Free download from iTunes

Busy weekend, so no new mix for this Sunday. I will, however, point your attention to the iTunes store, where they’re offering up a free download of a holiday album. It’s a mixed bag with a few goodies like Weezer doing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” Sarah McLachlan performing “Silent Night,” and Stephen Colbert’s “Another Christmas Song.” The price is more than fair for this good, if unspectacular sampler.

Christmas Countdown

My Top 15 December Songs

And so we continue our winter holidays theme. This time, I’d like to take a look at the best of the best, in the form of a countdown of my top 15 favorite songs to listen to in December.

15. “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey
It takes a lot for me to listen to Mariah Carey, much less to admit to it in this public of a forum. Nonetheless, for my generation, this is one of the definitive songs of the season—more than actually being a good song, it’s one that takes you back to particular time.
14. “Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)” by The Darkness
This one sounds like standard upbeat Christmas fare, and it’s easy to miss the meaning beneath the wailing vocals, but ultimately it’s a pretty tragic song about not wanting Christmas to end, because the end of the holiday means the end of time together with a long distance lover. I like my holiday music conflicted.
13. “All Alone on Christmas” by Darlene Love
This one always makes me think of Home Alone 2—the movie itself, the anticipation of seeing it when I was a child, and the anticipation of the holiday itself.
12. “7 O’ Clock News/Silent Night” by Simon & Garfunkel
Talk about your message songs. Through a simple overlay of news reports with a crooning of “Silent Night” we get one of most impactful renderings imaginable of a holiday standard.
11. “Hating You for Christmas” by Everclear
There are times when subtlety is overrated. This was a hidden track to So Much for the Afterglow and communicated all the angsty anger the band could muster in a straightforward haranguing of an ex on Christmas.
10. “One More Sleep ‘Til Christmas” by The Muppets
This one beautifully captures the unabashed positivity of The Muppets in juxtaposition with the old school simplicity of the holidays—a very good song to appear in The Muppet Christmas Carol film.
09. “Lonely Christmas Eve” by Ben Folds
Ben Folds as The Grinch. Brilliant, catchy stuff.
08. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” performed by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan
Musical powerhouses from very different schools converge for a powerhouse of a rendering of a holiday standard. I defy you not to bob your head or tap your foot when this one comes on.
07. “River” by Joni Mitchell
This is one of the more profound songs ever recorded about loss around Christmas time—a touching depiction of just how sad the season can be when all you want to do is get away.
06. “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)” performed by U2
The greatest rock song of the season. Sure, like others on this mix, there’s a sadness at it’s core, but melodically it’s one of those songs that communicates the excitement of the time of year.
05. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” performed by Bing Crosby
This is my favorite of what I would consider the classics. “Have Yourself…” is great for its quiet simplicity, addressing family and friends, and not calling so much for peace on earth or Christmas miracles, but just for a happy little holiday in your own way.
04. “A Long December” by Counting Crows
OK, so this one has nothing to do with holidays, but is a powerful song about the close of the year that captures the feel of winter as well as any song I know. Also, despite all the melancholy and minor chords, it’s actually a pretty optimistic song—remembering moments like “the way that light attaches to a girl” and looking ahead to the new year, if for no other reason than because “there’s reason to believe [it] will be better than the last.”
03. “The Christians and the Pagans” by Dar Williams
There are so few songs for any season more simultaneously fun and poignant than this one. It’s a Christmas anthem for a new generation, focused on religious traditionalists and non-mainstreamers coexisting and doing the best they can around the holidays. There’s a subtle shift to the profound when Amber’s uncle watches his niece and thinks about family on a larger scale before his son pulls his sleeve, pulling him back to the comedy of the moment. Brilliant stuff.
02. “Wintersong” by Sarah McLachlan
Following in the tradition of “River,” this is a wonderful song, capturing the sheer melancholy of dealing with loss around the holidays. There are implications that this one’s about death, but there’s some wiggle room in interpreting . All in all, it’s absolutely beautiful and bring McLachlan closer to the raw core of her Fumbling Towards Ecstasy days than anything else she’s recorded this decade.
01. “Happy X-mas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon
This was the definitive Christmas song of my youth, and really has it all—a bit of melancholy in looking back at the year and asking what you’ve done; a bit of the joy of family coming together; a bit of social responsibility in wishing for world peace. While Yoko threatens to ruin this one by singing over the kids on the chorus, ultimately, even the power that crippled The Beatles couldn’t bring down this masterpiece of a song.

