Dessert Island Disco, Day 9

I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One
Yo La Tengo

If Lou Reed had relaxed a bit, married Mo Tucker and settled down in suburban New Jersey, it'd sound a lot like this.

I don't know if this is YLT's best album (they've been making consistently great records since 1993's Painful), but it's my favorite. It's a perfect mix of all the stuff this band does: The shoegazey epicness of "Deeper Into Movies", the maudlin "Shadows", the country-ish "One PM Again", the baroque pop of "Center Of Gravity." It's like a big stew of everything great about rock & roll, served at just the right temperature.

Basically, they're the kind of band I'd love to be in. Put this one on while you go for a moonlit swim in that pristine lagoon. just make sure you wait a half hour after you've eaten. Wouldn't want to cramp up or anything.

Don't Tease Me, Bro

Anybody curious what the art for August's mix looks like? Well, wonder no longer. It'll drop on the first of August. I'm really liking it. It took a little bit of getting into, but once I was in, it really shook out nicely. I'm excited to get your feedback on it. [Cough, cough! Give Dylan feedback on the mixes! Cough! Cough!] Whew. Sorry. Must have gotten something caught in my throat. I'm much better now. Thank you.

Also, the very first BRR mix is now posted in the sidebar. Remember that one? Aaah, we were so much younger then.

And I think that's all for the bonus mixxes. I'm pretty sure they're all archived now. Whew! Anybody downloaded any of them yet? Do you love them? How about high Five! or It Came From the Garage! or any of them, actually? Are the mixtapes in general worth your/my time? Please tell me. Won't you?

Dessert Island Disco, Day 8

The Soft Bulletin
Flaming Lips

Mortality is a fact of life. We will all die, every one of us and everyone we love or hate or know tangentially. Everyone. Our bodies will disintegrate into the earth that spawned us while bugs eat us, plants eat us, the dirt eats us. We'll molder and decay and the world will keep spinning through the vast blackness of space, until that too dies suddenly one technicolored Wednesday morning and all you can think of is love.

You wouldn't expect morbid thoughts like this to be the basis of the last great psychedelic album of the 20th century, but when you're dealing with the Flaming Lips, you learn to expect the unexpected. From the anthemic opening track "Race For the Prize," a tale of two scientists racing for some sort of cure to some sort of disease (maybe death itself?) through to the dusky instrumental closer, "Sleeping On the Roof," we're treated to a gorgeous, layered and trippy album about life, death, love and space.

You know, the important stuff.

Listen to it while you watch the night horizon for signs of rescue, fighting off hallucinations brought on by malnutrition, dehydration and that spider bite on your hand.

Dessert Island Disco, Day 7

I, Jonathan
Jonathan Richman

I've already confessed my love for this album on this very blog, so I'll just say that this is a beautiful album and your life will greatly be enriched by it. Also, if you get the chance to see the man live, do it. He's hilarious and it's a great time.

Put this one on while you're hanging out in that wacky subterranean hatch whose weird blast door entrance you dug up and whose contents can be only described as inscrutably mysterious.

Dessert Island Disco, Day 6

Nilsson Schmilsson
Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson has my favorite voice in all of music ever. If you don't agree, just give a listen to "I'll Never Leave You" off of this album. It'll break your cold, cold heart. His voice on that track is like velvet. Sad, sad velvet.

I'm pretty sure I could listen to this one forever and ever and ever. From the upbeat opener, "Gotta Get Up" to "Driving Along" and "Jump Into the Fire", to the sad ballads like "The Moonbeam Song," or "Early In the Morning," this is a classic. If you don't own it, shame on you.

Plus, how awesome would it be to listen to "The Coconut Song" while eating an actual coconut?! Did I just blow your mind?

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Oh, and by the way, in case you hadn't noticed, I've been posting a bunch of old BRR Bonus Mixxes to the sidebar. Feel free to download them and let me know how you like them.

Also, I'm still looking for comments re: next month's mix, Like A Knife Through the Night, so there's that, too. Leave them here or leave them there. Just leave them, that's all I care!

Hooray for inadvertent Dr. Seuss-ish ramblings!

Um, that's all. Carry on.

