Mixed Messages

My friends at Black Sheep Skate Shop in Charlotte asked me to make them a mix for their website. Two years ago. Whoops! What can I say, I got distracted. They didn't mind much, and neither do I, and neither should you, cuz it's a rad mix of funky rock and psychedelic soul that makes you want to strut confidently in rhythm to your local head shop and buy a blacklight poster and a feathered roach clip. I'm presuming it would be good to skateboard to, as well.

Major thankage to Chase and Josh at Black Sheep, Chris Goodwin for the awesome cover art, and Allison Reed and Mike Famous for production assistance on the forthcoming hardcopy, which will feature silk screened sleeves and handstyled CDs. Details on that project as they emerge. Also, gratitude to Cosmo Baker, Chris Lemon-Red, Jess Burns, Patrik North and the Ultimate Breaks And Beats for introducing me to some of these awesome songs, and to all who wrote back with constructive crits on the rough draft.

Black Sheep Skate Shop Presents: Pandemonium Jones - Skull Candle
Available as one long MP3 or 26 Short Ones, via zShare.

Sly & The Family Stone - Underdog
The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack
The Jackson Sisters - Miracles
Budos Band - Up From The South
The Seeds - Can't Seem To Make You Mine
Smog - Bathysphere
Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World
Syl Johnson - Different Strokes
The Doors - Changeling
Coke Escovedo - (Runaway) I Wouldn't Change A Thing
Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street
Idris Muhammad - Could Heaven Ever Be Like This
Pointer Sisters - Pinball Number Count
Brian Protheroe - Pinball
Earth Opera - The Red Sox Are Winning
Frank Zappa - Sharleena
Black Mountain - Angels
Muddy Waters - Tom Cat
The Beatles - Helter Skelter
Graham Nash - Chicago
Ohio Players - The Funky Worm
Map Of Africa - Bone
Johnny Jenkins - I Walk On Guilded Splinters
Brain Ticket  - Places Of Light
Azitis - The Prophet
Ugly Ducklings - Gaslight
Poppy Family - There's No Blood In Bone
Yo La Tengo - Nuclear War (Version 2)

As threatened/promised, this was a February-only affair. Stay tuned for SKULL CANDLE in the next couple days.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Splendid Moments mix and it went wood on the internet to boot, so I made another: another year in California, another farm in the mountains, another hazy, gazy, lazy mix of sensitive whiteboy daydream music. This year I was even less focused on current releases as a result of an increasingly hippie lifestyle and my reliance on Pitchfork's Best New Music picks is embarassingly evident but I'm happy to report that the ends in this case justify the means. There really are some splendid moments, in the songs themselves which I obviously can't claim credit for, and also in the transitions. It flows, baby. There's also a misstep or two, but 2009 was a wabi sabi sort of year so roll with it.

Like SM2008, the mix skews toward the easy listening end of the spectrum. There's nary a club banger in sight, probably owing to the fact that I didn't set foot in a club all year. I did, however, play a party in the barn depicted on the "cover." The mix is available as a .zip of individual tracks or a single long .mp3 to suit your digital lifestyle.

Atlas Sound - Shelia
Lotus Plaza - A Threaded Needle
Bear In Heaven - You Do You
Flaming Lips - Silver Trembling Hands
Neon Indian - Mind, Drips
Washed Out - Feel It All Around
Junior Boys - Parallel Lines
Animal Collective - My Girls
Delorean - Seasun
Memory Tapes - The Green Knight
Small Black - Despicable Dogs
Best Coast - Sun Was High (So Was I)
Boris - Black Original
Wavves - Vermin
A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Evil, With Evil, Against Evil
Volcano Choir - Still
Lucky Dragons - We Made Our Own Government
Banjo Or Freakout - Breath Out
Beach House - Norway
Mt. Eerie - Between Two Mysteries
Fourtet And Burial - Moth
Dan Deacon - Wet Wings
Kurt Vile - Beach On The Moon