Here's the third mix, it has some jams on it. 

 like ten days ago, I asked Megan if she had ever heard Neutral Milk Hotel... not only has she never heard them but she's never even heard of them.  I debated scrapping this mix completely and making her review In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by itself.

I thought that might be a tall order.

also i noticed a lack oh hip hop on this mix. sorry

Mix For Megan #3 from WeCanWorkItOut on 8tracks Radio.

i'm using 8tracks.com to host this mix.  just click the picture of me and my friends hanging out at stewart oakes' parents house and it should play.

1. Cheap Girls - Ruby
2. Fugazi - Waiting Room
3. Old 97's - Time Bomb
4. Interpol - The Specialist
5.Sam Cooke - That's It, I Quit, I'm moving on
6. The Appleseed Cast - Fight Song
7. Smog - Ex-Con
8. Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?
9. The Pernice Brothers - Overcome By Happiness
10. Bon Iver - Perth

Review #3

          I realize this month we are running a little behind schedule, but I am a college student and nearly as forgetful as Brandon sometimes. I have listened to the mix quite a few times, not really paying too much attention to it. Then he gave it to me and I lost it. See, we had it in the car when we went to go to Patrick Delehanty and his lovely girlfriend’s new apartment in Chicago and well it got lost in the shuffle. So, right now I am listening to it on my computer off the flash drive. I have no idea is this is the intended order or not, but this is how it is happening.

            Cheap Girls is not foreign to me. When me and Brandon first started dating he was in another intense love affair with their album My Roaring 20’s, which he has said repeatedly is an awesome album name. I agree. I also enjoy Cheap Girls, I have absolutely no idea what record this song is from and frankly I don’t care.

            I wrote a paper semester before the last on the punk movement for my social change class and Fugazi was mentioned in it quite frequently. I honestly never took the time to listen to them. I think I can say it wasn’t necessarily what I expected but it wasn’t not what I expected either. I am debating my feelings on it right now. I’ll come back to it later.

            The next song came on and sounded familiar to me immediately; my love for chick flicks get the best of me and repeated television viewings of The Break Up exposed me to the Old 97’s. I like this catchy little tune. It’s peppy and lively and I can’t understand what he is saying some the time but whatever.

            Jesus, this next song is fucking long. Nearly 7 minutes, I’m already annoyed. I am also antsy because I know Sam Cooke is next. I don’t dislike it, as a matter of fact the first couple minutes I really like, but god damn, after minute 4 I have completely checked out. Sorry Interpol. 

            Brandon loves to ask me questions that start with “what’s your favorite…?” Almost always, no 100% of the time it is a music question. “What’s your favorite Smiths record/song?” “What’s your favorite Alanis Morrisette song?” Who is your favorite singer?” I am nearly certain he asks me these questions not to hear what my favorite thing is but to tell me what his is and why. Well I learned VERY early in our relationship that Sam Cooke is his favorite singer, which is absolutely fine by me. I could listen to that man sing day in and day out. Absolutely lovely.

            There use to be an Appleseed Cast poster hanging on Brandon’s bedroom door. I like the poster more than the band apparently. “As the tears flow out it’s the end.” That brilliant piece of work right there just doesn’t appeal to me. I probably wrote that line on a notebook in junior high when my crush wouldn’t sit next to me at lunch.

            Smog is one of those bands I think Brandon claims he is “blown away” by the fact that I don’t know who they are. See his Facebook for the recent Neutral Milk Hotel debacle. I think in this case I am a little disappointed I hadn’t heard of them earlier because I do in fact like this a lot. I hear that song and want to be sitting in a coffee shop with a book. I like when songs put me somewhere else.

            I am familiar with the Buzzcocks as well, not from Brandon though, from my brother. See, this is what I can appreciate, a nice little tune under 3 minutes. 

            I am coming up blank with anything to say about The Pernice Brothers. I like it but am unenthusiastic. Back to Fugazi, I feel the same way about it as I do The Pernice Brothers.

            I really like Bon Iver. I think it is interesting and weirdly moving and I just really like it. I have been a dancer for years and I want to dance to this. Like some amazing contemporary piece that’s just spectacular. I see leaps and turns and beautiful use of space. I love it when I hear a song and I know immediately what I would want it to look like as a choreographer. It doesn’t really happen very often and when it does it’s this kind of intoxicating feeling. Like it sparks me to motion and I want a mirror and a huge room where I can just go to work. I guess that’s called inspiration right?

 

the 2nd Mix!

