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16d
mix tape
Los Prisioneros - El Baile De Los Que Sobran
•••
CHILEAN POLITICAL NEW WAVE FOR EVERYBODY! First released in 1986, translated as "the dance of those left out," it was a rallying cry against the dictatorship in the '80s (and censored accordingly) and again in 2019-2020 protests. That doesn't make it sound very fun, but it slaps like nobody's business. Heard it at my favorite thrift store today and yelled at them because their playlist is so good it makes me mad, like the dancefloor version of cute aggression. Play it RIGHT NOW.
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6
23d
mix tape
III (The Fucking Champs)
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Experimental instrumental metal from San Francisco in the '90s and aughts; not for every writing project, to be sure, but it sure will shake things loose. If you're the sort of person who thrives in the context of brown noise, may I present The Fucking Champs. Also, their track titles rule.
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1
5w
mix tape
Let Me Borrow That Top (Anna Mosity)
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I think about this Kelly (Liam Kyle Sullivan) x Jem and the Holograms sync all the time. Generational triumph. YOU AREN'T EVEN WEARING IT.
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1
5w
mix tape
FIP radio
•••
(France Inter Paris, not feline infectious peritonitis!) Broadcasting (and streaming) commercial-free music and irrationally sexy station IDs since ‘71, all human-curated and 85% from indie labels. Fair warning, they also go hard on novelty Christmas music for like four months at a stretch - but that’s part of their charm. If you’re on the east coast of the US, early evening = the witching hour on FIP. Have probably purchased two dozen records I first heard there.
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10
1
5w
mix tape
Spaceman (Belly)
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Discovering Belly's first album as a preteen was like being handed a skeleton key to myself; Tanya Donelly belts out things I whispered to my own cracked heart in the middle of the night. I first heard this B-side from their second album in college, and it hinted at sorrow I wasn't old enough to understand yet. Now I hear it and my skin goes cold. Sometimes I forget Belly is my favorite band; songs like this remind me, in calling me by a name I never told anyone.
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1
7w
mix tape
St. Vincent - New York
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“Here you are,” it said. “Where were you for so long?”
7
1
7w
mix tape
Liz Phair - California
•••
I grew up in the OC. It’s complicated.
4
7w
mix tape
Khruangbin - So We Won't Forget
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Like waking up from a summer-afternoon nap and high-fiving my cat’s little toe beans.
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3
1
7w
mix tape
100,000 Fireflies (The Magnetic Fields)
•••
Susan Anway’s vocals on their first two albums are mare’s-tail clouds caressing a full moon. 1KFF is a ferally perfect song.
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4
11w
mix tape
Parade Ground - "Moans" (1988)
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If you were too young and bizarre to be in a John Hughes movie but one shivered into being anyway, when you wandered away at the end in your little weeds the credits would roll over "Moans."
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3
1
11w
mix tape
The Lover Speaks - "No More 'I Love You's" (1986)
•••
The Lover Speaks toured with Eurythmics, which is how Annie Lennox ended up interpreting NMILY so gorgeously on Medusa. I adore her version, but the original is properly stunning; I had trouble making noise for a while after I heard it for the first time.
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2
12w
mix tape
waterbaby - Memory Be a Blade
•••
Song of the summer, crisply percussive and whispery-strings melancholy in a way that reinvents itself a bit each time I hear it. She's wonderful.
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4
12w
mix tape
Temptation (New Order)
•••
I could be composting in the ground beneath the dance floor and I would claw my way back to consciousness and cohesion to flop around like a criminal fish to "Temptation." Its dour, wild-hearted acolytes are everywhere.
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29
6
14w
mix tape
Showgirls in Readers
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I was contemplating Pet Shop Boys' "What Have I Done to Deserve This," which really, impossibly gets even more flawless every time I revisit it, and phreeow my next volunteer shift at the library is going to be a SPECTACLE
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15w
mix tape
Annie + David's "Under Pressure" for Freddie
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These are the days it never rains but it pours. (The two wolves inside me wear kohl and a mint green suit.)
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5
16w
mix tape
Joey (Concrete Blonde)
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I think sometimes about how Johnette Napolitano had the melody for "Joey" but put off writing the lyrics until the rest of the album was done and she was in a cab and had no more time. "I knew what I wanted to say, but I wasn't looking forward to saying it."
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10
2
18w
mix tape
Phosphorescent - "Song for Zula"
•••
Can confirm that this song hits even harder when you're driving up PCH waiting for the sun to squeeze the ocean's delicious chill out of your sinuses. I love everything about it, but the drum's reverb is your battered old heart, still throwing itself against your rib cage. When you're ready to get run over a second time, try Phosphorescent's "Mermaid Parade," his East Coast bookend for that nation of feelings.
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21
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