Ithaca Mafia.

Well whattaya know? Looks like Spotify and Tumblr have teamed up to form a more perfect union. They now natively embed a little widget where you can post yer playlists and songs — like this one above for the “Mapril” mix I posted yesterday. Click on the toggle button in the top right corner to switch between album cover and playlist modes.

Source Spotify

Mapril: A Mix.

Even though Matty and I provided not one, but two mixes in the month of March, I do feel an obligation to provide an official entry for the ol’ monthly mixmaking series. That said, it’s already the second week of April — and lord only knows how much free time I’ll have in the remaining weeks to give it a proper playlist of it’s own…

The solution? Make ‘em smush. March + April = Mapril.

“Stay Useless” - Cloud Nothings
“Boy” - Ra Ra Riot
“You Can Have It All” - Yo La Tengo
“High And Dry” - Amanda Palmer
“Oblivion” - Grimes
“The House That Heaven Built” - Japandroids
“Sixteen Saltines” - Jack White
“One Engine” - The Decemberists
“The Galway Girl” - Steve Earle
“Wrecking Ball” - Bruce Springsteen
“New Friend Jesus” - Craig Finn
“The Only Place” - Best Coast
“Watching The Detectives” - Elvis Costello
“Looking For A Sign” - Beck
“Brains” - Lower Dens
“Bedroom Eyes” - Dum Dum Girls
“Summer Home” - Typhoon
“Carrion” - British Sea Power
“Vicious” - Lou Reed
“The Rife’s Spiral” - The Shins

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO “MAPRIL” ON SPOTIFY

Chin On Fist: Musics For A Mellow Mood.

Feeling like you need to take a chill pill? We’ve got just the thing for you. A playlist, recently completed by Matty & I, to put your ill humours at ease. Whether it’s a pensive afternoon or a lonely night, these jams will set you straight (into relaxation mode).

Matty’s always-outstanding introduction is down below, and the liner notes continue after the break — but, in the meantime, here’s the track listing:

“There Will Be No Divorce” - The Mountain Goats
“Pretty Girl At The Airport” - The Avett Brothers
“Glowing Mouth” - Milagres
“Ballerina” - Van Morrison
“Holocene” - Bon Iver
“Feeling of Gaze” - Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions
“Far Away” - Jose Gonzalez
“Maenam” - Jami Sieber
“The Day Is Coming” - My Morning Jacket
“Your Own Sweet Way” - The Notting Hillbillies
“Rising Red Lung” - Wilco
“Tatooine” - Jeremy Messersmith
“Sifters” - Andrew Bird
“To Build A Home” - The Cinematic Orchestra
“Angeles” - Elliott Smith
“Beautiful Girl” - William Fitzsimmons
“Babe, You Turn Me On” - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
“On Saturday Afternoons In 1963” - Rickie Lee Jones
“Kevin’s” - Sharon Van Etten
“Eskimo” - Damien Rice

CLICK HERE for “Chin On Fist: Musics For A Mellow Mood.”

Matt <Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 9:28 AM>

To: Kevin

One of my favorite parts of these mixes of ours is the inherent regret that’s built into the whole thing. I like that I am always second guessing… wishing I’d done one thing, hoping to do another. Trying to plan a few moves ahead to see what my next pick would be if I zig and if there was some better option should I instead choose to zag. Right after my pick, I always have the feeling that I am some tuba player, sitting alone on stage, while a conductor raps his baton on a music stand and scolds me, “Dammit, you boomped when you should have om-pahed!”

I’m not saying it’s chess, but I think we can both agree that it’s not checkers.

Another regret that burns in my gut, is that we really only ever just dip our toe into the relaxing hot tub that is The Quiet Songs. I get it, we don’t want to get too far down that road and turn our mix into something that depresses. But what if we did, Kevin. What if we did. What if we made a mix of the songs we like to listen to that don’t necessarily put a skip in our step, but rather we went with songs the rested our chin on our fist.

I’m not saying that the quiet mix has to be depressing. It doesn’t. Quite the contrary. There is a time for the quiet songs. In the car, early in the morning. At your desk, while working on the next big thing. Dinner, with your lady friend. These are not moments where one wants to hear Axl Rose welcoming us to his jungle, these are moments where you want Axl whistling softly and reminding you of the virtue of staying patient. There is a time for quiet songs, Kevin. And that time is now.

So — without further ado — let’s get our Orinoco Flow on.

You’ve selected the white pawn. The first move is yours.

(…and I’ll let you name this one too.)

Fem-uary: A Mix.

I was out of the country for half of February, so I forgot to post my monthly mix — it’s a rawkin’ collection featuring all female frontwomen. I began the month fully enthralled by Sharon Van Etten and her latest album, Tramp — which inspired me to dig around for more ladies to join the party.

