I haven’t put up a mixtape in four months? Fuck that. We’re gonna fix this right now.

The Mix With No Name
various alt rock genres, folk rock, folk punk
01) Plumtree - Go! (Predicts the Future)
02) Spoonboy - What You Want (I Love You, This is a Robbery)
03) Fang Island - Sisterly (Major)
04) Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives - Time Cube (Second & Eighteen)
05) The Darkness - Hazel Eyes (One Way Ticket to Hell … and Back)
06) Giraffes! Giraffes! - I Am SH(im)e[r] As You Am SH(im)e[r] As You Are Me And We Am I And I Are All Our Together Our Collective Consciousness’ Psychogenic Fugue (More Skin With Milk-Mouth)
07) Hillbilly Casino - Debt With the Devil (Tennessee Stomp)
08) Great Big Sea - The Old Black Rum (Up)
09) David Dondero - The Living and the Dead (The Transient)
10) Mallory - The House You Were Raised In (Strange Homes)
11) The Lawrence Arms - The Slowest Drink At The Saddest Bar On The Snowiest Day In The Greatest City (Buttsweat and Tears)
12) The Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl (Beelzebubba)
13) Faded Paper Figures - B Film (Dynamo)
14) The Magnetic Fields - How To Say Goodbye (69 Love Songs)
15) The Decemberists - Angel, Won’t You Call Me? (5 Songs)
16) Misophone - Deluded and Obscene (Where Has it Gone, All the Beautiful Music of Our Grandparents? It Died With Them, That’s Where it Went…)
17) Mogwai - Take Me Somewhere Nice (Rock Action)
Runtime: 62:50
Download now! (106 MB)

Ended up staying home to do some work on the design documentation for Skinnyfat (read: I woke up late, don’t want to go to class, but still want to do something productive before work). Apparently Steam is putting up a $100 charge on Greenlight as a way to filter out prank entries. While I understand why they’re doing this, it’s just another hurdle for independent devs like [RHO] Industries to get their games out in the open. Honestly, $100 between the four of us is pretty doable, it’s really just a bit of an annoyance to pay for the privilege ofmaybegetting your game on Steam.

Anyway I made this mix last week, figured I may as well post it for anyone who might be interested.

Harry Caray’s Wheel of Cheese
lo-fi, baroque pop, math rock
01) Ulrich Schnauss - Knuddelmaus (Far Away Trains Passing By)
02) Free Energy - Dream City (Stuck on Nothing)
03) The Most Powerful Telescope in the Universe - Anything for a Drink (The Moonlight’s Fair Tonight)
04) Holy Roman Empire - Scaling the U of I Art Building (Egress)
05) Misophone - Turning Hay in the Fields (Where Has It Gone, All the Beautiful Music of Our Grandparents? It Died With Them, That’s Where it Went)
06) The Zephyrs - The Green Tree (When the Sky Comes Down, It Comes Down on Your Head)
07) The Microphones - I’m a Pearl Diver (Song Islands)
08) The Ropers - Flashlight (All the Time)
09) The Secret Machines - Faded Lines (Ten Silver Drops)
10) Songs: Ohia - Being in Love (The Lioness)
11) Wingnut Dishwashers Union - Never Trust a Man (Who Plays Guitar) (Burn the Earth! Leave it Behind!)
12) You Slut! - On the Count of 13 (Critical Meat)
13) Gay Witch Abortion - Action Cop (Maverick)
14) Marnie Stern - Steely (This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That)
15) The Growlers - Empty Bones (Are You In or Out?)
16) O’Death - Busted Old Church (Head Home)
Runtime: 56:20
Download now! (91 MB)

It seems bad that not only does the concept of ‘sad songs to make out to’ arise in my head as a totally ok and not weird thing, it didn’t take me that long to make a mix with it in mind.

