What You Should Have Heard #89

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.

So I finally got a Smart Phone a couple of months ago. I've now got a Spotify account with more than 10,000 songs in various playlists, so I guess I'm done with CDs. I'm going to see this through to the end, though. Well, through Yellowcard, at least. I got a bunch of miscellaneous CDs that contain a bunch of bands with a song or two by each.

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, and then I’m going to go into the various compilations I made of bands that didn’t have enough songs to include in a whole CD.

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]                                                              

Violent Femmes Mix CD

1. Nightmares – 3
2. Dating Days – 3
3. Mother of a Girl – 3
4. Lies – 3
5. Intro – Add It Up (1981-1993)
6. Waiting for the Bus – Add It Up (1981-1993)
7. Country Death Sound – Add It Up (1981-1993)
8. Black Girls – Add It Up (1981-1993)
9. Jesus Walking on the Water – Add It Up (1981-1993)
10. 36-24-36 – Add It Up (1981-1993)
11. I Held Her in My Arms – Add It Up (1981-1993)
12. Old Mother Reagan – Add It Up (1981-1993)
13. American Music – Add It Up (1981-1993)
14. Out the Window – Add It Up (1981-1993)
15. Blister in the Sun – Violent Femmes
16. Kiss Off – Violent Femmes
17. Please Do Not Go – Violent Femmes
18. Add It Up – Violent Femmes
19. Confessions – Violent Femmes
20. Prove My Love – Violent Femmes
21. Promise – Violent Femmes
22. Gone Daddy Gone – Violent Femmes
23. Ugly – Violent Femmes
24. Gimme the Car – Violent Femmes

A few notes on the Violent Femmes:

• The Violent Femmes were a bit of a short-lived phase for me. I discovered their self-titled album in early in high school and was captivated by it. Past that, I really didn’t like much else. I ended up buying a couple additional CDs, but really, Violent Femmes and Add It Up (1981-1993) are all I really need.
• I love “Black Girls.” The crazy horns and other various instruments (a Jew’s harp?) are great. I don’t know how much of the song is actually improvised, but it sounds like a wonderful jam session that just happened to be recorded. As a lapsed sax player, the sax parts just speak to me. They’re not pretty, but they’re still awesome.
• I honestly haven’t listened to these guys in a while. I bought the single for “Machine”…wow, almost two decades ago, and that song turned me off of them. I didn’t know if that was representative of a new sound they were trying, but it didn’t work for me, and I pretty much kept to the few albums I already had.  

Violent Femme’s Official Site

Violent Femme’s Facebook page

Violent Femme’s Myspace page

Violent Femme’s Twitter feed

Violent Femme’s iLike page

Violent Femme’s Wikipedia entry

Violent Femme’s AllMusic entry

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas bills here and an unsure/shaky work situation. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!