For the last week I have taken your hand and dragged you along for a stroll down memory lane. Together we have recapped my most successful Sunday Mix Tapes. The next new one will be number 200, you know. But that probably won’t happen for a while, because I’m flying into Newark airport tomorrow to spend the next two weeks in the New York/New Jersey area. My goal is to enjoy rest and relaxation in the company of old friends. Maybe I’ll even make some new friends! What say you, Magic 8-ball? Outlook not so good? Fuck you!
So if you live in the New York area and want to grab a drink, send me an e-mail. Your treat. Also, I’ll be working all three days at the WFMU Record Fair. Stalk me at your leisure. Just look for the nerd. You’ll find me.
Since I can’t post 50 MP3s tonight, I’m going to list what is — in my opinion — the standout track from each installment of the series. About half the tracks I’ve chosen will be represented in MP3 form, and I’ll highlight what cool themes I thought of when I first started doing this. I guess, really, this will only be new and exciting for you if you’re a reader who started visiting this website at any point after January 29th, 2006. That’s most of you. Actually, it’s probably all of you. Except MikeM, Sam, and maybe Z. I don’t even think Z reads this page anymore.
The Best Of Sunday Mix Tapes: Volumes 151 – 199
151 – Hawkwind – Hurry On Sundown – It started with a summer theme on July 5th, 2009. What better way to get the season started than the amazing lead track from the eponymous Hawkwind record. It’s psychedelic, progressive boogie rock at its best. I wonder if anyone’s ever described a song as psych-prog-boogie
152 – Pita – More Break After The Terror
153 – Wovoka – Lotus Smoke
154 – Charles De Goal – Dans Le Layrinthe – The theme of this week’s tape — which wasn’t really a theme at all — was to try and share as many new mix tape artists as possible. What that means is, feature artists who had never before appeared on an installment of Sunday Mix Tape. These included Lusk, German Bonds, Screamers, Theta Naught, Can Am des Puig, Toppers, and Mary Lou Williams. Good job, Evan. You teach those cretins about music!
155 – Das Damen – Gray Isn’t Black – Remember that Scharpling and Wurster routine where Wurster’s dumbass character refers to this group as “Das Da Man”? Hilarious!
156 – The Devil’s Anvil – Isme
157 – Tomokawa Kazuki – Storms In The Dead Of Night
158 – Bishop Perry Tills – I Pound A Solid Rock
159 – Komintern – Bal Pour Un Rat Vivant
160 – Jasper TX – A Beacon To Lead Us There
161 – Wicked Witch – Erratic Behavior – All credit goes to my friend Steve for introducing me to Wicked Witch. I’ve seen that Chaos LP around a few times before and never been able to pull the trigger. If I bump into it at WFMU this weekend I will absolutely own it.
162 – Jefre Sei Getsu Ledesma – Untitled
163 – Early Lines – Modern World [Jonathan Richman] – This was a cheap (only nine or ten tracks) mix tape using almost all of Nicci’s music from her computer, plus one song from my hard drive. This was that song, and it was obviously the best track on that mix tape.
164 – Dock Boggs – Sugar Baby
165 – King Kong Ding Dong – Hot Train
166 – Truth And Janey – I’m Ready – A live Truth And Janey LP is up for auction on eBay right now and its posed to bring in well over 100 dollars for the person selling it. That’s small potatoes compared to No Rest For The Wicked, which has fetched as much as $500 before for original copies. I don’t own one.
167 –
168 – Coil – Hellraiser
169 – Jack Rose – Crossing The Great Waters – For Jack Rose.
170 – Sand – Sarah
172 – Wolf Eyes – Burn Your House Down – The theme this week was best opening and closing tracks on various albums. I always thought “Burn Your House Down” — which was the first Wolf Eyes song I ever heard — was far and away one of the most brilliant opening cuts on an album. It sucked me right in.
173 – Lord Rhamburn – Disco Connection
174 – Willie Nelson – Shotgun Willie – From the infamous LOST mix tape. Infamous, at least to me, because I’m obsessed with all things LOST. This includes all the music used on the show.
175 – Woodsman – Bow And Arrow
176 – Houndrunner – Ass Like A Dog
177 – Franco Battiato – Una Cellula – I picked up an original copy of this album a couple weeks ago and couldn’t be happier. It’s my favorite Italian prog record, and I owe it all to my coworkers Mark and Kasi for introducing me to Battiato. I think this is the best song on Fetus but it could just as easily be two or three others. What a fantastic, flawless album that is.
178 – Susan Christie – No One Can Hear You Cry
179 – Bettye LaVette – You’ll Never Change
180 – Terry Hall & Mushtaq – Grow
181 – Nkengas – Anyi Bundi Igbo
182 – Mugstar – Technical Knowledge As A Weapon
184 – Alcest – Sur l’Ocean Couleur de fer – Oops. Apparently I forgot Sunday Mix Tape number 183 as well. It’s amazing I’ve managed to reach #200 considering I clearly don’t know how to count.
185 – The Conformists – Cleft Palate
186 – Henry Flynt – Solo Virginia Trance
187 – The Body – A Body
188 – Os Mutatnes – Baby
189 – Throbbing Gristle – Zyklon B. Zombie
191 – Black Star – Definition – This mix tape was all about nostalgia, and the story to go along with it was pretty funny. I wrote, “Now THIS was a hip hop album I was pretty much obsessed with. It came out in ‘99, and I remember that summer at camp my bunkmates and I listened to it multiple times every day. The second (and last) hip-hop concert I saw was right after high school graduation, I saw Black Star at a club in New York with my high school girlfriend and another girl. We were the only three white kids in the venue. It was ridiculous. I hated the show. I appreciated the talent, but it was a fucking shit show. Not a single artist showed up on time, each song performed lasted about 30 seconds, and the cops showed up at one point because I think someone in the crowd pulled a gun. I don’t remember exactly, I was probably high at the time, but I think they ended the show early because of it. For at least a full year, getting high with my friends was given the cod name, ‘Hooking Up With Mos Def and Talib Kweli’.”
192 – Fela Kuti – Shenshema
193 – Ghost – Sun Is Tagging
194 – Boards Of Canada – Open The Light
195 – Harry Nilsson – Gotta Get Up – The fact that I’ve found it in my cold black heart to accept the music of Harry Nilsson after expressing downright annoyance at my coworkers who would play his CDs every single day largely overshadows the fact that I forgot how to add and went from Mix Tape 195 to Mix Tape 197. Whoops!
197 – Feelies – The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness
198 – R. Stevie Moore – Why Should I Love You?
199 – Jellyfish – Hush – I’m on a huge Jellyfish kick right now. I can’t get over those fucking harmonies. They’re killing me. Jason Faulkner used to come into the store all the time but he hasn’t in quite some time. Next time he stops in I’m going to make damned sure to tell him how amazing his band was. I wish you’d all believe me and come along for the ride. Fucking Jellyfish! Love it!
