What You Should Have Heard #39

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]

Foo Fighters Mix CDs

Disc 1

1. This is a Call – Foo Fighters
2. I’ll Stick Around – Foo Fighters
3. For All the Cows – Foo Fighters
4. Doll – The Colour and the Shape
5. Monkey Wrench – The Colour and the Shape
6. Hey, Johnny Park! – The Colour and the Shape
7. My Poor Brain – The Colour and the Shape
8. Wind Up – The Colour and the Shape
9. Up in Arms – The Colour and the Shape
10. My Hero – The Colour and the Shape
11. See You – The Colour and the Shape
12. Enough Space – The Colour and the Shape
13. February Stars – The Colour and the Shape
14. Everlong – The Colour and the Shape
15. New Way Home – The Colour and the Shape
16. Down in the Park – My Hero
17. Baker Street – My Hero
18. Have a Cigar – Learn to Fly
19. Darling Nikki – Have It All

Disc 2

1. Stacked Actors – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
2. Breakout – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
3. Learn to Fly – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
4. Gimme Stitches – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
5. Generator – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
6. Live-In Skin – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
7. Headwires – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
8. M.I.A. – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
9. All My Life – One by One
10. Low – One by One
11. Times Like These – One by One
12. Halo – One by One
13. Lonely as You – One by One
14. Overdrive – One by One
15. Walking a Line – One by One
16. The One – All My Life
17. Win or Lose – All My Life

Disc 3

1. In Your Honor – In Your Honor
2. No Way Back – In Your Honor
3. Best of You – In Your Honor
4. DOA – In Your Honor
5. Hell – In Your Honor
6. The Last Song – In Your Honor
7. The Deepest Blues Are Black – In Your Honor
8. The Sign – In Your Honor
9. FFL – Best of You
10. Born on the Bayou – Resolve
11. The Pretender – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
12. Let It Die – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
13. Erase/Replace – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
14. Long Road to Ruin – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
15. Come Alive – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
16. Cheer Up Boys (Your Make Up is Running) – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
17. Bangin’ – The Pretender
18. Band on the Run – Radio 1: Established 1967

This is a mix which will only rival Self in length. The first cut clocks in at 217 minutes with 56 tracks. And it looks like I’ll only have to cut a couple of duplicate songs. Why do I have duplicates, you might ask? Well, I’m somewhat of a big fan. I don’t just get the CDs when they’re released. I hunt and I scour the web for singles, international releases, bootlegs, and online bonus tracks. I’ve got close to a complete Foo discography in my collection. But a lot of their singles reuse tracks. But they’re not dicks about it; a lot of times the songs will have different arrangements. Examples include “Baker Street,” “Win or Lose”/”Make a Bet,” and “Have a Cigar.” I tried to keep that in mind when making the first cut, but it looks like a couple got through. I ended up having to get rid of a “Down in the Park” repeat and “Make a Bet.” I like the “Win or Lose” version better. That puts this mix at three CDs, 54 tracks and 210 minutes.

It is my opinion that the Foo Fighters are the greatest modern rock band still producing new music. It’s not that the music is groundbreaking, it’s just that it’s good. Really, really good. And the guys haven’t stagnated, they’ve evolved. If you listen to the debut album Foo Fighters and then listen to the most current release Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, you might think you’re listening to two different groups. Now, I’m not saying that a group needs to evolve in order to be a good group, but you run the risk of going stale. If every CD sounds the same, there’s really no incentive to keep buying the new ones.

One of the thing that I think keeps the group fresh and energized is the number of side projects they’ve got going on. Dave has played with the Queens of the Stone Age, spearheaded a metal project called Probot, and worked with QotSA frontman Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones to form Them Crooked Vultures. He’s also played with Killing Joke, Tenacious D, Nine Inch Nails and Prodigy, among others. Chris Shiflett also plays with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and Jackson United. Nate Mendel plays with The Jealous Sound and Sunny Day Real Estate. Taylor Hawkins formed Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders. These different groups allow the members of the Foos to stretch their musical legs and come back to their home band refreshed and ready to create some awesome rock ‘n’ roll.

One of my guilty pleasures is covers, and the Foo Fighters love performing covers. This mix includes, if I’ve counted correctly, six cover songs. This is just one of the things that shows me that these guys aren’t just performers, they’re fans. They love the music as much as we do.

UPDATE:

With the release of the latest album I made a new mix CD. It includes all the songs from the iTunes deluxe edition except for the "Rope" remix. I then went through my collection and fleshed out the CD with songs that I had to cut from the other mix CDs. I'm very happy with it.

Disc 4

1. Bridge Burning - Wasting Light
2. Rope - Wasting Light
3. Dear Rosemary - Wasting Light
4. White Limo - Wasting Light
5. Arlandria - Wasting Light
6. These Days - Wasting Light
7. Back & Forth - Wasting Light
8. A Matter of Time - Wasting Light
9. Miss the Misery - Wasting Light
10. I Should Have Known - Wasting Light
11. Walk - Wasting Light
12. Better Off - Wasting Light
13. But, Honestly - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace           
14. Home - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
15. Have It All - One by One
16. Aurora - There Is Nothing Left to Lose  
17. Next Year - There Is Nothing Left to Lose

Foo Fighters Official Website

Foo Fighters Wikipedia entry

Foo Fighters AllMusic entry

Foo Fighters Facebook page

Foo Fighters MySpace page

Foo Fighters Twitter page

Foo Fighters YouTube Channel

Here’s an example of why I like Dave Grohl: he doesn’t take himself too seriously. I doubt he’s actually drunk in this clip (taken from the There Is Nothing Left to Lose Enhanced CD), but it shows how he COULD act and how some people might act if they were in his shoes.

It was difficult to choose a favorite video. A lot are funny. Most just plain out rock your face off. Ah, what the hell. Who said I could only embed one? Let’s throw a few up here. I had embedded a few videos from the Foo Fighters’ official site, but they all ended up being the same video. I don’t know what happened. I went back to YouTube.