TRIUMPHANT RETURN!

It sure has been a while since I got around to posting hot traxxx and hit singles on this thing. I bet you thought I was dead! No such luck, Internet; I was off gettin' educated and making friends. But now -- sufficiently educated and socialized -- this pirate is back in business! Let's start off kind of light with a mix I made for an ex-girlfriend a few years ago. Though ostensibly a compilation of the songs and bands I was most into at the time and thought she'd like, astute musicopsychologists (alternately: people with ears) will probably be able to pick up the subtly romantic vibe I was trying to send out. As far as I know, she never heard it, which is probably for the best. Still, the high level of care and thought I put into it probably makes this my favorite of all my mixes.

Lots of '80s, lots of good singles, a ton of songs I love to sing along with and an extra-special THREE Modern Lovers tracks! I was (still am?) so fucking obsessed with that album. Good for listening to while: hanging out at the pool with your pals, working on art projects, driving long distances. Makes me think of summer!
Tracklisting and notes below.
Cool Tunez.rar
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1. Dignified and Old - Modern Lovers
2. Thru the Flowers - the Primitives
3. She's One Of The Other Kind - the Embarrassment
I'll be posting their woefully-hardtofind retrospective comp soon enough, but until then, here's taster of Kansas's best band, past or present. Something about the guitar sound on this song makes me think of peacock feathers and spinning hypnosis wheels.
4. Oblivious - Aztec Camera
5. The World's A Mess; It's In My Kiss - X
"The music made Dirk think of black roses on fire. He wanted to leap onstage and dive into the crowd the way some of the boys were doing. He wanted to play music that would make the boys in the pit sweat like that. Maybe that was how those boys cried, Dirk thought. Maybe he would start a band called the Tear Jerks. For a moment he remembered sitting in his room with Pup, Pup holding the guitar, but he let the drums beat the thought away. His own band. Dirk and the Tear Jerks. Tear Jerk Dirk. His throat and heart felt tight, constricted with dryness, so he bought a beer and gulped it down. Then he went and stood at the edge of the slammers. Some boys behind him were moving up and down in place, jostling him forward. Finally he flung himself into the writhing body mass. It was like surfing in a way, fighting to stay up above seething waters that wanted to consume you, part of you wanting to be consumed, to vanish into radiance.
'The world's a mess it's in my kiss,' X sang." - Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be-bop, pgs 37-8.
6. Mandinka - Sinead O'Connor
7. Keats Song - Pete Shelley
Not the BEST song off Homosapien (p.s., underrated album!), but definitely the shortest! And as the old dead fictional character famously said, brevity is the soul of wit (and charming pop songs).
8. He's So Fine - The Chiffons
Girl-group candy so sweet even George Harrison couldn't resist ripping it off! And if that pop music tidbit wasn't exciting enough for you, here's a delightful countrified version of the song by "Queen of the House" Jody Miller!
9. Bubbles - Johnny Concrete
Badass Danish punk song that never gets old, possibly because of the lyrics. Here's what I've got: "I can't free the bubbles in my brain/they're crashing through my nerves, causing me to shake//They essen^[1] in the graaahss/They hate women and the queeaaaars//I want to escape from all these hetero people/they're all just rotten to the core//[chorus]//Just piss off and leave me alone/'cause I'm sick of all these fancy admirers/hanging on my words and blowin' me/I'm just trying to dancercize heaaare!" Breathtaking!! If you want more (or even if you don't, fucker), I highly recommend you check THIS out!
10. Buffalo Stance - Neneh Cherry
If you don't like this song, we're not friends.
11. Government Center - Modern Lovers
12. Seven Languages - Camper Van Beethoven
You have no idea how much time I spend looking at my Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart poster trying to make Vampire Can Mating Oven a perfect anagram of Camper Van Beethoven. With a little luck and more drugs, maybe I'll make it happen one of these days! Something I about this song that I can't quite articulate is very un-CVB, but I love it so much.
13. School Days - the Runaways
14. Through the Roof 'n' Underground - Gogol Bordello
Like many people, I first heard it in Wristcutters: A Love Story and as it (presumably) was for many people, this song was my life as rendered in charmingly broken English.
15. From the City to the Sea - the Family Cat
16. False Eyelashes - Dolly Parton
17. I Will Dare - the Replacements
18. Serrated Edge - the Dead Milkmen
Dead Milkmen forever! This song was my ringtone for the longest time. It turned the act of answering the phone from a terrifying crapshoot to a party!
19. Prove It All Night - Bruce Springsteen
20. Crowd of Drifters - the Magnetic Fields
As a gift to a fellow a Magnetic Fields fan, I included this alternate version of Charm of the Highway Strip's "Crowd of Drifters" featuring their original singer Susan Anway. It's from a (fantastic) Doctor Death compilation.
21. Rudy, A Message To You - Dandy Livingstone
Famously covered by the Specials as "A Message To You, Rudy." I'm not a fan of either incarnation of the title.
22. I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms - Modern Lovers

^[1]That's "eat" in German, right? Which is like Danish, kind of? I used to think they were German, I guess.