SAP Music Summer Mix 2012

Happy Independence Day America! What better way to celebrate than with a mix a songs with no apparent connection other than I like them and I've been listening to them a lot recently.  Okay, there are many better ways of celebrating, but this can't hurt.  I hadn't posted anything in a long time and I had a little time on my hands so I threw together some songs.  I didn't spend any time (and I do mean any) trying to come up with some grand theme to the mix.  I can however write a little bit about each track to give some context as to why I've been listening to them or how they vaguely connect to this summer.

Track 1 is the music from the Prometheus trailer.  I saw the movie a few weeks back and it wasn't very good.  The trailer was better than the movie.  The music was a highlight for me which is why I searched it out and it is now on my iPod.

Track 2 is Transitioning by The Beastie Boys. I guess this is there because of the passing of Adam Yauch in May.

Track 3 is one of two tracks on the mix that really made me want to make a new mix.  Bangarag by Skirllex is the best dance track of the year in my opinion.  I fell in love with it when the EP came out earlier this year, but when I played it recently for my daughter she fell in love with it and asked that I put it on her iPod.  It made me think that I needed to share this amazing track with others.  By the way this track is also the best thing in the trailer for "The Watch."

Track 4 is the song that lead me to playing Bangarang for my daughter.  This is a song my daughter turned me onto just this last week.  This may be the first song my daughter has introduced me to that I fell in love with.  I remember this phenomenon happening with my son and now I am please to have my daughter opening my eyes to new music.  The song is Too Close by Alex Clare and it combines some of the instrumentality of Bangarang, with with an amazing soulful voice.  The whole album reminds me a lot of Jamie Lidell's album Multiply, but with a dubstep influence.  Love it.

Track 5 is the number one reason for the mix.  Last week I discovered the song "Let's Go Home" from the latest Best Coast album "The Only Place." It is a bit of a joke in my family that I really love my home and I'm a bit of a homebody.  Sure I like going out and seeing the world and going on an adventure now and again, but I do love my home.  When I heard this song I instantly had to play it for my wife.  I told her I found a new theme song.  I now have played the song just about everyday.

Track 6 is from a record I bought at a yard sale a few weeks back.  I listened to it the Saturday that I bought it and thought this is a record my mother would love.  The record was "Songs Of The West" by the Norman Luboff Choir.  I bought the record for the album cover that had no text.  It was just a great picture of cowboys herding cattle.  The album is full of cowboy songs that I new my mother would love.  When she came to visit a week later I played her the record and she did love it.  So I digitized the record and made her and me a CD.  Since then I've listened to the record a bunch of times in my car.  The second track on the album is "The Old Chisholm Trail" and it is an upbeat sing-a-long-able song.  It also features Thurl Ravenscroft.  He is one of my favorite Disney voices and many of you will recognize his voice even if you don't know who he is.

Track 7 is "Under African Skies" by Paul Simon from his album "Graceland."  This album was mentioned on one of my favorite podcasts, "Stuck In The 80's" recently which is why I was listening to it.  I decided to put on track that wasn't super obvious.

Track 8 is the Gipsy King cover of "Hotel California." This has no more significance other than it came up randomly on the iPod a few times recently.  It is a great version of the song.

Track 9 is an instrumental that I've listened to several times recently by the band Raven.  Raven is pretty much a heavy metal band, but like so many metal bands from the 80's they had the odd classical guitar instrumental to show off some guitar virtuosity.  This track "39-40" seemed like a good way to follow the driving guitar of the Gipsy Kings.

Track 10 is more great guitar work by Django Reinhardt.  This song "Shine" is one of my favorite Django songs and gets played a lot.  Seemed like a good time to share my love.

Track 11 is a novelty song called "Cincinnati Dancing Pig" which a discovered recently.  It is infectious and fun.

Track 12 is a song by the band The Flash Express.  The Flash Express opened at the first concert I ever went to with my son.  For that reason they hold a special place in my heart.  They also stood out to me at the time because when they were introduced, they were introduced as being from Burbank.  "Baby I'm Wrong" is a fantastic song in which they give it their heart and soul.

