1st annual Songblague mixtape!

As promised, a year-end mix. Songblague is just about to hit the 200 post mark! And that's a mighty big pool to fish from. I must say I'm pretty surprised at how this one shaped itself out. But then, serendipity is part of the whole project. Thanks for listening so far. Hope you continue checking in. And I hope you dig this little sampler. I meant to make it one continuous track, but hey, I'm on vacation. And the Yahoo media player does a pretty good playlist function. Meanwhile, hope you all have a successful escape from the flaming wreckage of the 'aughts. Err, I mean, Happy New Year, citizens!

Inouk - Elected
Gang Gang Dance - House Jam
Alan Parsons Project - I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You
Three O'Clock - On My Own
Daryl Hall & Robert Fripp - Something In 4-4 Time
Peter Ivers - Gentle Jesus
Cheyenne - Come Back To Me
The Cure - Throw Your Foot
Lambchop - Ohio
20/20 - Giving It All
Savage - A Love Again
Miles Davis - Little Church
Passport - Rockport
The Ukrainians - Batyar
Skatebård - Data Italia
Run On - Anything You Say
The Crystals - He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)
Robyn Hitchcock - Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl
Robert Palmer - Johnny and Mary
Goldmund - In A Notebook
David Shire - End Title

Arrgh, indecision strikes. Even after things have been decided. I thought 21 tracks made a pretty tidy package. Blackjack. But a few others kept dancing around in my head. Since Songblague tends to work in week-size batches, here's a little 5-song companion mix. Like an EP. Or a sidecar. Or a short course of antibiotics.

The Kinks - People Take Pictures Of Each Other
George Duke - I Love You More
The March Violets - Turn To The Sky
The Notations - Make Me Twice The Man
Phil Manzanera - Frontera

My dad is one day better than Jesus

Humbug! Christmas is a prelude. For me, the real deal is 12/26—my dad's birthday. And this year is an actual milestone for him (hint: starts with 6, ends with 0). But since Songblague observes the Sabbath (or at least cherishes the nondenominational sacredness of the weekend), dad gets his song a day early. For those of you having Christmas cocktail parties, I'd say throw this one in the mix. It's bubbly!

Horace Silver - Song For My Father

Well, happy season, friends! Songblague is taking the rest of the year off. Lots of good stuff brewing in my head for 2010, so we'll be coming back strong on 1/4. Meanwhile, I'm starting to put together an end-of-year mix, which I'll post once it's fit for your excellent ears.

Christmas in New York

Ah, the Yuletide. Most years, I find myself with plans fallen through or neglected, spending Christmas day in the emptied-out city. Not having much use for the holiday itself, I tend to happily drift through town, enjoying the hush and exodus. It lasts just long enough to get into some good alone-time reflection before actual loneliness can set in.

This song came to my attention in a bar in Tel Aviv. Hey, why not? Having since heard Elliott Smith's original, I like this one much better. And I think it aptly suits my Christmas mind. Sure, it's maudlin, but it's pretty like cold air and tiny lights.

Madeleine Peyroux - Between The Bars

And, special for Christmas, a friendly note on appropriate holiday behavior. With love from Songblague.

Reverend J.M. Gates - Did You Spend Christmas in Jail

Collisions came as consequence

OK, time to get back to rocking. I don't know why I haven't heard more about these Glaswegians. They should be blasting from the stereos of reckless drivers everywhere. Start to finish, This Gift is sassy, catchy, and brash. And that's before you get to the singer, who's just a natural up in front. This song is probably the poppiest jam on the record. And it has become my go-to for when I pretend to be a running back cutting a path through overcrowded subway stations.

Sons & Daughters - Split Lips

Dappling

The snow is melting. The sun is out, which isn't stopping the cold from cracking my fingerskin. Time for some pulsing electronic warmth to hasten the thaw. It's probably no accident that seeing the (awesome) Bauhaus exhibit at MOMA has put me in a mood for this Berlin School masterpiece.

Manuel Göttsching titled the album New Age of Earth, and this leadoff track dances maybe a little too close to the piffle that "New Age" would come to signify in the '80s. Still, this stuff is miles away from California ponytails, even if its got similar hippie roots. I like the terrestrial era that Göttsching is envisioning—placid, sun-dappled melody and sequencers that manage to be robotic and benign. How do we get back to that future?

Ashra - Sunrain

Snow

Sometimes winter hits you all at once. But I have enough heart for the season that I'm willing to walk a mile and a half in a blizzard at midnight. Here's some music that says everything about the impermanence of those footprints and the soft endlessness of the temporary landscape.

John Cage - In a Landscape

The Jesus, part 2

As promised, more on the weird intersection of love songs and paens to the Jesus. It's Christmastime! Unlike Wednesday's Al Green jam, this tune reads straight both ways, no ambiguity. Even the part about how "you saved my soul from a burning hell." Some ladies do that, right? In any event, soul is soul, whether you're saint, sinner, lover, or killer. And for those who want to believe in miracles, be awed by the note he hits at 3:30.

Rance Allen - I Belong To You

Interstellar Christmas party

I've got some more thoughts on Jesus, but they're going to have to wait till tomorrow. My work holiday party is tonight, which makes me think about the kind of party music I really want to hear. Like this fabbo library jam—mellow cosmic travels conjured as only a Frenchman in '82 could. Meanwhile, on Corporation Earth, I suspect Rihanna will rule the night. Nothing wrong with that, but we can have more utopian dreams.

Roland Bocquet - Amour 5-5

Good like my Jesus

Who doesn't love Al Green? And who hasn't clumsily tried to enlist his smooth pipes in the service of serenade? On the other hand, who thought it was a good idea to go full-on Gospel? Does getting burned by your girlfriend with hot grits really mean you have to become a pastor? I'm not sure I follow the logic. So it goes. But I think the '80s would've been a lot more tender if Al hadn't spent them in church.

I remember a couple years back, Other Music was really hot on The Belle Album. I gotta thank them for turning me on to it. It's his last secular album, and it's a weird negotiation of the sweet lovin' and the Jesus. I guess he's trying to figure out how to have it both ways, gettin' it on without gettin' on God's bad side. My advice would've been to keep grits out of the house.

Al Green - Loving You

I followed you

I'll admit it, I didn't think these guys would have the staying power. Then for a while, I thought of them as brunch rock, to borrow a friend's phrase. I got into YLT in the mid-'90s, so for a long time they lived in the same mental file cabinet as Pavement, Guided By Voices, etc, even though had had more charm and eclecticism than most of that stuff blasting out of dorm rooms back then.

But they just kept going, getting more assured at whatever they tried their hand at (their cover of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War" was particularly inspired.) Sometimes, they can get a little precious. Not in a fragile way, but rather in their tendency to be overly curatorial about their influences. But this one is just a good loud, pretty rocker fueled by sadness.

Have people started naming their kids Ira or Georgia yet?

Yo La Tengo - Today Is The Day

You won't get much older

I get a bad feeling about this song. Same way I do with Jim O'Rourke's entire Insignificance album, right down to the cover. Which isn't to say I don't enjoy it immensely. Just the opposite. It's all succulent a.m.-inspired pop, with enough twists and distortions to give it a weird perspective on its '70s roots. This track embodies that triumph. It kicks off like some cousin to Edie Brickell's "What I Am" and has the sort of texture and warmth you want to burrow into for the winter.

But O'Rourke's never one to let you have it easy. He's brilliant, but he doesn't give the sense that there's any pleasure in his art. And so music that seems like it should be enjoyed without guile begins to feel like a stalking horse, like he's trying to commit murder via sugar overdose. I've heard enough of his harsh, avant stuff to make me think that something really malevolent is going on underneath these cozy sounds. And that's before you even start to get into the nihilism in the lyrics. I hope he's gotten a little less full of contempt. Or at least I hope at least he's quit smoking by now.

