Challenge #4: Keep It Local

It's summer! And I love the music that emanates from block parties, barbecues and a more relaxed time of year. So, let July be your opportunity to introduce your favorites of the season into this mix to greet that summer mood. They can be from any location or from any artist you like. However, those songs alone, cannot be 100% of the mix.

The real challenge of this month is to mix them alongside songs that are from local artists (that can be any % of the mix you like). These can be well-known or unsigned musicians who originate from ANY city (not just Chicago) that you have lived in. The theme and interconnection you build between these songs is your own to decide.

This challenge is also open to any interpretation or mood you have about Summer 2009.

Post it by July 27th, 2009.

(EDITED for clarity on July 1st)

Challenge #3 - Dark Angel (Jeff's Entry)

The Apocalypse. What can it mean? Indeed, it has two definitions: "Great or total devastation; doom: the end of the world;" and "A prophetic disclosure; a revelation." I think that Songs For The Apocalypse captures everything you can live in a very short time - love, fear, longing, devastation, goodbyes. If the end is near, we must get it all in now. I have posted without seeing the earlier posts, and I'm so excited to see each of your visions of The Apocalypse.


How We Operate - Gomez
Hayling - FC Kahuna
Poor Misguided Fool (Davis SpinDisc Soulsavers Remix) -Starsailor
Life - The Beta Band
Dancing with Mr. D. - The Rolling Stones
Swollen - Bent
Take a Bow - Muse
Every Day Is Exactly the Same - Nine Inch Nails
Creep - Radiohead
Marigold (B-Side) - Nirvana
Legacy - Infusion 3
Shelter - Icon of Coil
Dead Stars - Covenant
Fallen - Pitty Sing
So This Is Goodbye - Junior Boys

Download Dark Angel

Challenge #3 - And If There's A Hell, I'll See You There (Marc's Mix)

This one really tapped into my inner/older goth boy. I used to revel in all things bleak and dark post high school. Combo art school/drama major/newly gay in the midwest. So this was really revisiting my inner demons here.

The only preface I have for this is that I took this not as songs leading up to the end of the world as though you'd hear this as the world drew to a close but as that plus being the ones "left behind" as the prophecies would have you believe. As the good christians (all 3 of them) are taken up to heaven, the rest of us sinners would be left behind to (insert something christian here. i'm southern, but not THAT southern). So 1/2 is forbidding, then the destruction, then the aftermath.

Enjoy, sinners!

Fly On The Windscreen (Final) - Depeche Mode

Cantara - Dead Can Dance

The Last Ray This Mortal - Coil

Flood II - The Sisters Of Mercy

Mein Herz Brennt - Rammstein

Apocalypse Please - Muse

Deliverance - The Mission

Isolation (Joy Div Cover) - Dessau

Heresy (Blind) - Nine Inch Nails

Headhunter V3.0 - Front 242

Rapture Riders - Blondie feat. The Doors

A Strange Day - The Cure

Camphor - David Sylvian

Wake Up In New York (w/Evan Dando) - Craig Armstrong

Death's Door - Sylvain Chauveau

Motherless Child - Martin Gore

Everyday Is Like Sunday - Vitamin String Quartet

Download your impending doom.

Challenge #3 - Bang (Colin's Entry)

Apocalypse - what a buzz kill.
Fuck it.



Download Bang.*




*Don't look for too deep a meaning in most of the songs - only a handful of them are directly apropos.
1 99 Red Ballons (Club Mix) Nena
2 Take Me To The Hospital Faint
3 Stop! (Vince Clark Sync 82 Remix) Erasure
4 My Turn Basement Jaxx
5 Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning) (Nelsen Grover remix) Kaiser Chiefs
6 The Girl And The Robot (Spencer And Hill Remix) Röyksopp
7 Other Too Endless (Vince Clarke Remix) Polly Scattergood
8 Don't Cry Out (The Teenagers Remix) Shiny Toy Guns
9 Baby (Dance With Me) Reead
10 Great Beyond (Hybrid Remix) REM
11 These Boots Are Made For Walkin' (Bombs Remix) KMFDM
12 Nice Shot (Remix) Filter
13 Chemical Beats Chemical Brothers
14 The Fear (Stonebridge Club Mix) Lily Allen
15 Major Tom Shiny Toy Guns

Challenge #3 - As Above, So Below (Steven's Entry)

Chaos in a dark place. I have no idea how to explain or describe this journey. It's angry, it's cynical and intentionally a little raw/rough around the edges. (And don't worry, I don't expect much love for this.) But after much thought, the only way I could approach this was by combining songs into a continuous mix. I know this sort of breaks the concept of the mixed tape, but I wanted to reflect music bumping into each other, becoming noise. A friend heard this mix a quarter of the way through and declared, "I can't stand this! Please turn it off. I feel like I am losing my mind..." With that, I knew I had accomplished the abstract combination I intended. And I don't think I will ever do a mix like this again... ever.

About the artwork:

Marc made me laugh today, because he kinda gave me a WTF, regarding it. I thought that was a great reaction. But then I realized none of you know me to get my sarcasm and why this represents a hellish end. Rather than let you guess, let me explain a little about it: This photo was taken by a boyfriend who was a photographer. It was 1992 and he liked to take these moody, Sinead O'Connor (yes, Marc Almond-esque!) photos. There were lots of candles, crosses and religious symbolism. It was cool (read: sarcasm). Then as our relationship unraveled, I soon discovered that much of it was lies. Including discovering many of the guys in the photos displayed around our house (including this artwork) were guys he'd slept with. I am not sure why I have kept these photos around, but they remind me of a brief period in my life that felt like a living hell. And this photo (sarcastically) seemed to fit my "chaos in a dark place" mood.

Download As Above, So Below

(Available in two formats, podcast friendly m4a should list the song tracks, or an mp3, if the m4a format won't work for you.)

Tracks include:

Funerale - Corteo

Dead Boy - Aiden Shaw

Intro - Pulled from a Junior Vasquez mix

The Anarchist Movement - Infamous

Allah, Mohammed, Char, Yaar - Diamanda Galas & Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn

Back in Baby's Arms - Patsy Cline

Schrapnell - Isolee

Hot Monkey, Hot Ass! - Black Moustache

Fanatica - Eisbrecher

Animoid Row Pt 2 - Vangelis

Money Back - Cazwell

le Disko - Shiny Toy Guns

Pop Ya Cork - Stanton Warriors

So Alive - Love & Rockets

The Host of Seraphim - Dead Can Dance

Beautiful Burnout - Underworld

My Soul Yearns for Peace - Blitzkrieg Tiger

Long Snake Moan - PJ Harvey

Myxomatosis - Radiohead

I Fucked Your Boyfriend - Nick Name

She's Lost Control - Joy Division

Lolita - Elefant

Up in Flames - Julee Cruise

Evil California - Annie Ross

Opening 3 - Thomas Newman

Readymade - Snow Lion

Furious Angels - Rob Dougan

Rich People - The Hospitals

Only Dreaming - Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry

Stratoscape - Front 242

Snatch of Fury - Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Rainfall - Naomi

Kernkraft 400 - Zombie Nation

Psycho Boy Jack - Dust Brothers

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. - Sufjan Stevens

Julia - Eurythmics

Not the Red Baron - Tori Amos

Running Up That Hill (Datassette Remix) - Kate Bush

Painted Black - Anneli Drecker

Vergissmeinnicht - Eisbrecher