december

I just mailed out your CDs today, so . . .

Ladies, I'll be honest: I'm really nervous about how you'll feel about December's mix. Nervous because it's been a long time since I've made a mix tape. How long? Well, I just called it a Mix Tape. Nervous because a Christmas-songs CD in December is so predictable. Nervous because I think the idea is to exchange and experience new music, but you've likely heard all of these songs before. Still, I hope you'll see why I chose what I did. And if you don't understand, or like it, well, you'll just have to wait until my next turn to see what I've got to offer.

Let's begin with the underlying theme: is this CD all about being Canadian? You'd think so. Let me be clear: I adore the Barenaked Ladies, and have for a very long time. Also to be made clear: they're better (with the exception of maybe - MAYBE - three songs) when they're being silly than when they're trying to be serious. And, they've recorded quite a lot of holiday songs. You'll hear them often on this mix, and even more than once in a row. Faux pas? Sorry. It's my first time here on the Lib.

Also, I feel the need to confess: I have this weird posessive feeling about certain songs, bands, whathaveyou, and this immature feeling applies to a few songs here. I admit to feeling a slight rage when I hear some of these songs played on the radio or at the mall. "Hey! You can't play that! That's MY song! I had it first! Stop whoring it out at your leisure!" You dig?

And I do love Christmas music. Well . . . I love some Christmas music. I've come to believe, over the past few years, that everyone should have a collection, however large or small, of Christmas music (and Christmas movies! Buy Stalking Santa today!) that they enjoy. This happens to be a compilation of my favorites, which is nice to have put together so I don't have to keep changing CDs to only listen to the one (or two, or whatever) track(s) that I enjoy. Also, as a gift to you, there will be no "O Holy Night." Because everyone thinks they can sing that song. But they can't.

On with the mix . . .

track #1: Carol of the Bells, Barenaked Ladies. I am skeptical of pianists as valid contributors to bands, but I do so like the way that Kevin Hearn plays. Did you know that of all 5 guys in the band, he was the youngest when he lost his virginity? I wish I didn't know that, and I wish it didn't come to mind everytime I hear him play.

track #2: Happy XMas (War Is Over), Sarah McLachlan. I came thisclose to using Sense Field's version of this song, but at the last minute chose Sarah's because, well, it's just more beautiful. This song, in general, has never been a personal favorite, but this year it's heart-warming to me. Yes, I know people in Iraq, just like you do. I'm not making a political statement, but thinking about my friends and family missing their loved ones who are currently on the other side of the planet, hurts.

track #3: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings, BNL & Sarah McLachlan. Hey, just because you have heard a song before doesn't mean it's not good. Yes, even if it's played on some radio stations every twenty minutes. I like this because it was an impromptu recording, backstage somewhere, and there is no drum -- Tyler's drumming on a suitcase or something.

track #4: Sleigh Ride, BNL. Go on and sing along. You know the words. Okay, enough. We'll break from them now.

track #5: Bizarre Christmas Incident, Ben Folds. Oh, Ben. You're so edgy.

track #6: Christmas Song, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds. Yes, I'm from THAT era. Big DMB fan. I know that this song shows up on most holiday compilations nowadays, but this is filed away in my made-up "ownership" category, and I can't help that I still dig it. This version, from the Live at Luther College CD, is my favorite.

track #7: River, Indigo Girls. I debated over which artist to include for this song and ultimately went for Indigo Girls because it's their version I knew first. I can't explain why I love this song so much...maybe because it addresses some very real hopelessness and sadness at a time of year when most people are pretending it doesn't exist.

track #8: Christmas Day, Dido. Awwww . . .

track #9: Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth, Paul Jacobsen & Amy Gileadi. This song is on a new CD that was produced by my friend Scott Wiley. The CD is called Mary's Lullaby: Christmas Songs for Bedtime and it's billed as a children's lullaby CD. Amy and Scott were in a band called Sunfall Festival, and though that project is not currently working together, certain of its members occassionally do. Something about the way that the words, "Mary nodded," come across really touches me. Maybe it's the fact that there's no blaring snare drum incessantly getting in the way of listening to the song.

track #10: [upside-down question mark]Donde Esta Santa Claus?, Guster. This is one of the songs that my kids love to listen to year-round. Can you blame them? Who wouldn't want to hear some nice Jewish boys singing about Santa Claus? Speaking of Jewish . . .

track #11: I Have a Little Dreidel, BNL. Because you only know some of the words. Now you can know them all.

track #12: Deck The Stills, BNL. Seriously, how could I not?

track #13: Silent Night, Lisa Hannigan. For the grrrrl in all of us.

track #14: It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, Sixpence None The Richer.

track #15: Polly Anderson's Christmas Party, Stewart McLean. Okay, WARNING! This is not a song. This track is a story, and it's about twenty-three minutes long. My feelings are not hurt if you don't enjoy it, but I think it's rather funny, and even relaxing.

track #16: Wonderful Christmastime, BNL. This song isn't so much about the Napoleon Dynamite-esque blurb of music as much as it's about what directly follows.

So, listen, and don't get stuck.

Li+

My time will be limited the next few days, so I'm going to go ahead and write my mixplanation. If you haven't received your CD yet, I bid you to refrain from reading the rest of this post until it's in your hands.

Normally I would have considered all of the recipients of the mix, and try to create something that everyone would at least partly enjoy. But for this mix, I just did whatever the heck I wanted to; let your ears be victim to my choices.

The accompanying story you also received is a rough draft of something I wrote the morning of its deadline for my fiction class. There's plenty of room for improvement (i.e. word echoes, character development, editing, etc., etc.) however I didn't want to delay sending the mix out any longer than I had, and yet I still wanted to include the little story, since it seemed to correlate. So I didn't bother revising it before giving it to you.

1. Tokyo Moon -Windmill

If Present Rachel told Past Rachel she was putting this song on a mix -and to be the first song no less -Past Rachel would have thought Present Rachel was crazy. Windmill's vocals seem to be that of "acquired taste," and may cause some to want to listen to someone scratching a chalkboard instead. But Present Rachel just couldn't resist. It's as catchy as a good poop joke, and well, she's 99% sure that he sings her name in the beginning of the chorus. And if there's one thing Past, Present, and Future Rachels can all agree on, it's how they simply cannot resist a good song that has their name in it. (By the way, if his lyrics ever make it out on the internets somewheres, and it turns out he's not singing my name, don't ruin my dream, k? I'd rather keep living the lie.)

2. Take Your Medicine -Cloud Cult

The awesomeness of this song explains itself. Nuff said. Especially in the car. Great in the car.

3. That Summer At Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy -The Twilight Sad

Another band with long song titles that aren't actually sung in the song? At least I don't think it's there. But I encourage you to focus on his accent, not on the actual lyrics...you might not like what you find.

4. I'll Kill Her -Soko

Um, yeah.

5. Kids -MGMT

Most definitely in my top five favorite songs of the year. There's this part around 3:17 where the hot synthesizer action transports me into an '80s teen movie, where the Molly Ringwald character has just scored the boy of her dreams, and the world is suddenly perfect. Judd Nelson jumps up in the air with a fist pump. Yeah. Like that.

p.s. I also recommend listening to this one when you're alone late in the night, and you just have to stand up and start doing an interpretive dance. With robotic jazz hands.

6. I Hear Music -Blossom Dearie

I'll never tire of this Blossom. I just had to throw her in.

7. Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider -Of Montreal

The first song that really got me hooked on their new album. Which I can't give enough praise.

8. I've Underestimated My Charm (Again) -Black Kids

I knew you're not doing too well
all the blogs are about you girl

9. Up On Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days -Sunset Rubdown

Perhaps another odd choice. But I beg you to google up the lyrics. This one sounds better in headphones, I feel.

10. Jigsaw Falling Into Place -Radiohead

This piece just seemed to fit. Ooph!

11. Icicle (Live) -Tori Amos

Okay, here's where I have to defend myself. Yes, I can make a compilation without Tori. But I don't know if I really want to, you see. This version especially needs some explanation. The recording is horrible, and if you're not careful, the screaming crowd will hurt your eardrums and your speakerdrums. But hear me out. If you don't like Tori, you'll still have to enjoy the conundrum that happens in the beginning, you just have to! It's hilarious. And if you do like Tori....It's impossible for me to not get chills when I listen to everyone singing along -I don't think in all of Tori history has she ever asked the audience to sing along with her, especially when it's just her and her piano. It's unheard of, but she knew she'd be able to overshadow what happened in the beginning of song by having everyone join in -she's just smart like that. I love it...and her voice is impeccable in this recording. Even with the bad tape. Sometimes I forget how powerful this song is for me -this version helps me remember.

12. Wham City -Dan Deacon

Another rule broken. Put a song that's over eleven minutes long on a mix? Are you crazy? YES, YES I AM. And you'll be needing these, I assure you:

There is a mountain of snow, up past the big glen
We have a castle enclosed, there is a fountain
Out of the fountain flows gold, into a huge hand
That hand is held by a bear who had a sick band

Of ghosts and cats
And pigs and bats
With brooms and bats
And wigs and rats
And play big dogs like queens and kings
And everyone plays drums and sings

About big sharks
Sharp swords
Beast bees
Bead lords
Sweet cakes
Maste lakes

O ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma


You're welcome.

