Thank you, goodbye and take care.

This is kind of awkward, but here goes. I’ve decided to suspend One Week \ One Mix indefinitely. There are a lot of reasons for this, the biggest being —- I don’t have any more material. There aren’t any more contributors in the queue, and I really don’t have the time or patience to create mixes while begging other blogs, friends, family members, etc, to submit stuff. Shen gave me her write-ups and songs on Monday and I posted them, but that’s all I received from her. So I assume that’s pretty much the end.

I’m surprisingly okay with this. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the blog, trying to get the word out, editing posts, and I’ve really enjoyed the mixes people have made and the music I’ve discovered through the process. I hope some of you have, too. But I’ve never committed fully to making it what I wanted it to be. I could be out there trying to get more followers and re-blogs to generate submissions, but that kind of thing is time consuming and makes me feel like some kind of a troll that’s constantly begging for followers. I can’t stand that kind of thing and I don’t want to be that guy. 

Please understand, this isn’t anyone’s fault but my own. I could be a lot less lazy and try to do whatever I can to get people to contribute and submit, but I need to spend more time on writing projects, work and the important people in my life. This blog doesn’t take up that much of my time, but it takes up enough and if the end result is only going to be that much more work for me and little else, I’m afraid I’ll have to let it go.

For anyone who has supported this idea, who has liked one of our posts, who has commented or asked questions, who has re-blogged or tried to get the word out, and especially everyone who have submitted mixes —- thank you so much. Your mixes were fantastic and your submissions were greatly valued. We have 25 full mixes in the archive. That’s more than half a year of mixes. Not bad. I’ll take it, especially with ones so fun and diverse as what we received. That was the idea and I’m glad I got to run with it for a while.

If anyone has any interest in taking over the blog, let me know. I could turn over the password for the blog, the e-mail, the twitter account, etc. I’d like to see it live on, I’m just not sure I can do it myself right now.

Thanks, all. Enjoy this cover of Big Star’s Take Care by Yo Ya Tengo as the mix runs out of tape and the play button pops up for the last time.
 

Source: Spotify

Mix # 26, Tracks 1—3

Theme: Cinematic Journey

1). She Smiled Sweetly — The Rolling Stones

The Royal Tenenbaums is my all time favorite movie. I honestly can not think of anyone I would like to be more than Margot Tenenbaum. This song comes from one of my favorite scenes from the movie. Everything about this movie is beautiful. I wish I could live in this world that Wes Anderson had created. 

2). Crying — Roy Orbison

If you ever want to feel a movie, I mean feel the movie on you, in you, under your skin, watch Gummo. I have never felt dirty after watching a film until I saw Gummo. Harmony Korine has always be a favorite of mine, and this movie is my favorite of all of his works. I know a lot of people that could not watch 5 minutes into the film without wanting to turn it of. The very first time watching Gummo felt like an endurance trial. I was confused and upset. However, when I got to the end of the film, it all fell into place and I understood its meaning. I chose this song because this is song that is playing during the last scene. That very last moment where it all became clear for me.

3). Trouble — Cat Stevens

Harold and Maude will never cease to make me smile, and cry. This is definitely a sad song in this film, sad and powerful. I don’t want to give away the ending for anyone who has yet to see the film (go see it, really), so I will try my best not to. This is a wonderful film about love and loss. 

—Shen 

Source: Spotify

Cinematic Journey

Helloes! My name is Shen and I will be guiding you through this magical cinematical journey. This week I will be exploring some of my favorite movies through their soundtracks. I am a HUGE movie fan. I watch a lot of movies, I own a lot of movies and I love a lot of movies. Film is definitely a hobby of mine. Some other semi interesting facts about myself include: I am 25 years old. I have a cat (her name is Hannelore). My favorite color is grey. I have written and published a book (Life As A Dark Comedy). Grilled cheese is my favorite food and I really dig cartoons. There are many songs and movies that I was not able to find for this mix, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. :]

—Shen 

Mix # 25: Complete Mix

Theme: Australia and New Zealand

1). Spicks and Specks — The Bee Gees
2). Walking Down A Road — Split Enz
3). (I’m) Stranded — The Saints
4). Shivers — The Boys Next Door
5). Nothing’s Going to Happen — Tall Dwarfs
6). Pink Frost — The Chills
7). Overkill — Men At Work
8). From St. Kilda to Kings Cross — Paul Kelly
9). Throw Your Arms Around Me — Hunters & Collectors
10). Under the Milky Way — The Church
11). Never Tear Us Apart — INXS
12). Streets of Your Town — The Go-Betweens
13). Private Universe — Crowded House
14). Berlin Chair — You Am I
15). Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us) — Custard
16). Into My Arms — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
17). Harpoon — Jebediah
18). The Music Next Door — The Lucksmiths
19). Inner City Pressure — Flight of the Conchords
20). In The Cloud — Sunrise Beach

—Anand 

Source: Spotify

Mix # 25, Tracks 19 & 20

Theme: Australia and New Zealand

19). Inner City Pressure — Flight of the Conchords

THE CITY IS EXPAAHHHNDING.

20). In The Cloud — Sunrise Beach

Sunrise Beach are among a host of new Australian bands writing music that’s less attached to an idea of region or locality, music with expanded international horizons. Essentially, Sunrise Beach make classic rock, but filtered through the post-millennial concept of freedom from genre. This new wave of Australian music is exciting evidence that “Down Under” no longer has to play little brother to the UK and USA, at the very least in our expectations of ourselves and the music we produce. In The Cloud is a great example of this kind of expansive music, with elements that are familiar (driving rock beat, insistent guitar), but at the same time not limited a specific sound - producing a freedom for the song by itself to just be a great rock song. (Disclaimer - I play in Sunrise Beach).

—Anand 

Source: Spotify

Mix # 25, Tracks 16—18

Theme: Australia and New Zealand

16). Into My Arms — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

It’s hard to choose just one Nick Cave song from his excellent (greatest Australian musician?) and varied career, but I’m going to go with the song I discovered first, in my late teens. It’s not representative of the unholy rage he is known to be capable of summoning up on his early (and later) recordings, but as a single song, it’s almost perfect. Apparently it was written for PJ Harvey, and it certainly speaks with more conviction than any other love song I can think of. It never grows old, not as far as I can tell, and I can imagine one day in the distant future when it’s creator is long forgotten, the song being sung like a hymn, a prayer that love will triumph over doubt, and that faith in love is the only faith you need.

17). Harpoon — Jebediah

Jebediah’s debut “Slightly Oddway” was more excellent than the average Australian release at the time, and has since gone down as a bit of an Australian indie classic, with a singer who couldn’t really sing, but strong on hooks. This song is the most arresting on the album, a simple tale of heart break that speaks to the teenager in us all.

18). The Music Next Door — The Lucksmiths

The Lucksmiths are a sentimental favorite of mine, and to tell the truth there are many songs they’ve released that would be worthy to represent them on this mix, but this one has been chosen for it’s link to a past relationship of my own. The band formed in the nineties, and released increasingly sophisticated warm and literary acoustic pop (think a less acerbic Belle and Sebastian), culminating in career highlight Warmer Corners. Their lyrics tend to bask in the soft glow of afternoons gone by, usually with a melancholic edge, and a wry sense of humor. I listen to them for their clever wordplay, and equally clever bass lines. Unfortunately, after years of struggling in the business, the band threw in the towel a few years ago and headed back to their day jobs. This song is an almost too-painful mix of loss and fondness attached to a bright sunny pop song, heartbreak made real by way of mundane detail. If you’ve ever had a break-up, and like to get a bit sad, this song just may make you cry.

—Anand 

Source: Spotify

Mix # 25, Tracks 13—15

Theme: Australia and New Zealand

13). Private Universe — Crowded House

Neil Finn is the most consistently great songwriter over a more than thirty year career to have come from New Zealand, and while Australians like to claim Crowded House as their own, and two of it’s three members were Australian, Finn (who started his career in his brother’s band Split Enz) was undoubtedly the leader of the band, and wrote most of the songs. Most people will be aware of at least a couple of their hits, but this single is probably a little less known to international audiences, and has always been one of my favorites.

14). Berlin Chair — You Am I

Perhaps the only consistently essential Australian band of the nineties, You Am I is dominated by the charismatic Tim Rogers. Their music is honest but literate Australian rock. Berlin Chair, like many of their best songs, sounds influenced by American independent music, but is never overshadowed by it’s influence, holding true to it’s own roots and identity. This is the kind of music the Seattle scene should have been opening the way for, not the ridiculous post-grunge of Creed etc. You Am I could have been one of the biggest independent bands of the nineties if they had been born in another country. And perhaps their back-to-basics rock was a little too ahead of the game.

15). Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us) — Custard

Custard were a Brisbane based indie band, and while they’re in no way essential, they’re a good example of the quirky and fashionably out-of-step music that was being made by many bands in Australia in the late 90s. Bands with odd/bad names and little chance or desire to hit the international big time, but hugely popular in their own country, bands like Spiderbait, Regurgitator, Jebediah (also on this mix), Frenzal Rhomb, Grinspoon, Superjesus, etc. Part of these bands’ success can be attributed to the national government-funded youth radio station Triple J, who championed home-grown independent alternative music and have done a lot (most positive, some negative) for the Australian music scene. This song was huge on the station when I was about 15 and listened to it constantly, so is therefore, for better or worse, inextricably attached to my youth.

—Anand 

Source: Spotify

Mix # 25, Tracks 10—12

Theme: Australia and New Zealand

10). Under The Milky Way — The Church

The Church were an excellent Australian post-punk band, masters of atmosphere, and this is their greatest moment, a song that creates a mood completely and utterly it’s own. I was transfixed the first time I heard it as a teen, and while I may have heard it a few too many times since, it still resonates with it’s own strange glow. Some may know it from it’s inclusion on the soundtrack for Donnie Darko.

11). Never Tear Us Apart — INXS

Released the same year as Under The Milky Way, and also featured - more prominently - on the Donnie Darko soundtrack (Richard Kelly must have had some sort of affinity for Australian rock from 1988?), this is perhaps INXS’s crowning achievement. It crossed pop and rock borders, and stands up with any pop song released in the eighties.

12). Streets Of Your Town — The Go-Betweens

The Go-Betweens are one of the most widely respected bands to have come out of Australia in the eighties, and while Cattle And Cane is the song that was voted one of the best Australian songs ever, this song hits the spot for me, despite perhaps being their most commercial single (and most successful). Under the sunny melody the lyrics hint at a darkness lying close to the surface. Grant McLennan was listening to Under The Milkyway, which was released the same year, and came up with a chord progression of his own, which turned into this song. Fun fact: the cord progression was then sampled in the late 90’s for the pop hit “Just The Way You Are”…. by Italian dance production team “Milky”.

—Anand 

Source: Spotify

Mix # 25, Tracks 7—9

Theme: Australia and New Zealand

7). Overkill — Men At Work

Everyone will have heard Down Under, but my personal favorite Men At Work song has been Overkill for a while now. Colin Hay was an unusual and charismatic singer, and I see the band as Australia’s answer to Talking Heads (perhaps at the more commercial-friendly end of the Talking Heads scale). They were accomplished musically, quirky, knew their way around a pop hook, and wrote intelligent and sometimes humorous lyrics that dealt with urban themes such as anxiety and paranoia, in their own quiet undramatic way uncovering the darker side of the human psyche.

8). From St Kilda To Kings Cross — Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly is a quintessentially Australian songwriter, writing about his country and it’s people, blessed with a gravelly voice that adds an authenticity to his stories. Think Bruce Springsteen, but with more Woody Guthrie thrown in and less Meatloaf. This is a song that has a special place for anyone who has driven the thirteen hours between St Kilda, Melbourne, and Kings Cross, Sydney, as I have done. He wrote songs better than this, but none that feel more completely Australian.

9). Throw Your Arms Around Me — Hunters & Collectors

Strange that a song of such intimacy should be such a publicly embraced anthem in Australia; a song about a real relationship with details so sensual it sometimes embarrasses by making you feel voyeuristic to be listening in on them. Mark Seymour is the older brother of bassist Nick Seymour from Crowded House (it’s a small population here after all), and was describing a relationship he was in at the time - and yet this is almost the Wonderwall for Australian Gen-X, invariably pulled out on an acoustic guitar at gatherings and parties, its unusual winding melody invariably flubbed, and yet you can rely on an eager chorus joining in to drown out the missed notes. And then, in that moment of communal bliss, you hear it right: the song has been transformed by it’s audience from one man’s personal feelings for a specific woman, to an affirmation of that most fundamental and universal principle, human interconnectedness above isolation.

—Anand 

Source: Spotify

Mix # 25, Tracks 4—6

Theme: Australia and New Zealand

4). Shivers — The Boys Next Door

Another sad story of Australian bands struggling to be embraced by their own country, and having to leave and make a name for themselves on foreign soil, The Boys Next Door were an early incarnation of The Birthday Party. Shivers came off their debut, Door, Door, a record of servicable post-punk, before their wild days as The Birthday Party had kicked in. This song however, stands out as something exceptional, coming in at the end of the album. It’s sung by Nick Cave, but was written by guitarist Roland S Howard, purportedly at the age of sixteen. The lyrics are meant to be sneering at teenage love, but Nick sang it straight, adding a wonderful extra layer of juxtaposition. It’s been covered by countless artists, and has stood up over time as a true Australian classic.

(The Birthday Party traveled to England and America, where their antagonistic noise and musical corruption had them reviled by audiences and press alike. In the end they made a name for themselves in Berlin. Both Roland and Nick appear in Wim Wenders cinematic ode to the city of Berlin, “Wings of Desire”.)

5). Nothing’s Going To Happen — Tall Dwarfs

Kiwis, despite their reputation for being boring, are often innovators ahead of the game. There were a couple of Kiwis trying to invent the airplane independently of and concurrently with the Wright brothers, and there’s quite strong evidence to say they even flew first. Women received voting rights in New Zealand before any other country in the world. On a smaller scale, Tall Dwarfs were pioneering in the DIY genre ahead of their time in the early eighties, and listening to this track, you can hear the beginnings of the lo-fi sound that would become popular in American indie in the nineties and onwards. You can also hear strong evidence of their influence on bands like Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel. And more than any of this, it’s a cracking indie pop tune.

6). Pink Frost — The Chills

The Chills are another New Zealand band associated with the Dunedin sound, and signed to the famous Flying Nun label. Once again, their low-key and jangly indie pop was ahead of it’s time, and highly influential to a host of 90’s and 00’s bands.

—Anand 

Source: Spotify