voxtrot

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: July 11, 2011

in: heavy rotation

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 36: I want to run like vagrants hand in hand across this field. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “I Wanna Know Girls” – Portastatic
2. “Cowboy” – Anya Marina
3. “She Likes Hair Bands” – Butch Walker
4. “Soft in the Center” – The Hold Steady
5. “Your Biggest Fan” – Voxtrot
6. “Girl in Love” – Smith Westerns
7. “Closer to Mercury” – Wheat
8. “Needle and Thread” – Matt Duke
9. “The Girl Got Hot” – Weezer
10. “Secondhand Heart” – Will Hoge

Not too much to say about this one, except I feel like maybe this’ll save me from the absolutely stifling Chicago heat. I’m thinking of sleeping in an academic building tonight – sadly, not the first time – but if I do head home, maybe this’un will keep me cool.

Happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: August 2, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Yarmulke Poodle!

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 19: It sounds impossible but, man, it’s true. You are the bad, the bad seed of this town. (listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “All the Pretty Girls Go to the City” – Spoon
2. “The Village Green Preservation Society” – The Kinks
3. “Trouble” – Voxtrot
4. “King of Anything” – Sara Bareilles
5. “Meet Virginia” – Train
6. “Your Boyfriend Sucks” – The Ataris
7. “Amy” – Ryan Adams
8. “Sway” – The Perishers
9. “Wedding Song” – Anais Mitchell ft. Justin Vernon
10. “Tightrope (Wondamix)” – Janelle Monae ft. B.O.B. & Lupe Fiasco

My apologies for this mix coming around so late. It’s been a hectic week of work, car rides, stadium food and ultimate Braves domination. But the Dunce Cap is back with a brand new mix! Let the gasps ensue.

This is a delightfully bouncy soundtrack to the last month of summer. Or last week of summer, for you poor souls not on the magnificent quarter system! It’s full of wondrous songs by artists I adore (yes, even The Ataris!), including Spoon, Voxtrot (who very sadly parted ways in June after a small tour) and Ryan Adams (who released Orion, his first “fully-realized sci-fi metal concept album,” in May). There’s a track from Anais Mitchell‘s Hadestown, a folk-rock opera telling the tale of  poet Orpheus, featuring Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. There’s the Lupe Fiasco/B.O.B. remix of Janelle Monae‘s sing-a-long “Tightrope” (so so excited to see Monae with Of Montreal Sept. 25 in Chicago!). And then there’s Train… Not really much of a fit for this mix, but a fun song that I’ve long adored worthy of a place in a mix of songs to play at maximum volume on car speakers.

Happy listening!