Monthly Mixtape: March 2021
- Posted by mariteaux on March 29th, 2021 filed in Monthly Mixtapes
- Comments Off on Monthly Mixtape: March 2021
Been a couple months without one of these! That’s okay though. I’ll make ’em a semi-regular occurrence whenever I’ve got enough new music for one.
This one’s themed, believe it or not. I’m currently trying to listen to some of the stuff in my Spotify before I no longer have Premium (and I may never get Premium again, in all honesty), really just to say I did and to add it to my Discogs wantlist if I think they’re worth trying again down the road. As such, all five of these are favorites from those albums.
Dinosaur Jr. – “Little Fury Things”
Let’s start with a real classic. You hear a lot about how loud You’re Living All Over Me is (it’s more noisy than heavy, funnily enough), but it’s also a surprisingly emotive record. I thought it was Lou doing the backup on the choruses here, but it’s actually Lee Ranaldo, on loan from Sonic Youth! Lee has a fucking fantastic voice, and his songs in Sonic Youth are always the least tryhard, so love hearing him here. This one wasn’t recorded too great, but it gets the point across. Definitely one bound for the collection.
The Breeders – “All Nerve”
I was a bit disappointed with All Nerve, the latest Breeders record. The second half is so all over the place, it makes for an especially long 33 minutes. Not to say there isn’t a solid EP in there (skip “Dawn”, blast “Skinhead #2”). Kim Deal’s always at her loveliest when she’s hitting this perfect balance of messy and sentimental, love letters while you’re drunk sorta stuff, and the title cut is absolutely that. Splitting the difference between “you don’t know how much I miss you” and “I will run you down”, it’s a two minute ball of, well, nerves–and it would’ve fit so nicely on Title TK, my favorite Breeders record.
Starflyer 59 – “Not That I Want To”
Can you tell I’m bad at checking up on the stuff my favorite bands do these days? This is one from 2019’s Young in My Head, which I’ve compared to Slow, their record prior. If you liked the nostalgic, blues-to-surf-to-mope stuff that one did, this one does it too. You know the story–when a girl says “I need you”, and a boy says it back, things can change in an instant–but so it goes in the west. This one’s got a bluesy sorta western kick to it, perhaps a little slice of Americana in there (and no, I haven’t listened to that yet either). We’re definitely towards the end of Mr. Martin’s wild ride, but he’s still got it nonetheless.
Devics – “The Man I Love”
This Devics album–it haunts me. (I guess fittingly? It’s about sinking ships.) You remember Devics, the ones who had a track on our favorite, The Fold Compilation? Well, this is the album where “You in the Glass” came from–and yeah, I gotta be in the mood to listen to this thing. It’s such a vast ocean of forlorn girl piano ballads, slow and sleepy in its sadness, it’s like crying yourself to sleep set to music. (Yeah, I gotta listen to more happy music.) It is pretty to listen to though. I’d say give The Ghost in the Girl EP a shot before you try the full thing, because it kinda numbed me going in straight. This one’s on there too.
Spoon – “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”
Okay, let’s end off with something catchy! I was listening to Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga long the fuck before March, but it’s a quick favorite. This is one of the songs on it that isn’t “Don’t You Evah” (which really needs a side of dancing autism bot to compliment that fucking sick groove). Spoon’s tendency towards incredibly focused, minimal indie rock means you’ll barely even notice the horns, but the more I think about it, the more that they make this song. Or perhaps it’s Britt Daniels’ bizarre, recognizable “numb tongue” voice that I often imitate. (I sing this to myself while I’m playing Stardew, admittedly.)
