Mixmasters Round 14
Moods For Moderns, compiled by Mixmaster Steven Reule

It was a dark and stormy night. No. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No. It was somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when… No. None of those. That's literature. This is supposed to be music. Get a grip, Steve! Get in the mood for music. It's a modern time and these are modern songs. Hey, wait a minute… Moods for moderns! What a great title! And what about a concept, don't I need a concept? Hell, no! It's good music, some fast, some slow, some loud, some less loud. It's called variety. That's my concept this round, I guess, if I need to have one.

What does all that mean? It means that no one will like everything on this mix, except for me. Oh, well. But to make up for it, I am throwing in a bonus CD, so what have you got to lose but your mind? So put the discs in your player, keep an open mind while you still have one, and try to enjoy. C'mon, try harder!

And, as a side note, I hereby claim the coveted Mixmasters award for best CD artwork and packaging. Please send my cash award, along with love letters, hate mail, and your life's savings to:

Steven Reule
P.O. Box 340564
Sacramento, CA 95834

And why not check my web site out at: http://www.stevenology.com
And while you are at it: http://www.obsessed-with-music.com
And go ahead here too: http://www.knockoutbreastcancer.com
Others on request, now get back to the CDs and get hip to this swingin' jive!

Main disc

DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS: I Love You 'Cause I Have To
Album: Please Describe Yourself
I was told that they sounded like Drums and Wires era XTC and that made me salivate. And I do hear some of that, but other things too. I dubbed it for a friend and he thought there was a lot of Oingo Boingo in there. Well, both of those are a-ok-allright with me! Let's start off with this bouncy rocker.

THE PALE PACIFIC: Your Parents' House
Album: Urgency
Here's some indie rock with that sensitive popish rock sound that should please fans of Death Cab and The Shins. I love it. Bet no one has heard of this band before, I think they used to be just The Pale. But whatever. This CD grew and grew on me.

ZIGGY MARLEY & THE MELODY MAKERS: Everyone Wants To Be
Album: Fallen Is Babylon
Yeah, Bob's son (one of many). And he normally does reggae but sometimes branches out, like on this track featuring Wyclef on a short rap. I like the sample from the Spaghetti Western. Moods shift, that's what this mix is about. Keep up, now.

THE EVENING EPISODE: Photocopied Residence
Album: Backstroke EP
This is a Sacramento band that just won a Sammie award, the local version of the Grammies, in the Electronica category. I like the mix of laid-back and edgy feels and also the interesting vocals. We have seen them live a couple times and they put on a good show, with theremin, laptop, instruments, and other electronic gadgets. I think the vocals give it a human edge too.

HOT HOT HEAT: Goodnight Goodnight
Album: Elevator
One of my single of the year picks. Just beyond catchy, to killer. The chorus hooks me every time. Some track on this album took a few times to get into but now I love it. This track was outstanding the first time and still is. Turn this one up.

DEAN GRAY: Boulevard Of Broken Songs
Album: American Edit
This is from a gray-market full-length CD that takes Green Day's American Idiot and stands it on it's remixed mashed-up head. This is one of the most normal tracks, with shades of Oasis, Travis, and even my hated Aerosmith mixed in. Do you hear any others?

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD: Pray For Grace
Album: Everyone Deserves Music
Franti is a pleasure, a very positive, very liberal artist who transcends and mixes rock, rap, reggae, and maybe even pop. Hard to believe he has never been used before.

THE DECEMBERISTS: We Both Go Down Together
Album: Picaresque
Another indie-type band, they sometimes have a medieval olde-tyme feel and sometimes just indie rock as on this track. This is similar in feel to REMs Losing My religion but different enough to be good on it's own.

BRIGHT EYES: Old Soul Song (For The New World Order)
Album: I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Sensitive singer-songwriter warning! But he does it well. Apparently this artist has been used, which I didn't realize when I made the mix. But I really like these songs so he stayed on. You know he is sincere, give him props for songwriting. He released two albums at the same time, this 'regular' one and a more 'electronic' one. (see later in the mix)

PROPELLERHEADS: History Repeating
Album: Decksanddrumsandrockandroll
My wife says this sounds like a boisterous drag queen. Oh, yeah, like YOU never sounded like this! Anyway, Shirley Bassey from "Goldfinger" fame does the over-the-top vocal and the beats don't stop. You know you are dancing, don't try to fake me out!

DEAN GRAY: St. Jimmy The Prankster
Album: American Edit
More mashup madness, with Green Day and, hey, is that those wacky Beastie Boys or ?? Yow! Anyone else mixed in there? Who do YOU hear? And rock out while you are thinking about it. Love those spoken samples too.

WILLIE NILE: The Day I Saw Bo Diddley In Washington Square
Album: Streets Of New York
This guy has been around forever and never found a lot of fame, but he put out a really good CD this year and I think most of you would like it. Check out this track and the one on the bonus CD. Cool lyrics and this one is a hell of a sing-along.

THE PALE PACIFIC: If Only She'd Leave Town
ALBUM: Urgency
Rock with a quite side? I know at least some of you will like this alt-pop rocker. Buy their CD while they are still obscure!

JACKIE GREENE: Emily's In Heaven
Album: Sweet Somewhere Bound
Another Sacramento artist, though he recently signed with a major label for his latest (the one after this one) album. Great song-writer, sometimes compared to Blood On The Tracks era Dylan but I'm not sure that is exactly true. The track on the bonus CD may be more like that. Maybe. Still, he is very good and you'll keep this one in player for while.

