neutral milk hotel

The Dunce Cap: Week of Feb. 21, 2012

in: heavy rotation

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 43: I should find someone better for me, but Mom says we’re born this way. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks or play above)

1. “Holland 1945” – Neutral Milk Hotel
2. “Dawned on Me” – Wilco
3. “Star Wars” – Ryan Adams
4. “Rubber Lover” – Marmaduke Duke
5. “Sweethearts” – Butch Walker & the Black Widows
6. “Girls and Boys in Love” – The Rumble Strips
7. “Range Life” – Pavement
8. “Holiday” – The Get Up Kids
9. “Glendora” – Rilo Kiley
10. “I Can’t Make You Love Me” – Bon Iver

I’m sorry for the delay with this post, folks. I made the mix some time ago, but I’d forgotten to post the accompanying WordPress post. I’m sure you all were eagerly awaiting my return.

I’m stationed currently in one of the journalism labs at Northwestern, and I’m looking out the giant glass window, positively dismayed to find snow flurrying outside. What is this nonsense? Chicago weather is utterly fickle, and we’ll go from sunshine (see Wednesday’s love-for-global-warming-inducing midday 60s) to driving rain to snow. It’s days like this I revel in the idea of approaching Florida warmth.

For now, this playlist ought to rev up your desire, too, for something resembling spring. These ten tracks are fairly representative of what I’ve been listening to quite a bit lately. I’m sans iPod – and, really, reliable technology in general – but spending 40 hours a week in a moving vehicle, so I’ve started to slowly rebuild my music collection. Reckless Records and Second Hand Tunes, two local Chicago record stores, offer much in the way of cheap used CDs, and I’ve spent hours on end picking through their selections. The result is a car trip full of 90s nostalgia, from Pavement to the Get Up Kids to Jawbreaker to the Gin Blossoms, and, while Pavement’s getting quite a bit of play on my radio these days, it’s Neutral Milk Hotel which has really stolen my heart. I had the unique pleasure of catching NMH’s Jeff Mangum in Milwaukee last month, and it was truly transcendental. Both of the group’s full lengths have been in regular rotation as of late, and “Holland 1945” – rumored to be about Anne Frank – is likely my favorite tune from both releases.

The Pavement track here (“Range Life,” from their seminal album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain) is one of my favorites, with, it seems, frontman Stephen Malkmus cleverly employing a thesaurus to detail the comforts of laziness. The Get Up Kids’ “Holiday,” the lead track from their 1999 album Something to Write Home About, remains one of my very favorites, and I was thrilled to find a copy of the album after losing mine so many years ago. This mix also has a sweet Butch Walker track from his newest album, The Spade, and an excellent Bon Iver B-side, his haunting cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” as well as two of the catchiest tracks I’ve heard in some time, Marmaduke Duke‘s totally filthy “Rubber Lover” and the Rumble Strips‘ “Girls and Boys in Love.” These are ten I’m really loving, which, I suppose, has been my m.o. with these for a while now. Alas, alack.

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: March 21, 2011

in: heavy rotation, in: the press

Ju·gee·toe

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 31: ‘Cause they’re gonna be cool happy genius heroes. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “When U Love Somebody” – The Fruit Bats
2. “All the Beautiful Things” – Eels
3. “Ambling Alp” – Yeasayer
4. “Always On My Mind” – Phantom Planet
5. “Santa Clara” – The National
6. “King of Carrot Flowers, Pt.1” – Neutral Milk Hotel
7. “Keep Fishin’” – Weezer
8. “Oregon Girl” – Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin
9. “Dancing Choose” – TV on the Radio
10. “Last Flight Out” – Butch Walker

I’ve got to say – I feel really guilty, you guys. Not only has The Girl With the Dunce Cap only produced a handful of entries this year, this is only the second Dunce Cap mix of 2011.  I have to be totally honest, though, and admit it’s been a pretty tough year thus far. So tough, in fact, that I’ve taken to watching “Fancy Feast” commercials for warmth in my heart.

Okay, that last part was a fib. But wouldn’t that be sad and indicative of my inevitable and massively disastrous cat lady future?

Anyhow. It’s spring break for the itty bitty kitty ‘Cats like myself, and it could not have come at a better time. This quarter honestly felt like a terse struggle for survival, and I’m ripe for an explosion. That was fairly melodramatic, sure, but winter is always the hardest. This winter was particularly tough, what with that ridiculous blizzard, incredible overcommitting, a deplorable gluttony of Netflix instant and a still-mending broken heart. But it wasn’t all bad. I think I learned a lot more about myself and what I want. I gained a greater understanding of the healing power of time, and I really, truly think I figured out what it is that I want. And I’m strong enough to risk it all to get it.

This mix is a testament to the long overdue start to spring. It’s ultra-warm down South, and I am loving the heat waves. I like these songs because they make my feet tick and the corners of my mouth turn up, and I want to let the wind in my hair and the sun on my skin, and that is the feeling I think I’m constantly coveting. God, I’m starting to sound so sappy. But I’m truly confident about what lies ahead, and I’m really learning to count on myself. I’m still very much in love, perhaps with what used to be, but I have a good feeling. There’s still more to come.

