Golden Hurricane Mixtape

This is an old mixtape. My best guess is that it’s from spring 2005, though it may be older than that. Enjoy.

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Tracklist below the jump.

1. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five – West End Blues

Around this time, I was in a Jazz Appreciation class. My teacher had played this song for us in class, and I’d watched the episode of Ken Burns’ Jazz that discussed it. Both consider it one of the greatest songs ever recorded. Who am I to argue.

2. LA Symphony – Champion Birdwatchers

This is a song from LA Symphony’s great, unreleased album, Call It What You Want. The radio station that I djed for at the time had a burned prerelease copy sent before their label folded. It’s a great LA Symph song, led by Pigeon John, precipitating his later dips into jazzier, songier stuff.

3. Global Goon – Dead Weird Keks

Story is that this guy was Aphex Twin’s roommate for a while. I around this time, I was in love with anything that Audio Dregs put out (I still am, to a certain extent).

4. Mesu Kasumai – Kids in Bolivia

I was temporarily obsessed with Kim Wilde’s song, Kids in America for a while, after first hearing a Morella’s Forest cover and then finding the 45 at the radio station. This is a sorta-cover on an album of chiptune 80s covers from 8 bit peoples. Plus, my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) is Bolivian.

5. The 8-Bit Construction Set – Dollars

I don’t know for sure where I heard of the 8-Bit Construction Set, though I think it might have been from We Work For Them. They made songs by hard coding on a Commodore 64 and an Atari. Their album was supposedly C64 on one side and Atari on the other, with one song each side, and then a bunch of locked grooves. I don’t remember which side this song comes from.

6. The Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)

I was a late-comer to the Arcade Fire game. But once I caught on, damn.

7. Air – The Word ‘Hurricane’

My introduction to Air was their brilliant film soundtrack for Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. I still argue it’s their best. I love the piano crash in this song.

8. The Notwist – Neon Golden

What’s there to say? This is a fantastic song from a fantastic album. I love the segue between the Air song and this one, and I loved to throw it into the middle of a radio show to keep the trainees on their toes (two songs at once?? wha..??)

9. The White Stripes – Jolene (live)

This is my favorite version of Dolly’s timeless classic. Jack White just tears it up, and he doesn’t even change the pronouns.

10. Viva Voce – Paper Doll

VV are one of my favorite bands. I loved them when they were a CCM band, and when they recorded seperately and experimented like crazy, and when they started recording together again and blew everyone out of the water. This song is from a split with avant-noise-hop group Soul Junk, released months before Viva Voce reemerged with Lovers, Lead the Way. They have a new album, Rose City, out next Tuesday, May 26.