Pistols At Dawn (could only work for so long...)

Hey, I like making mixtapes. You do too... come on. Who hasn't made one for their lady or dude in the day?
Yeah, no one has actually put the shit on a cassette in ages, but a mixtape is a mixtape, right?

For several years now, the Dibbick Schmibbick Collective has taken the art form of mixtape composure to a next level, a nearly competitive stratus. We started hosting Mix Trade Parties as a way to challenge one another into making the "most fly" mixtape and then sharing it with the group. Inevitably, themes pop up or common strings to make sense of all the song-mashing... I love it.
I was always the dude who would force his headphones on unsuspecting chumps or force people to "hey, wait... listen to this shit!" when hanging out. My late entry into the world of driving held me back from forcing others to listen whatever kooky jams I would be bumping in the whip, so I had to make up for it by working at Hall of Heroes and playing the most anti-retail music I could come up with to drive my Michal Jackson-obsessed boss up a tree.
So, I am natural mixtape obsessive. I have spent years working on my craft. MP3s and the digital media have made the shit almost too easy... just draggin' and droppin' shit into a playlist isn't the same as spending hours in front of your tape deck making sure your 'transitions' are on point. But c'est la vie... I go with what works. Embrace the future.

Just a few weeks ago, my main man Jack Luminous hosted this summer's Mix Trade BBQ and my goofy summer schedule prohibited me from joining the fracas. But that does not mean I didn't compose a submission that I am very proud of. Early on, while thinking of what I would do to put the "most fly" mixtape together, I was inspired by the couplet "...but pistols at dawn, could only work for so long..." from the Destroyer track Helena (click here for the Dan Bejar lyric generator - it's fun and will give you snob points +5). Heavily drawing from the term Pistols At Dawn, I wanted to craft a mix that would evoke the feeling of morning, or sunrise. As most of my mixes tend to do, the shit went off-track real quick, though there are some elements of "morning" and "renewal" and of "breaking the fast" present in my ultimate selections. Though the theme can be a little heavy-handed at times, I think I approached the mix with a really open-mind and let loose with some shit that has been in both heavy rotation and, as always is the unspoken intention of the mixtape, some shit that I am hoping will get those that may be unfamiliar with the artists chosen perhaps a bit more familiar.

So, here is my submission - Pistols At Dawn. I had some dope artwork worked out for it, and still plan on distributing the "hard copies" as it were, so the images used her are like the plan B jawns.

PISTOLS AT DAWN - TLP 2K9 / PIX MADE TRARTY
1. The Wheel Rolls On - Archie Bronson Outfit
2. Early In The Morning - Harry Nilsson
3. Indian Summer - Spectrum (Sonic Boom)
4. First Heart Mighty Dawn Dart - T Rex
5. Mini-Manhunt - David Shire
6. Check Your Bucket - Eddie Bo (NOLA)
7. Empty Is - Frank Sinatra
8. Helena - Destroyer
9. Can You See? - Thee Oh Sees
10. Wild Eyes - Vivian Girls
11. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down - Kris Kristofferson
12. Tight Frame Loose Frame - Smart Went Crazy
13. Weeds Breaking Through The Concrete - Jonathan Richman
14. Good Morning Kaptain - Jackie-O Motherfucker
15. Shelter - Black Mountain
16. I Don't Feel at Home In This World Anymore - Two Gospel Keys

So, download the shit here. But, because I love everything I added to this mix and would be stoked to see the artists get theirs, each track in the listing above is linked to a spot to buy the shit right-proper. Do the right thing.

And to those involved in JL's Mix trade BBQ that I pussied out on and and could not make it to, I am very sorry. Please know that I have the hardest of the hard copy ready for you to hold in your grubby hands.

Oh hey...

OK, I fell off.

Right now, I am braising two enormous veal chops for stuffing whilst roasting an onion and fighting evil all at once. I am a busy guy. Smacking my lips and shaking my ass.

I know that being hyped on David Shire's incredible score to the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three is kinda bullshit what with the new adaptation set to be released this summer... but this Denzel busted-ass remake will have nothing on the original 1974 Walter Matthau high-stepper. And I am damn sure the music will not come close to the erratic, bombastic street-funk that won David Shire two Grammys. So, I will still be hyped.

And this Denzel/Travolta madness will need to be really really good for me to even consider it for viewing (unlike the dirty made-for-TV Edward James Olmos disaster...).

Get with it.

David Shire - The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (Original Motion Picture Score)
Tracklisting (12"):
A1 Main Title (2:18)
A2 The Taking (1:51)
A3 Blue (0:32)
A4 More Taking (0:59)
A5 Dolowitz Takes (0:59)
A6 Dolowitz Killed (1:25)
A7 Blue Green Talk (1:59)
A8 Money Montage 1 (0:55)
A9 Money Montage 2 (2:57)
A10 Fifty Seconds (0:50)
B1 The Money Express (3:55)
B2 Conductor Killed (1:18)
B3 The Money Bag (0:38)
B4 The Pelham's-Moving-Again-Blues (3:10)
B5 I'm A Police Officer (0:56)
B6 Renewing Disguises (0:47)
B7 Goodbye Green, Hello Garber, Goodbye Hippie (1:10)
B8 Smoking More, Enjoying It Less (0:26)
B9 Mini-Manhunt (2:12)
B10 End Title (3:00)

Calendar years and I am supposed to do what...?

2008 has passed unromantically into 2009.

We are now three years closer to imminent doom, if you ask my wife or the Mayans or Nostradamus or any of those other crackpots. I stopped worrying about the 'bolt from the blue' when I was 8 years old and read Marvel Secret Wars.
( -- for those not hip to this Jim Shooter masterpiece/action figure tie-in, all the Marvel superheros and super villains (like The Wrecker?) are scuttled off to some patchwork planet to fight an epic battle to amuse this godlike entity known as the Beyonder. The winner of the battle will be given anything they desire... so of course, super baddest dude of all, Dr. Doom, decides that rather than fighting the same heroes that had been kicking his ass for the last 30 years - he would try to usurp the power directly from the Beyonder. Well, the crazy shit worked, kinda, and rather than just disintegrating the heroes into dust, he gets all dramatic and tosses a powerful energy blast into their HQ to shred them to pieces. Of course, because the power of the Beyonder is so great, Doom cannot contain it all within his mortal mind and it runs astray and his paranoia begins to bring back the dead superheroes until they are all back in action and kick Doom's ass... again. It's a damn good story for being written simply to sell a toy line. )


Anyway, I always feel like I have to rummage thru every top ten or top fifty or top whatever list that comes out this time of year.... whether about music or movies or books, I really give these lists a shot. I guess because I just want to find something new that someone else found merit in... so I am ecure I wont be completely busted.

From the always hit-or-miss Pitchfork Best Albums of 2008, I found this posthumous gem from Arthur Russell... the LP Love Is Overtaking Me. Boy... I cannot stop listening to this collection of very emotionally charged 'folk' compositions. Russell's ability to paint a story over his faint but powerful acoustic guitar is as compelling as it is subdued. Russell seemed to travel in quite luminary circles during his all too brief time on the Earth - Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, David Byrne. Those relationships make sense when you hear the literary quality of his lyricism and the classical, maybe even minimalist, arrangement of his compositions.
Hey, for once, Pitchfork got it right and stopped worrying about BPM and more about authentic song crafting and human storytelling thru the folk that isn't folk.

Love Is Overtaking Me was digitally restored by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear. Culled from the many tapes Russell recorded during his final 10 - 20 years before passing from AIDS in 1991. Released on the Audika label, I don't think it will be the last posthumous collection we see from Arthur Russell... at least I hope not.
<click here for download>

$1.77

I paid $1.77 per gallon for gas today. Just wait 'til the inauguration, when the other shoe drops and the shit is $4/gallon again.
And the expressway tolls went up to $3.75 per trip... that's $7.50 a day.
Driving eats my shit.

To combat this crass commercialism and my refusal to willfully accept the crushing depression brought on by having to pay outrageous sums of cash money just to get to work, I present The Pop Group's uncompromising 1980 LP - For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?

If you are worried that The Pop Group might sound like the Bay City Rollers or Britney Spears, then maybe you deserve to pay $7.50 to drive to work and home again. So I will be listening to this crazy shit in my mini-van, sneering and shaking my fist along with the super-hardcore funk miasma. It will take away the pain.

Fuck - Baby Loves a Funny Bunny

I love this album, the CD came in a giant matchbox.

1. Boy Meets Girl
2. Swinger
3. Love Me 2
4. Flight of the Mongeese
5. Tired
6. 22 No
7. Nice Burg, Lettuce
8. Talent, OR
9. Ballet High
10. Part of Me
11. Rococo
12. Like You
13. Loosened Mind?
14. Crush a Butterfly
15. Whimper and Cry
16. (untitled)
    

It was released on the 'Walter Rhesus Lampighter' label, which I am pretty sure was a vanity label. I remember there was a show at either the Khyber or some similar joint where Come opened for Fuck.. I thought that was a little backwards.

Enjoy.