Death To Jar Jar [or] Adventures In Hardcore Nerdery

I love Star Wars. You know it. I know it. Dogs know it. But let's face facts, the Prequels were not very good. Not very good at all. This is very unfortunate. It makes me whine. A lot.

Thankfully, not everybody who loves Star Wars is like me and just sits around bellyaching about how much opportunity was wasted, how much a franchise that was so cool could go so wrong or how fake Qui-Gon's beard looked. Some people actually [gasp!] do something about it. I know, crazy, right?

John Seavey over at Fraggmented - when he's not figuring out how and why superhero comics work with his always excellent Storytelling Engines series (I tried linking to it, but couldn't make it work. Duh!) - has been serializing some fixes for the problems of the Prequels.

And they work. Like, really, really well. I'm jealous.

I'd definitely brave lines full of Jedi cosplay nerds singing that freaking Weird Al song to see his versions of Episode One, Episode Two and Episode 3. Give them a read and see if you would, too.

And judging by some comments (or he's probably mentioned it and I missed it) he made in Episode 3's comments section, he's going to take a crack at the Original Trilogy, which could prove interesting. (Just don't touch Empire and we won't have any problems, mmmkay?)

And who knows? With Crazy Old Uncle George always mucking with his movies, maybe he'll just redo all of them and have Seavey write them. What? It's no more far-fetched than the whole midichlorians thing. Yeesh, what the heck was that all about?

Dessert Island Disco, Day 5

More Songs About Buildings and Food
Talking Heads

Again, I'm forgoing the obvious. Seems to be a theme on this list. Remain In Light, until recently, would have been my go-to Talking Heads album, but I don't know. This is a great album (their first to be produced by my personal hero, Brian Eno), and I'd like an opportunity to re-familiarize myself with it. Plus, yeah, it's cover is "off the chain," so to speak.

More Songs is a jittery, funky, danceable punk rock album. Which sounds like it'd be a mess, but it works. Album opener "Thank You For Sending Me An Angel" is pure joyous nonsense with the repeated lyric "You can walk / You can / Talk just like me." "Stay Hungry", may or may not have something to do with the bodybuilding documentary of the same name ("Move a muscle" gets repeated a lot). "I'm Not In Love", is one of their punkier numbers, with its power chording and stop and start rhythms. And "Found A Job", a song about a couple tired of the same old crap on TV who decide to make their own TV show with friends and families, espoused the DIY ethos that was in full effect in the New York scene and prefigures the possibilities the Internets has opened up.

The most recognizable track, a cover of Al Green's soul classic "Take Me To the River" is a weird, loping, funky, awkward but excellent number and the track that sold me on this group. It's a soul standard covered by a bunch of art school punk rockers and it really shouldn't work. But, oh it does.

Anyway, this is a great album. I'm gonna go spin it up right now. Perfect for dancing after those barbecue parties with the natives. As long as you're not the main course, that is.

Dessert Island Disco, Day 4

Under the Bushes, Under the Stars
Guided By Voices

Again, Bee Thousand would probably be a more obvious pick, but there's a surplus of great tracks on this one. "Cut Out Witch," "Bright Paper Werewolves," "Acorns and Orioles," "Your Name is Wild," "Ghosts Of A Different Dream." And that's just five off-the-top-of-my-head tracks of the 24 tracks on the album.



This will keep you company at nights when the disembodied whispers start in the jungle. It's a great "disembodied whisper" album. "Guided by voices," indeed.

Mixin' It Up

Chris Haley and I ping-ponged back and forth to make a glorious little mix. It's called Ping Of Pong which is a ridiculous title, but it works. It was way fun and the results are pretty superb.

See for yourself.*

In other news, I've been wrestling with August's mix, Like A Knife Through the Night. It looks like it might be a little mellow, sort of tired and droney. My idea of "late-night driving music" is a little beleaguered, lights streaking through darkness, roads stretching out infinitely, the moon hanging over you like some watchful, all-seeing eye as it makes ghost outlines of the landscape. Everybody else is sleeping soundly and you're alone with your thoughts and the music and they're both solitary and deep and sort of spooky.

Is this going to bum everybody out? Let me know.

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* PS: There is a little cussin' in this mix. Just so you know.