Lonely Christmas Eve...

Holiday Mix #1

With Thanksgiving behind us, we have entered upon the time for holiday music without shame. Holiday music is a bit of a guilty pleasure for yours truly, and so it’s not uncommon for me to burn a number of different variations on the holiday mix over the course of December.

This first incarnation features the more melancholy side of the holiday season. There are two main reasons why I appreciate sad winter songs. First, there’s a feeling of nostalgia for childhood—this isn’t to say that more recent holidays haven’t been good, but they’re certainly different from those past, and this season has a unique way of harkening back to family, friends, lovers and whatnot long past. The other big thing is that with the December holidays comes the end of the year. If it was a bad year, what better way to cap it off than with comparably downtrodden music? If it was a good year, this is the music that can facilitate a wistful look back at what was.

That’s not to say that this mix is all sad, but I do want to reassure you that some more jovial holiday mixing will be on its way. For now, though, I give you the first iteration for 2009:


01. “Winter Song” by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
02. “Pretty Good Year” by Tori Amos
03. “Winter” by Tori Amos
04. “December” by Weezer
05. “A Long December” by Counting Crows
06. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” cover by U2
07. “Snowed Under” by Keane
08. “All Alone on Christmas” by Darlene Love
09. “River” cover by Sarah McLachlan
10. “Christmas Day” by Dido
11. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” performed by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan
12. “The Christians and the Pagans” by Dar Williams
13. “Silent Night” performed by Lifehouse
14. “Hating You for Christmas” by Everclear
15. “Lonely Christmas Eve” by Ben Folds
16. “Wintersong” by Sarah McLachlan
17. “Happy X-Mas (War is Over)” cover by Maroon 5
18. “Put a Little Love In Your Heart” by Annie Lennox

This is a song about Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving Mix

There aren’t many Thanksgiving songs in a traditional sense, but over the last few years, I have burning mixes dedicated to the day. Beyond my general excessive mix-making, there are two major reasons for this practice: 1) Thanksgiving tends to be a memory making holiday for me, and so I like to recall my personal history with the day and 2) Thanksgiving journeys have meant long drives for a while now, and long drives tend to mean new mixes for my car. In any event, these mixes usually include songs like those below, plus whatever I’m listening to at the time. Enjoy, and Happy turkey day!

01. “I’m Going Home” by Hootie & The Blowfish
02. “Lullaby” by Ben Folds Five
This was the opening track to a mix I drove home to for Thanksgiving 2005, and has been linked to the holiday in my mind ever since then.
03. “The Boys Are Back In Town” cover by Everclear
This song harkens back to Thanksgiving2001. That Thanksgiving eve marked the first reunion of sorts for me with my closest friends from high school, which led to a long day of basketball at SUNY IT, to be capped off by an ill-advised viewing of Martin Lawrence vehicle Black Knight.
04. “Thank U” by Alanis Morissette
05. “The Christians & The Pagans” by Dar Williams

This is really a Christmas song, but with the references to pumpkin pie and whatnot, it always sounds right to me around Thanksgiving as well.
06. “Fire Water Burn” by Bloodhound Gang
This song recalls the night after Thanksgiving 2007, which found me in the basement of the Converse house. It was the first time I had really hung out with those guys in quite some time, and the first time I had heard this song in who knows how many years.
07. “High School” by Jeremy Fisher
This is a nod to Thanksgiving eves in general, an unofficial high school reunion night at bars across the country, the last few of which I experienced at Cavallo’s back in Utica.
08. “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses
09. “The Thanksgiving Song” by Adam Sandler
10. “Alice’s restaurant Massacree” by Arlo Guthrie
This is the ultimate Thanksgiving song. I doubt I’ll ever forget listening to this one growing up, as my folks began the preparations for that night’s dinner. I don’t think I’ve ever gone a Thanksgiving without listening to it at least once since.