13. Lithium -The Polyphonic Spree

Hear this cover of Nirvana's Lithium in your head when you read the end of my little story. And after the last words written, hear the yeah yeah yeahs screaming inside your brain along with the blank page.

14. Revelations -Yoko Ono & Cat Power

Tender warm and fuzzy.

15. Starálfur -Sigur Rós

Slightly different from the original recording. I don't think there could have been a better ending. You may find a supposed English translation of the lyrics here.

Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

Okay. So yeah. I said I was going to mail everything out last Friday. Kind of a lie. I wasn't feeling so hot, but I won't keep reminding everyone of how sick I've been. Violins?

But now I think I'm on the right medication, so yay! Does this mean I'll have now curbed my post office procrastination ways forever? Time will only tell, my friends. Time will only tell.

So just to ease your troubled soul about whether or not I really mailed them out this time, here is a picture of the line I waited in at the post office:

Now I'm a bit worried because after packing everything up, I realized I had an extra CD left...and I can't remember whether or not I had made an extra copy...but just to clarify, you should be receiving a CD, a little treat, and a little booklet thingamawobber.

And Ms. Llew, your belated birthday teensy surprise should also be in your package. So in case I made a switcheroo and someone else receives Laura's birthday surprise, please mail it to her.

Yes. So now. They are really in the mail. Sorry I took so long.

Oh and, since from here on out it'll be a surprise who's doing the next month and so on and so forth -if you happen to be like me and you desire to let everyone know that you might be running a week or two or three late, inform the person who picked you for that month to post up a little somethin' somethin' to let everyone know that they haven't been forgotten. You don't have to do this, but I just know I crave opportunities to give excuses as to why I haven't done something yet...yeah. Just keep that in mind so we can continue to be surprised by who sends the next mix.

Wheeeeeeeeee!


Oh and, in case you haven't received a mix from me before...there are some swears on this mix...so don't say I didn't warn you when you suddenly find yourself caught in a tight spot with your kids in the family minivan.

All Apologies

Dearest Members,

The lib resurrect shall burn brightly, I assure you. I meant to mail out November this past Monday, but I had to wait until I got paid (which happened not until today) and then there's this little problem where I can't really convince myself to do much of anything. (Some people call it laziness -you sons of bitches, you know who you are -I call it mental cancer.)

But never fear today is the day I shall conquer the post office. So next weekish, keep your eyes peeled for a plain golden mailer sent to you from Yours Truly.

Yours Truly,

me

p.s. I read this book where this girl gets her face blown off and I just don't know how I'm supposed to feel about it.

New Rules

I've decided to come up with a new system for the CD exchange. If you oppose, please let your voice be heard. And if this turns out to be entirely craptastic, we can change it at any time.

First of all since there are only eight of us so far, assigning a specific month to each of you would obviously leave four months open. And I wouldn't want to give some people two months out of the year, while everyone else only gets one month. So here's my first idea:

I will be sending out a mix for November, just to get things started. The first week in November I will select the next person for December -but I'll only tell that person. That way, it'll be an element of wonderful surprise for everyone else when December rolls around. Then mystery December mix-maker will tell January it's their turn, and so the cycle continues. One rule with this system would have to be: everyone must have a turn within the eight months. For example, I'll be November for this year, therefore no one can choose me again until July. I suppose we could just stay on a cycle, instead of picking randomly, but there's something kind of fun in selecting the next person to go. Although if you select someone for March, and they're like, "March is no good for me," then that's okay too. If you are selected, you can say yay or nay.

Also, I figure if someone is dying to have the month of let's say, February, they can either post a plea for that month -or email everyone and let them know. One plus of mixing things up, no one is stuck with the same month all the time. Gives someone else an opportunity to make a "Fall" mix or if you're tired of the summer months, you'll eventually get a chance at spring.

Make sense?

I figure if the random thing sucks, then we can just go in the same order all the time. However, if we end up adding more people to the club, and we went in a specific order, we'd end up on the same months all the time -so not having assigned months will keep a window open for spontaneity. I know some of us might not like not knowing when their turn is up, because they want to prepare ahead of time. But I think this goes back to either accepting the month or turning it down. If you're not ready yet to unleash your mixmaster powers, then give a pass, and surely when you're summoned once more, you will be ready to take on the task.

Please let me know if this doesn't sit well with you.

lib resurrect

It is the desire of others, and myself, to rekindle our love for music exchange. In loving memory of The Librarian's Revenge, we shall create a lib resurrect.

If you have accepted your invitation, welcome! Once we have established club members, months shall be assigned and we can vote on a name for our club. If you have name suggestions, please leave them in a comment on this post. Other suggestions for club rules and regulations are also welcomed.

I'm a sensation
you try me once
you'll beg for more