Depressing Makeout Songs
twee pop, indie folk, shoegaze
01) The Little Hands of Asphalt - Oslo (Leap Years)
02) Alcoholic Faith Mission - Gently (421 Wythe Avenue)
03) The Decemberists - Shiny (5 Songs)
04) The Filed Mice - Canada (Skywriting)
05) The Flashbulb - Warm Hands in Cold Fog (Soundtrack to a Vacant Life)
06) The Microphones - I Felt Your Shape (The Glow Pt. 2)
07) Belle and Sebastian - Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying (If You’re Feeling Sinister)
08) American Football - For Sure. (American Football)
09) Aqueduct Pocket - Monday Morning (Coachella)
10) Galaxie 500 - Ceremony (On Fire)
11) Helios - Coast Off (Eingya)
12) Ambulance LTD - Michigan (EP)
13) Death Cab for Cutie - Technicolor Girls (The Forbidden Love EP)
14) Bonny Bear - Flume (For Emma, Forever Ago)
15) Luna - Moon Palace (Penthouse)
16) Camera Obscura - Let’s Go Bowling (Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi)
17) Elliott Smith - Say Yes (Either/Or)
Runtime: 1:02:22
Download now! (93 MB)

I’ve been wanting to do a theme mix that’s a combination of extremely strange stuff, stuff with a sort of unsettling or weird air about it, and stuff that’s cool but too weird to really fit in a mix alongside anything but itself. So today is that day!

My suggestion: grab it and listen to it at night, alone. Preferably with headphones. This is how you should really listen to all music anyway, but in particular for this.

The Winchester Mystery Disc
avant-garde, dark ambient, drone, glitch
01) Swans - Red Velvet Corridor (Soundtracks for the Blind)
02) The Conet Project - The Lincolnshire Poacher (The Conet Project)
03) Syzygys - Fauna Grotesque (Complete Studio Recordings)
04) Suckdog - Little Flowers Dying II (Little Flowers Dying)
05) Suckdog - Jokes About Women (Drugs are Nice)
06) Koby Israelite - Saints and Dates (Dance of the Idiots)
07) Kaboom Karavan - Not Gone is Seen (Barra Barra)
08) Hecker - Acid in the Style of David Tudor (Acid in the Style of David Tudor)
09) Jackie-O Motherfucker - The Cage (The Magick Fire Music)
10) Worrytrain - The Trenches Choir (Fog Dance, My Moth Kingdom)
11) Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Moya Sings ‘Baby-O’ / Edgyswingsetacid (Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!)
12) Vibracathedral Orchestra - Still Leaking/Breaking (Versatile Arab Chord Chart)
13) Dth - I’m Squeaking Everywhere (I Hope I Can Feel Something Like That One Day)
14) Zs - Concert Black (New Slaves)
15) Igorr - Phasme Obèse (Moisissure)
Runtime: 1:06:24
Download now! (111.64 MB)

Been listening to a lot of bleeps and bloops the last week or two and I wanted to put them in a mix. So, I did. Please to enjoy!

Vulcan 3D Chess Master
synthpop, electronica, chiptune
01) Sweet Trip - Design : 1 (Velocity : Design : Comfort)
02) You Love Her Coz She’s Dead - Wizards (Inner City Angst)
03) Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating (s/t)
04) Helios - Coast Off (Eingya)
05) The Flashbulb - Warm Hands In Cold Fog (Soundtrack To A Vacant Life)
06) Hologram - Haru (Hologram+)
07) Boards of Canada - Music is Math (Geogaddi)
08) World’s End Girlfriend - Birthday Resistance (Hurtbreak Wonderland)
09) The Epoxies - Synthesized (Stop the Future)
10) Anamanaguchi - Helix Nebula (Power Supply)
11) Memory Cassette - Sleep on the Roof (Rewind While Sleeping)
12) Freezepop - Plastic Stars (Freezepop Forever)
13) Four Tet - Sing (There is Love in You)
Runtime: 54:34
Download now! (91.7 MB)

Man, it’s been a while since I did anything for Mixtape Monday. So, I pulled together some stuff I’ve been listening to recently.

Emoticontraindication
alternative country, jangle pop, indie rock
01) Big Harp - Everybody Pays (White Hat)
02) Caleb Klauder - The Price You Pay (Dangerous Mes and Poisonous Yous)
03) Old 97’s - Doreen (Hitchhike to Rhome)
04) Trampled by Turtles - November (Duluth)
05) Beat Happening - Indian Summer (Jamboree)
06) The Vulgar Boatmen - Drive Somewhere (You and Your Sister)
07) The Desert Wolves - Stopped in My Tracks (Love Scattered Lives)
08) Television - Friction (Marquee Moon)
09) Vitesse - Of All The Things That You’ve Done Wrong (You Win Again, Gravity!)
10) The Killers - All These Things That I’ve Done (Hot Fuss)
11) Math and Physics Club - Darling, Please Come Home (s/t)
12) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Contender (s/t LP)
13) The Comas - Moonrainbow (Conductor)
14) Swans - Volcano (Soundtracks for the Blind)
Runtime: 54:26
Download now! (101.99 MB)

I was poking around the playlists on my laptop and found something I thought looked decent at a glance. In retrospect, I should probably name my playlists something more fitting so I don’t accidentally listen to a mix full of extremely depressing songs when I’m not already depressed.

So yeah. Now you can download it and be depressed too!
(Yes, I know this is like the third time in not very long that Canada has been on a mix. It’s both a fucking awesome and fucking depressing song, don’t judge me for overusing it :c)

Bro Versus the Volcano
twee pop, indie folk, emo
01) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Contender (s/t)
02) American Football - Never Meant (s/t)
03) Plushgun - Let Me Kiss You Now (and I’ll Fade Away) (Pins & Panzers)
04) The Field Mice - Canada (Skywriting)
05) Bon Iver - For Emma (For Emma, Forever Ago)
06) Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand (Rocket)
07) The Magnetic Fields - I’m Sorry I Love You (69 Love Songs)
08) Math and Physics Club - You’ll Miss Me (s/t)
09) Beat Happening - Cat Walk (Jamboree)
10) Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism (Transatlanticism)
11) Alcoholic Faith Mission - Did You Eat (421 Wythe Avenue)
12) Belle and Sebastian - The Boy Done Wrong Again (If You’re Feeling Sinister)
13) Camera Obscura - Lunar Sea (Underachievers Please Try Harder)
14) Heavenly - Starshy (Le Jardin de Heavenly)
Runtime: 55:03
Download now! (89.87 MB)

Since pretty much nobody was in the office today, there was a bit of an air of slacking off about - so, I decided to make a mix for the drive home Thursday. After finishing, I promptly realized I was out of blank CDs…and then I realized that my car’s stereo is fucked up anyway, so I pretty much just wasted a bunch of time. So in the spirit of not having it be wasted time, I figured I’d put it to use and post it. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve already put in mixes for posting here (something I try to avoid doing), but it did turn out pretty good, so whatever.

Kallisti
various rock sub-genres
01) Andrew Jackson Jihad - Brave as a Noun / Survival Song (People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World)
02) Primus - Hamburger Train (Pork Soda)
03) You Slut! - On the Count of 13 (Critical Meat)
04) Lightning Bolt - Dracula Mountain (Wonderful Rainbow)
05) Slint - Ron (Tweez)
06) Enon - Window Display (High Society)
07) David Dondero - I’ve Seen the Love (South of the South)
08) Bryan Scary - Shedding Tears (All Over the Place) (The Shredding Tears)
09) The Field Mice - Canada (Skywriting)
10) The Little Hands of Asphalt - Some Things We Need to Forget (Leap Years)
11) Worrytrain - Prelude for Piano and Malaria (Fog Dance, My Moth Kingdom)
12) Jackie-O Motherfucker - Bone Saw (The Magick Fire Music)
13) Shipping News - Axons and Dendrites (Flies the Fields)
14) NEU! - Hallogallo (NEU!)
15) Spiritualized - Stay With Me (Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space)
16) Spectrum - Then I Just Drifted Away (Highs, Lows, and Heavenly Blows)
17) Kraftwerk - Schaufensterpuppen (Trans-Europa Express)
18) 1 Mile North - Evil Architecture (Glass Wars)
19) My Bloody Valentine - Soon (Loveless)
Runtime: 1:46:16
Download! (166.33 MB) (link’s dead - i’ll reupload in the future -ed)

