Summer! A sun-shining, toe-tapping summer mix

Beach photo by flickr user rednightsky.

I know I just made another mix fairly recently, but I do enjoy making these mixes more than anything else I do here, so here we go again. I hadn't planned on doing another mix for a while, actually. That was, however, until the summer heat in the past few days finally reached the always welcomed, but quickly regretable mid-June highs. With those highs also comes the tremendous delmarva humidity, capable of draining every drop of life out of even the strongest of Summer warriors.

With that in mind, I decided to make a Summer mix so potent that even the hellish humidity wouldn't stand a chance against it. On here you'll find a pretty good spread of old and new stuff, working together to not only put a smile on your face, but to keep your salty forehead sweat from running into it! Please enjoy, and take it anywhere!

DOWNLOAD IT! As always, this mix is lovingly tagged as a compilation, complete with the cover art seen just up above.

[ZIP]: Summer! A sun-shining, toe-tapping summer mix (80mb, 14 MP3s)

Tracklist:
01 Milky Wimpshake :: Blow Out At 80 Miles Per Hour
02 McCarthy :: Kill Kill Kill Kill
03 Strawberry Fair :: Why Won't He Answer?
04 Go Sailor :: Long Distance
05 Slow Down Tallahassee :: Never Be Lonely Again
06 Bearsuit :: Keep It Together, Somehow
07 Speedmarket Avenue :: Way Better Now
08 Girl Of The World :: Travel
09 Ponies In The Surf :: Holes In The Walls
10 Allen Clapp And His Orchestra :: She Grins And Waves Goodbye
11 The Faintest Ideas :: Another Sunny Day
12 Girls At Our Best! :: Warm Girls
13 Eux Autres :: The City All To Himself
14 Belle And Sebastian :: Dirty Dream Number Two

Okay! Bye! Don't die out there!!!

Stumble It!

I Love You More Cause I'm Bigger

A new mix, finally!

It's been a while since I made a new mix for the blog, so I spent a good part of yesterday putting this new one together. I'm quite in love listening to it over and over, so I hope some others will be, too! You may notice by the tracklist, but the mix is sort of split into two sides – tracks one through seven being somewhat softer, more concise jangly pop songs and then the volume and noise goes up a bit for the remainder, ending on what is probably the best song the Lilys ever wrote. Some highlights, in my opinion at least, would be the fantastic version of "Climb My Stairs" by the greatest band ever, The Cat's Miaow... just wait for the organ to come in near the end-ish!! The Cannanes track is also kind of amazing, as are all the other Bart-related projects and Boyracer's brilliant Even As We Speak cover.

DOWNLOAD IT! As always, this mix is lovingly tagged as a compilation, complete with the cover art seen just up above.

[ZIP]: I Love You More Cause I'm Bigger (87mb, 14 MP3s)

Tracklist:
01. Bouquet :: Before I Die
02. The Cat's Miaow :: Climb My Stairs
03. Madison Electric :: V-Neck
04. Pencil Tin :: Friday
05. Sleepy Township :: Keys and Coins
06. Bart & Friends :: Hounds of Love (Kate Bush cover)
07. The Cannanes :: 1991
08. Whorl :: Maybe It's Better
09. Henry's Dress :: You're My (Radio One)
10. Small Factory :: Versus Tape
11. Swirlies :: Didn't Understand
12. Boyracer :: One Step Forward (Even As We Speak cover)
13. The Earthmen :: Cool Chick #59
14. Lilys :: February Fourteenth

Xoxoxo!!!

Stumble It!

My Heart Beats Outside Itself :: A Mix!

Photo in the cover art by Speakelabs on Flickr.

Hello again! Sorry I've been kind of awful at updating lately, but hey, I've got a new mix today– so that's cool... right? It's just ten tracks – fairly short – but I spent a lot of time arranging it and I think it's quite a nice listen from beginning to end. Some nice jangly guitar, some sweet solos, some lovely glockenspiel – it's all here! If i had to pick a favorite song on the mix, it would probably be between "Trust Me" or probably "Popkiss," though I have been pretty obsessed with Minisnap lately (thanks Kevin!). You should still listen to it all in order though! Alright, well, I hope you like it! Tell your friends! and your mother! and her mother! and tell the dog! and tell the neighborhood butcher! tell the whole town!

