gas!

I type with one hand. The other is rubbing my tummy, which hurts on account of gas. Gas is debilitating. It slows me down.

What if, instead of tear gas, riot police somehow infected people with gaseous stomachs. That would make the rioters go home and drink some alka seltzer. It would also give those people something to talk about later, other than the evils of whatever they were protesting.

So, gas. What else. I'm listening to a mix I made for a fellow student in my department. Actually he is a phd student, married and much more mature than I am. Most of my music is pretty immature. So we'll see how he likes it. As it goes, the mix has 21 killer tracks on it, most of which are less than two minutes long. Instead of loading the mix with my favorite songs, I've decided to make the whole album enjoyable (hopefully) and complete. Here's my thoughts as I put this mix together:

- It's kind of odd to put, as the first track, an actual first track. The problem is, first tracks make good first tracks, whether on the original album or in a mix. What I've found to my liking is a short and sweet attention-getter, not something hyperactive but something nice-sounding enough to start the album off on a good foot. I kicked this album off with Ceremony, as covered by New Order. (a radiohead cover wouldn't have been bad either)

- I wanted this mix to be a little more mature than my other ones, so that my friend won't think I'm just that guy who listens to weird music, who isn't even in the Ag Econ program (we aren't in any classes together). So the real cornerstone of the mix is "Lover, You Should've Come Over" by Jeff Buckley. Truly a great song, and classy. But throwing in the best song after the intro didn't feel right to me, so i put in two filler songs. These kind ride the wave of Ceremony and land at Lover in a more coherent sense, at least compared to putting the two songs back to back. Those songs are: Track One off Sufjan's Illinoise album, and "My Roots Are Strong And Deep" by The Microphones. Each song is about two minutes long and solid in their own right.

- After "Lover" is another filler - At Last by Neko Case. This short one provides a kind of buffer before the fun, faster section. It's not sad sounding; if anything, it is triumphant. While "Lover" is kind of a downer, "At Last" serves as assurance even in the gravest times.

- The next three songs are fast and happy sounding. Some Feist, some Futureheads, some National (or, some The National?). I probably put these songs on every mix.

- The post fast-section-song is pretty important. Really I had two songs that could have served this function, so I ended up just putting them back to back. The first, Vampiring Again by Califone, is very chill and very perfect after a fast song. It doesn't feel 5 minutes long. In fact, it could be 10 minutes long and it wouldn't feel long. The next is Wilco's Forget the Flowers. It's not my favorite off their album but I think my friend will appreciate how endearing it is. It's a song that will make people say, "Hey, country's not bad!"

I think people like country more than they realize, and that really a lot of music is headed more towards folk as a form of storytelling and expression, as opposed to rock and roll. It's funny. Nas said Hip Hop was dead. Sufjan said Rock was dead. What's taking their place seems very clear. It's Andre 3000. It's... Sufjan Stevens. Ha. Artists, after they "make it", seem to want to push the envelope and reach a new frontier. The irony is that these new frontiers aren't new at all. America's the astronaut walking on the moon. America's the cowboy riding off in the sunset. So in space, signals and meaning get lost, and what's left is something ancient and primitive, or lifeless like techno beats and synthesizers. The opposite happens out West. In Americana, meaning is treasured like a pearl. You can hold it; it is self contained. It's the song. The album doesn't add up to more than the sum of each song; there is no sum. Each song has immense value and meaning, and since science and space strips us of that, we eat it up like candy. We know the getting of the experience is cheap. We know the artist's wasn't our journey. But we need something familiar to remind us that our experiences are meaningful, even if our intellect tells us otherwise. So the song as a story and the guitar as our guide. "Forget the Flowers" it is.

- This is where the mix goes kind of downhill. Boy With A Coin, Iron and Wine. I kind of just threw it in there, hoping it would fit. If it doesn't, I hope the cool afro-beats will keep my friend occupied. Next is Damien Jurado's Desert. I have no idea why this is here. My friend said he appreciated good lyrics. There you go. God... there must be something better. Oh well.

- Maple Leaves, Jens Lekman. This has been on every mix. The song has gotten so old and my friend wouldn't even get the Mark E. Smith lyric (i apparently don't get it either - thought it was park e smith), or probably any of the lyrics, since they're so irreverent. But I'm short on fast happy songs, so until something better comes along I'll stick with this.

- The home stretch... ok, the next was a late addition, since there wasn't enough happiness on the album. So, The Underdog by Spoon. I have no idea what it's about, and I'm not that crazy about it. Oh well. It fits. Then, Slow Show by The National. This band has a knack for catchy songs that seem more meaningful than they probably are. I say that because I've seen them live twice, and they weren't really that impressive to me. Live, the catchiness of the songs seemed more effective than their power, and there isn't any kind of personable or intimate spin they could have given them. That tells me that the songs don't come from the heart, and they don't come from some bodily urge to rock (like, anything off Arcade Fire's Funeral). So, The National ends up being perfect mix fodder. Not too emo, not too strong, these songs have no context.

- Hazel St., Deerhunter. Every one of my mixes is the same. But this song really is awesome. I almost didn't put it on since Deerhunter is just a bunch of kids, and my friend is probably like 30, and married and all that. He probably won't like them, but if by chance he does, then he is awesome.

- Finally another filler. Tape Hiss Orchid, Deerhunter. Ok... putting two songs back to back that, on the original cd, are actually back to back is kind of weird. I do this sometimes. But really, they're back to back for a reason a lot of times, and in this case it just makes sense. The preceding songs on the mix are force-fed and you'd want a natural break after Deerhunter's madness. Plus, what if my friend ends up liking this track?! It opens up the possibilities to so many great artists: Eno, Colleen, Sweet Trip, Air, Tim Hecker.... Atlas Sound? lol.

- Back for more Neko. Star Witness. what a nice song! after that is Faust Arp, intended to be something of a filler on Radiohead's In Rainbows. It darkens things up before Priests and Paramedics by Pedro the Lion. I didn't want to end the album on a depressing note (my friend is a Christian) so I threw in The Postman by AmAnSet, which sounds like a mellower version of the Pedro song.

So there it is. The ultimate 21 song intro to indie folk and stuffs mix.

what do you think?

edit: do you want one?

1) New Order - Ceremony
2) Sufjan Stevens - Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL
3) The Microphones - My Roots Are Strong And Deep
4) Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should've Come Over
5) Neko Case - At Last
6) Feist - I Feel It All
7) The Futureheads - Meantime
8) The National - Apartment Story
9) Califone - Vampiring Again
10) Wilco - Forget The Flowers
11) Iron and Wine - Boy With A Coin
12) Damien Jurado - Desert
13) Jens Lekman - Maple Leaves (7" Version)
14) Spoon - The Underdog
15) The National - Slow Show
16) Deerhunter - Hazel St.
17) Deerhunter - Tape Hiss Orchid
18) Neko Case - Star Witness
19) Radiohead - Faust Arp
20) Pedro the Lion - Priests And Paramedics
21) The American Analog Set - The Postman