The block mixes in my catalog are to be identified by having stretches of three to four consecutive songs by an artist or band before switching to the next. While still a bit eclectic, this one is rock-centric. 01. “Story of My Life” by Social Distortion 02. “Ring of Fire” cover by Social Distortion 03. “Ball and Chain” by Social Distortion 04. “I Was Wrong” by Social Distortion 05. “Stuck Between Stations” by The Hold Steady 06. “Lord, I’m Discouraged” by The Hold Steady 07. “Atlantic City” cover by The Hold Steady 08. “About A Girl” by Nirvana 09. “The Man Who Sold the World” cover by Nirvana 10. “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam” cover by Nirvana 11. “Best of You” by Foo Fighters 12. “Next Year” by Foo Fighters 13. “Learn to Fly” by Foo Fighters 14. “I’ve Been Waiting” by Matthew Sweet 15. “Farther Down” by Matthew Sweet 16. “Girlfriend” by Matthew Sweet 17. “Pregaming is Bad Luck” by The February 18. “A Short Walk to 4” by The February 19. “Facebook Manifesto” by The February
To clarify, this isn’t just a mix that is musical, but rather a mix made up of songs from musicals. This is, in large part, a result of my recent obsession with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which led to a revisiting of Joss Whedon’s other musical masterpiece, Once More, With Feeling, which, in turn, led to a look back to the musicals I grew up with, the musicals my high school did, and the musicals I was exposed to in college and the years that followed.
The definition of musicals a bit liberal here (see the inclusion of the three song competition set from Glee). In addition, I openly acknowledge that I’m exposing myself a bit here—both in terms of my somewhat limited scope of knowledge on musicals (21 tracks, with only 13 shows represented) and my guilty pleasures (again, see Glee). Lastly, I opted not to include Muppet or Disney musicals here—each could probably justify their own mixes, and perhaps will one day.
OK, enough admissions and apologies, on to the track list.
01. “I Got Rhythm” from Crazy for You 02. “Laundry Day (My Freeze Ray)” from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog 03. “Moving Too Fast” from The Last Five Years 04. “The River Won’t Flow” from Songs for a New World 05. “Think of Me” from Phantom of the Opera 06. “Almost Like Being in Love” from Brigadoon 07. “There Once Was a Man” from The Pajama Game 08. “A Little Fall of Rain” from Les Miserables 09. “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Les Miserables 10. “My Eyes (On the Rise)” from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog 11. “Walk Through the Fire” from Once More, With Feeling 12. “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” from RENT 13. “One Day More!” from Les Miserables 14. “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from Glee 15. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” from Glee 16. “Somebody to Love” from Glee 17. “Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You” from The Last Five Years 18. “Where Do We Go From Here?” from Once More, With Feeling 19. “For Good” from Wicked 20. “Finale B” from RENT 21. “The River of Dreams/Keeping the Faith/Only the Good Die Young” from Movin’ Out
Morning Mix Morning is a unique time of day. It’s, at once, a new beginning and a time for reflection on what’s come before. It’s a time distinguished by the realization that, for better or worse, dreams were just dreams, and that the night before did, in fact, just happen. Out of this blend of optimism and melancholy, hope and despair comes a mix to capture it all. 01. “Good Day Sunshine” by The Beatles 02. “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” by Wham! 03. “Every Morning” by Sugar Ray 04. “Shine” by The Morning Of 05. “Banana Pancakes” by Jack Johnson 06. “In the Morning” by Razorlight 07. “Good Morning” by Kanye West 08. “Walk Away” by Ben Harper 09. “A Plain Morning” by Dashboard Confessional 10. “On Almost Any Sunday Morning” by Counting Crows 11. “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5 12. “Good Morning Good Morning” by The Beatles 13. “Wake Up” by Rage Against the Machine 14. “Still Fighting It” by Ben Folds 15. “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles 16. “Morning Song” by Jewel
I’ve been a little bit in love with Augustana’s “Fire,” as of late, and all the more with the alternative, upbeat live version. That got me thinking about all the songs that ‘play with fire’ so to speak. Through the magic of iTunes, I was able to sort through and get a full list of song titles that included “fire” or “burn,” and quickly surmise that I had more than 80 minutes worth of material to play with. This mix varies from the more literal meaning of the word (“A Church Is Burning,” “When Sal’s Burned Down”) to a range of metaphorical stuff, with varying degrees of subtlety and nuance (“World on Fire” to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” to “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”) to some real stretches (“Fire Escape” doesn’t really have anything to do with fire at all…). Anyway, after paring down the list and playing with flow and both thematic and stylistic connections, here’s the eclectic little resulting mix.
01. “Fire” by Augustana 02. “Ring of Fire” cover by Social Distortion 03. “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon 04. “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor 05. “A Church is Burning” by Paul Simon 06. “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel 07. “Fire Water Burn” by Bloodhound Gang 08. “When Sal’s Burned Down” by Dar Williams 09. “I’m On Fire” cover by Heather Nova 10. “Strange Fire” by Indigo Girls 11. “Light My Fire” by The Doors 12. “Fire Escape” by Fastball 13. “Your Fire, Your Soul” by Dar Williams 14. “World on Fire” by Sarah McLachlan 15. “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” by John Mayer 16. “Walk Through the Fire” by The Cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer 17. “Crash and Burn” by Savage Garden 18. “Fire (Live Version)” by Augustana
Not a ton of rhyme or reason to this one--mostly recent downloads, featuring favorites of the moment like The Hold Steady and Kanye West. 01. “Stronger” by Kanye West 02. “Superhero” by Jane’s Addiction 03. “Typical” by MuteMath 04. “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon 05. “Bigger Than My Body” by John Mayer 06. “Touch the Sky” by Kanye West 07. “Chill Out Tent” by The Hold Steady 08. “Passenger Side” by Wilco 09. “Did You See the Words” by Animal Collective 10. “Girls Like Status” by The Hold Steady 11. “Start A War” by The Natinoal 12. “Divorce Song” by Liz Phair 13. “Happy Ending” by Mika 14. “Lord, I’m Discouraged” by The Hold Steady 15. “The Call” by Regina Spektor 16. “Down” by Jay Sean 17. “Atlantic City” covered by The hold Steady 18. “More Than a Feeling” by Boston 19. “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5
