la música libre
Let the shoegazer bonanza begin! Right-click, download and save to your mopey, droopy, emo-soaked, undermedicated little indie-folkie-retro-hipster heart’s content—an effulgent, vituperative, fascinated, bewildered, admiring essay to follow, je vous promets. (Because I honestly think the best of this music sounds like it belongs exactly where you find it—on soundtracks for Six Feet Under and The O.C.—and the worst of it lobotomized, excuse me, epitomized by what The Album Leaf did to Nina Simone’s “Lilac Wine” (and don’t get me started on the rest of the Verve remixes) (or the fact that Blue Note signed a country singer and tried to market her as a jazz vocalist) (though what that has to do with anything I don’t know).
• volume I •
[01] Over The Pond | 4.55 | The Album Leaf | In A Safe Place
[02] Seven Days | 3.35 | Azure Ray | Burn and Shiver
[03] Misery Is a Butterfly | 5.07 | Blonde Redhead | Misery Is a Butterfly
[04] I See A Darkness | 4.49 | Bonnie “Prince” Billy | I See A Darkness
[05] Bottles and Bones | 4.16 | Califone | Roomsound
[06] The Greatest | 3.22 | Cat Power | The Greatest
[07] Noah’s Ark | 4.13 | CocoRosie | Noah’s Ark
[08] No One’s Telling | 4.41 | Corrina Repp | It’s Only the Future
[09] Safer Here | 4.49 | Dawn Smithson | Safer Here
[10] Shooting Stars | 4.29 | Elysian Fields | Dreams That Breathe Your Name
[11] Lifesaver | 4.00 | Emiliana Torrini | Fisherman’s Woman
[12] Vodka and the Verlaines | 4.27 | Empress
[13] Shave | 2.46 | Enon | Hocus Pocus
[14] A Bit of Wind | 4.15 | Fruit Bats | Mouthfuls
[15] Hilot | 3.17 | Ida | Ten Small Paces
[16] Dance All Night | 3.22 | Julie Doiron | Goodnight Nobody
[17] I Feel Like a Fading Light | 3.22 | Kim Taylor | demo
[18] So Surprise | 4.21 | L’Altra | Different Days
[19] Croslin St. | 3.29 | Lazarus | Like Trees We Grow Up To Be Satellites
[20] The Mezzanine | 1.56 | Liz Durrett | The Mezzanine
• volume II •
[01] To the Floor | 4.13 | Loquat | It’s Yours to Keep
[02] Love Spirals Downwards | 2.28 | Love’s Labour’s Lost
[03] Don’t Drop The Baby | 4.02 | Low | A Lifetime Of Temporary Relief: 10 Years Of B-Sides & Rarities
[04] The World Is Flat | 5.09 | The Montgolfier Brothers | The World Is Flat
[05] Superstar | 5.14 | Nina Nastasia | Run To Ruin
[06] Guns Of Brixton | 4.08 | Nouvelle Vague | Nouvelle Vague
[07] Run Through My Hair | 3.01 | Oneida | The Wedding
[08] Air | 3.28 | The Owls | Our Hopes and Dreams pm
[09] Summer of ’69 | 3.33 | Pelle Carlberg | Everything. Now!
[10] Just Like the Movies | 3.51 | Regina Spektor | Demos
[11] Raindrop | 2.49 | Reindeer Section | Ya’ll Get Scared Now, Ya Hear!
[12] Pretty Dress | 3.56 | Rosie Thomas | If Songs Could Be Held
[13] Black Little Stray | 6.20 | Shannon Wright | Over the Sun
[14] Camellights | 2.14 | Snow Machine | Snow Machine
[15] How To Be Perfect Men | 4.04 | Songs: Ohia | Axxess & Ace
[16] Able Bodies | 3.26 | Spokane | Able Bodies
[17] You You You You You | 3.25 | Stephin Merritt | Pieces Of April
[18] Untrue | 4.37 | Tara Angell
[19] Populations | 3.04 | Timonium | Until He Finds Us
[20] Farther On | 2.49 | Vetiver | Revolver USA Sampler Spring 2004
[21] Time | 3.39 | Winter Took His Life | myspace
The following three rather conventional mix CDs, made for Mandarin’s birthday, are now freely available for download (but not mere listening, insert boilerplate about bandwidth thievery: don’t hotlink, right-click / download / save). Yeah, it’s mostly ’90s college-girl music. And you know what? Deal. I was a ’90s college girl and if I still get choked up over Alanis and Sinéad and Kristin, what’s it to you? Huh? Huh? Besides, large chunks of these are Mandarin in-jokes (e.g., En Vogue—with which I’ve probably repelled the Librarian at least into the next life); and great attention has been paid, dear listeners, to what key each song is in and how it transitions into the next.
• wistful •
[01] I had a king | 3.37 | joni mitchell | song to a seagull | 1968
[02] falling out of love | 5.57 | mary gauthier | mercy now | 2004
[03] siren | 4.01 | tori amos | great expectations (soundtrack) | 1998
[04] kingdom of rain | 5.51 | the the (with sinéad o’connor) | mind bomb | 1989
[05] teclo | 4.58 | pj harvey | to bring you my love | 1994
[06] sno cat | 3.38 | kristin hersh | the grotto | 2003
[07] my name is liza kalvelage | 4.53 | ani difranco | where have all the flowers gone: the songs of pete seeger | 1998
[08] spring wind | 4.34 | greg brown | dream café | 1992
[09] it happens every day | 3.55 | dar williams | the green world | 2000
[10] marcie | 4.35 | joni mitchell | song to a seagull | 1968
[11] forgiveness | 5.00 | patty griffin | living with ghosts | 1996
[12] I’m a lonely little petunia | 0.59 | imogen heap | six feet under, volume II: everything ends (soundtrack) | 2005
[13] deep wilson | 4.18 | kristin hersh | the grotto | 2003
[14] come undone | 4.37 | duran duran | the wedding album | 1998
[15] thank you | 6.25 | sinéad o’connor | universal mother | 1995
[16] gabriel | 4.22 | lamb | gabriel (ep/12″) | 2001
[17] that I would be good | 4.16 | alanis morissette | supposed former infatuation junkie | 1998
[18] rainbow sleeves | 3.41 | rickie lee jones | girl at her volcano | 1983
• unique •
[01] nobody does it better | 4.25 | aimee mann | shaken & stirred: the james bond project
[02] someday I will kill you | 0.45 | raymond and peter | shut up little man
[03] push the little daisies | 2.52 | ween | single
[04] this is the sound | 3.02 | the juliana hatfield three | become what you are
[05] we will not be lovers | 7.02 | the waterboys | uncut
[06] thrivo | 0.37 | the moylan sisters | radio jingle
[07] make your own kind of music | 2.26 | mama cass elliot | mamas and papas
[08] when I go deaf | 4.41 | low | the great destroyer
[09] if love was a train | 4.07 | michelle shocked | short sharp shocked
[10] me fail english? | 0.03 | ralph wiggum | the simpsons
[11] the simpsons | 3.18 | danny gatton | 88 elmira street
[12] down by the water | 3.14 | pj harvey | to bring you my love
[13] feelin’ massachusetts | 4.12 | the juliana hatfield three | become what you are
[14] this life | 6.02 | martha wainwright | martha wainwright
[15] window in 7s | 2.18 | meredith monk and ensemble | do you be
[16] twisted | 2.29 | joni mitchell | court and spark
[17] the pointless, yet poignant, crisis of a co-ed | 3.12 | dar williams | mortal city
[18] where are the police? | 0.32 | raymond and peter | shut up little man
[19] loser | 3.55 | beck | mellow gold
[20] the ballad of serenity | 0.51 | sonny rhodes | firefly (soundtrack)
[21] c’mon billy | 2.50 | pj harvey | to bring you my love
[22] I won’t be your yoko ono | 3.41 | dar williams | the green world
[23] your sister cried | 5.00 mary gauthier | mercy now
[24] the book | 4.44 | sheryl crow | sheryl crow
[25] christmas card from a hooker in minneapolis | 3.41 | neko case | new coat of paint
• energetic •
[01] I’ve been loving you too long | 3.36 aretha franklin | young, gifted and black
[02] the devil’s feet | 2.30 | azure ray | hold on love
[03] new resolution | 3.23 | azure ray | hold on love
[04] justify my love | 4.52 | madonna | immaculate conception
[05] whatta man | 4.55 | en vogue/salt ‘n’ pepa | best of en vogue
[06] let go | 4.13 | frou frou | details
[07] dirty little secret | 4.52 | thievery corporation | versions
[08] that certain someone | 4.25 | the sundays | reading, writing and arithmetic
[09] my sister | 3.24 | juliana hatfield three | become what you are
[10] stay up late | 3.44 | talking heads | stop making sense
[11] cloudbusting | 5.09 | kate bush | hounds of love
[12] something good | 3.29 | utah saints
[13] new dress | 3.43 | depeche mode | black celebration
[14] I touch roses [full bloom version] | 5.33 | book of love | retroactive rare & remixed
[15] there there (the boney king of nowhere) | 5.23 | radiohead | hail to the thief
[16] venus in furs | 5.08 | the velvet underground and nico
[17] killing in the name | 5.14 | rage against the machine
[18] kevin is gay | 3.02 | giant drag | hearts and unicorns
[19] where is my mind | 3.46 | the pixies | fight club (soundtrack)
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