To request a mixtape, please comment on this post.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Themed tape: whistle

This was a little more difficult to construct than maybe it should've been - everyone can think of a few canonical whistling songs, right, so how hard could it be? Well, as it turns out, those few canonical songs are either not too terribly similar to the others or else are too unserious to put on a mix ("Whistle While You Work," e.g.). The saving grace was that most of the reasonable songs I did find had a positive, upbeat tone, more or less. As a result, this is a much peppier mix than the stuff I usually put together.

In terms of flow, The Bangles are a workable midpoint between Paul Simon's relatively straightforward production and folk/Americana sound to The Drums and their Pixies-style surf guitars. That same overall sparsity of sound carries through into track 6, but since that track builds to a real musical climax I felt like that was a good place to switch gears (that's as opposed to "Let's Go Surfing," which pretty much stays on one level). "I Like Birds" brings back a less experimental, more traditional sound, which stays more or less the same for the rest of the tape.

1. Brother Bones and His Shadows - Sweet Georgia Brown
2. Andrew Bird - Fitz and the Dizzyspells
3. Paul Simon - Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
4. The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian
5. The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
6. Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks
7. eels - I Like Birds
8. Bob Sinclair - Love Generation
9. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home
10. The Beatles - Two Of Us
11. Calexico/Iron & Wine - Prison on Route 41
12. Otis Redding - (Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay

Thanks also to all my friends who helped me find songs for this tape!


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones

1 comment: