Even though my
muxtape is gone, I continue to organize music I like into 12-song playlists.
Here is
Fall Mixtape Series Volume 1, Disc 1. I will try to describe each song with the most scientifically accurate similes available.
Volume 1, Disc 1
01. Built to Spill - Goin' Against Your MindThis song is over 8 minutes long. I'm not sure that's the best way to open up a mixtape. This song is like throwing toothpicks at a mirror, falling asleep, and then dreaming that you are on the other side of the mirror being pelted with toothpicks and for some reason they are painted turquoise.
02. Xiu Xiu - I Luv the Valley OH!This might be the first Xiu Xiu song I ever heard. It's like driving up to a yard full of rabbits at night, turning your windshield wipers on and shivering against your window while a used car commercial plays.
03. Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums and Shrines IIThis is the song where Spencer Krug talks about the 'white undersides of [his] thighs.' It's like chewing on sunflower seeds in the concrete stands of a little league baseball game you mistook for a cattle auction or vice versa.
04. High Places - From Stardust to SentienceThis song is like attending a Florida public elementary school and sitting in the carpeted hallway before class while you think about whether or not to get regular or chocolate milk at lunch.
05. Dark Meat - Angel of MethThis song is like sitting on a park bench with a bowl of spicy noodles and a leaf touches your foot and you stand up because the metal bench is cold and you sit down next to a tree 30 feet from a larger tree with crazy branches that are barely covering a couple of humans making out and your spicy noodles are still too hot to eat so you stand up and walk to an outdoor table next to a generator.
06. Electrelane - I'm on FireThis is a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song. It's like being stabbed with a plastic knife previously used for spreading mustard on a soggy hamburger bun.
07. Why? - GnashvilleThis song is like driving to a yearly October craft fair with your dry-cleaned band uniform in the back of your car while you wonder if you will be hit by a frantic deer so you distract yourself by reaching into the floorboard for the pack of spearmint gum you noticed 4 days earlier.
08. The Shangri-Las - Remember (Walkin' In the Sand)This song is akin to walking to your car and the person walking next to you does a cartwheel and holds their hands up to you to show you the indentations in their skin from the asphalt and you remember that you're not allowed to drive because you failed biology.
09. Liars - Pure UnevilThis is one of my favorite song titles. The drums are like stretching the tympanic membrane across the rest of your body and having your friends drop marbles onto you in a steady but controlled and loving manner corresponding to the live rainfall data of 17 major world cities.
10. Shocking Pinks - This Aching DealThis song is like getting dressed and stopping and looking for your belt and walking into the living room and forgetting why you walked into the living room and looking at the kitchen and seeing a pile of dishes and starting to wash a bunch of plates and splashing water on yourself and thinking 'that's cold' and looking down and realizing you never put on pants.
11. Kevin Drew - Safety BricksThis is from one of my favorite albums of last year. It's like having a pet that makes you go outside so it can pee next to a tree or van or something and you let go of the leash so it can run around a bit while you lie down on the driveway to feel the cold concrete against your cheek.
12. Microphones - The MoonThis song is like writing a song called 'your arms were in it once, the jacket i used to wear but can't bring myself to throw away' and then getting kicked out of your band for trying to write songs because you are the drummer so you spend the next few weeks frequenting a Waffle House while you read a book about the development of the human brain and hope your achilles tendon isn't injured.
