the same mistakes…
For ML, JKL, NSKR, EMV (making but not paying for mistakes, once again)

22. Kishi Bashi – “Atticus, in the Desert”
Kishi Bashi overkill, but it defined my Gothenburg winter. Beautiful layers.

23. Kishi Bashi – “Conversations at the End of the World” …It was every man for himself…
For Ross, the dentist and comedian, for no real reason.

24. Kishi Bashi – “Manchester” …My favorite part’s when I die/in your arms, like a movie…
“Will you be mine?/I haven’t felt this alive in a long time/All the streets are warm today…”

25. I Like Trains – “Reykjavik” …And if the truth is rarely pretty/don’t you think there must be beauty in deceit?…
Thanks to a blink-of-an-eye acquaintance, Pedro. “You only told us what we wanted to believe.”

26. Dzintars – “So Silent is the Ukrainian Night”
Sometimes gripped by the melancholy of this kind of music, which made up such a huge part of who I was as a young adult.

27. Belle & Sebastian – “I Don’t Love Anyone”
For Bruno, as always.

28. Esben & the Witch – “Iceland Spar”
Thanks to Roxane, once more.

29. BellaMaine – “Single Life”

30. Packleader – “Rudelführer” …I’m pack leader, baby, and you’re my pack of dogs…
Everything’s gone to the dogs. The big dogs need taming at a dog and pony show, dogstar, dog house, dog shit. All the dog analogies before we let sleeping dogs lie! For Martina. “Come and get a bone…”

31. Foxygen – “No Destruction” …there’s no need to be an asshole/you’re not in Brooklyn anymore…

32. Ricky Nelson – “Poor Little Fool” …She’d play around and tease me with her carefree devil eyes/She’d hold me close and kiss me but her heart was full of lies…
Still wondering what “carefree devil eyes” are exactly. For my mom.

33. David Bowie – “The Man Who Sold the World”
During a David Bowie kick during one of my infamous baking marathons, I realized I had not heard this song before except as Nirvana covered it – not that it was needed, but it’s just further evidence of Bowie’s far-reaching influence.

34. Tommy James & the Shondells – “Crimson and Clover”
Suddenly I was stuck in a different sonic era. Thinking of the long lost and seemingly missing Terra.

35. Beck – “Diamond Dogs”
A Bowie cover; I knew I had heard it but could not remember where. Then I remembered it was on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Whatever else anyone says, I was so dazzled by and in love with Moulin Rouge… it is cheesy but it brought my senses to life and still fills me with the sense that love is possible. (And could I resist the temptation to include another “canine-themed” tune?)

36. Zdenek Batka, Lenka Kralova, et al – “Dobry vecer, frajarecko”
More young-adult melancholia/memories – and also thinking of how much my brother and his friends made fun of me for buying central and eastern European folk music CDs. And for new friend, Martina

37. PJ Harvey – “All and Everyone” …as we, advancing in the sun/sing “Death to all and everyone…”

38. Poem in October – “The Green is Still One” …I’m missing your love…

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Summer(time) in the city – and the living is easy!

1. Bobby Womack – “Across 110th Street”
Representative of the kind of sounds that move me as summer and light slowly emerge.

2. Stereo MCs – “Ground Level”
Thanks to FW, who came through with recommendations when asked.

3. Grandaddy – “He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot” …Welcome back to solid ground, my friend…
My friend David gave me the Grandaddy The Sophtware Slump album an eternity ago and I only got into it in the last two years (including tracks from it on several of my recent mixes). This one goes out to him and to RJC, a dumb pilot.

4. Olivia Newton-John/ELO – “Xanadu”
Not sure what was going through my head here, but I had the urge to hear this since it reminded me of my broad childhood musical tastes. (At least it was not New Kids on the Block or Extreme, eh, CM?)

5. Blondie – “English Boys”
Another piece of childhood – when released in 1982, I listened to the album this came from repeatedly until it unwound (hooray for the transitory nature of cassettes!). Listening to it again there are not many good reasons to listen. But this one stuck in my mind all these years, to the point that I found myself singing the lyrics to myself many times over the years, not remembering where they came from.

6. Curtis Mayfield – “Superfly”
It’s just groovy. There does not need to be another reason.

7. Manic Street Preachers – “Motorcycle Emptiness”
With much love to dear Dr. Barden and memories of Cat Power, Naomi and “Funnish” Olli: “But Ginsberg, I just took a shower two months ago in FUNland.”

8. The Dramatics – “Whatcha See is Whatcha Get”

9. Guts – “And the Living is Easy!”
Just as I was thinking about “Porgy & Bess”, a colleague (thanks to Mr. Westman) gave me this (derivative) recommendation, which is perfect for the mood, the moment and the theme.

10. Otis Redding – “Down in the Valley”
Not everything has a reason – but this sounds incredible.

11. Ella Fitzgerald – “Azure”
Simply beautiful – I believe this was in the soundtrack to the film Malcolm X (the wedding scene), and I had fallen asleep and half woke up to hear a part of this, but I did not know what it was. I just remembered afterwards that the song had sounded so dreamy and quiet. Years later, I heard this and realized this was it – I was thrilled.

12. Shooter Jennings, Hierophant – “All of This Could Have Been Yours”

13. Let’s Active – “Every Dog Has His Day”
For Martina – every dog does have his day, and some can learn new tricks… like changing their names to disguise their incompetence. Embrace the inner charlatan!

14. Connie Britton/Charles Esten – “No One Will Ever Love You”
Including songs from TV is not my best move, but some music from Nashville has been surprisingly compelling. And of course Connie Britton was also Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights, so why not?

15. Townes Van Zandt – “High, Low and In Between” …Heaven’s where you find it/and you can’t take too much with you…
As ever, one of the most underrated songwriters. “I don’t know why we can’t be brothers here/I know we should be/Answers don’t seem easy/I’m wonderin’ if they could be…”

16. Salad – “Size More Woman Than Her” …Other girls don’t do it this way/And you knew it otherwise why would you have stayed…
Salad becomes harder to find all the time, but the songs come to mind all the time. Thinking of my continued role as a “vacation from real life” for all too many people.

17. Galaxie 500 – “Parking Lot” …Sitting on a subway train/And watching all the people lose their senses/Hiding in a parking lot/And watching all the people fall in pieces/I don’t mind, I think it’s fine…
Parking lots and all the dubious activities there, observing or otherwise. Memories of November 1993, Alison, roadtrip to Portland: “Was that a belch or was that English?”

18. Junip – “Your Life Your Call” …Pull yourself together/Draw the line…
Must always include Swedish bands whenever possible. Cautionary tale, caution lights – ML. Many friendly thanks – Laurent.

19. The Wolfgang Press – “Summer Time”
Well, it’s summer, even if it almost never looks or feels like it.

20. Ian Brown – “Stellify” …I see you as an angel freshly fallen from the sky…
Ages since I listened to Ian Brown (thanks again, FW). Brown’s first solo album brings back memories of my last months spent living in the US – hellish job, overdosing on shoe purchases and the big fork in my life’s road. How very different it could have been. Side note: With every business going down the path of naming themselves with something ending in –ify, à la Spotify, Optify, Shopify, “Stellify” seemed an appropriate addition.

21. Rodriguez – “Sugar Man”
Nice closing note.