So the furnace in our house has crapped out when it’s literally almost freezing outside. Now, for some reason, post rock is inexorably linked to winter and the cold in my mind. I guess it just feels like winter to me in a way - in admiring its beauty you have to put up with a bit of discomfort. For the winter, it’s the cold; for post rock, it’s the introspection it tends to bring about, since it’s an almost 100% instrumental genre.

Anyway. I decided to pull together a double mixtape in order to share the beauty and joy of post-rock with anyone who may not have really given it a go. It’s a mixture of some of my favorite bands of the genre. I may put out a third disc in this set - there was still plenty left in my pool to draw from, but I think this mix is a good intro.

The Jimmy Dean Experience
post-rock
DISC 1:
01) Slint - Nosferatu Man (Spiderland)
02) Mogwai - Yes! I Am a Long Way From Home (Young Team)
03) Tortoise - gamera (Millions Now Living Will Never Die)
04) Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - Built Then Burn (Hurrah! Hurrah!) (Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward)
05) The Evpatoria Report - Optimal Region Selector (Golevka)
06) Hrsta - Kotori (Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes)
07) The Pirate Ship Quintet - Lost Science (The Pirate Ship Quintet EP)
08) School of Emotional Engineering - To Be Continued / …Refrain (School of Emotional Engineering)
09) World’s End Girlfriend - Ghost Of A Horse Under The Chandelier (Hurtbreak Wonderland)
Runtime: 01:09:59
Download now! (138.94 MB)

DISC 2:
01) Crippled Black Phoenix - Time of Ye Life (Night Raider)
02) Godspeed You! Black Emperor - The Sad Mafioso (F♯ A♯ ∞)
03) Red Sparowes - Mechanical Sounds Cascaded Through the City Walls and Everyone Reveled in Their Ignorance (At the Soundless Dawn)
04) Yndi Halda - We Flood Empty Lakes (Enjoy Eternal Bliss)
05) Saxon Shore - With a Red Suit You Will Become a Man (The Exquisite Death Of Saxon Shore)
06) Mono - L’America (Under the Pipal Tree)
07) Bears on Parade - Bear Foot in the Snow (This Is Not For You)
08) Gregor Samsa - What I Can Manage (55:12)
09) Mogwai - Friend of the Night (Mr. Beast)
Runtime: 01:01:21
Download now! (97.33 MB)

I don’t really have anything clever to say here. Enjoy.

Emus Ate My Baby
punk, indie pop, ska
01) The Fiery Furnaces - Bow Wow (Gallowsbird’s Bark)
02) Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears - Macedonia Hotel (The Shredding Tears)
03) Ben Folds Five - The Last Polka (s/t)
04) The Fratellis - Vince the Loveable Stoner (Costello Music)
05) Operation Ivy - Yellin’ In My Ear (Energy)
06) The Forces of Evil - Vague Love Song (Friend or Foe?)
07) Bomb the Music Industry! - Unlimited Breadsticks, Soup and Salad Days (Get Warmer)
08) The Epoxies - It’s You (Stop the Future)
09) Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer - Argh…I’m a Pirate (The Popsicle EP)
10) Fang Island - Daisy (s/t)
11) Swingin’ Utters - Twenty-Three (Brazen Head)
12) Flogging Molly - Rebels of the Sacred Heart (Drunken Lullabies)
13) Andrew Jackson Jihad - Self Esteem (Can’t Maintain)
14) Brainiac - Vincent Come on Down (Hissing Prigs In Static Couture)
15) Bad Religion - Turn On the Light (Against the Grain)
16) You Slut! - Roofio Shoots, Roofio Scores (Critical Meat)
17) Dropkick Murphys - I’m Shipping Up to Boston (The Warrior’s Code)
18) Diablo Swing Orchestra - Balrog Boogie (The Butcher’s Ballroom)
19) Black Ox Orkestar - Cretan Song (Ver Taznt)
Runtime: 51:33
Download now! (84.07 MB)

Everyone knows that old music is better than new music. But not too old, that’s shit for your grandparents to listen to. Too new for your parents, but too old for you to have come of age to. Yeah, that’s the stuff.
So next time you have a doe-eyed hipster girl who wishes that Ian Curtis hadn’t offed himself before she was even a thought and owns the entire Doors collection on vinyl, throw this little number on. Bonus points if you actually have it as a mixtape cassette.

