The Blasphemy Mix

After hearing XTC's "Dear God" on the radio recently, I wondered if I could make a playlist featuring songs with somewhat similar, blasphemous themes (or at the very least, irreverent or light takes on religious topics in song). Here goes:

1. F_ck Christmas - Fear
2. No Resistin' A Christian - Brian Ritchie
3. Christ for President - Billy Bragg & Wilco
4. The Charging Sky - Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins
5. Baby, Let's Be Methodists Tonight - Fish Karma
6. Bible Days - Jessica Lea Mayfield
7. Dance Like A Monkey - New York Dolls
8. Dear God - XTC
9. Merry Christmas from the Family - Robert Earl Keen
10. Dear God - Sarah McLachlan
11. I Have Forgiven Jesus (Live) - Morrissey
12. Personal Jesus - Marilyn Manson
13. Jesus Is Just Alright - The Doobie Brothers
14. Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam - The Vaselines
15. The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
16. Jesus Built My Hotrod - Ministry
17. Hells Bells - AC/DC
18. God Gave Rock & Roll To You II - Kiss
19. Jesus Christ Pose - Soundgarden

Surprisingly, though, most of these are actually pretty good songs, to boot. I bet Richard Dawkins (or even Miranda C. Hale) would pay top dollar for this mix, no? The New York Dolls song, "Dance Like A Monkey," is about the battle over evolution, if you can believe it, and mentions the taking of that dispute to the Supreme Court. I picked the Marilyn Manson version of "Personal Jesus," instead of the original by Depeche Mode, simply for shock value. Most of the other selections are, of course, self explanatory (save for the Jenny Lewis selection, the themes of which merit its inclusion on this list.).

The New Year's Day Mix

Ah, the New Year, and its accompanying portents of doom. I was amused enough by my recently unearthed Christmas playlist to attempt one for the occasion of the New Year. Here goes:

1. "A Long December" - Counting Crows
2. "New Year" - The Breeders
3. "New Year's Day" - Caesars
4. "Last Year's Man" - Leonard Cohen
5. "Year of the Tiger" - Sufjan Stevens
6. "1999" - Prince
7. "In the New Year" - The Walkmen
8. "This Will Be My Year" - Semisonic
9. "Next Year" - Foo Fighters
10. "The New Year" - Death Cab for Cutie
11. "New Year's Prayer" - Jeff Buckley
12. "Blankest Year" - Nada Surf
13. "New Year's Resolution" - Roy Milton and His Solid Senders
14. "Doomsday" - Elvis Perkins in Dearland
15. "The Holiday Song" - Pixies
16. "December 1999" - Jolie Holland
17. "New Year's Eve" - The Walkmen
18. "Forgotten Years - Midnight Oil
19. "New Year's Day (USA Remix)" - U2
20. "It Was A Very Good Year" - The Flaming Lips

The two songs referencing 1999 recognize the tenth anniversary of the last New Year's Eve of the 1990s. Ah, Y2K, how far we've come since you loomed over us. To preserve my indie street cred, I had to use The Flaming Lips version of "It Was A Very Good Year," rather than the more recognizable, far superior version by Frank Sinatra. "Year of the Tiger" by Sufjan Stevens is appropriate, because 2010 brings with it that year under the Chinese calendar. Including the original version of U2's "New Year's Day" seemed a bit too obvious, so I used the remix from the 1983 "Two Hearts Beat As One" single. Finally, it's interesting to note that both the Christmas mix and the New Year's mix both include not one but two songs by The Walkmen, who evidently like to recognize the holidays on their albums. Finally, for a New Year's Day mix, I was tempted to include the Black Eyed Peas, but I just could not do it. O tempora, o mores.

Please take note of my prior New Year's Day entry, posted two years ago today, on January 1, 2008. That post was sufficiently ominous in tone, and of course, 2008 vindicated those early predictions of doom. Speaking of ominous things, I discovered the wonderfully eerie photograph at the top of this page on this January 2007 blog post by Some Audio Guy, author of, oddly enough, the blog called The Ramblings of Some Audio Guy. There is no indication of whether Some Audio Guy actually took the photograph in question, or if he, like me, scoured the Internets to find a sufficiently macabre image to complement the tone of the post in question.

Best Music of 2000 - 2009

In addition to concocting a list of my favorite songs of this year, I did the same for the decade. I offer the same caveat in my immediately preceding post regarding the best songs of 2009. Really, these are just some of my favorite songs, or ones that have stuck with me, since 2000. The rules were one song per year, though as you'll see, I cheated twice, for 2007 and 2008.

