Mixtape: babies

When my friend got married, my job was to be the driver for the lovely bride and her family. Part of the deal was I had to make a mix tape for the trip. This mix tape ended with the Final Countdown blaring as the bride left the car.

She was so impressed that when she fell pregnant she asked me to make one for the delivery room. I put a lot of thought into this. My first idea was to time it with contractions: short, loud grindcore songs for the pain, soothing music for the time in between. That was vetoed (apparently not many people like grindcore?) and instead I made this mix.

Coincidentally, a mixtape club I'm in saw the co-founder having a kid around my month! So this got double play. I now leave it here for your enjoyment.

1. The Seed 2.0 - The Roots (ft. Cody Chesnutt)

This song is pure smut, delivered with such smooth and lovely music. It's all about getting pregnant.

I push my seed in her bush for life
It's gonna work because I'm pushin' it right

2. Teenage Pregnancy - Cake

Coming up with songs about babies and giving birth wasn't easy. Especially when the person requesting the mix is a music teacher. Sometimes I went with obvious song titles, so there's no real reason to explain this choice. But the underlying idea of the mixtape was to cover the baby from conception to delivery.

3. You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins

After you've found out you're pregnant, you just want the baby now! (at least I presume, I've never experienced it) Everything is still cheerful and upbeat.

4.  When My Baby Comes - Grinderman

When the pregnancy starts moving on, you get a bit moody and emotional and start planning and fretting about everything. Who says moody and emotional better than Nick Cave?!

Even better, some of the lyrics are accidentally about babies. Pooping on things.

When my baby comes
There is an ancient question behind her eyes
That I can't even begin to describe
(Hey, don't do that on the carpet!)
When my baby comes

5. (Baby I've Got You) On My Mind - Powderfinger

As the pregnancy progresses that baby is all you think about, as all of your Facebook followers will happily point out to you (generally with a groan and an eye roll).

6. I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (to see my Baby) - Tom Waits

The baby is almost at work and the dad spends all day, by the phone, with a packed bag in the car, just waiting for that call to get to the hospital...

7. The Final Countdown - Europe

It's a well known fact that I can't make a mixtape without the Final Countdown. I pretty much always finish with it, but in this case it worked right here at this point. Just before the baby's delivery.

8. Waiting Room - Fugazi

One of the sexiest bass riffs ever recorded, it also captures the frustration of waiting in the hospital.

9. Push It - Salt n Pepa

If you don't know what this is referring to in the context of this mixtape, you must have failed school.

10. I Don't Want to Push It - Sonic Youth

I love this band, but I was surprised to find any context at all that they would work on a mixtape about giving birth. But here you go. As the doctor is yelling to push, the poor, exasperated mother has just had enough.

11. Hatching Baby Raptor - John Williams

This is a bit of a stretch, even for me, trying to work my favourite movie into a mixtape about giving birth. But this magical music when the raptor emerges from the egg in Jurassic Park represents the bliss when the baby is first put in its mother's arms.

12. The Screamer - Bouncing Souls

The music and lyrics of the song itself is a bit out of place, but the title says it all. The baby starts crying. All hell breaks loose. 

13. Special Delivery - The Offspring

No matter how much the goddamn baby cries and pukes and poops you're still going to love your special delivery, as I've witness with my friends and their newborns.

It'll blow you away - You're gonna fall for me

14. Cry Baby - Cee-Lo

I've been told newborns cry all the time. I'm not sure of this, I tend to avoid babies, but I'll take everyone's word for it.

15. Kicking and Screaming - The Presets

As the parents and the baby get settled and sleep becomes a premium, the parents can build up anger just as quick as their offspring.

16. Baby's Got A Temper - The Prodigy

Some parents get unlucky, their baby just won't shut up.

17. Come to Daddy - Aphex Twin

When I first envisioned this mixtape, this was the first song that popped into my head. It seems the best way to end it though, as the baby came to its dad (my friend) for the first time.

Apparently she played this CD while giving birth!

Now there was a bonus CD, with the songs that just didn't make the cut... And you can view it here.

90's Mixtape #4: Bands that got big

As many one hit wonders as there were in the 90s, there were plenty of bands that became huge, from genres that would normally not have gotten big. Imagine in 1990 seeing Green Day and thinking how huge they would become? It just boggles the mind. This selection is of bands that have become huge since then, maybe not to the level of being played on Nova, but to the level of being considered gods of their genres.