Gin and Drano on the Rocks
 post-punk, slowcore, indie rock
01) The Smiths - Cemetry Gates (The Queen is Dead)
02) Echo & the Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar (Echo & the Bunnymen)
03) Siouxsie & the Banshees - Painted Bird (A Kiss in the Dreamhouse)
04) The Cure - A Short Term Effect (Pornography)
05) The Church - Under the Milky Way (Starfish)
06) Galaxie 500 - Ceremony (On Fire)
07) Nick Drake - Parasite (Pink Moon)
08) Joy Division - A Means to an End (Closer)
09) Suicide - Touch Me (The Second Album)
10) Slint - Ron (Tweez)
Runtime: 41:06
Download now! (75.02 MB)

Holy fuck, a mixtape on Mixtape Monday!
Anyway. Every time I visit home, I usually spend at least a little bit of time driving around being all nostalgic and shit. I grew up in a small (population ~4000) town in rural Nebraska. I was friends with a lot of people in the skater/stoner crowd, and when coupled with the halcyon days of Napster, between all of us we had a pretty diverse swathe of artists in our chosen genre. I played bass in a garage band and we’d learn to play covers of CCR, The Clash, the Vandals, and other such nonsense. We occasionally tried for ska, but since only two of us played horns (me on tenor sax and Travis on trumpet) and our guitarist had something of a boner for bitchin’ guitar solos, that never really amounted to much.
Anyway, that’s enough nonsense about me. Here’s a mixtape of some of my favorite tunes from when I was in high school. If you went back to the early 2000s, our mixtapes from when we’d go cruising Harlan were loaded with these and other similar artists.

Beyond Beyond Thunderdome
ska, pop-punk
01) No Use For a Name - Sitting Duck (Making Friends)
02) The Suicide Machines - Vans Song (Destruction by Definition)
03) Millencolin - Fox (Pennybridge Pioneers)
04) Sugarcult - You’re the One (Start Static)
05) Flogging Molly - May The Living Be Dead (In Our Wake) (Drunken Lullabies)
06) Goldfinger - Superman (Hang-Ups)
07) Less Than Jake - History of a Boring Town (Hello Rockview)
08) Weezer - Buddy Holly (Blue Album)
09) The Vandals - Oi to the World (Oi to the World)
10) Green Day - Minority (Warning)
11) The Aquabats - Martian Girl! (The Fury of the Aquabats!)
12) Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer - The Hot Situation (Jalopy Go Far)
13) Reel Big Fish - Ban the Tube Top (Cheer Up!)
14) The Pharmaceutical Bandits - Milk (Those Damn Bandits)
15) The Specials - Little Bitch (The Specials)
16) catch-22 - Keasbey Nights (Keasbey Nights)
17) The Ataris - San Dimas High School Football Rules (Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits)
18) Bad Religion - Sorrow (The Process of Belief)
19) Swingin’ Utters - Nowhere Fast (A Juvenile Product of the Working Class)
Runtime: 49:30
Download now! (71.17 MB) (dead link - i’ll reupload if there’s interest)

Each .zip file contains a folder with 19 lovingly crafted (for her pleasure) .mp3 files of excellent quality (usually V0) and a playlist file.

