rilo kiley

The Dunce Cap: Week of Aug. 26, 2012

in: heavy rotation

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 49: Well, I’ll fall if I don’t fight. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks or play above)

1. “Bodegas and Blood” – Butch Walker
2. “No One Else” – Weezer
3. “Market Girl” – Headlights
4. “Breakin’ Up” – Rilo Kiley
5. “I Want You” – The Tallest Man on Earth
6. “Criminal” – Fiona Apple
7. “The Ballad of El Goodo” – Big Star
8. “Landslide” – Smashing Pumpkins
9. “Watching the Detectives” – Elvis Costello
10. “Stephen” – Voxtrot

I’ve been a good, good girl. I’ve been careless with a fraudulent man. And it’s a sad, sad world, when you’ll trust a boy just because you can.

Alright, y’all know I’m no Fiona Apple, and I certainly don’t purport to be a masterful songwriter (or, even, much of a satirist at all), but I’m really feeling these tunes this week. I never seem to quite learn my lesson – and drama tends to trail me* – and I’ve found myself, so soon after the most recent transgression, knee-deep in interpersonal muck. This mix is a testament, in various ways, to those damn unpretty situations.

Some of the songs are more straightforward than the others – “Watching the Detectives” is fairly lyrically apt, the murder stuff, y’know, aside, while “Stephen” is appropriately titled but reflects a previous point of view – but I think they all convey a particular current state of mind for me. I’m done wading through your (the general ‘you’) philandering bullshit, I’m done being objectified, I’m done being walked all over or weak or manipulated, so I’m strapping on my dancing shoes and letting loose.

It’s time for a fresh start.

Happy listening.

*there are those who’d suggest I seek it out, but I’d beg to disagree.

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: Dec. 27, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image from Toothpaste for Dinner

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 30: The sun is up – I’m so fizzy, I could burst! (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “Mint Car” – The Cure
2. “Sun in an Empty Room” – The Weakerthans
3. “Happiness Writes White” – Harvey Danger
4. “Graduate” – Third Eye Blind
5. “New York, New York” – Ryan Adams
6. “The Sweet Part of the City” – The Hold Steady
7. “Back in the Saddle” – Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin
8. “All the Young Dudes” – Mott the Hoople
9. “Work” – Jimmy Eat World
10. “Kick Some Ass” – Stroke 9
11. “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly” – Weezer
12. “Some Fantastic” – Barenaked Ladies
13. “Popular Mechanics for Lovers” – Beulah
14. “Magic Boyfriend” – Matt Pond PA
15. “Let’s Dance” – David Bowie
16. “Star Bodies” – The New Pornographers
17. “Doing All the Things That Wouldn’t Make Your Parents Proud” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
18. “Atlantis” – Donovan
19. “Sugar Daddy” – Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Broadway OST)
20. “More Adventurous” – Rilo Kiley
21. “To Be Surprised” – Sondre Lerche

Well, it’s the 30th Dunce Cap of all time, and it’s the last of the year – I feel like this should be a celebratory moment! As I talked about rather extensively in my last post, this is AN EXCITING BRAND NEW YEAR, and I am ready for all of the excitement and thrall I anticipate it will bring. This mix is themed!, and it’s really a sister post to the Dunce Cap’s New Year’s Resolutions.

Basically, these are 21 songs that I hope will define my 2011. You should mostly be able to catch the gist from the title, but a few may require some explanation and commentary. Many of these songs are actually kind of sad – they’re not literal representations of what I want, but they each have special significance to me. There’s also a division of sorts among songs. An explanation after the jump.

Continue reading →

The Dunce Cap: Dec. 13, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image courtesy of nataliedee

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 28: You are too young to put all of your hopes in just one envelope. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “If She Wants Me” – Belle & Sebastian
2. “Temporary Title” – Butch Walker
3. “Adventures in Solitude” – The New Pornographers
4. “Southtown Girls” – The Hold Steady
5. “Miss Sweeney” – Weezer
6. “Dark Neon” – Wilco
7. “Love You To” – Yim Yames
8. “Breakin’ Up” – Rilo Kiley
9. “Back in Your Head” – Tegan & Sara
10. “See You” – Saves the Day

I really ought to start making themed mixes again. It gets tiresome, putting ten tracks together to make a disjointed collection. What can I say about these tracks, really? I like ’em. I like ’em quite a lot.

Mainly, this is a mix of the same ol’ artists I listen to week in and week out. I think I’ll take this break to explore music all over again. I’ll bring you some exciting new artists and tunes soon enough.

Tomorrow, news/sites/videos.