1. Ben Folds Five - One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces (3:54)

Ben Folds was the sound of university students of the 90s. This track, one of his heavier ones, was the opening track to the album that made him huge, the one that had that sobby song Brick on it.

2. Alice In Chains - We Die Young (2:32)

Nirvana was the biggest band in grunge, Pearl Jam possibly the second. And the third, without a doubt, was Alice in Chains. I still remember when the lead singer Layne Staley died in high school, most of my friends had to go home to mourn. It was a huge moment for us, as Alice in Chains was the working class rock music of our area.

3. At the Drive-In - Metronome Arthritis (4:01)

Probably one of the best bands, ever. They had a massive hard working ethic, and apparently gave the most legendary on-stage performances. This was a track that was recorded just before the sessions that gave them their critically acclaimed, and unfortunately last, album Relationship of Command. Before this song they were scrappyish post-hardcore. After this track they defined a style. They then broke up to form the bands Sparta and the Mars Volta.

4. Deftones - Root (3:41)

This track is off of their first album, when they were a burgeoning hardcore band. Still one of my favourite albums, I play this on guitar almost every day. Eventually they calmed down into an electronic/ambient hardcore band that they are now. They’ve become their own genre.

5. Blur - M.O.R. (3:27)

Woohoo! These guys made Brit-rock famous. Unfortunately they wrote the bogan anthem Song 2, but the rest of the album was full of amazing British rock. The lead singer is now the Gorillaz, amongst other bands.

6. Bush - Bubbles (3:02)

Another British band, but more of a grunge one. They hit the time huge in America with a song called Glycerine, but this song is off of the Mallrats soundtrack. The lead singer ended up marrying Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, got happy, stopped writing good music and is now an actor.

7. Fugazi - Give Me The Cure (2:59)

Fugazi formed from the ashes of the short-lived hardcore band that invented straight edge (they even wrote the song that NOFX covers): Minor Threat. Although not the relentless hardcore of Minor Threat, they introduced indie and melody to create some quiet, yet still hard songs. They still kept the hardcore ethic though, every concert they play is all ages and cheap as chips. That’s the only way they’ll play. They are truly in it for the music, even after 30 odd years.

8. System Of A Down - Sugar (2:33)

You know System of a Down. Their first album though, especially this song, was at the forefront of my drug days in the 90s. The album, this song too, was basically about bad drug trips. This one is about mushroom men.

9. A.F.I. - Malleus Maleficarum (4:01)

I also hope you know A.F.I. Before they were glam-punk, they were a great west coast hardcore band. I wish I had known them during these days.

10. Nine Inch Nails - Big Man With A Gun (1:36)

Nine Inch Nails were so huge in the 90s (and so feared) that I remember my teenage books (Animorphs in particular) always had the loners, the losers, or the trouble makers listening to their music.

11. Modest Mouse - Doin' the Cockroach (4:18)

Modest Mouse in the 90’s were a balls to the wall noise-rock band with existential lyrics that either made you think or got you lost. But halfway through each song the lead singer Isaac would just lose it, and play as much noise while yelling as he wanted to, until he pulled it up slow. Not as good these days, but still an amazing indie band.

12. REFUSED - New Noise (5:09)

The single off their groundbreaking album, the Shape of Punk to Come. They actually showed us in this album the music scene 10 years on, and like any great band releasing an amazing album, they broke up immediately afterwards. Oh, and Swedish. You should listen to this whole album, it is just hardcore royalty.

13. Poison The Well - Artists Rendering of Me (3:20)

There was nothing like the hardcore of today before Poison the Well. And they are still going strong.

14. Beastie Boys - Sabotage (2:58)

Yeah, they mainly do hip-hop. And got huge off it. But this is a great little track with an awesome video clip.

15. Incubus - You Will Be A Hot Dancer (4:17)

Incubus are now a pretty boring indie band. But when they started, they mixed together funk and metal in a brand new way. Their bass player is one of the few reasons I ever bought a bass guitar.

16. Maxïmo Park - Graffiti (2:46)

Ask girls my age about this band. They love them and so do I. But for some reason, their cabaret style just gets the girls.

17. Spiderbait - Shazam! (2:03)

Australia’s favourite band, whenever the drummer was singing they produced much better and heavier songs like Shazam!

18. Beck - Sexx Laws (3:41)

Beck is just one of those artists that is around a lot, and has been for years. He’s put out weird electronic music, he’s put out acoustic music, he’s put out rock music. But the album I best remember him for is where this track came from, full on big-band trumpet style music. Probably not your taste, but it’s just fun with a bit of a risqué subject.