Mark Twain’s Baby Daddy
alternative rock, alternative country, indie folk, synthpop
01) Tresspassers William - What Could I Say (Different Stars)
02) Secondhand Serenade - Your Call (Awake)
03) The Mostar Diving Club - You Be Me (Don Your Suit of Lights)
04) of Montreal - Pancakes for One (Aldhils Arboretum)
05) The Magnetic Fields - You and Me and the Moon (Get Lost)
06) Vitesse - Just For a Night (You Win Again, Gravity!)
07) Bryan Scary - Shedding Tears (All Over the Place) (The Shredding Tears)
08) Ozma - The Business of Getting Down (The Doubble Donkey Disc)
09) The Refreshments - Carefree (Fizzy Fuzzy Big and Buzzy)
10) Old 97’s - Big Brown Eyes (Too Far to Care)
11) Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Timorous Me (The Tyranny of Distance)
12) Caleb Klauder - The Pain of Loving You (Dangerous Mes and Poisonous Yous)
13) Mumford and Sons - Little Lion Man (Sigh No More)
14) Nana Grizol - Will We (Love It Love It)
15) Plumtree - The Game’s Over (Predicts the Future)
Runtime: 55:45
Download now! (92.42 MB) (dead link - i’ll reupload if there’s interest)

I’ve been doing just that for the last couple hours. Figured I’d make a short playlist for ambiance, and it turned out pretty good. As such, I felt I would give it to the Internet. Enjoy, Internet.

Born in a Nalgene Bottle
indie folk, post rock, indie rock
01) Wilco - Leave Me (Like You Found Me) (Sky Blue Sky)
02) Melody Gardot - Love Me Like a River Does (Worrisome Heart)
03) Motohiro Nakashima - Mom Piano (We Hum on the Way Home)
04) Explosions in the Sky - From West Texas (Friday Night Lights)
05) Bon Iver - Flume (For Emma, Forever Ago)
06) The Little Hands of Asphalt - Highway’s Pull (Leap Years)
07) The Tallest Man on Earth - Where Do My Bluebirds Fly (Shallow Grave)
08) David Dondero - I’ve Seen the Love (South of the South)
09) The Microphones - Between Your Ear & the Other Ear (It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water)
10) Blitzen Trapper - Shoulder Full of You (EP3)
11) Aqueduct Pocket - Monday Morning (Coachella)
12) Iron & Wine - Naked as we Came (Our Endless Numbered Days)
13) The Dandy Warhols - Sleep (Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia)
14) Best Coast - Crazy For You (Crazy For You)
15) Shipping News - Axons and Dendrites (Flies the Fields)
16) The Flaming Lips - What is the Light? (The Soft Bulletin)
Runtime: 56:39
Download now! (85.24 MB)

Hey guys, it’s Monday Wednesday again, so it’s mixtape time.
I went a little bit more concept-y this week than usual. None of these tracks were required to have anything to do with each other musically (so it was kinda hard to arrange them in a way that minimized have drastic stylistic or tempo jumps, like every good mixtape should), but I still think it turned out reasonably well. I’ll probably go back to making boring old mixtapes to promote an emotion or atmosphere next week.

What’s In a Name
indie pop, shoegaze, slowcore, ska
01) Freelance Whales - Hannah (Weathervanes)
02) The Apples in Stereo - Ruby (Her Wallpaper Reverie)
03) Architecture in Helsinki - Debbie (Places Like This)
04) The Fratellis - Stacie Ann (Fratellis EP)
05) The Specials - Jezebel (Skinhead Girl)
06) The Pietasters - Rachel (Turbo)
07) Math and Physics Club - La La Lisa (s/t)
08) The Submarines - Xavia (Honeysuckle Weeks)
09) Airiel - Sharron Apple (Winks & Kisses: Melted)
10) Slowdive - Alison (Souvlaki)
11) Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Roberta C. (Twinkle Echo)
12) Slint - Darlene (Tweez)
13) Neutral Milk Hotel - Naomi (On Avery Island)
14) Simon & Garfunkel - Cecilia (Bridge Over Troubled Water)
15) Tilly and the Wall - Bessa (Wild Like Children)
16) of Montreal - Penelope (Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies)
Runtime: 56:43 
Size: 89.35 MB

(dead link - i’ll reupload if there’s interest)