Until then, and as always –
Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: Nov. 1, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Venn: Your Grandfather (FlowingData)

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 25: I don’t think that it’s the end, but I know we can’t keep going. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “Elevator Love Letter” – Stars
2. “Lady Stardust” – David Bowie
3. “Right Moves” – Josh Ritter
4. “Lover in the Snow” – Rivers Cuomo
5. “Blue Skies” – Noah and the Whale
6. “Trouble” – Butch Walker
7. “Dreamworld” – Rilo Kiley
8. “Wake Up New” – The Mountain Goats
9. “Against All Odds” – The Postal Service
10. “At the Stars” – Better Than Ezra

I know, I know, it’s not Thursday. It’s actually Monday (barely), but I have a mix to get your week going. It’s a break up mix, sure, full of heartache and sadness, but nearly absent of regret. These are ten tracks I love – really love – about falling out of love (and sometimes falling back in it).

That Josh Ritter track, “Right Moves,” is one of my favorite tracks ever. It’s so so stellar. Give the whole thing a listen. There’s so much to be learned from love songs, especially these.

It’s my simple way of saying – I’ll love you always, but I understand too.

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: Oct. 11, 2010

in: heavy rotation

 

On the upswing, pup!

 

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 24: She got gold doorknobs where her eyes used to be, yeah. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “All I Know” – Free Energy
2. “Heavy Metal” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
3. “40 Day Dream” – Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
4. “Let’s Get Out of This Country” – Camera Obscura
5. “Pin Your Heart to Me” – Jacobites
6. “P.Y.T.” – Michael Jackson
7. “Call It Off” – Tegan and Sara
8. “The Walls are Coming Down” – Fanfarlo
9. “Silver Lining” – Rilo Kiley
10. “The Youth” – MGMT

Alright, I admit it. I am a filthy, rotten liar. I can’t seem to get my act together to post. I know, it’s simple etiquette to follow through on promises. And, believe me, I’ve wanted to. Desperately wanted to. My life has been nothing short, though, of totally insane, so please continue to pardon me. I promise to be back soon with rollicking good posts of hilarity and strange pop culture news.

And, for your enjoyment (and also to appease you, darlings):

“Change is Cumming” with Canadian political candidate Ian Cumming.
Cumming with diligence and stability.
Cumming with care for details.

et. al. [Ian-Cumming.com via The Frisky]

The Dunce Cap: July 5, 2010

in: heavy rotation

As a reminder – all of these mixes are hosted at 8tracks.com. You can click on the photo or link below to visit 8tracks and listen to the full mix.

Bust by sculptor Daniel Edwards

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 15: Let’s talk, and we’ll fill the air with imagery that lasts forever. (mix via 8tracks)

1. “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” – She & Him
2. “Foundations” – Kate Nash
3. “Head Over Feet” – Alanis Morissette
4. “Cannonball” – The Breeders
5. “Move You (SSSPII)” – Anya Marina
6. “The Frug” – Rilo Kiley
7. “Mr. Moon” – Kate Micucci
8. “She Wolf” – Shakira
9. “If” – Janet Jackson
10. “If You Fall” – Azure Ray

*BONUS TRACK: “And Darling” – Tegan and Sara

This week, it seems, is all about girrrrrl power. Now, if I’d been more of a formed person during the Riot grrrl era, I would have undoubtedly been a part of it. I would have started a ‘zine, scoped out the local clubs, sent fervent love notes to grungy rock stars (not unlike my mother’s letters to David Cassidy or my sister’s later supposed letters to Ralph Macchio). I am, in no uncertain terms, a feminist of the third wave (I almost typed reich, yikes), except I’m not averse to capitalist consumer goods, and I’m not entirely self-sufficient. But I do have a definite soft spot for women rockers that found its way into my heart about the time I saw Joan Jett live in concert. From there, it was Debbie Harry and Patti Smith and Siouxsie Sioux, and then I discovered the whispered, flowing lyricism of later feminine musicians, all flow-y skirts, floral patterns and young adolescent heartbreak. Like Evan Dando sans male genitalia.

So, in celebration of women, a mix of female vocalists. There’s more Zooey, Rilo Kiley and Kate Nash, but there are some surprises, I like to think, with Shakira and Janet Jackson, two women who just ooze sex appeal. It’s inspiring, certainly. Hot-ties. Kate Micucci is an adorable actress you’ve seen everywhere but likely never recognized; she was, among other roles, the ukulele played Ted fell for in the eighth season of “Scrubs.” And Tegan and Sara, a killer sister duo I actually overlooked for too long. And, of course, there’s the Breeders.

I have to admit – I have a bit of a Kim Deal complex. She’s possibly the coolest person I’ve never encountered. She was in Pixies, The Breeders and The Amps, and, not only that, she can play her f*!#ing instrument. Give me a teen pop sensation that can do that. She’s a clever and confident lyricist and vocalist – even Kurt Cobain praised her specific work before his death, commenting, “I wish Kim was allowed to write more songs for the Pixies.” Kurt. Cobain. Thinks. You. Are. Underpraised. Welcome to the big time. She’s really one of those women I will always admire, even though she’s not on the top ten list I posted earlier. There are just some women who are unspoken members of the top ten.

Happy listening.

(editor’s note – I know I put “Mr. Moon” on a previous Dunce Cap, and I never repeat a track, but this was a special edition, and it felt wholly appropriate for the mix. My apologies.)