Halloween/year-end mix is upon us again. I fear that perhaps many of the discs I physically sent out were defective. I tested a bunch of them – but then only on other computers, not in disc players and in the car – and when I did try a couple out (and had the same feedback from others who can normally play MP3 discs), they were defective. So… if you were expecting a disc and got one that does not play, be in touch and I will send you a new one. Meanwhile here are the songs. And the Spotify link to the playlist (minus songs that aren’t available on Spotify).
The Good Goo of Random Gum
Halloween 2013
1. Poem in October – “Hypnagogia” …Maybe I’m crazy/I should go to sleep…
An intoxicating favorite, as we literally head into October. “My mind is in too deep…”
Mixcloud link.
2. Martina Topley Bird, Mark Lanegan & Warpaint – “Crystalised”
Incredible group of talents covering an incredible song by incredible band, The xx.
3. John Grant – “GMF” …I am the greatest mother fucker that you’re ever gonna meet…
“You could probably say I’m difficult, I probably talk too much/I overanalyze and overthink things, yes, it’s a nasty crutch…” I love how John Grant’s music is both intensely personal but also so universal. “So go ahead and love me while it’s still a crime/don’t forget you could be laughing 65% more of the time”
4. The Leisure Society – “Fight for Everyone” …Is it hard to relax when you’re told that you can never fail?…
Thanks to Aurélien, revisiting old recommendations.
5. Nosfell – “Hope Ripped the Night”
Another one thanks to Aurélien et sa soeur.
6. Yasmine Hamdan – “La Mouch”
Aurélien et Catherine – merci!
7. The Smiths – “Shoplifters of the World Unite” …I was bored before I even began…
Reflecting on the magnetic power of memory – recalling a lyric and exactly what song it belongs to, when important stuff is nowhere to be found in my head. ML, KDW, CCM
8. Air Traffic Controller – “You Know Me”
Thinking of my days working in an air traffic control center, contemplating becoming an air traffic controller, all the pilots in my periphery. Thanks again to Aurélien.
9. Nadeah – “Odile”
Thanks to Aurélien. “Computer room, this is Odile!” Far away memories of life with Moto.
10. Mountain Man – “Animal Tracks” …the bright baby eyes of a chickadee…
Just for the pretty sounds and the beauty of living in the woods near wildlife.
11. Neon Indian – “Fallout” …if I could fall out of love with you…
A repeated refrain – if one could so easily fall out of love.
12. Mudhoney – “You Got It” …You got it/That’s right, you got it – Fuck you!/Keep it outta my face…
Included on a 2009 mix but somehow had to include it again. To all those people who keep rubbing things in my face and exposing my ears and eyes to things I just don’t fucking want to know. (And was cool that Mudhoney celebrated the SubPop anniversary doing a show atop the Space Needle this summer.)
13. Soul Coughing – “Super Bon Bon” …Move aside and let the man go through…
For the adventurous and effortlessly cool Gabriel. Worldly, educated, still not quite knowing what to do and, as he put it, “Definitely a song to listen to while strutting through a crowd of chumps (read ‘corporate lemmings’ at ex-job)”
14. Lost Animal – “Lose the Baby” …And if you think that it cuts me up/I’m gonna sharpen up my tongue & really cut you up…
Rainy May days wandering through one of Gothenburg’s substandard grocery stores. “And if you think that it gets me down/I’m gonna gather all my strength and really drag you under.”
15. The Pixies – “Velouria” …forever green/I know she’s here/in California/I can see the tears/of Shastasheen…
High school and renewed friendships (here’s looking at you, Mr Lappier!)
16. Familjen – “It Began in Hässleholm”
Sverige! Svenska! Sweden rules!
17. Smith Westerns – “Varsity” …And I know it’s hard to be alone/count the days, count the nights/But don’t get by…
18. Sleigh Bells – “Bitter Rivals” …it was the best of times/it was the worst of times…
19. Familjen – “Man Ser Det Från Månen”
Effective just to say Cameron dominates most of this mix, anywhere that Aurélien doesn’t. Thanks.
20. Daft Punk – “Get Lucky” …We’ve come too far/to give up who we are…
Overblown song but impossible not to smile listening to it thinking of both the Grover/Sesame Street video that made the rounds, followed by the hilarious Stephen Colbert take on the same.
21. Fuck Buttons – “Brainfreeze”
I have never heard a song whose title better lives up to exactly what it says. The sound is exactly like brainfreeze, and I can’t get enough. Thanks, CCM
22. Familjen – “Huvudet i Sanden” …Varför går jag ut/Jag vill bara komma in/Vill inte krypa hem Igen/Lurar jag mig själv med huvudet i sanden/Tänker gå hem till dig…
More Cameron, more Sweden! Maybe this one suits most of all the situation.
23. Dorit Chrysler – “Avalanche” …Darkness, silent friend, like the bell in the night…
The atmospheric sound of this makes me think, with love, of Roxane.
24. Cinerama – “Unzip” …just unzip your inhibitions…
Any excuse for a Cinerama or Wedding Present interlude. They keep playing in all the bits of Scandinavia I don’t live in! Why no Oslo, why no Göteborg?
“Unzip” – Spotify link.
25. Still Corners – “Berlin Lovers” …We can’t see what’s real/We don’t know the time/We only want to feel alive…
My Berlin history… it never quite dies, even if it changes. Yes, history can be carried forward to be part of the present. Only a good idea if things change at the same time.
26. Nite Jewel – “One Second of Love”
For, and thanks to, Cameron.
27. Shelby Earl – “Sea of Glass” …I will swim in your sea of glass/Let it hurt, just make it last…
I liked Shelby Earl anyway, but when we had a brief Twitter exchange about Tom Skerritt, I was sold. Skerritt is goddamn everywhere. How can you go wrong with someone who is in Top Gun, Singles, Cheers & even a Seattle ballet production of Don Quijote? “Make me out any way you want me/oh, just keep me, keep me, keep me in your story”
28. Tortoise – “Benway”
I enjoy the strange trajectory, messiness and what sounds like xylophones.
29. Tuna Laguna – “My Lunar Boots”
One of the best recs from Cameron – I never used to be someone who got much into songs without lyrics, but I can adapt/be surprised. And this is Norwegian!
30. Yelle – “C’est Pas Une Vie”
French! Former colleague and cake lover, Tristan, recently invited me to take part in a francophone group in Oslo. Funny to connect with people only after you don’t work with them anymore.
31. Erika Spring – “Like a Fire” …Distance shakes me and it’s nothing new/I’ll never get used to you…
32. Solvent – “My Radio” …You promised me so much/But now you’ve changed…
33. Eight Bit Tiger – “Oslo”
“Oslo” – Spotify link
34. Lindbergh Palace – “Days Don’t Fade” …Now you’re gone/I’m going crazy…
This song always played when I was driving through the longest part of my Gothenburg-home route.
35. Twin Shadow – “Golden Light”
36. Cant – “Believe” …I’ve been messed up, by things I screwed up…
“Things I haven’t shown you, you won’t believe/Things I haven’t told you, you won’t believe…”
37. Errors – “Relics”
38. Le Tigre – “Deceptacon”
39. Vector Lovers – “Crash Premonition” …She said, ‘The future wasn’t built to last’…
“Crash Premonition” – Spotify link
40. CHVRCHES – “ZVVL” …So steel yourself/What are you looking for?/We both are free/In the here and now/So take my hand/And don’t fear what you find/On your own/Open up give it up, go!…
“Truth is just as real as your dream allows…”
“ZVVL” – Spotify link
41. Doves – “Pounding” …We don’t mind if this don’t last forever…
42. Vector Lovers – “Warm Launderette”
43. Firewater – “The Notorious & Legendary Dog & Pony Show” …Don’t you go a running til they shoot, girls, cause every contract has a hidden clause…
The endless dog and pony show/carnival/circus/puppet show – all for Martina. “Cause tonight you are a player/tomorrow’s never there/at the dog and pony show…”
44. Cayucas – “High School Lover” …Oh, Elizabeth, don’t keep me guessing…
For Teddy, who knows how to be a good high school boyfriend. “The words came out one after another, “Shoulda been my high school lover…”
45. Bertrand Bélin – “Un déluge”
Thanks to Aurélien.
46. Röyksopp and Susanne Sundfør – “Running to the Sea”
Many thanks to Fredrik W.
47. Still Corners – “Future Age” …swim, in the sea of love…
48. Blondie – “Atomic”
Sticking with my childhood preferences.
49. Cinnamon Chasers – “Tears”
Another solid Cameron recommendation.
50. Dion – “Runaround Sue” …Here’s my story/it’s sad but true, it’s about a girl that I once knew/She took my love then ran around, with every single guy in town…
I couldn’t help myself – I got this really stuck in my head and had to include it. And while Dion complains about Sue’s promiscuity – there are those dudes in the world who would welcome it. Haha.
51. Austra – “Hurt Me Now”
52. Frank Turner – “Recovery” …long road up to recovery from here/long way back to the line…
Indirect recommendation from former colleague – do not like the song but like the intensity of the delivery
53. Plastic Bertrand – “Ça plane pour moi”
With warm thoughts of Mark H. and the random fun of culture jamming (ComDev and diligent classmate, Santi)
54. Soapkills – “Marra Fi Ghnina”
Thanks to Aurélien and Catherine, bien sûr!
55. Big Black Delta – “Dreary Moon” …an evolution/the only way I can explain anything from loving you…
“A heavy burden/The holyway/I can escape anything but loving you.”
56. Timber Timbre – “Bad Ritual” …let’s keep looking ahead…
For Mathilde; there’s well-understood silence for us, but I think of her often.
57. Teen – “Come Back” …I seek too many lovers/I kiss too many men…
Pathetic. “Come back, come back, I don’t wanna sleep another night alone”
58. Martina Topley Bird – “Carnies”
59. Daft Punk – “Instant Crush”
60. John Grant – “It Doesn’t Matter” …I still keep trying to figure out how I became aware of it/how I got myself evicted from his heart from one day to the next/and the worst part is that even if I got an answer right now it would not change anything/because we have become two strangers…
Sinéad O’Connor’s influence is definitely here. “It doesn’t matter to him/I could be anything but I could never win his heart again/it doesn’t matter to him/He took away my AAA pass/I am invisible to him”
61. LCD Soundsystem – “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down” …but you’re still the one pool where I’d happily drown…
“New York I love you, but you’re freaking me out/There’s a ton of the twist but we’re fresh out of shout”
62. Eddie Vedder & Neil Finn – “Throw Your Arms Around Me” …We may never meet again/so shed your skin and let’s get started/and you will throw your arms around me…
So thrilled to have a tribute album to Hunters & Collectors, particularly with gems like this one.
63. John Grant – “Glacier” …this pain/it is a glacier moving through you…
Really beautiful song that captures the ache and the pain of being human and choosing your own path. “They don’t give two shits about you, it’s the blind leading the blind”. Live your own life.
64. Roberta Flack – “To Love Somebody” …There’s a light/a certain kind of light/It never shines on me…
“You don’t know what it’s like to love somebody the way I love”
65. Moby feat. Mark Lanegan – “The Lonely Night” …sometimes the pain is absurd/still it’s what fate decides…
“So tired of wandering around and starting over/no garden grows here now just the one-leafed clover.”
3 thoughts on “Halloween 2013 Music Mix – Good Goo of Random Gum”