OH. AND THE PHOTO. If you ever experience a lull in conversation with me, ask me why Judge Lance Ito is important to me.

Stray additions:

  • My favorite line of the week came from Thursday’s quite excellent 30 Rock. “I miss my weird love,” says Angie about Tracy, and I’ve got to say – I totally understand where she’s coming from.
  • I bought this hat. It’s possibly the best thing to potentially ever happen to anyone anywhere in the history of the universe (thank you, Leslie Knope!), and I plan to wear it at every opportunity, including but not limited to (my first actually attended) crush party, Dillo Day and my 21st birthday epic bar crawl. For the record, that’s not me in the photo. I know. You thought wrong.
  • I’m living like Eloise all week long! Seriously. I’m residing in a hotel instead of my childhood home because of a big ol’ fire – yeah, that sucks. -, and it’s actually really cool. Plus, there’s a tap of cheap beer at my disposal.
  • Dude. Last week’s NBC Thursday night television? Totally excellent. My crush on Adam Scott deepens. And my favorite use of Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s “American Girl” ever. I can’t explain to you how hard I laughed when I saw Swanson on that li’l train, with Tom taking up the rear. Even better use of the song than in that seriously creepy scene in Silence of the Lambs!
  • I like Memphis. And I like Twitter. Happy 5th birthday, Twitter!
  • I’m particularly intrigued by the whole debacle happening in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communication (yawnx10,000 to the name change) with renowned Medill Innocence Project Professor David Protess. Check out the coverage in the Sun-Times.

Alright, y’all. Happy listening, and happy pretty weather & frolicking & springtime! The Dunce Cap will be back in a big way this quarter, with mixes out every Monday and regular pop culture updates from the mouths of (this) babe. Thrilling!

The Dunce Cap: Dec. 20, 2010

in: heavy rotation

I’m bringing you The Dunce Cap a little early this week. Why? Because I Can and Because I Want To, which are two concepts I can get behind.

Edward Hopper's "Summer Evening"

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 29: Underneath the stars on the Ferris Wheel, you swung your feet and sang my favorite Weezer song. So I sang along. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “Write About Love” – Belle & Sebastian
2. “All the Wine” – The National
3. “Kiss Your Lips” – Allo Darlin’
4. “Naomi” – Neutral Milk Hotel
5. “Laura” – Girls
6. “Like or Like-Like” – Miniature Tigers
7. “Oysters” – Matt Duke
8. “The Mystery Zone” – Spoon
9. “Begin” – Ben Lee
10. “All of Us” – Painted Palms

*BONUS TRACK* “The Boys Are Back in Town” – Belle & Sebastian (Thin Lizzy cover)

I promised you Dunce Cap devotees (so, you know, I promised myself, really) new artists and tunes, so this is my way of delivering. New artists? A couple. There’s Allo Darlin’, this great London foursome with a love for Weezer and Woody Allen and a tacit appreciation for “Graceland” (sample lyric: “You see, it’s like loving ‘Graceland.’ It’s not allowed to be, but we know it’s everybody’s favorite,” from “My Heart is a Drummer”). And then there’s Painted Palms, a San Franciscan band which Sound of the Sound describes as “a happily drugged out mix (think pot and mushrooms, not ketamine and meth) of Passion Pit and Animal Collective.” [Sound of the Sound]

And, of course, there are new tracks from Spoon and Belle & Sebastian, a favorite National track of mine from “Alligator” (who else but Matt Berninger can get away with a line like “I’m a perfect piece of ass, like every Californian”?), a Matt Duke song with a great whistling breakdown and my very favorite tune from my very favorite Aussie, Ben Lee. Finally, the mix rounds out with a bonus cut from Belle & Sebastian’s BBC Session, a cover of Thin Lizzy‘s “The Boys Are Back in Town.” The song manages to combine two things I love the most: Glasgow indie pop and Irish hard rock. Somehow, I don’t think the two get along. Except musically.

All in all, it’s a pretty pleasing mix, about, as most music is, love. It’s not a statement, really, it’s just the subject of a lot of the music I like best. And the album art is a glorious painting from Edward Hopper, the artist behind “Nighthawks,” which I will see in person tomorrow!

How’s that for a description, kiddos?

I’ll be back tomorrow with some interesting and laughable videos and cultural musings. And for next week’s Dunce Cap, I’ll have all sorts of new music to contribute. I’ve resubscribed to some of my favorite music blogs (You Ain’t No Picasso, Music for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and I Guess I’m Floating, which you should all check out), so I should have exciting new ear candy soon.

In the meantime,
Happy listening.

P.S. I just finished Woody Allen‘s “Manhattan.” I’m not a huge fan of Woody’s nebbish neurotic (in any of his films, really), but I did tend to like his leading lady. The 17-year-old Tracy explains to her much older beau, “Not everybody gets corrupted. You have to have a little faith in people.”

Yeah, I guess I’ll have to remember that.