Year End CD, Part 1
The Politics of Dancing

Every year, I traditionally make a mix CD to share with folks some of my favorite musical discoveries from the past year. I enjoy doing this so much, I've started to extend it to a Summer CD as well as rounding it out to a double CD release (there's just too much good stuff and the people have a right to know). Since I've been gone most of December, I've just finalized the lineup of this year's double blast and am starting production on my Windows box--next year I'm buying a CD duplicator. (I had also been holding off a bit in hopes of finding the perfect recycled CD container, but the search is still ongoing--if you have any tips, please add them to the comments.)

The first CD was a bit tough to put together, as I wanted to put together a collection of songs that captured my mood from this past year in relation to politics. It started off rather joyless and didactic, but hopefully I've refined it enough to bring some relief to that initial grim outlook. The songs I chose aren't necessarily political in and of themselves, but each one contributes something that caught my ear, whether it be a turn of phrase or a foreboding guitar lick.

Now, faithful readers of this site will note that I've been on a bit of a Bread kick this year (having previously noted by enjoyment of Bread's On the Waters album). But the title of this CD all came together quite nicely after Hurricane Katrina, with that mash-up of the photo of George Bush receiving the gift of a new guitar with some of the desperate people at the New Orleans Superdome, which then dovetailed perfectly into Cake's cover of Bread's Guitar Man, which I thought really captured the essence of Bush's reaction to his entire presidency. Check out some of these lyrics:

He can make you love, he can make you cry
He will bring you down, then he’ll get you high
Somethin’ keeps him goin’, miles and miles a day
To find another place to play.

[...]

Then the lights begin to flicker and the sound is getting dim
The voice begins to falter and the crowds are getting thin
But he never seems to notice he’s just got to find
Another place to play,
Anyway got to play, anyway got to play.

While I'd love to send everyone who visits the site a CD, I'm unfortunately limited by funds, time, and copyright. So I've done the next best thing I could think of--I've created an iMix at the iTunes Music Store (this link and the linked image to the left require that you have the iTunes application installed on your PC, whether it be Mac or Windows). Unfortunately, I couldn't get all the tunes in there, as iTunes doesn't carry the new Radar Bros. album and the closer comes from The PartyParty.com mash-up site (from which you can download the tunes as well as leave a donation for their good work). But it's close.

Below is the lineup for the full CD, with the italicized titles not making it into the iMix (album links go to Amazon).

01 Louisiana 1927 -- Randy Newman (Randy Newman Songbook)
02 Faces Of The Damned -- Radar Bros. (The Fallen Leaf Pages)
03 To Remember -- Radar Bros.
04 The Fallen -- Franz Ferdinand (You Could Have It So Much Better)
05 The Guitar Man -- Cake (Pressure Chief)
06 Busting Up a Starbucks -- Mike Doughty (Haughty Melodic)
07 I Predict a Riot -- Kaiser Chiefs (Employment)
08 Off the Record -- My Morning Jacket (Z)
09 Is It Any Wonder -- The Shortwave Set (Debt Collection)
10 Jesusland -- Ben Folds (Songs for Silverman)
11 Crosses -- Jose Gonzalez (Veneer)
12 When God Made Me -- Neil Young (Prairie Wind)
13 I Hope (Katrina Charity Version) -- Dixie Chicks (iTunes exclusive)
14 It's Going Down Slow -- Bruce Cockburn (Sunwheel Dance)
15 This Isn't What the Governmeant -- Bread (On the Waters)
16 Liberty Belle (Mario Caldato Jr. Edit) -- Super Furry Animals (Phantom Phorce)
17 The One I Love -- David Gray (Life in Slow Motion)
18 Savages -- Paul Weller (As Is Now)
19 Wasteland -- Maximo Park (Help: A Day in the Life)
20 How You See The World No.2 -- Coldplay (Help: A Day in the Life)
21 Wake Up -- The Arcade Fire (Funeral)
22 Imagine...walk on the wild side -- The Party Party

The second CD is a bit poppier and happier, and I'll post that in the next day or so.

Have a good New Year's Eve, everyone, from me and Old Fogey!