Track 13 is Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison and it is perhaps my most favorite Van Morrison song.  It may not be the most popular, but I can listen to this song over and over again.  The singing is superb.  Talk about singing with heart and soul.  This song is nothing by soul.  There are also some magical moments in this song that involve the backup singers coming in with the line "she's an angel".  The song rises and falls.  It comes in like a whisper and builds to a roar.  It is a masterpiece that probably belongs on another mix, and it may be on one someday.

Track 14 is an interesting piece of coincidence.  Recently my brother posted "Many Rivers To Cross" by Jimmy Cliff on his Facebook page.  I happened to be listening to my iPod around the same time and just a little while after seeing his post the cover by UB40 came up on my iPod.  This song is on the mix just so I could tell that story.

Track 15 is a favorite Steve Miller Band song that many may not know.  It isn't on The Steve Miller Band Greatest Hits album that has sold millions and millions of copies.  If you don't have that album in your collection, you should get it.  Every track is a classic.  That aside, this song is from an earlier time in the band's history.  I discovered the song when I bought a vinyl copy of Steve Miller Anthology which was an earlier greatest hits album from before he had his real big hits that comprise the a fore mentioned Greatest Hits album.  It is one of my favorite early Steve Miller songs.

Track 16 is a Weezer track from the blue album. There isn't a single bad song on that first Weezer record.  This song "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here" is just one of them.
  That record came out when my son was little and he loved the opening track "My Name is Jonas."  He would dance and jump around to that song like it was the greatest thing on earth.  That was probably the seed that has lead to his love of playing music.

Track 17 is "White Night" by the Postelles.  I loved this song when I first heard it a few years back.  I heard it again recently and thought I loved it so much that I searched out the album on Amazon and made a purchase.  That is saying something.

Track 18 is "Gigantic" by The Pixies.  Can't go wrong with The Pixies.  This is pre-Doolittle days and so is a little more raw and ragged.  It has the classic Pixies formula of alternating loud and soft. I love the opening bass line.  I have done a little editing here shortening it to make the mix flow a little better.  However I recommend seeking out the original for the full version.

Track 19 should be on a Halloween mix.  The opening synth organ on Depeche Mode's "Dressed In Black" is wonderfully spooky.  I was recently listening to songs that dealt with dark themes for a project I'm working on.  This is one of the songs and has lead me to listening to this song over and over.  My wife and I were discussing this album during one of the reecent listens and we decided that "Black Celebration" was our favorite Depeche Mode album.

Track 20 is "The Chauffeur" by Duran Duran.  This was also inspired by Stuck in the 80's which recently did a podcast celebrating the 30 year anniversary of Duran Duran's album "Rio."  I almost when with the title track "Rio" which is a timeless song that still holds up great today, but instead went for this darker song because it just seemed to go with "Dressed in Black."  So enjoy some dar Duran Duran.

Track 21 is "Locals Only" by Agression who was a skate punk band from the 80's.  The album "Don't Be Mistaken from which this song is taken has a picture of a kid skating in a pool.  I few weekends ago I went to an all day event at the Pink Motel in Sunland, California.  Skaters could skate the pool and there were bands playing all day.  I went to support some of the bands and to take photos of the skating.  This song may be more about surfing, but I love it and seemed to relate to that event ever so slightly. As a side note the picture for the artwork of this mix was taken at the Pink Motel as the sun was going down.

 Track 22 is by a band I discovered that day at the Pink Motel.  The band The Chimpz played that day and I loved them so much that I bought a couple of their CDs.  They do the whole wrap metal thing, but in my opinion stand above many of the other bands who adopted this genre in the last 20 years.  I think I also like their LA centric attitude.  They were great live and their recordings are great too.  I chose the song "Home Invasion" to share here.  It was great live and sounds great on the record.  It has a very Rage Against the Machine vibe to is.

Track 23 quiets the mix down.  The music is the exit music to the Pirates of the Carribean ride at Disneyland.  Before going to Disneyland recently I had my wife call and get us a reservation at the Blue Bayou.  She called when we were in the car going to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.  While she was on the phone I put this music and the banjo music on in the car so it would be playing as she made the reservation.  It was our own little inside joke.  To be honest I play music from Disneyland rides all the time.  Great stuff.

Well that closes out the mix at just under 74 minutes.  Have a listen and see if there are some tracks you like.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Summer Mix 2012