October, 2012, Colour Bomb. For Jacob

I had a few ideas for this, but ended up going with color songs that I like, and when my OCD-ness took over, I grouped them by colour. Good times!

You can download it here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/80875307/ColourBomb.zip

1. The Rolling Stones - She’s A Rainbow -- This was the first song I thought of when I heard the theme...Jacob actually gave me the record that this song is on -- Their Satanic Majesties Request -- for my birthday a long time ago, so I thought it was appropriate to start with.
2. The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes -- One of my favorite songs of all time. Beautiful.
3. Galaxie 500 - Blue Thunder -- Embarrassingly I've just recently gotten into this band while reading Dean Wareham's autobiography. I really like 'em!
4. Split Lip Rayfield - Blue Tick Hound -- I miss Kurt.
5. International Submarine Band - Blue Eyes -- Gram Parsons before he was Gram Parsons. Some great songs on this record.
6. Thurston Moore - Silver>Blue -- Thought about removing this song, since there is a SY song later on in the mix, but I think it's a really cool song.
7. The Knitters - Silver Wings -- John Doe doing Merle. I love John Doe's voice. So sad sounding.
8. The Clash - White Man In Hammersmith Palais -- According to Encyclopedia Britannica, The Clash are the most important rock band in the world, and this, IMHO,  is the best song ever!
9. Sonic Youth - Green Light -- This song reminds me of my apartment in college, sitting around getting drunk and stoned, listening to Sonic Youth in the darkness, with only a green light shining in the distance.
10. Fruit Bats - Heart Like An Orange -- One of the better songs on their latest album.
11. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Yellow Brick Road -- Wasn't planning on including a Beefheart song, but I really love this song (and this album).
12. The Pogues - A Pair Of Brown Eyes -- Reminds me of my dog Shane...
13. Circle Jerks - When The Shit Hits The Fan -- Went back and forth trying to decide whether or not to put this on. Finally decided to. Oi vay the brownness!
14. Small Faces - Red Baloon -- I like it when Ronnie Lane sings. He and Steve Marriott share the singing on this song...
15. Beat Happening - Red Head Walking -- The first Beat Happening song I ever heard, and still my favorite!
16. Minor Threat - Seeing Red -- So angry...so, so angry.
17. Arthur & Yu - Black Bear -- I wish this band was still around, for many reasons. I love this song.
18. Tom Waits - Big Black Mariah -- So many "black" songs to choose from, but I wanted to include a Tom Waits song, so this is it.
19. David Bowie - Black Country Rock -- A very stony song off of my favorite Bowie record.
20. The Paragons - Black Bird Singing -- Token ska song. I really like their take on Black Bird.
21. Spoon - Black Like Me -- One of my favorite Spoon songs.

CHROMA CLAP

Sounds like something I don't wanna catch. 

Title: Chroma Clap
Recipient: Liam Barksdale

Tracklist
1. Dawn - Brian Jonestown Massacre
2. Pretty Green - The Jam
3. Black and White Town - Doves
4. Golden Brown - The Stranglers
5. Golden Years - David Bowie
6. Blue Jeans - Ladytron
7. Blue Jeans - Blur
8. White Lines - Grandmaster Flash
9. Temptation - New Order
10. Chord Organ Blues - Daniel Johnston
11. Colours - Donovan
12. Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground
13. Bros - Panda Bear
14. Mr. Blue Sky - E.L.O.


Artist's Statement:

Color is ever changing with our moods and actions. In my eyes, a color bomb should be explosive, shattering hues and emotions in every direction. It's also both destructive and constructive. You have to break the packaging to get it out, and you get extra space on the flash drive inside to continue it's chameleon-like journey in color.  

This mix mainly calls out colors by name in the lyrics, though I did add two which I felt really emanated various colors. The first, "Dawn" by BJM, since the rising sun invokes an incredible amount of colors, and the second Bros by Panda Bear. Got really attached to having this one on the mix even though it's 12 minutes long. It takes me on such a journey, I'd never noticed its length before. Liam mentioned that he liked the color blue, so I focused on that for a bit as well. 

I wrote the artist's statement out on tiny scrolled up papers inside, so it'd really explode when you opened it. The tracklist folds out from the lid in various colors. Uh yea!!!!! Sorry I am so late ARGH!

Color Bomb, Bitches

Title: Color Bomb, Bitches

Recipient: Michael Ashby

1. THE MUSIC MACHINE - Double Yellow Line

2. MIKAL CRONIN - Green and Blue

3. BEES - Voices Green and Purple

4. ELVIS COSTELLO - Greenshirt

5. ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI - Bright Lit Blue Skies

6. LADYTRON - Blue Jeans

7. THE BATS - Made Up in Blue

8. DAVID BOWIE - Sound and Vision

9. PRINCE - Computer Blue

10. ROXY MUSIC - Grey Lagoons

11. JEFF BECK - Hi Ho Silver Lining

12. ELECTRIC PRUNES - I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night

13. THEE OH SEES - Rainbow

14. NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS - Red Right Hand

15. BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB - Red Eyes and Tears

16. ROBERT JOHNSON - They're Red Hot

17. T. REX - Ride a White Swan

18. DAVID BOWIE - White Light/White Heat

19. PIXIES - Into the White

20. GORILLAZ - White Light

21. THE BLACK ANGELS - Black Grease

22. THE KINKS - Big Black Smoke

23. THE BEATLES - Old Brown Shoe

24. THE DAMNED - Born to Kill

[please note unicorn stationary]

This compilation is meant to sound like lit fireworks in a washing machine. All of the songs have a color (or colorful entity) in the title or lyrics, I grouped like colors with one another, while trying not to jeopardize the flow of the album. It's intended to be a fun, fucked up rainbow to be listened to while drunk, or wishing you were.

In his questionnaire, Michael said that his dreams are extremely colorful and intense, which is why I included the Electric Prunes song. The last song on the album, "Born to Kill" was included in honor of his mythical forest creature's lust for tourist blood. 

Hope you like the mix Michael, I had fun making it, despite an epic beer spill ruining the first version of the album art.

Indian Summer

Theme: Color Bomb
Title: Indian Summer
Recipient: Bob Martin

I put together the mix on an airplane flight from Seattle to London - 9 hours of uninterrupted nerdery. At first I was heading toward doing something about the color red. And then I decided to call it “Incandescent” and focus on colors in the sunny side of the spectrum - yellow, orange, red, etc. I bought a bunch of glass vials and with the help of my daughter, started finding things around the house, yard and neighborhood that were yellow, orange, and red, trying to get as many different kinds of things as I could. It ended up being a lot of natural materials: various leaves, honey and dead bees from our beehive, berries, crushed lava rocks, turmeric, sunflower petals, chili powder and peppers, a lock of my daughter Izzy’s hair, dandelion petals, feathers from my chicken Rosie, pine needles, a burnt match, and tree sap. Things started to feel more like autumn, especially with all of the organic materials drying out and fading slightly in color, so I changed the mix name to Indian Summer. The liner notes are rolled up as a little scroll and inserted into one of the vials. The base I made from leftover elm lumber from EMP’s Nirvana exhibition. The elm came from a tree that fell on land owned by Gray’s River Grange in SW Washington, and Krist Novoselic from Nirvana is Grange Master there. I bought the wood from him for the exhibit and the monies went to the Grange. There were lots of leftover pieces with some good thickness. It’s pretty wood. I cut it, used a jointer to square it up, drilled the holes with Forstner bits, cut the CD slot with an oscillating multi-tool (note the smell of burnt wood - bonus!) and after sanding, did a light walnut stain and a beeswax coat. Ultimately, I wanted to create something that sounded awesome and could be a cool, minimal-ish, but quasi-scientific/natural history feeling.

Track listing/Liner notes:

1. Boards of Canada – Dandelion (Geogaddi, Warp, 2002)
This has a nice dreamlike dog-days of summer quality that I like, complete with Leslie Nielsen talking about underwater lava floes. The dandelion referred to in the title and song is referring to a deep sea anemone.

2. The Beakers – Red Towel (Red Towel 7” single, Mr. Brown, 1980)
Awesome skronky No-Wave from 1980 Seattle about hanging out on the beach on a … Red Towel.

3. David Bowie – In the Heat of the Morning (Live on BBC, 1968)
“In the heat of the morning, in the shadow I’ll clip your wings. And I tell you I love you, in the heat of the morning.” -- the lyrics are kind of weird and serial killerish, but what a great song. Maybe it’s because that lyric makes me think of “Polly” by Nirvana (“Let me clip your dirty wings”). This is a live BBC version of the song, which was on his debut LP.

4. Caribou (Manitoba) – Cherrybomb (Up in Flames, Domino, 2003)
I love Caribou, especially the older stuff where it’s mostly him playing instruments and cutting up shit by himself in his house.

5. Loretta Lynn – Little Red Shoes  (Van Lear Rose, Interscope, 2004)
I like to think that she is just telling this story in the studio and someone just recorded it and then they wrote a killer groove around it. Who knows.

6. Squarepusher – My Red Hot Car (My Red Hot Car, 12” single, Warp, 2001)
My old boss Jim Fricke played this for me when it came out, and at the time it kind of blew me away, how awesomely bizarre the breakdown in the song is.

7. King Crimson – Happy Family (Lizard, Island, 1970)
I’m not sure how many people listen to this era of King Crimson. People usually are totally put off by Adrian Belew-era or later wankery, but the first three albums are pretty amazing weird art rock that aren’t in the prog realm at all. Lizard is my favorite of this era. This song is about the breakup of the Beatles.

8. Flin Flon – Red Deer (A-OK, Teenbeat, 1998)
This band was so killer. Awesome on record, awesome live. Nattles wrote such great bass lines, and their drummer was so robotic in the best way. The best indie rock spy music ever.

9. Guided by Voices – Hot Freaks (Bee Thousand, Scat, 1994)
A classic. How can you not love this song. Robert Pollard’s bullshit lyrics are sung with such conviction that I need to find meaning in them: “She took me to the new church and baptised me with salt.” What does it mean?!

10. Hella – The Devil Isn’t Red (Acoustics, 5 Rue Christine, 2006)
I’ve never liked Hella. They grated me in the same way that a lot of free jazz does. I feel like I’m not smart enough or masochistic enough to appreciate it. Like with severe math rock or black metal. BUT, for some reason I love this “acoustic” version of this song. The electric version, not so much.

11. Looper – Burning Flies (Up A Tree, Sub Pop, 1999)
Side project of the bass player from Belle and Sebastian. Early electro-indie-whatever. Back when not many people seemed to be doing that in the indie realm. Anyway, great tune.

12. Momus – Old Friend, New Flame (The Little Red Songbook, Le Grand Magistery, 1998)
I had to review this CD for the Seattle Weekly in 1998. I didn’t know anything about this guy, and still don’t, but I guess that he’s released 20 albums or something. I love how happily evil it is.

13. Santo & Johnny – Summertime (Summertime / Caravan, 7” single, Sonet, 1960)
This has to be one of the most beautiful songs of all time.

14. Brian Eno – Zawinul / Lava (Another Green World, Island, 1975)
It’s never wrong to include a song from Another Green World. I wonder if Eno just really liked Joe Zawinul - the song certainly sounds like his atmospheric stuff on Miles’ In a Silent Way, etc.
 
15. Low – Sunflower (Things We Lost in the Fire, Kranky, 2001)
Sometimes Low just makes me sad, but this song, just fills me mentally with relief and delicious happiness, even though the lyrics (“when they found your body / giant X’s on your eyes”) seem pretty dark.

16. Neutral Milk Hotel – King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1 (In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Merge, 1998)
I don’t know what this song is about, and it’s almost too precious, but still on the side of dysfunctionally great.

17. Fennesz – Endless Summer (Endless Summer, Mego, 2001)
This makes me want to hang out and watch a long, slow sunset.

18. Syd Barrett – Golden Hair (Octopus / Golden Hair, 7” single, Harvest, 1969)
Poor Syd. His stuff is so great because he’s so tragically off. There’s not much to this song, but it feels so gravid with weird emotion.

19. Wire – Heartbeat (Chairs Missing, Harvest, 1978)
An album like Chairs Missing is a good example of why I never liked the Ramones. I have to admit, I am a fan of snobby art school punk. I almost put Big Black’s cover of this song on here instead, but the original felt better, since this mix has a more mellow and less abrasive vibe.

20. Tape & Minamo – Honey Buzzard (Birds of a Feather, Headz, 2007)
Tape and Minamo separately are amazing, textural, heady, fantastic. There must be something about the Swedes and the Japanese working together. It feels like a slow, glowing , growing denouement to the season.

21. Broken Social Scene – Pitter Patter Goes My Heart (You Forgot It in People, Paper Bag, 2002)
A pretty way to go out.

Bob, enjoy -jacob

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE

Mix recipient: Rosa

Title: Hot Tub Time Machine

1.  Aquarius Sabotage – The Flaming Lips (colors pretty much all over the place..)

2.  Son Of Mr. Green Genes – Frank Zappa (do acid kids!!!)

3.  Rainbo Conversation – Stereolab (conversation, after witnessing a double rainbow)

4.  Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys (the sounds of the sounds of a radiant sunset at the zoo)

5.  Rainbows – Dennis Wilson ("raaaaaaiiiiinnnnnbooows, ..off'ma shooooouuullderrrzzz)

6.  Symphony Space – Spiritualized (music designed for wild waves rides)

7.  Light Black – Toro Y Moi (all the colors meet at the event horizon)

8.  Electric Counterpoint I, Fast – Joergen Brilling (Steve Reich)(royygeebivv...)

9.  Soul Vibrations – Dorothy Ashby (plucked from the goddess herself in full spectrum)

10. Lagos City – Asiko Rock Group (HOLY FUUUUNNKKKAAAAAYYYY MELTDOWWWNNN)

11. She’s A Rainbow – London Symphony Orchestra (Rolling Stones)(let there be light)

12. Pink Moon – Nick Drake (basically, relax.. it ain't over yet)

13. Kinder Blumen – Real Estate (feel the soft, ethereal tones in this colorful emo number)

14. Grazing in the Grass – Hugh Masekela (you'll be grazin' after this, man)

15. I Feel Like the Mother of the World – Smog (it's all a vivid dream)

16. A Rainbow In Curved Air – Katrina Krimsky (Terry Riley) (Good Morning, again.)

Colors form the basis of our visual world. It is without a doubt a small portion of information that the Universe provides us with in the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum: radio waves, gamma, ultraviolet, microwaves, etc; all of which we are hardly aware of. That said, my interpretation of this mix combines more of the synæsthetic notions of the color in music..the texture and feel of the songs and words. It's mostly instrumental with a smorgasbord in genre, recent and older stuff too. Some themes are provided with Rosa’s dream descriptions: “grazing in the grass”. The artwork is much more to do with the strange dreams for example: eggs, mythical creatures such as King Kong and of course the Hot Tub Time Machine (pictured). No doubt the Hot Tub Time Machine will absorb you in the swirling globular particle-wave fields of chrono-synclastic infundibula and spit you out into a physical materialization in music. Bon-appetit!