The Piano Man

Billy Joel Mix

Though he has faded in and out of cultural relevancy over the last three decades, Billy Joel has remained one of the iconic players in my personal musical repertoire for the two and half decades and counting of my life. He has played with different styles and meanings, penning carefree love songs (“The Longest Time”), superficial social commentaries (“Uptown Girl”), harder message songs (“Good Night Saigon”), not shying away from a dab of introspection (“River of Dreams,” “Keeping the Faith”), and hitting many points in between. But what Billy may remain most well-known for is one of his earliest hits, which probably best be described as a universal bar song—“Piano Man.”

I hadn’t listened to Billy Joel for a while. I got to see him perform in Syracuse a couple years back. It was a great show, but at the same time, it sort of felt like a capstone event for my fanship—I didn’t run home wanting to listen to more of him so much as I got the sense I had just enjoyed the culmination of that piece of my musical life and could put it to rest. In the spirit of this blog, and as I think other mixes posted here would attest, the appreciation of a particular musical act, at least for me, never truly dies. It may rest for a bit, but there will be a revival, and that point, perhaps a reinterpretation or flat out reinvention of how you understand an artist and his songs. And with that, of course, comes new mixes.

Billy Joel returned to my consciousness upon a recent read of Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, in which Klosterman has the following to say: “Joel is the only rock star I’ve never wanted to be … Every one of Joel’s important songs—including the happy ones—are ultimately about loneliness … like the way it feels when you’re being hugged by someone and it somehow makes you sadder.” I’m not sure I agree with Klosterman’s assessment completely, but I will concede his companion point, that Joel is, for all his fanfare and his prolific body work, still not cool. And perhaps it is that vaguely dopy quality, coupled with an understanding of the lonely hug that has made him so accessible, memorable, and ultimately important for myself and others like me.

Without further ado, the mix:

01. “Christie Lee”
02. “This Night”
03. “Uptown Girl”
04. “All About Soul”
05. “And So It Goes”
06. “Summer, Highland Falls”
07. “Just The Way You Are”
08. “New York State of Mind”
09. “Only the Good Die Young”
10. “River of Dreams”
11. “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”
12. “She’s Always A Woman”
13. “2000 Years”
14. “Keeping the Faith”
15. “We Didn’t Start The Fire”
16. “Baby Grand”
17. “Piano Man”

More Eclecticism

Eclectic Mix 2

I'm still decidedly in the honeymoon phase with this mix--burned it a week and a half ago and it hasn't left my car's CD player since. It's an amalgamation of stuff I rediscovered when I started the long overdue process of normalizing the naming conventions in my iTunes (Badly Drawn Boy? Aimee Mann? it has been far too long), and stuff I just recently downloaded. Props to The Droge and Summers Blend for the love theme from Zombieland and to Vampire Weekend--I'm really not sure why I hated you so much the first time I heard you, but you're pretty catchy. All this and the usual stand bys, like The Crows and Eels makes for a good one.

01. “Crucify” by Tori Amos
02. “On the Radio” by Regina Spektor
03. “Two of the Lucky Ones” by The Droge and Summers Blend
04. “Dry Your Eyes” by The Streets
05. “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie
06. “Superhero” by Jane’s Addiction
07. “M79” by Vampire Weekend
08. “Something To Talk About” by Badly Drawn Boy
09. “All the Beautiful Things” by Eels
10. “Facebook Manifesto” by The February
11. “You Could Make A Killing” by Aimee Mann
12. “Oh My Sweet Carolina” cover by Counting Crows
13. “Alibi” by David Gray
14. “Better Man” by Pearl Jam
15. “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim

New York, Matchbox Twenty

New York City Mix

In recognition of the New York Yankees, who have been dominating my Facebook mini-feed of late, and the Knicks who may have just started the season that will mark their return to the playoffs (na, I don't think so either) I post this mix, a tribute to the Big Apple. One of the things I like about this collection songs is the diversity of moods and messages, despite (or perhaps because of) the common thread. Even among artists you get some of the most upbeat and melancholy of both Simon & Garfunkel and Counting Crows. Good times.


