2007 listening diary - part A

As I've done for the past few years, I've put together a megamix featuring the songs I listened to a lot this last year, other than those on full-length CDs I've acquired. Most of the songs were released in 2007, but many were not: like most people, I certainly don't listen only to new music.

Anyway, what's new this year is my distribution method: in each entry, check the comments for a link to a zipped file. Each batch is cunningly assembled such that if you want, you can burn them onto a single CD - and everything except for the album-based mix (the last one) will fit onto a single CD-R (as mp3s). There should be no gaps between tracks if you're burning them or playing them on iTunes, etc.

Sometimes, additional info will be available in the comments field for each mp3 (such as where I initially heard the track).

Each posting's mix will be available for about a week - after that, e-mail me. On with the show: presenting my 2007 mix, A Pillow Fight in Leather Pants (in several parts).

I began each batch with a comedy track - not necessarily because I listened to loads of comedy this year, but because it provides a nice break (and a clear marker, if you put the whole damned thing in a single playlist, of where those breaks are). Here's part A, entitled "The Eight Feathers":

1. Paul F. Tompkins "Elegant Balloons/I'm So Rich"
2. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Nobody's Baby" live on radio
3. The Monks "Cuckoo"
4. Ringo Deathstarr "Swirly"
5. Charlemagne "8x10"
6. Black Moth Super Rainbow "When the Sun Grows on Your Tongue"
7. Morning Recordings "Sugar Waltz"
8. Aesop Rock "None Shall Pass"
9. Campag Velocet "Drencrom Velocet Synthemesc"
10. Pinback "From Nothing to Nowhere"
11. Voyager One "Wires"
12. The Sky Drops "Sentimental"
13. Tulsa "Shaker"
14. Speck Mountain "Girl Out West"
15. Destroy Cowboy "1000 Candles"
16. Get Him Eat Him "Exposure" demo
17. Muscles "Lauren from Glebe"
18. Phosphorescent "Wolves"
19. P.J. Harvey "Grow Grow Grow"

Some comments: I'm not sure if "Ringo Deathstarr" is the best or worst band name ever...but I am sure that band members have worn out their copies of Loveless several times over (that lick, even that drum part, is rather familiar). The Morning Recordings track presents the first of two Prince-based puns in this year's mix. Both the Tulsa track and the Destroy Cowboy tracks came to me unsolicited from bands I'd never heard of - nice when that works out! (Even nicer: one such band made my top 20 albums of the year.)

Also: as good a time as any to do the animal inventory, for 2007 continued the trend of having animals in either your band's name, its song titles, or both. Here's a list:

In band names: bears (twice), deer, horses, llamas, pandas, ponies, tigers (twice), doves, birds generally (twice), moths, pterodactyls.

In song titles: hounds, mice, ponies, wolves (twice), cuckoos, falcons, owls, worms.

And there were more in the album-based list...