Jim O'Rourke - Get a Room

100% soul power

Even if was just the rainy day strings and wrenching lyrics, this song would be a winner. It may be a bum-out, but it's definitely not stuck in the muck. The wah-wah is some sweet guitarness, but I wanna tip my hat to the stickman—that shuffle's just butter.

Gwen McCrae - 90% Of Me Is You

Aerobicizing behind the iron curtain

Should anyone be surprised that the Soviet government was sanctioning and distributing exercise music during the 1980s? What's weird is that it took until late 2008 for someone to dig up this treasure trove. Many thanks to the great Paul Durango for doing the world this important favor.

This track is a little out of character for the series, much of which sounds like a trade show demonstration for synthesizers and drum machines. This one feels like a Russian fusion band soundtracking a Smurfs episode. The real treat is the guitar spooge-out that kicks in at 1:10.

Sting was once concerned about whether the Russians loved their children too. Does this song settle the matter?

Arsenal - Festival

Why don't you be good for something

In the 1990s, I used to imagine Mark Eitzel and Mark Kozelek locked in an epic rivalry, a sort of King of the Downers version of Magic and Bird. Kozelek ran up the score on confessional despair, but Eitzel clearly had the edge on drinking himself to death. Put this one on next time you wake up wondering where the rest of you went.

American Music Club - Gratitude Walks

Yes, have another

Oh yes, it's time. For Yes. How about Yes getting all minimal. Huh? Yes. It took a strange marriage with the Buggles to get them there, but here it is. When will the proggers understand you can still get all fancy inside of 2 minutes if only you let out the hot air?

And what's with the lyrics? Modern, spare. What band is this again? I've heard that the song's about Gary Numan driving around in his car. This is what happens when Jon Anderson gets off the bus.

Yes - White Car

For those of you who don't consider Drama to be an actual Yes album, here's a sweet little jam tucked in between the epics of their classic period.

Yes - A Venture

Mad wasps

Leave it to Robyn Hitchcock to open his "hit" single with a monk-like chant and a buildup that dares the payoff to fall flat. He's leading with his chin, but comes back with a knockout—three minutes of vintage Hitchock jangle perfection, with lyrics as poignant as they are surreal. As always, you wonder if he's bullshitting. And as always, it doesn't matter.

Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - Madonna of the Wasps

A better alarm clock

If yesterday's track was the woozy night song, this is one for wrangling your way out of dreams in the morning. You force your eyes open and glimpse the strange rain outside the window. You'd go back to bed, except for the foreboding sounds swirling around and coaxing you into the day.

Threadgill wins points for unusual ensemble assemblage, by jazz standards at least. You put together a band with electric guitar, alto sax, french horn, two tubas, and percussion, and you're bound to come up with something different.

Henry Threadgill - Too Much Sugar

The wolves are not hungry

So many Wolf bands out there, we were bound to get to two of them in one week. Los Lobos's parade has been marching for a good bunch of years by now. If anyone's paid their dues as a solid bar band, it's these fine Angelinos. That said, I find their craft a little on the boring side, except for the couple albums they cut with producer Mitchell Froom, who makes critically respected types like Elvis Costello and Richard Thompson sound weirder than they probably expected to. Usually, he gets slammed for the effort, but he nailed it with these guys.

This tune has a moodiness that feels old, but not attached to any actual time. It's psychedelic without a hint of bombast. Weird without straining. Pretty like a lavender moon, though I don't know about this Kiko character.

Los Lobos - Kiko and the Lavender Moon

Little brothers rock it out

You can't be Big Star, but you can be from Memphis and give the world your earnest rock and roll. And you can end up shattered and disappointed when your catchy as hell songs go unnoticed. And all you wanted was some fun out of life. Maybe you can be Big Star after all.

The Scruffs - You're No Fun

I let my hair down

From a meditation to a burst of troubled energy. Everyone loves Wolf Parade, and the band keeps giving reasons to justify that. Here's an early one. Spencer sounds desperate for something, like he's chasing you down the hall, shouting threats and pleas. The band thrashes along like their namesake.

Wolf Parade - Killing Armies