THE NEW CARS: Not Tonight
Album: It's Alive
This song sounds a lot like the original Cars, with Todd trying his hardest to sound Ric Ocasek-ish. He pulls it off here, but warning, this is the only good studio track on their CD. The rest is live stuff, which is ok, and two other weak new studio tracks. No need to buy it, copy this track from here and you have what you need. New wave lives!

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD: Bomb The World
Album: Everyone Deserves Music
A catchy groove and a great message, power to the peaceful. It doesn't get much simpler and honest than that. Worth the price of the CD just to support someone saying this stuff. And the music is good too!

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM: Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Album: LCD Soundsystem
We shift gears almost every song and this one is no exception. What a beat! This is so infectious and hard to resist. Turn it up! And no, I don't know if Daft Punk really played at his house. The guy at the record store told me that if Talking Heads were making modern music today this is what they would sound like. I'm not as sure, maybe on a couple of the other tracks on the album. But this still rocks your socks.

BRIGHT EYES: Gold Mine Gutted
Album: Digital Ash In A Digital Urn
From the more electronic of the two CDs he released simultaneously, still basically a talented singer-songwriter type, sensitive but catchy. Relax and go with this one.

HOT HOT HEAT: Picking It Up
Album: Elevator
Ok, something fast, energetic, bouncy, with attitude. You were like that once, remember? Well, experience it again with this poppy number. I love the slightly snotty vocals and I can't resist the music.

DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS: Glimpse At The Good Life
Album: Please Describe Yourself
A mid-tempo rocker with a killer chorus that stuck in my empty head for a long time. You pop boys gotta give this one a chance.

Bonus Disc

DEAN GRAY: American Jesus (American Edit/Jesus' Tears/Summer Of The Damned/Suburban Ring/It's Like That)
Album: American Edit
This track was going to be on my regular mix and probably should have been but it is pretty long. Still, it is SO clever. I love it and I'll bet most of you do too. If you love it as much as I do, give my regular mix a bunch of 10s! Green Day, Smokey, Brian Adams, and lots of other folks. Have fun, identify the artists! Mash-up madness rules the (green) day!

MICHAEL FRANTI: We Don't Stop
Album: Everyone Deserves Music
Franti mixes the genres too, in a different way of course. Every hip-hop-haters should like this catchy liberal rant. Word to your bad self, Michael!

BRIGHT EYES: Arc Of Time (Time Code)
Album: Digital Ash In A Digital Urn
This time Conor actually mixes in some electronics but it's still a songwriters song. Of the two albums he released together, I like this one best but both have a bunch of good stuff. Neither one is perfect, though.

THE PALE PACIFIC: Sucker Punch
Album: Urgency
Indie rockers change moods in mid-song from quiet to not-so-quite. This one was slated for my main mix too but lost out at the last moment due to space considerations. I love their lyrics and the music too. A major discovery, IMNSHO.

JACKIE GREENE: Write A Letter Home
Album: Sweet Somewhere Bound
Sacramento boy makes good, gets major label deal. Listen and listen again.

HOT HOT HEAT: Jingle Jangle
Album: Elevator
At first I thought this was a lesser track from the album, but after hearing it more and more I think it is great. It really gets rocking in parts, and some of the softer parts remind me a bit of The Kinks.

THE DECEMBERISTS: 16 Military Wives
Album: Picaresque
A faster, jumpier song (for them anyway). Odd, descriptive lyrics and a catchy tune made this one grow on me too. And that chorus is totally hard to resist.

THE PALE PACIFIC: In The Sun Pt. 2
Album: Urgency
A short and quiet track from them, a different mood but that's what this mix is about. We'll get noisy again soon enough.

THE EVENING EPISODE: One Through Three
Album: Backstroke EP
Another track from this Sacramento band. This low-key song has some hooks but changes a few times throughout. Fairly mellow but there's more going on here than you realize. And it does create a modern mood, at least in my damaged brain.

PROPELLERHEADS: Take California And Party (Featuring Jungle Brothers)
Album: Take California CD Single
A remix of their single, with added vocals/rapping or whatever you want to call it. Play it while driving, it will hypnotize you and you'll, well, on second thought pay attention to your driving! But this gets a groove going that is hard to resist.

THE DECEMBERISTS: The Engine Driver
Album: Picaresque
More of that olde-tyme folk meets soft indie rock sound. Yeah, you know you get mellow and want to hear some sensitive shit once in a while. And there's no resisting that chorus. I am a writer, a write of fictions…

MICHAEL FRANTI: Sometimes
Album: Stay Human
Get funky, get down! The beat is r&b cool and the vocal and lyrics are cool too, so what's not to like? Buy his CDs!

WILLIE NILE: Back Home
Album: Streets Of New York
He is a folk troubadour of the streets, or some such thing. As Redd Foxx once said "If you don't like it, folk it". Well, if the 60s Bob Dylan did this they'd call him a genius, so let's give Willie some props too.

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM: Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up
Album: LCD Soundsystem
Quite a bit different from their song on my main CD, eh? They have a varied sound, to say the least. This one sounds kind of like a Pink Floyd track with a different singer. Sort of. I think some of you will like this mellower song.

DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS: Pastimes And Lifestyles
Album: Album: Please Describe Yourself
Very energetic, from the Oingo Boingo school of rock. I should have gone to college there! But catchy, damn it, I can not, I will not resist!

BRIGHT EYES: First Day Of My Life
Album: I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Simple, heartfelt sensitive singer-songwriter folk, a really nice song. Of course he puts those drums stick sounds at the end to try to mess it up but it is still a really nice song. Too mellow for some but it's about different moods, remember? Go with the flow here, people!

And so it ends. Long live Mixmasters!!

If you want to live life on the edge, you can view these liner notes at my web site. Click on hobbies, then click on music. Oh, the ecstacy!

Now peace out, pilgrims!