"Everything In Its Right Place," Radiohead (2000)
"Moment in the Sun," Clem Snide (2001)
"The Golden Age," Beck (2002)
"Maps," Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2003)
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," Arcade Fire (2004)
"Mr. November," The National (2005)
"O Mary Don't You Weep," Bruce Springsteen (2006)
"Nude," Radiohead and "Intervention," Arcade Fire (2007)
"Bible Days," Jessica Lea Mayfield and "Skinny Love," Bon Iver (2008)
"She Watches Over Me," Elvis Perkins (2009)

You'll note that I even made a change or two from My Life's Playlist, posted in December 2007, which features one song for every year I've lived. Honorable mention would have to go to Ray LaMontagne, whose 2004 album, Trouble, and 2006 album, Till The Sun Turns Black, were phenomenal, but songs from which did not make the list. Sorry, Ray.

Best Music of '09

How can a blog dedicated to wistful reviews of pop culture artifacts publish a best of 2009 list? Well, what else could I possibly publish on December 31, 2009? Y2K nostalgia? I think not.

Far be it from me to declare these the "best" songs of 2009, but they certainly are some of my favorites from this year. I limited the list to 22 selections, if only because the combined length of these songs would fill a CD were I making a mix CD (had I anyone to make a mix CD for).

Here goes:

1. "Marrow" - St. Vincent
2. "Blood Bank" - Bon Iver
3. "All for the Best" - Thom Yorke
4. "The Right" - Lou Barlow
5. "Rave On" - M. Ward
6. " I And Love And You" - The Avett Brothers
7. "Heads Will Roll" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
8. "Last Dance" - The Raveonettes
9. When the Night Comes - Dan Auerbach
10. "People Got A Lotta Nerve" - Neko Case
11. "Sing Sang Sung" - Air
12. "No Line On The Horizon" - U2
13. "Singing the Joy To The World" - Fruit Bats
14. "Words of Love" - Jessica Lea Mayfield
15. "She Watches Over Me" - Elvis Perkins
16. "Daniel" - Bat for Lashes
17. "While You Wait For The Others" - Grizzly Bear
18. "Velvet" - The Big Pink
19. "All Is Love" - Karen O and The Kids
20. "You and I" - Wilco
21. "1901" - Phoenix
22. "Black Cloud" - Morrissey

Interestingly, fifty years after the death of Buddy Holly, two covers of his songs (by M. Ward and Jessica Lea Mayfield) make the list. Technically, Yeah Yeah Yeahs appear twice, first with its "Heads Will Roll" from the It's Blitz album, and again in the form of Karen O and The Kids (which included both of Ms. O's bandmates from the YYYs). Morrissey earns a spot on the list, despite the fact that (a) his best work remains 1986's The Queen Is Dead (with the Smiths, of course) and (b) he is an insufferably pretentious tool. Thom Yorke, who would of course make the list, actually had three new tracks out this year, the other two being "Hearing Damage" from the New Moon soundtrack and Radiohead's "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)," released online. Really, Muse would have, should have made the list, but Glenn Beck's professed fondness for "Uprising," the first track off their 2009 album, "The Resistance," killed it for me. Alas.

The Christmas Playlist

Nostalgic pop culture writers have made it a cliche to lament the death of the mix tape. Oh, well. Whatever the case, I recently stumbled across this Christmas "playlist" I made a few years back for a friend. It's actually heavy on modern rock, making it somewhat inappropriate for a site dedicated to earlier years, but I offer it to you, dear readers, for your amusement:

1. F__k Christmas - Fear
2. Christmas - Beat Happening
3. It's Christmas Time - Yo La Tengo
4. That Was the Worst Christmas Ever - Sufjan Stevens
5. Christmas at the Zoo - The Flaming Lips
6. The Christmas Party - The Walkmen
7. Christmas Song - Mogwai
8. Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
9. Christmas Bop - T. Rex
10. Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis - Neko Case
11. Christmas - Leona Naess
12. Merry Christmas from the Family (Live) - Robert Earl Keen
13. No Christmas While I'm Talking - The Walkmen
14. A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So) - The Flaming Lips
15. What Child Is This Anyway - Sufjan Stevens
16. Christmas Steps - Mogwai

Please know that I listened to it yesterday, on our most commercial of holidays.