Tell me which song that the title of the mix comes from and you'll win a cookie and a glass of milk to dip that cookie in, along with a bib to catch the milk run-off :)

DOWNLOAD IT!
My Heart Beats Outside Itself (.zip file, 10 mp3s, 62mb)

Tracklist:
01 Hearts On Fire :: The Sultry Day
02 The Brilliant Corners :: Trust Me
03 Sportique :: It Couldn't Last Forever
04 Would-Be-Goods :: Casanova 92
05 Minisnap :: In My Pocket
06 Confetti :: Whatever Became of Alice and Jane
07 Hari and Aino :: Seasons
08 Blueboy :: Popkiss
09 Horowitz :: I Need A Blanket
10 Wild Carnation :: The Lights Are On (But No One's Home)

Bye!

Oh and P.S. there's something very cool in the works.
But hush hush about that for now!

Stumble It!

Two and Zero and Zero and Eight and Stuff

Cloud photo courtesy of BethAnne (purpleurple41) on Flickr.

It felt like time for a new mix this past weekend, so amidst the several other overdue mixtapes I'm trying to finish for friends right, I managed to get this one together. I think it's quite good, and there's more than a few real gems in here. As you might have assumed from the title – a wee reference to Avocado Baby :) – these are all songs that I've been particularly obsessed with for the past couple of weeks. Some are new (Crushed Stars, Crystal Stilts), some are older (everything else), some are Pam Berry (Veronica Lake), and some are excellent french covers (Po!). I hope you enjoy it! I find it's best for relaxing, staring up at a sky much like the one on the cover.

DOWNLOAD IT! As always, this mix is lovingly tagged as a compilation, complete with the cover art seen just up above.

[ZIP]: Two and Zero and Zero and Eight and Stuff (68mb, 10 MP3s)

Tracklist:
01. The Mayfields :: Feels Like Yesterday
02. Po! :: Joybang! (Cudgels cover)
03. The Cannanes :: Passionfruit
04. Hydroplane :: Song For The Meek
05. Crystal Stilts :: Crippled Croon
06. The Summer Hits :: Spanish Film
07. The Darling Buds :: If I Said
08. Crushed Stars :: 16 rpm
09. Veronica Lake :: Threnody
10. Avocado Baby :: It's A Celebration

Have a good Monday and a great week!

Stumble It!

Our Favorite Free Cloudberry MPthrees!

Check below for contest details!

As I think I've said on several occasions here, Cloudberry Records has been the biggest, strongest, and most consistant driving force for indiepop this year. What Roque did with Cloudberry was just unbelievable – over 70 singles in one year! – it's just amazing. Myself and Tom over at IndieMP3 decided to get together and make a toast to Cloudberry for everything they did this year, and to hope it only continues to get better and better in 2008!

As anyone who's visited the Cloudberry website would know, Roque's got an MP3 from every single release up for download. That means there's over 70 MP3s to listen to on that website – an indiepop dreamland! We decided we would each choose our 10 favorite and compile them into two volumes of what we consider to be the very best of Cloudberry Records. My 10 (Volume One) features some of the best pop songs of the year, with a little fuzz and distortion thrown in for good measure. Tom's picks (Volume Two) can downloaded over at IndieMP3.

BUT WAIT! Before I get to my picks – we decided, hey what's an end of the year toast without some prizes?! So, we've got a bit of a contest to go along with the posts. We will be giving away a total of FIVE copies of the Nothing Matters When We're Dancing EP (Cloud502), which will be available only at a few Pop Nights in the UK and Sweden. So, dear readers from the U.S., this might be your only chance to get a copy! Just leave a comment on this post with your name, email, and maybe your 10 favorite Cloudberry songs if you'd like, and you will be entered into the random drawing! I will be choosing THREE winners from Skatterbrain and Tom will be choosing TWO over at IndieMP3, so leave a comment here and there to increase yor chances! The contest will close on January 4th, so get entering!

Okay, so I must admit, I cheated a bit on my picks; Oh! Custer's "Your Name" and Slow Down Tallahassee's "U R Grace U R" weren't the free ones on the site, but I just HAD TO include them, they were two of my very favorite songs of the year! Okay, so anyway, these are my picks, I hope you enjoy!

