the get up kids

The Dunce Cap: Week of May 26, 2014

in: heavy rotation

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 52: But it’s as warm as saxophones and honey in the sun for you. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks or play above)

1. “Honk + Wave” – Limbeck
2. “Hey Julie” – Fountains of Wayne
3. “Let’s Get Drunk and Get It On” – Old 97’s
4. “Honey In The Sun” – Camera Obscura
5. “If She Wants Me” – Belle & Sebastian
6. “Far Away From Close” – Butch Walker
7. “In Ohio On Some Steps” – Limbeck
8. “Holiday” – The Get Up Kids
9. “Blue Moon” – Beck
10. “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today” – She & Him

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: June 6, 2011

in: heavy rotation

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 35: You could drive a car through my head in five minutes, from one side of it to the other. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “#1 Summer Jam” – Butch Walker
2. “Kick Drum Heart” – The Avett Brothers
3. “Something Good Can Work” – Two Door Cinema Club
4. “Shaken” – Five-Eight
5. “Rolling in the Deep” – Adele
6. “Hurricane J” – The Hold Steady
7. “Slow Show” – The National
8. “Mass Pike” – The Get Up Kids
9. “She’s in Love” – Fourth of July
10. “Here in Your Bedroom” – Goldfinger

Oh man, I’m so ashamed, guys. I crafted this pretty excellent mix weeks ago and failed to post it here in my blog. I’m guessing that – due to a slip in content and a subsequent slip in readership – there aren’t many of you out there at all miffed by this, but I don’t want to besmirch my good name. Any further, at least.

Regardless, my computer, trusty ol’ RuPaul, went totally kaput, so I’m working solely off of university computers. I’m still in town for summer session, throwing myself into some courses and attempting to regain some of the ground I lost these last few quarters. The point of this little exposition is this: I’ve got a lot to say but am currently lacking the general means to post regularly – and am fairly busy with classwork -, so please continue to bear with me. I’m hoping to get RuPaul up and running again soon, but, until then, I’ll be blogging when I can.

Anyhow – back to the mix. There’s not much to be said about this one. You’ll see I’m back to including both The Hold Steady and The National, and, I’m sorry to say, I don’t see this trend ceasing anytime in the near future. I just keep finding yet another track to fall in love with. There’s also a great track from Athens’ Five-Eight, an old Get Up Kids sing-along, the gorgeously talented Adele and, finally, a throwback from Goldfinger (that one goes out to late-night drives with the one and only CaCa).

I’ll be back soon with a long form piece about women in journalism; I’ve been using my phone to scour through so many excellent and thought-provoking articles by female writers, and I’m thrilled to report that, in my humble opinion, quality journalism is alive and well.

In the meantime, happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: June 7, 2010

in: heavy rotation

The geeks of Wet Hot American Summer

I hope it’s not jumbo shrimp, because I’m allergic to oxymorons!

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 11: So many foreign worlds, so ready for us. (mix via 8tracks)

1. “Close to Home” – The Get Up Kids
2. “Laid” – James
3. “No Diggity” – Klaxons
4. “Silvia” – Miike Snow
5. “Be My Baby” – The Ronettes
6. “Britney” – I’m From Barcelona
7. “Creature Fear” – Bon Iver
8. “Happiness” – Jonsi and Alex
9. “For Real” – Okkervil River
10. “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks” – The National

*BONUS TRACK: “The Geeks Get the Girls” – American Hi-Fi

The 2000s were, undeniably, the decade of the nerd. Sure, Duckie, Long Duk Dong and any character played by Anthony Michael Hall in a John Hughes flick had their fifteen minutes of fame, fortune and genuine female attention, but the aughts saw an unprecedented rise in the triumph of wallflowers in popular culture. There was the gang from Freaks and Geeks, led by John Francis Daley of Bones, who closed out the ’90s; Ugly Betty, Napoleon Dynamite, Seth Cohen and Ted Mosby (yes, the real Ted Mosby) all had their spots in the space-time continuum of geek lead triumph, but no ragtag troupe of amateur nerdlings captured my heart like the geeks of Wet Hot American Summer.

This is a mix inspired by these gems, by the caped kid cradling his 20-sided die, by The Cure Girl (called so in the credits of the film), by David Hyde Pierce‘s caustic Henry and all of the other kids who “like science.” They “save” their summer camp by diverting a rogue piece of Skylab, but the most earnest and touching part is that they discover friendship (this would warrant a trite vomit if it weren’t so hilariously choreographed by David Wain and Michaels Ian Black and Showalter). They form li’l bond to beat the summer camp blues, stargazing, plotting, commiserating and running from dodgeball. Together.

These are songs about unrequited love, homesickness, fear, Britney Spears and, of course, geeks. It’s dedicated to those freaks, geeks and Otis Redding-belting nerds who stole my heart and let me be their friend.

For now – I am jetsetting to the exotic town of Snellville, Ga., on Monday, but fret not – The Dunce Cap will prevail! I know I haven’t done June Book Club yet, so look out for that soon.

Now finish up them taters; I’m gonna go fondle my sweaters.

Happy listening.