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Spoken Word Hardcore

Every few months I become absolutely obsessed with some sort of music, whether it is a band, a genre or just a country of origin (my Swedish obsession still kicks back in occassionally). My last big musical obsession was twee, given the awesomeness of the new Los Campesinos album and my rediscovering Bis. My newest obsession is a bit of a backflip, and not really a genre or anything at all. In fact I don't even know what to call it. In my head I have dubbed it Spoken Word Hardcore.


So how to describe it? It's obviously hardcore music, but at the same time it's not. Some of the bands I've grouped into this category have hardcore instrumentals, but almost completely spoken word lyrics (shouted a lot mind you). On the other end there are the almost indie/post-rock/mathrock clean instrumentals with half-shouted hardcore style vocals. Confused? Yeah, I can imagine so. So here's my quick run down of bands that I've been listening to as part of my obsession with this made up genre. I've hidden links to songs, free mp3s, websites, videos throughout all of the text.

Bradley Hathaway
The reason I am in this kick probably goes back to one starting point: Bradley Hathaway. It's not even music, it's poetry. I bought his first book a few months back and I have been slowly reading it while listening to the accompanying CD. It's basically a hardcore (if not uber-Christian) style of poetry. Hell, his book is riddled with testimonials from guys in hardcore bands (The Chariot/Norma Jean/etc). His delivery style is a shouted kind like old school beat-poets and his subject matter touches people in the hardcore scene. Especially the poem/track The Annoying Hardcore Dude That Goes Too Far. Anyone that goes to any heavy shows knows this guy that he is talking about.

Minor Threat & Fugazi
Every genre has a starting point, and in my made up sub-genre it would be Minor Threat, although most people would say they were the starting point to most of hardcore music in general. Their songs were short and fast, with a lot of the lyrics seeming to be quick half spoken/half shouted. They couldn't really sing to keep up with the speed of their guitars. After the short-lived Minor Threat broke up, Fugazi formed from the ashes. Although not as hardcore as Minor Threat, Fugazi slowed things down with more song structure and songs that bordered on indie releases. However, the vocals are still sung in an almost spoken way.

I'm going to go through the bands starting at the clean end and working towards the heavy end.

mewithoutYou
Bordering on the instrumental and folk side of things, mewithoutYou is a band that is hard to categorise. Some of their songs are lovely little folk-acoustic pieces, while some of their songs build up to a loud and distorted crescendo. Over the top of all of this though is Aaron's vocals, an interesting blend of spoken word and hardcore shouting. This band works as hard as any hardcore band I have ever seen and leaves nothing behind when they take the stage. The best example of mewithoutYou is their album Brother Sister, which can turn on a dime from quiet to loud.

Here's a video I recorded of them from my last trip to the USA.

La Dispute
Apart from Mr Hathaway, this band is the other reason that I am on this kick. After being told a million times to listen to them, I finally got around to it. Their sound is unique: indie guitars at times, with beautiful clean melodies and some basic singing and speaking over the top. Then they hit the distortion and the vocals ramp up and become rough and almost screamed. The lyrics are also quite poetic. Their new release is a split EP with Touche Amore and it's slightly heavier than their last album Somewhere At The Bottom Of The River Between Vega And Altair.

Blacklisted
Blacklisted sit nicely in the middle of all of the bands. The instrumentation is much heavier and more hardcore like than the earlier bands, but the vocals are still almost spoken. Well, audibly shouted is probably a better description. Last year they put out an album entitled No One Deserves to Be Here More Than Me, which I unfortunately did not hear until earlier this year, otherwise it would have easily made my top 10.

End of a Year
Very similar to Blacklisted actually, I only discovered this band a few minutes before writing this article. The guitars and music is a bit more on the hardcore punk side than the other bands.

At this point it gets more difficult, because at it's core, isn't hardcore music, especially punk, generally of this style? The gruff shouted vocals don't lend themselves well to singing, so a lot of times bands sound like they are almost speaking their lyrics instead of singing them. So on the heavier side, with shouted vocals, I kind of place these bands in the list too:

Bane
Pissed Jeans (a hardcore band on Sub Pop Records?! You know it's going to be good)
Almost Home (thanks Clus)
and Melbourne's own Carpathian. If you ignore their early stuff with Crafter on vocals.