Tracklist and Links:
01. Oh! Custer :: Your Name (from Cloud009)
02. Slow Down Tallahassee :: U R Grace U R (from Cloud010)
03. The Airfields :: Yr So Wonderful (from Cloud047)
04. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart :: Orchard of My Eye (from Cloud013)
05. Signed Papercuts :: Only Fools Rush In (from Cloud027)
06. Blind Terry :: The Subtle Art of How to Break A Heart (from Cloud058)
07. The Deirdres :: Hopeless Is The Venue (from Cloud055)
08. Stars In Coma :: Revanche (from Cloud008)
09. Strawberry Story :: Boys (From the Story) (from Cloud065)
10. The Manhattan Love Suicides :: Last Stand (from Cloud062)

DOWNLOAD IT! (.ZIP, 10 MP3s with cover art, 31mb)

Well, I think that's it. It's truly been an incredible year – for indiepop and otherwise – and 2008 seems to be looking even brighter! Happy New Year, everybody!!!

Also, Lost Music, the gig promotion partner of indie mp3 will be putting on a Cloudberry Records gig on at the end of February 2008. Confirmed to date are Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Strawberry Story, Manhattan Love Suicides and one more to be confirmed. DJ's will be spinning Cloudberry releases only. More details will be posted once the line up is confirmed.

Stumble It!

HOW COULD I NOT MAKE A CHRISTMAS MIX?

I'll be resuming normal posting again next Monday, but I wanted to get this posted before the weekend, because – at least on the east coast – we should be getting some snow and ice and other fun winter things! Plus, yknow, Christmas is right around the corner. I've yet to shop or anything, but we did get our Christmas tree decorated last weekend and it's beautiful! Anyway, I hope this mix enhances your holiday spirits. There's lots of good stuff here, some I hope you guys like it! Some of them, The Cat's Miaow track in particular, may not truly be Christmas songs, but they're close enough and too good to leave off. Enjoy and Merry Christmas! and Merry all other holidays, too! :D

[ZIP]: Skatterbrain's Indiepop Christmas (12 MP3s, 73mb)

Tracklist:
01 The Pines :: Silver Bells
02 Saturday Looks Good To Me :: Mistletoe
03 The Chesterf!elds :: Holiday Hymn
04 Pete Green :: Everything's Dead Pretty When It Snows
05 Glo-worm :: Holiday
06 Stormclouds :: Cosmic Christmas
07 Summer Cats :: Plastic Christmas Trees
08 Fireflies :: X-mas Song
09 The Cat's Miaow :: Do You Think It Will Snow Tonight?
10 Tuscadero :: Holidays R' Hell
11 Acid House Kings :: Christmas
12 Belle and Sebastian :: O Little Town Of Bethlehem

P.S. I have been tossing around the idea of maybe starting to do some podcasts with commentary and fun stuff, but I thought I'd see if it's something that people would listen to... So, does that sound like something you would be interested in? If so, I guess I may start doing that – its always seemed like it would be really fun.

Stumble It!

By The Window In The Sky

Photo in cover art by QXZ on Flickr.

I said I was gonna start doing mixes more often, so here we go, another one. I'm particularly proud of this one because I think it flows quite well, and as the cover says, it's very good for a nice walk in the cold morning air. Note that the effect of this mix can be enhanced even more so if it happens to still be dark outside and there is a touch of low-lying fog. If the title of the mix doesn't ring a bell to you immediately, then it surely will by the time you finish it. Um, I guess I don't have anything else to say, I'll let the songs speak for themselves. Enjoy, please!

DOWNLOAD IT!
[ZIP]: By The Window In The Sky (13 tracks, 110mb)

01. Eric's Trip :: Stove
02. The Relict :: Letters
03. St. Christopher :: Crystal Clear
04. Brian :: You Don't Want A Boyfriend
05. California Snow Story :: My Life Is Only A Daydream
06. Nord Express :: This Magic Moment
07. The Cat's Miaow :: Hollow Inside
08. Rodney Allen :: Julianne
09. The Fat Tulips :: My Secret Place
10. Moscow Olympics :: Safe
11. Lorelei :: The Bitter Air
12. Stereolab :: Pack Yr Romantic Mind
13. Yo La Tengo :: Deeper Into Movies

Okay, enjoy please, I love you. Bye for now.

Stumble It!

Skatterbrain October Mix

Photograph by evil-eye on Flickr.

My favorite thing to do on this blog is to make mixes, and I'd like to assume that most of you all like when I make mixes, so I've decided to start doing monthly mixes. These mixes will include songs – both old and new – that I have been playing over and over and over all month long! I think it will be fun, I hope you like it! Here's the first one, for October.

DOWNLOAD IT! As always, this mix is lovingly tagged as a compilation, complete with artwork similar to the image above. I think it's wonderful and I hope you do, too.

[ZIP]: Skatterbrain October Mix (65mb, 18 MP3s)

Tracklist:
01. Oh! Custer :: Your Name
02. Yeah Jazz :: Sharon
03. Vivian Girls :: Telepathic Love (Wipers cover)
04. Tyvek :: Give It Up
05. Surefire Broadcast :: Through A Red Door
06. Rough Bunnies :: Guinea Pig Has A Nose For <3
07. Ports of Call :: Aireals
08. Betty Marie Barnes :: The Sea Song
09. Meneguar :: Table 2
10. Pony Up! :: Ships
11. HollAnd :: Turn Off the Century
12. The Hermit Crabs :: Goodbye My Friend
13. The Radiator Experts :: Upside Down
14. Gaze :: Tea or Coffee
15. The Magnetic Fields :: Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
16. Celestial :: Nothing Happens; Twice
17. The Bright Lights :: Marissa's Song
18. Vells :: All Eleven Lull

I must say, I think this mix is super good. You should get it,
and please, please enjoy! :)

Stumble It!

The Slightly Premature "Fall is Here!" Mix

I'm in love with chilly weather and I don't care who knows it!

The title pretty much says it all, guys. I got my first breath of brisk Fall air today and I was ecstatic. I love more than anything in the world, I've been waiting months for it and I'm sure I'm not the only one. So that's why I made this mix. It's the essence of Fall, it's got lows and highs, acoustic guitars and fuzzy electric ones, boy voices and girl voices, it's pumpkin pie and a wool scarf in musical form, it's the sound of wonder and amazement, and it's early!

DOWNLOAD IT! As always, this mix is lovingly tagged as a compilation, complete with artwork similar to the image above. I think it's wonderful and I hope you do, too.

[ZIP]: The Slightly Premature "Fall Is Here!" Mix (27mb, 10 MP3s)

TRACKLIST:
A1. Times New Viking :: Teenage Lust!
A2. Bratmobile :: Gimme Brains
A3. Tiger Trap :: Sour Grass
A4. Pants Yell! :: The City Life
A5. Math and Physics Club :: White and Grey
B1. Allen Clapp :: Milky Way
B2. The Lil' Hospital :: Big Sister In Hollywood
B3. Heavenly :: Different Day
B4. Junebug :: Farewell To Emma
B5. Gaze :: Bob Again

Please enjoy!

Stumble It!

A Mix for Sea Otters to Listen to With Their Ears

A Mix for Sea Otters to Listen to With Their Ears

It's no secret that I love making mixes, so today I decided to make a new one. CLEARLY, it's a mix for sea otters to listen to with their ears, but it's mostly just twelve songs of mostly noisy indiepop bridging nearly two decades from 1983 (Twa Toots) to 2001 (The Aislers Set). I think it's a real great mix, though, and I'm pretty sure of it, as I always feel the need to listen to the mixes I make all the way through at least five times before I post them. That could have been a run-on sentence, it's kind of hard to say. Well I guess that's about as much intro as you need... the music pretty much speaks for itself. So go listen to it with your ears! As always, the mix are tagged as a compilation, with artwork and proper track order, so it should be pretty easy for you to handle.

[ZIP]: A Mix for Sea Otters to Listen to With Their Ears (12 MP3s, 32mb)

Tracklist:
01 My Bloody Valentine :: Sylvie's Head
02 Black Tambourine :: For Ex-Lovers Only
03 McCarthy :: We Are All Bourgeois Now
04 The Siddeleys :: Bedlam on the Mezzanine
05 Pastel Collision :: Like Water
06 The Pooh Sticks :: Indiepop Ain't Noise Pollution
07 The Flatmates :: Shimmer
08 Television Personalities :: This Time There's No Happy Ending
09 Henry's Dress :: Target Practice
10 The Aislers Set :: The Red Door
11 Twa Toots :: Please Don't Play 'A Rainy Night in Georgia'
12 Even As We Speak :: 100

Related:
Skatterbrain's Lazy Springmix

Stumble It!