“It All Feels The Same” - Tennis
“Friends Crush” - Friends
“Disparate Youth” - Santigold
“Serpents” - Sharon Van Etten
“Emmylou” - First Aid Kit
“Easy To Love” - The Jezabels
“Born To Die” - Lana Del Rey
“Dead Oaks” - Now, Now
“You Can’t Keep Me” - Amy LaVere
“Louie” - Ida Maria
“The Con” - Tegan and Sara
“In Your Nature” - Zola Jesus
“Friends of Friends” - Hospitality
“I Belong In Your Arms” - Chairlift
“How Come You Never Go There” - Feist
“No Aloha” - The Breeders
“My Mistakes” - Eleanor Friedberger
“La Grande” - Laura Gibson
“Oh My God” - Cults
“Black White & Blue” - Ladyhawke

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO “FEM-UARY”.

T.J. Eckleburg: Songs You May or May Not Know but Should Certainly Check Out Within The Context of This Awesome Mixtape.

Hello, hello.

It’s been a while, but your ol’ pals Matty and Kevin are back with another mix for your musical ingestiments. This little fella is the third in our “Songs You Are About To Love” series (The original 2007 mix is on Spotify [Liner Notes Here] as well as the double-sized follow-up, “By Request: Even More Songs You Are About To Love” [Liner Notes Here] from 2010). As with all of our collabo-mixes, we alternate selections until a gleaming tower of groove has been erected. Our witty and informative Liner Notes have been compiled after the jump — but for the impatient, here is the track listing:

“Two Shoes” - The Cat Empire
“Back Of Your Neck” - Howler
“Little Lion Man” - Nikka Costa
“Somebody That I Used To Know” - Gotye w/ Kimbra
“The Sad Song” - Fredo Viola
“Civilian” - Wye Oak
“I’d Love To Change The World” - Ten Years After
“Swim” - Surfer Blood
“Truth” - Alexander
“Ric Flair” - Killer Mike
“Not The Only Person” - The Rumble Strips
“(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea” - Elvis Costello
“First Love” - The Maccabees
“We Are Young” - Fun.
“Blue Eyes” - Middle Brother
“The Drinking Song” - Loudon Wainwright III
“Rewrite” - Paul Simon
“Watching You Watch Him” - Eric Hutchinson
“Deus Ibi Est” - Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
“Little Talks” - Of Monsters And Men

We think it’s a fun, goofy, eclectic little collection. CLICK HERE to listen on Spotify. Read on for Matty’s intro — then, click Read More to dive after the jump for the rest of the LINER NOTES…

Matt <Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:55 PM>

To: Kevin

The issue with mixmaking in 2012 is that I have no idea where the music comes from anymore. I rarely listen to the radio and when I do it’s classic rock or Oldies 103. The pop top 40 is dictated by kids buying one song at a time on iTunes, five minutes after hearing someone I’d never heard of yesterday (and will likely never hear of again) sing it on The American Idol Voice X-Factor. Which is fine. I’m okay with that. I know that every generation bemoans the fact that the songs America is listening to are not the songs America should be listening to. I know that this is not a new thing.

My point though - finally - is this, with this Spotify, it all happens so quickly, that I have no sense of where the input is. Is this a song that I truly discovered by myself by clicking my way from U2 to Lou Reed to Patti Smith to Marianne Faithfull to Tanita Tikaram (who I’d officially never heard of before) or is it that Tanita Tikaram is someone that everyone else (folks much closer to the cutting edge than I) have been listening to for months, and of course she’s opening for Florence and the Machine, and how could I not know that? Well, I have a 9 month old and I work at an animal hospital - that’s how. So mixmaking can’t be all about, “Hey check out this new track by [blank], you’ve probably never heard of them, but six months from now they’ll be your favorite band…” because everyone’s heard of everything (or at least had the opportunity to).

But here’s the deal: that’s okay. We’ve established long ago that I hate that guy (above), and that the release date of a song has nothing to do with its merit. So I say we take our beats and we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessy into the past, and crack open another awesome mixtape for our (3) listeners.

So whatevs — it’s a new mix — it might not be songs on the cutting edge, but who knows what that even is anymore. It’s a new mix, “T.J. Eckleberg: Songs You May or May Not Know but Should Certainly Check Out Within The Context of This Awesome Mixtape.”

- M

MEHR JANUAR: A Mix.

Another byproduct of my return to 8-hour office workdays? Many more songs finding their way into the ol’ “Mix This” folder. Therefore, even though it is still January, I put together yet another playlist/mixtape — for those who might be inclined to such things. Enjoy “Mehr Januar (More January)”: