Mixtape Weekend, curated by Erik

This weekend’s mix comes from my pal Erik, an all around music guy.  He is an active musician, actively creating songs for FAWM each year, as well as tons of stuff I have no idea how to access.  A graduate from NYU he is a certified studio engineer, traveling across America to record various artists.  With help from his brother, he was listening to Doolittle and Primus before I ever bought my first two cds (The Lion King soundtrack and Salt N’ Pepa – Very Necessary) so he kinda knows his shit.

His mix, entitled “The Act You’ve Known for All These Years,” is a little bit of a musical education as well as a sneak peek into the dark, twisted art of music sampling.  This hour-long .mp3 is a collection of the original songs that were sampled to make contemporary hits.  You can download it by clicking this link.  A complete track list and synopsis of who took what is after the jump.

And remember – this only achieves total heaviosity if y’all get involved, too.  It’s a one hour long .mp3 with a common theme (“Songs that remind me of Thursday” “Down” “Wet” “The Best Before Weezer Sucked Ass”).  You can use Garage Band, the free Audacity, anything you like.  Make the file, upload it to mediafire, and email it to me (kingmanton at gmail) with a track listing and maybe yooouuu could have a featured mix some weekend. Come share your awesome musical taste with a relatively decent-sized audience!

Mixtape Weekend, curated by me

And the letter B!

All songs in this hour-long mix has the letter “b” as the first letter in the artist’s name, the title of the song, or is a cut from an album that starts with the letter “b.”  Yes, I know, rocket science.  But I did throw in some other rules.  Any artists’ name is just the last letter, so there goes Bob Dylan, and no “The” before a B.  It’s a B to kick it off or nothing, folks.  I also unabashedly threw in some hits, so it should be a fun–if a bit sonically chaotic–experience.  You can listen to it here, if you’re so inclined.

As always, the track list is after the jump, just in case you want to play “guess the song.”

Mixtape Weekend, Curated By Rich

Hello all!  Y’know, as we move in to this weekend, right before Columbus Day, we think back to how foreigners came over to this land, raped the land and killed the original inhabitants, and created the Freedom land we enjoyed today.  Right?

Well, either way, let’s just stay focused on “foreigners” for the moment.  My friend Rich, a Brit (and Villa fan…ugh), was the first one to got us started on this mixtape idea, and his first effort was a great mix of 90s alt-rock by Europeople who weren’t Oasis or Radiohead.  So, essentially, I got an hour of great music mixed with a European history lesson.  It’s everything I’ve ever wanted from High School.

You can get the mix by clicking here.  The track list is again hidden after the jump in case you want to play “guess how many songs on this I know.”  Enjoy and have a great weekend, folks!  See you on Tuesday.

Mixtape Weekend

It’s a helluva time to be a fan of music, isn’t it?  There have never been more avenues to get new albums, hear new bands, got obsessed about new songs, and there is a never-ending number of them just coming down the pipe.  With this gigantic, DIY-powered movement, there are less and less places to find music.  MTV relegates it to throwing it into their terrible, mindless shows (save for Fantasy Factory, which rules…seriously) with the catchiest 30 seconds and a crawl at the bottom notifying you of artist, song title, and that you can absolutely purchase it on rhapsody.com.  Radio is a joke, as I’ve heard “new songs” by The Black Keys (Tighten Up), Broken Bells (The High Road) and Mumford and Sons (Little Lion Man) for the last five straight months, thereby negating the fact that they’re “new.”  The internet is full of sites and blogs that can point you in that direction (such as Track No. 17) but it’s tough to pin point one of them and hone in on it.

So why not throw my hat into the ring with the help of my musically-inclined friends?  Every weekend, we’re going to feature one mixtape from people I know and who have great taste in music.  Each mix will be no longer than an hour long and feature a single theme, be it break-up music, fall songs, etc.  You’re more than welcome to join in on the fun – email me a single mp3 uploaded to a file sharing site like mediafire or zshare, give me a track listing, and maybe it’ll show up in this very space! I know, dreams DO come true!  My email is listed on the top right on the site.

Today’s inaugural mixtape comes from my pal nate.  At the behest of our friend Rich, nate made a couple of danceable 90s alt-rock mixes, the latest of which I’ll share with you.  Some of it’s pretty mainstream, some…not so much.  Either way, here’s the link to the file.  We try to do a game where you guess the track list, so I’ll throw that in after the break if you want to play along as well.