01. "Marching Bands of Manhatten" by Death Cab for Cutie
02. "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel
03. "Goin' Down To New York Town" by Counting Crows
04. "New York, New York" by Ryan Adams
05. "Love Song/New York" by Lucy Kaplansky
06. "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" by Simon & Garfunkel
07. "The Only Living Boy In New York" by Simon & Garfunkel
08. "Chelsea" by Counting Crows
09. "City of Blinding Lights" by U2
10. "Manhattan" by Kings of Leon
11. "Leaving New York" by REM
12. "New York City" by They Might Be Giants
13. "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra


Matchbox Twenty/Rob Thomas Mix

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Matchbox Twenty. If I'm in the mood for them, there are few bands I like more. Oftentimes, I dismiss them for being on the pop side of pop-rock, but trying to pass for legit rock (is that musically elitist enough for you? enough to redeem me for posting a mix devoted to this act?). Anyway, I tend to lump most of Rob Thomas's solo work with the Matchbox stuff because it sounds much the same. Here, I present a compilation of some of the band/man's best, paying homage to a lot of popular stuff, but snubbing some radio songs along the way (I'm sorry, unless I assemble a Boring Mix "Back2Good" and "Mad Season" are not making it onto one of my CDs; "Disease" and "If Your Gone" might have made it were time and flow not factors), and giving proper recognition to the band's very best if lesser known stuff ("Hang," "What You Want To Be").


01. “How Far We’ve Come”
02. “Angry”
03. “Ever the Same”
04. “3 AM”
05. “Problem Girl”
06. “Kody”
07. “Shame”
08. “Push”
09. “Bent”
10. “Bed of Lies”
11. “This Is How A Heart Breaks”
12. “Streetcorner Symphony”
13. “Little Wonders”
14. “Downfall”
15. “Hang”
16. “What You Want To Be”
17. “Bright Lights”

Eclecticism, The Boss

Eclectic Mix 1:

This is a quintessential eclectic mix from yours truly. I put this one together for a road trip for which all really knew about my traveling companion's musical taste was that she dug Ben Folds. It's designed largely in the interest of having a little of everything, with a sampling of commercial favorites (the Ingrid Michaelson and Killers songs), lesser-known songs by well-known artists (the Crows tunes, the REM), the kind of songs folks may or may not know but are more than likely going to love ("Motorcycle Driveby") and off-kilter covers of stuff everyone knows ("Heart of the Matter").

01. "Rock This Bitch (Live)" by Ben Folds
02. "Both Hands" by Ani DiFranco
03. "Mystery" by The Indigo Girls
04. "Heart of the Matter" cover by India.Arie
05. "Blues Run the Game (Live)" cover by Counting Crows
06. "Tom & Mary" by Ben Folds Five
07. "Hey, Hey" by Dispatch
08. "Human" by The Killers
09. "Fresh Feeling" by The Eels
10. "Holiday in Spain" by Counting Crows
11. "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson
12. "Me In Honey" by REM
13. "Cute Without the E" by Taking Back Sunday
14. "Motorcycle Driveby" by Third Eye Blind

Bruce Springsteen Mix

You're never going to assemble a comprehensive or universally pleasing mix for an artist as popular, prolific and eclectic in his own right as "The Boss." And so, this was an attempt to please none other than yours truly, focusing mostly on his most commercial songs, with a sprinkling of lesser -known tracks. Flow was a big deal for this mix. I think Bruce is at his best when he's either totally despondent or rocking his ass off. And so, there's a need to spread out the doom and gloom of tracks like "The Wrestler," "Atlantic City," and "Streets of Philadelphia" while parceling out the rockers like "Glory Days," "Born in the USA," and "Born to Run" so as to conserve some energy as the disc moves along. "Thunder Road" is an especially good transitional track, starting soft before taking that long walk, from your front porch to my front seat....


01. "The Wrestler"
02. "Devils + Dust"
03. "Thunder Road"
04. "Dancing in the Dark"
05. "Glory Days"
06. "Atlantic City"
07. "The Rising"
08. "Born in the USA"
09. "Better Days"
10. "Streets of Philadelphia"
11. "Secret Garden"
12. "All I'm Thinkin' About"
13. "Long Time Comin'"
14. "Meet Me in the Land of Hope and Dreams"
15. "Born to Run"