Everything’s Cool!

By now many of you should have received your copy of the January Eleventilicious CD, “Everything’s Cool.” Here’s the set list — along with the liner notes for easy reference. Enjoy!

1) Cool (Pylon) : Pylon was a great band from the same Athens, GA scene that brought us REM. “Cool” is their first single and is fairly typical — propulsive bass and drums, quirky guitar and rudimentary lyrics that are growled and shouted instead of sung.

2) My Son Cool (Guided By Voices) : Robert Pollard wrote “My Son Cool” about his son Bryan for the album “Alien Lanes.” I have no idea what the lyrics mean, but it’s one of my favorite songs.

3) Fade Sister Cool (Lida Husik) : Lida Husik’s music has taken a turn toward electronica lately, but “Fade Sister Cool” is a shimmering gem of jangle pop that hooked me instantly.

4) Ice Cold Ice (Hüsker Dü) : “Ice Cold Ice” is from Hüsker Dü’s final studio album, which captured a band that was maturing and falling apart at the same time.

5) 14 Cheerleader Coldfront(Guided By Voices) : “14 Cheerleader Coldfront” is a Tobin Sprout original about being a teenaged outsider. I’m proud to have another Tobin Sprout original hanging up in my living room.

6) Cold Son (Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks) : While I still prefer Stephen Malkmus’ work with Pavement over his solo work, he and the Jicks sound like they’re having an awful lot of fun at the end of “Cold Son.”

7) Leaves Me Cold (Lush) : Lush featured the loud, layered guitars and hushed vocals typical of shoegaze, but were always more melodic than experimental. “Leaves Me Cold” is from their first EP.

8) Cold Light of Day (Mark Eitzel) : The torment of being Mark Eitzel has always been a bonanza for listeners. “Cold Light of Day” is one of several songs that feature Kid Congo Power’s understated, otherworldly guitar work.

9) Cold Turkey (The Soft Boys) : The Soft Boys cover John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey” as more of an anthem than a lament, which might be why I prefer it over the original.

10) Angel in the Snow (Elliott Smith) : “Angel in the Snow” isn’t a sad song, but it makes me sad to know that Elliott Smith isn’t around to write more songs that are equally beautiful.

11) Snow White (Snowpony) : Snowpony was billed as a “supergroup,” but never quite made an impact. “Snow White” features indifferent vocals over an explosive beat — an oddly effective combination.

12) Snowsuit Bound (Sloan) : Sloan had the misfortune of peaking at a time when the world hungered for grunge instead of their Beatles-meets-Sonic Youth melodic pop. “Snowsuit Sound” is a winter wonderland.

13) Freeze (Shatter Mix) (Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians) : “Freeze” is a tense, nonsensical song featuring REM’s Peter Buck on guitar and Robyn Hitchcock on seemingly random visuals.

14) The Frisko Freeze (The Mummies) : Q: What is better than a four men wearing ace bandages and playing primitive garage rock like it really mattered? A: Nothing. Exhibit A: The Mummies’ “Frisko Freeze.”

15) Freezer Burn (Wow & Flutter) : Wow and Flutter sound like a lot of other bands I like, but mostly sound a lot like themselves. “Freezer Burn” is from their third album “Pounding the Pavement.”

16) Frozen Dub (Augustus Pablo) : “Frozen Dub” is the oldest track on this mix, recorded during the heyday of Jamaican dub. Augustus Pablo’s melodica and King Tubby’s production will make you forget the snow.

17) Frozen Mile (Eleventh Dream Day) : That Eleventh Dream Day isn’t a household name is one of music’s great injustices. The slide guitar work on “Frozen Mile” could thaw an Arctic glacier.

18) Summer Babe (Winter Version) (Pavement) : Did I mention Pavement? “Summer Babe (Winter Version)” put them on the map with its whimsical lyrics and tortured vocals.

19) Winter on Ice (The Spinanes) : The Spinanes wrote warm, moody songs of longing that featured Rebecca Gates’ smooth voice and jagged guitar work. Case in point: “Winter on Ice,” from the album “Strand.”

20) My Country is Winter (Exhaust) : Exhaust are an experimental band from Montreal who don’t sound like anyone else. “My Country is Winter” is tense and ominous, like an imminent blizzard.

21) Winter Sketch (The Durutti Column) : I discovered The Durutti Column only recently, and marveled how Vini Reilly’s crisp guitar work could have possibly originated in 1980 Manchester. I believe the soft and evocative “Sketch for Winter” to be the perfect conclusion for this collection.

Please feel free to comment on the blog or to email me with any questions or comments.

it’s (almost) in the mail!

The playlist has been solidified, the “artwork” complete, and both CDs and jewel cases have been purchased. All that’s left is to burn the CDs, print out the covers, put it all together and ship ’em out. I hope to get it all done over the weekend so that it can be in Monday’s mail. I’ll probably send out an email once that’s been done.

In the mean time I can tell you that Mary and I had a chance to preview the 70-minute CD in its entirety last week, and that Mary has declared it “very me”. I haven’t heard Mary’s February offering just yet, but based upon the vinyl she’s been ripping lately, I have a high degree of confidence that it will be “very her”. :^)

Stay tuned...

Favorite Christmas Song?

“Father Christmas” by The Kinks

Instrumental Illness

I’ve pretty much decided to go with my “Everything’s Cool” playlist for the January CD, but I thought I’d share The CD That Could Have Been, a.k.a. “Instrumental Illness”:

Abunai - “Dreaming of Light”
Barn Owl - “Sundown”
Glenn Branca Orchestra - “Lesson #1 Edit
Buzzcocks - “Walking Distance”
Explosions in the Sky - “Memorial”
Faraquet - “Yo Yo”
Felt - “Magellan”
Flat Duo Jets - “Wild Trip”
Ghosts and Vodka - “Futuristic Genitalia”
Guided By Voices - “Allright”
Immense - “Glass Eye”
Lynx - “United States”
Pele - “Black Socks”
Pelican - “City of Echoes”
Pell Mell - “Nothing Lies Still Long”
Polvo - “El Rocio”
The Spinanes - “I Love to Party with that Monkey Kitty“
Teenage Fanclub - “Is This Music”
Wolf People - “Cromlech”
Working for a Nuclear Free City - “Asleep at the Wheel”
Frank Zappa - “Black Napkins”

My January CD

Okay, I’ve done quite a few of these, but I’ve never kicked things off, so I’m stressing out about the content of my CD. At the moment I have two competing playlists: one tentatively called “Everything’s Cool” with song titles related to cold, winter, etc., and the other entitled “Instrumental Illness”, with all rock instrumentals. Any strong preferences in either direction?

Some Guidelines

These have been unabashedly copied and pasted from a previous CD club and are strictly suggestions. We can certainly add and subtract as we evolve:

I took a first pass on assigning months according to some early requests. Please feel free to work out any changes to the order among yourselves and I'll update the blog.

The name was something I came up with on the spur of the moment. I am open to other ideas, of course!

To be in the club, all you’ve got to do make one CD mix over the year when it’s your month and mail it out to the other eleven members. Four of us (Mary and I, and my brother Mike and his wife Ileana) are at two addresses, so most of you will only have to mail out nine CDs.

Try to make a cover for your CD. Do what you like with it. Be creative. Include song titles and artist names for every track, and provide track numbers.

Mark the CD itself with your name and your month, using a marker.

Mix up your mix CD. Think about the flow, the order it will be listened to. Do not copy a whole album, although you can use more than one song by an artist, if you like.

Mail your CD to the others in the group, postmarked by the 15th of your month. Of course, let us know if you’re running into any issues and we’ll work something out.

The Starting Lineup

January : Paul
February : Mary
March : Bill W.
April : Willie
May : Brett
June : Angela
July : Ileana
August : Chuck
September : Bill K.
October : Cynthia
November : Mike
December : Dan