What You Should Have Heard #38

My Mix CDs

I’ve got a lot of music but limited space to hold it in, especially in my car. So I’ve gone the old tried-and-true way of making mix CDs to have access to as many bands as possible while driving. I’m going slightly old-school since I’m a bit backwards and have no iPod.

Most of the songs will be more upbeat, with probably only the occasional ballad or slower song included. I like to sing in the car, and the more upbeat songs are more fun to sing.

I’ll be going in alpha-numeric order with these, so if you’re wanting to argue with me about what Weezer songs should be included, you’re going to be waiting for a while.

My only limitations are that I use 80 min. discs, and I’m only going to use one disc per band/artist. I will make exceptions for only my most favorite bands with huge playlists (Foo Fighters and Self, off the top of my head), but I’d really like to boil everything down to just one disc.

Here’s the list guide:

Track # - Song Name - Album Name [Artist if album is by a different artist]

Fluid Ounces Mix CD

1. Amount to Something – Awkward Middle Phase
2. Shamrock – Big Notebook for Easy Piano
3. Record Stack – Big Notebook for Easy Piano
4. Milk Moustache – Big Notebook for Easy Piano
5. Big Empty – Big Notebook for Easy Piano
6. Show on the Road – Foreign Legion
7. Poet Tree – Foreign Legion
8. Encyclopedia Brown – Foreign Legion
9. Thinking Cap – Foreign Legion
10. Lend Me Your Ears – In the New Old-Fashioned Way
11. Marvel Girl – In the New Old-Fashioned Way
12. Luxury – In the New Old-Fashioned Way
13. Vegetable Kingdom – In the New Old-Fashioned Way
14. Drought – In the New Old-Fashioned Way
15. Go Lucky – In the New Old-Fashioned Way
16. Have Fun – In the New Old-Fashioned Way
17. Downscope – In the New Old-Fashioned Way
18. Not One Reason – Instant Nostalgia
19. Paperweight Machine – The Whole Shebang
20. Fool Around – The Whole Shebang
21. Big Deal (Out of Nothing)
22. Sucker – Vegetable Kingdom EP
23. Sick – Soaking in the Center of the Universe CD Sampler, Vol. 1

Here’s local band number dos, Fluid Ounces (or Fl. Oz. to their friends). And I’m keeping this a Fl. Oz. Mix CD rather than a generic Seth Timbs mix even though Fl. Oz. are no longer around and frontman Timbs has since moved on to Hot New Singles and now The Seth Timbs Thing. I can’t find any official releases from either of these projects (a few tracks are available on Facebook and Myspace, though), so that’s why I’m sticking with Fl. Oz.

I became aware of Fl. Oz. because of my love for Self. They were both part of Spongebath Records, and I somehow ended up with a sampler CD from the label. Thanks to that CD I was introduced to the Katies, the Features, Count Bass-D, and Fl. Oz.

As with the Features and Self, pretty much all of my support of Fl. Oz. was online; I don’t think I purchased one CD from a conventional retailer, be it physical or online. I either ordered straight from Spongebath (when it existed) or from the band itself. I might have found Big Notebook and Foreign Legion at The Great Escape, but everything else was ordered. I don’t even own physical copies of Awkward Middle Phase or Instant Nostalgia…those were purchased as downloads. And thanks to Amazon (I’m not an iTunes person. I’ve tended to shun it since I don’t have an iPod.), it’s the format in which I’m getting most of my music now.

I remember when In the New Old-Fashioned Way finally showed up in my campus mailbox while I was in college. I listened to it almost nonstop for weeks, and subjected some fellow Goodwill employees to it after closing time while we were counting the tills and cleaning the store. I even had an autographed copy of Vegetable Kingdom EP that I ended up parting with a few years ago during a tiny financial kerfuffle (wow, Spellcheck didn’t flinch with that).

I was lucky enough to meet the members of Fl. Oz. in…1999?...at a Spongebath Halloween bash in Murfreesboro and ask Timbs a few questions for a small article for the school paper. If I can find the clipping I’ll reprint a bit of it, assuming it doesn’t shine a light on my poor interview skills. I do remember Timbs being a very approachable, nice guy who was having fun doing what he was doing.

Most of this was just reminiscing, so here’s a quick blurb about the actual music. Fluid Ounces combined two things that I loved: pop piano and fun lyrics. I think anyone who is a fan of Billy Joel or Ben Folds would have no problem enjoying Fl. Oz. or whatever Timbs is working on these days (currently The Seth Timbs Thing, unless that’s just a placeholder name for whatever comes next).

Fluid Ounces Wikipedia entry

Fluid Ounces AllMusic entry

Fluid Ounces MySpace page

Fluid Ounces Song Blog

It doesn’t look like Fl. Oz. had any official videos, so all we’ve got are live offerings. Still, not bad. Here’s “Paperweight Machine” from 2001.