The Oscar Comes Home Mixes

Fair warning: this post is about music. We're still in the "waiting for puppy" period and passing the time. By making mixes. If that holds no interest, then...um, you probably won't be interested in this.

I actually finished these. I always feel a little weird about throwing a mix together really quickly, but sometimes they work out. And sometimes they don't. The mix, she is an elusive and perplexing mistress.

Anyways, I figured that the drive is long enough and I had enough songs that I could do a two-disc mix. I tried to break them up roughly so that disc one has a fairly consistent tone, mostly (but not all) jangly indie rock. Disc two is...um, pretty much everything else. Some poppier stuff, some more rock stuff, some techno stuff. Kind of a catch all. Those mixes are usually pretty rough, so we'll see if it holds together. Fingers crossed.

Oscar Comes Home:
1. Camera Obscura: Let's Get Out of this Country
2. Albert Hammond Jr.: 101
3. Voxtrot: Rise Up in the Dirt
4. Jens Lekman: Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill
5. Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins: Rise Up with Fists!!!
6. Cat Power: Could We
7. Papercuts: Unavailable
8. The Changes: On a String
9. Band of Horses: I Go to the Barn Because I Like The
10. Grand Archives: Sleepdriving
11. Idlewild: American English
12. The Twilight Sad: Cold Days from the Birdhouse
13. Bloc Party: I Still Remember
14. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Mama, Won't You Keep Those Castles in the Air + Burning?
15. The Hold Steady: Citrus
16. Jose Gonzalez: Heartbeats
17. Arcade Fire: Intervention
18. Bishop Allen: Little Black Ache
19. Galaxie 500: Parking Lot
20. Sister Vanilla: Delicat
21. The Broken West: Down in the Valley

Oscar Comes Home 2: Oscar Becomes Eclectic
1. Matt & Kim: Silver Tiles
2. Asobi Seksu: And Then He Kissed Me
3. Cheeseburger: Do You Remember?
4. The Thermals: Here's Your Future
5. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich: Hold Tight
6. Architecture in Helsinki: Wishbone
7. Bloc Party: Positive Tension (The Go! Team Remix)
8. Teddybears: Yours to Keep (feat. Neneh Cherry)
9. DJ Shadow: You Made It
(ed. note: it's so weird that Oscar's introduction to DJ Shadow is going to be "You Made It." I'll get him back to the classic stuff asap, starting with Endtroducing. There's so much he needs to learn about. DJ Shadow, early Massive Attack, post punk, shoegaze... Being a parent is a lot of responsibility. Serious.)
10. Lily Allen: LDN
11. Of Montreal: Wraith Pinned to the Mist
12. New Order: Temptation (Secret Machines Remix)
13. LCD Soundsystem: All My Friends
14. Gui Boratto: Beautiful Life
15. International Pony: Solid Gold (International Version)
16. Peter, Bjorn & John: Young Folks (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve Remix)
17. TV on the Radio: Province
18. Panda Bear: Bros. (Edit)

So...yeah. That's a whole big list of songs and you can listen to it if you'd like. And you have all those songs, or a bit of credit on iTunes. Or if you want, it might could be arranged for someone to make a copy for you.

I'll test these out tomorrow and see how they go. I hope that Oscar likes them.

Cary

UPDATE: They came out pretty well, I think. Not my best work, but I'm so obsessive now about doing "proper" mixes that I hardly ever complete anything besides these quick little jobs, and these were both good enough for what they were. The first mix, I felt initially like the songs all held together well and fit together nicely...and then I realized, they all fit together a little too nicely. Listening to the mix, they're a bit too consistent. Not similar sounding, exactly, but a similar tone and vibe. Which was by design, but still. The second mix I expected to be too eclectic and not to sound good together at all, but actually it wasn't so bad. I mean, across the board it's a mess, starting off with an energetic rock section, then some sugary pop, then techno and on to some hazy, dreamy stuff at the end. But the transitions weren't too jarring and there seemed to be something new and different coming in each section. There must be a lesson in here somewhere, but I'm too tired to spell it out just now.