Tag Archives: listen in silence

Mixtape: Listen in Silence…The Singles II

Posted on by
Reply

This one reminds me of Silver Lake Cemetery. In that short summer between graduating high school and entering college, I got a job at my home town’s Public Works department and spent the entire season mowing the several local cemeteries. Silver Lake had always been my favorite because it was the biggest and most varied in landscape and we could take our time with it. We could easily find a quiet spot and hide for an hour if we wanted. It gave me a lot of time to think. I went through cases of AA batteries listening to my Walkman that summer.

I really love this one a lot; I played this one to the point of nearly wearing it out. It’s full of songs then getting airplay on 120 Minutes, WMDK, records picked up at Al Bum’s and Main Street Music, with a few oddities thrown in. I’d started it with the two first tracks on each side, requested from a friend’s music collection, and I built it up from there. The idea was for the first side to be upbeat and/or energetic, with the flipside being downbeat and/or moody. It wasn’t the last complete mixtape of my hometown teen years — the first Untitled gets that honor a few months later, which I’ll post here at a later time — but it does have that feeling of finality, which was deliberate, especially with that Smiths/Joy Division double-punch at the end. I was more than ready to escape this place and head out into the real world.

[Side notes: The Procol Harum song does stick out a bit, but the reason it’s there is because it was used prominently in the movie New York Stories which my friends and I had gone to see that summer. The GnR song sticks out a bit too, and that was because it had originally been added more as an add to my collection rather than an integral part of the mixtape, but it does kind of fit moodwise. The two Love and Rockets songs are in fact the very same song, played in completely different styles, fitting in perfectly with my upbeat/downbeat theme.]

Listen in Silence…The Singles II, created June 1989

Side A
1. That Petrol Emotion, “Creeping to the Cross”
2. Siouxsie & the Banshees, “The Killing Jar”
3. The Cure, “Babble”
4. The Smiths, “The Queen is Dead”
5. Soul Asylum, “Sometime to Return”
6. Love and Rockets, “Motorcycle”
7. The Cure, “Fascination Street [Extended Remix]”
8. Voice of the Beehive, “Beat of Love”
9. The Smiths, “Shoplifters of the World”
10. Camouflage, “That Smiling Face”

Side B:
1. Guns n’ Roses, “Patience”
2. Talk Talk, “Life’s What You Make It”
3. REM, “The One I Love”
4. Procol Harum, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”
5. Julian Cope, “Charlotte Anne”
6. Ultra Vivid Scene, “Mercy Seat”
7. Love and Rockets, “I Feel Speed”
8. The Cure, “Plainsong”
9. The Smiths, “Reel Around the Fountain”
10. Joy Division, “Atmosphere”

Mixtape: Listen in Silence XXIV

Posted on by
Reply

Yes, the current volume of Listen In Silence is number twenty-four.  Not bad for a mixtape series I started back in 1988, yeah?  Missed a few years in between, but I’m glad to say after I resurrected it, it’s still going strong.  The links are for the YouTube videos because I can’t be arsed to attempt to build a Spotify playlist right now.  Enjoy!

Side 1
1. John Hardy, “Hidden Title Theme”
2. Gorillaz feat. George Benson, “Humility”
3. Bob Moses, “Heaven Only Knows”
4. Mitski, “Nobody”
5. Death Cab for Cutie, “Gold Rush”
6. The Kooks, “No Pressure”
7. Eric Bachmann, “Daylight”
8. tunng, “Crow”
9. Metric, “Dark Saturday”
10. James, “Many Faces”
11. Lucy Dacus, “Night Shift”

Side 2
1. Death Cab for Cutie, “I Dreamt We Spoke Again”
2. Gorillaz, “Tranz”
3. tunng, “Dark Heart”
4. Dog Party, “Operator”
5. Nothing, “Us/We/Are”
6. Paul McCartney, “Fuh You”
7. The Neighbourhood, “Softcore”
8. Jungle, “Happy Man”
9. Failure, “Heavy and Blind”
10. Art Brut, “Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!”
11. The London Suede, “The Invisibles”
12. ShadowParty, “Celebrate”
13. Mogwai, “We’re Not Done (End Title)”

Listen in Silence XXI

Posted on by
Reply

cassette30082013

For your listening pleasure, here’s my latest compilation/mixtape that I created a week or so ago.  All the links are to their respective YouTube visuals and will open in a separate window.

On a side note, I’m greatly amused that I’m still using a mixtape name that I created way back in the spring of 1988.  I usually used the LiS title for ‘favorite poppy alternative songs’ mixtapes (whereas Walk in Silence was used for ‘favorite moody alternative songs’).  There was a stretch there in the early 00s when I used a different title and the mixes were more varied (this would be the Re:Defined mixes).  Hey, if the titles still fit, might as well keep using them, right?

Side A

  1. Spoon, “Hot Thoughts”
  2. Colony House, “You & I”
  3. Cloud Nothings, “Modern Act”
  4. Depeche Mode, “Where’s the Revolution”
  5. The New Pornographers, “High Ticket Attractions”
  6. Elbow, “Magnificent (She Says)”
  7. Slowdive, “Star Roving”
  8. Dirty Projectors, “Keep Your Name”
  9. The Orwells, “They Put a Body in the Bayou”
  10. Cosima, “To Build a House”
  11. Beach Slang, “Roadrunner”

Side B

  1. Grandaddy, “Way We Won’t”
  2. Los Campesinos!, “I Broke Up in Amarante”
  3. The XX, “On Hold”
  4. Bastille, “Good Grief”
  5. Arcade Fire, “I Give You Power (feat. Mavis Staples)”
  6. Minus the Bear, “Last Kiss”
  7. Temples, “Certainty”
  8. OK Go, “Interesting Drug”
  9. Japandroids, “Near to the Wild Heart of Life”
  10. Portugal. The Man, “Feel It Still”
  11. Of Verona, “Wish You Were Here”
  12. Dropkick Murphys, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”