I swear when making this mix i had no idea she would actually kind of like it, I like it too, but I guess that's the point.  I promise to put some songs she hates on the next one (I think it's funnier that way).  Also I didn't mean to lean so heavily into the2003-2008 songs... sorry about that.

Mix for Megan #2 from WeCanWorkItOut on 8tracks Radio.

Once again we're using 8tracks.com here so just click the play button on the picture of me and meg smiling and it should play.

1. The Rutabega -  Connect Four
 2. The Streets - Don't Mug Yourself

 3. The Pixies - Debaser

4. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - This Is Why You Love Me

5. MF Doom - Accordion

6. Metric - Handshakes

7. The Shins - So Says I

8. Koufax - Social Life

9. The Lemonheads - Pittsburgh

10. The Walkmen - In The New Year

Review #2

 I have already spent a lot more time listening to this mix than the first. Some of the songs are so damn catchy, and I think it is just all around more enjoyable. I don’t feel the need to skip a single song. If you recall the disaster called Recess Theory on mix 1 that required immediate skippage, you’ll recognize this is an improvement. Brandon had it ready for me to hear almost immediately after he posted the review for the first mix. You got to love his enthusiasm.

I cannot express how happy the second song on this mix makes me, “Don’t Mug Yourself” by The Streets. I have the typical girl inclination towards men with accents, even if it’s in a rap song that sounds like the soundtrack from a Nintendo game. You’ll notice I skipped the first song on the mix by The Rutabaga. I just don’t have much to say about it. I think I like it. I want to like it.  I like rutabagas. Brandon spent this morning’s ride to work looking up when the rutabaga festival is. We just missed it by a few days and a drive halfway across the country.  Just our luck.

Song 3, The Pixies. ‘Nuff said. Totally fucking awesome.

There are 2 songs on the mix that give me a sense of nostalgia for a time I didn’t exist in, you know like before the 80’s… whatever you get what I’m saying. The Brian Jonestown Massacre holds one of those spots on The Shins holds the other. Remember in the last review when I said that one song made me want to smoke in my car on a lovely day? Well I said that. These 2 songs put me on a porch somewhere with a beer and good company.  It’s a sunny day on this porch and I am wearing my sunglasses that Brandon says I spent way too much money on and a summer dress while barefoot. I think there’s some fresh fruit too. Like maybe me and my company are eating strawberries on the porch while listening to The Shins and drinking beer. Yep, sounds delightful, doesn’t it?

I’m going to skip MF Doom too. I like it, but I don’t have anything witty or significant to say about it. Oh wait, yes I do. The last little burst of music at the end it is unnecessary and I don’t care for it much. I do like the reference to Kotex.

Now Metric, I really think this is a band I could get into. My experience with Metric before this mix was limited only to Scott Pilgrim. I watched that movie a hundred times with my nephews and god damn I think I loved it just as much as they did. This song rules and I have a serious feeling this band rules too.

I can’t read Brandon’s handwriting on what the name of this next band name is, but the song is “Social Life.”  It’s worth mentioning that since the last review Brandon and I moved in together. I started writing this blog one day before I went to work and just picked it up again after my first day back at school a few days later. I’m a senior in college now don’t ya know.  Anyways, not only can I not read his handwriting but because he refuses to put away clothing he considers to be unclean, but not quite dirty either, I had to dig through some jeans and button down shirts to find the song list again. Back to the review, I like this song.

I really like the song “Pittsburgh” by The Lemonheads. My favorite part of this tune being the lyric “Jesus Christ and a mother fuck,” because what is not to like about that.  I feel the need to inform you that 7 out of 10 bands have “the” in front of their name. Very original of them, maybe we should call this “The Mix,” instead of “Mix 2.”

Ok. I have to admit when I heard the last song on this mix, Brandon was super excited about it and I immediately shot him down and said it sounds crowded and messy and I hated it. First listen was on my laptop, after that I listened to it in my mom’s car when we drove to the Dells to hang out with my family at a water park and then again (in my mom’s car again, my car has no CD player) on our way to Minnesota to celebrate a friend’s wedding. I have decided this song is really good and I was wrong. Maybe it was the speakers, maybe not.

Kudos to Brandon for this one.  I think he is getting closer to figuring out exactly what it is I like and don’t like. And he managed to keep all the whiny, annoying crap outta this one. Sadly, I can’t say that about the record he picked up on our trip to Minnesota, what a piece of shit that is. Of course, he loves it. 

For the record, the album i purchased in Minnesota was by a band called Mt. Gigantic and it rules. Also, because of this last paragraph she can expect an all emo mix next time.

boom

here's the first mix!

well here's the first mix of the bunch.  please be constructive in any criticism towards me or Megan as I am not very good at things on computers and she has never written a review before.  

mix for megan #1 from WeCanWorkItOut on 8tracks.

I couldn't find a way to make this downloadable and not totally illegal... so i used 8tracks.com.  so click the play button thing on the picture of me and Stewart Oakes and the mix should start or whatever.

1. The Magnetic Fields - The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure

2. Recess Theory - Philadelphia Or Reading

3. The Cure - The Exploding Boy

4. Randy Newman - Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man)

5. Tigers Jaw - I Was Never Your Boyfriend

6. Salim Nourallah - 1978

7. Slapstick - There's A Metalhead In The Parking Lot

8. Rainer Maria - Thought I Was

9. Danielson - Rubbernecker

10. A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation 

Review # 1

         The first time I sat down and listened to what we have fondly named “Mix #1” I was sitting with Brandon at my dining room table eating a dinner of Manwich and Mrs. Fishers potato chips. Some of the bands/songs were familiar to me, obviously The Cure and Randy Newman I had encountered before. I had also been introduced to The Magnetic Fields and Danielson by Brandon early on in our dating relationship. I had heard Brandon talk about Tigers Jaw several times before but had not heard them yet. Or I had heard it, and decided it was one of the bands he had played for me I wouldn’t commit to memory because I thought it was fucking awful. According to Brandon, it is part of the 85% of the music he listens to that I hate. Every other song and band on this mix was brand new to me. Brandon’s 85% theory does not apply to this mix, well done sir.          

            I like the Magnetic Fields. I have no real explanation for why, I just do. I had looked into buying Brandon a record by them, the name had something to do with a specific number of love songs, I could Google it but I don’t feel like it. Anyways, I was going to get it for him for Valentine’s Day, but it was stupid expensive, we are talking like hundreds of dollars. I settled on a watch instead, which Brandon was delighted to receive. I digress; the second song on this mix is everything I hated in high school. Given, my music taste in high school was not good (insert a comment here by Brandon regarding my fictitious love of Hoobastank), but high school Megan cannot allow me to like Recess Theory and that is just how it is. I think it is mostly his voice that really bothers me (like a lot), but I really feel like it has to be more than that.     

            I like The Cure. Brandon and I have had the conversation a few times about how my sister hates The Cure and how this is completely ridiculous because she has Hot Fuss by The Killers in her CD player right now. She says it is too depressing and whiny, I don’t think I necessarily disagree, but it is the type of depressing and whiny that is tolerable, likable even. I also like Randy Newman. This is in part due to the fact that my childhood Disney type version of Randy Newman and the Randy I have been exposed to in adulthood are two very different things. Didn’t he do the music for the Family Circus Easter movie? You know, besides Toy Story. Whatever, he’s a bad ass.

            I think I already covered Tigers Jaw. At first listen I explained to Brandon I didn’t like it because it sounds “intentionally lazy.” I still feel that way. The song immediately following Tigers Jaw has the same kind of lazy feeling to it but it seems less intentional and more necessary. I immediately felt hypocritical for my comment regarding laziness after listening to these 2 songs back to back, but then I realized I didn’t care. I also realized that this applied mostly to the style of singing than anything else. I am not a musician, while I can appreciate certain aspects of music outside of vocals, I am probably a more superficial listener. If not already assumed, I am a fan of track 6. I want to listen to it while driving in my car. If I hadn’t quit smoking in November, I would be smoking while I listened to it. And I think I would like to be driving in the country or something. Yes, in the country with a cigarette and track 6. Quite lovely.

            Brandon first explained track 7 was a song by a punk band. When it started I instantly said “sounds more like ska to me.” I had a short phase in high school when I thought I was punk rock, but Brandon has yet to find much punk I find myself liking (he says I like shitty punk). I am on the fence about this one, Brandon got into a more in-depth conversation with me about different music genres and what makes something punk or ska or whatever. I called him a geek and we moved on.

            Alright, 3 more tracks. I realize I am long winded but I am feeling a little pressured about this whole review writing thing. I had heard Brandon talk about Rainer Maria before, and I know he loves a chick singer, I do too. I had no real feelings about this song at first listen, I have decided I like it. Danielson, track 9, is fun as a novelty I suppose. A song or two here or there wouldn’t kill me. Although, I am certain a whole record worth of listening would.

            Last one. Brandon makes fun of me regularly because my favorite rapper is DMX. What can I say? A rapper that barks really speaks to me. I like this song, I think I would have to in the right kind of mood for it, but I think that is the case when it comes to rap for me.