Season 4, Mix 50 is here! And who better to bring it than our #1 Commenter. This guy has actually been known to comment in real-time, minutes after a mix has been uploaded. He has likely commented on all y'all's mix at one time or 'nother. So put that keyboard down, Tim Carroll—today it's you in the spotlight.Date
October 5, 2011
Miracler
Tim Carroll
Location
Austin, TX
When last we heard from TC
In February of this year, Mr. Carroll made us Paradise, a mix that attracted swoons like, "Tim, this mix is the winningest" and "Cool, trippy fun. Me like!" and "Really digging this" and"Eclectic mix...Soft Machine into Nancy Sinatra: boing!" and "Psychedelic Woman? It's made my 'most played tracks' list every week since this mix was posted" and "Really enjoyed this mix. Totally my kind of eclecticism, including but not limited to the late great Beefheart and the Residents. Nice!" and lots of other comment using 'fun,' 'eclectic,' and love.'
Before he took us to Paradise, Tim put us to Bed, a fabulous mix theme if ever there was one. About this, one Miracler said, "Tim, I'm swooning over this mix. You've classed up the group with all your piano and sax and trumpet and stuff. Truly a a lovely and yes, dreamy compilation—thanks!" and "Good mix of nicei songs to nod off to" and "I'd be happy to fall asleep to Ella and Louis singing 'Moonlight in Vermont' every night for the rest of my life.' And so on.
So transporting us yet again to a lovely place, Tim takes on Comeliness with today's mix. Some notes from TC:
1. Do Your Thing / Lyn Collins -- The female James Brown!
2. Pop A Top / Jim Ed Brown -- That hiccup beat between "pop a top" and the word "again" is a small silence that speaks volumes.
3. Los Twangueros / Ry Cooder & Manuel Galabán -- Manuel Galabán's bendy-lectric guitar and amazing Cuban syncopation, with Ry Cooder playing VIBES? Wow. That flute sound is a synth, I'm guessing.
4. Gimme Shelter / Merry Clayton -- Clayton helped belt it out on the original. Here she is doing it sans Mick.
5. Lady Day / Lou Reed -- From the Berlin album. Depression never felt better.
6. Big Trouble / John Lurie -- Where'd John go? Music and acting apparently on the shelf, Lurie's getting some painting done. Check out johnlurieart.com.
7. El Último Habitante Del Planeta / Mastretta (Featuring Gema Corredera) -- I don't speak Spanish but the title is figure-out-able, and sublimely hilarious.
8. Cavern / Liquid Liquid -- The visual artist Richard McGuire is also a secret musical genius. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five "borrowed" Richard's bass line in this Liquid Liquid song for their mega-world-huge "White Lines."
9. Love Is Strange / Mickey and Sylvia -- Sylvia Robinson just died last week. Two decades after this happy hit, Sylvia produced "rapper's Delight", started SugarHill Records, and became The Mother of Hip Hop. Pattern Detection Alert: Sylvia co-wrote the Lyrics to "White Lines."
10. Everyone's a Winner / Hot Chocolate -- This "slowdown" version, done by a nameless friend's brother (please don't sue), is an extra special bedtime treat. Swiss Miss and cough syrup in the tum-tum.
11. Mini Micro Cool / Takako Minekawa -- It is, and she is, just that.
12. Amarcord / Nino Rota -- The theme to a beautiful movie, Fellini's remembrances of 1930s Rimini.
13. Frank's Wild Years / Tom Waits -- Back in 1987 it took supreme effort NOT to slip this poetic gem onto the end of every mix tape. The mortgage terms detailed herein attest to time's passage.
Mix is up. Listen and comment. And then comment on others. Cuz that's the deal. See you back here or on our members-only Facebook page.
Until next week, XOK
25 comments:
A little John Lurie backstory: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/16/100816fa_fact_friend
Wow, I love this mix. Unity within sonic and cultural diversity. Lyn Collins can kick. And the Liquid Liquid has great sonic texture. And Tom Waits could end every evening. Kudos
I wouldn't think I'd like a slowed-down version of Every 1's a Winner. I stand corrected.
-- kellen
Nice & varied mix. I particularly like the Liquid Liquid tune. That'd be a good themed mix: songs with hand drum breakdowns.
Thanks for sharing, Tim.
:)
Yeah, I've always loved that little hesitation in Pop a Top. Classic country phrasing. Ever heard Alan Jackson's cover? Pretty good!
"El Ultimo..." is a great song. Beautiful voice and just enough Theremin. Never saw the movie and haven't heard Amarcord til now. Cinematic stuff. Thanks Tim.
I could not have imagined a mix with "Lady Day" and "Love is Strange" on it... so very weird, Tim, and I mean that in the most sincere cinematic (well put - Danny Lee!) way. As Mastretta, Fellini, John Lurie and Takoko Minehawa are the epoxy for these 13 comely tunes.
Of course you are in Austin!
It makes a little more sense now....
I, too, once found myself putting Frank's Wild Years at the end of every mix tape. I have a feeling that a lot of men of a certain age did. And I still find myself saying "spent piece of used jet trash" every now and again. Plus, there's that B3...
But enough about me. "Do Your Thing" was on "Black Like Me" until I had to cut the thing down to 45 minutes. (Wait—that's still about me.) Never heard Pop A Top or the Mastretta track before—thanks for the introduction. And thanks for creating such a terrific mix. Top to bottom, it's pure joy.
It's been rainy and blah over here in the east bay this week and this quirky cool mix has been just the thing to keep me movin' and groovin' around the house.
Lyn Collins? Hell yeah! Merry Clayton? LOVE. Jim Brown is such a smoothie....I love a lil old country. And Takako Minekawa is new to me—totally digging it! Well done, sir!
[ btw, I love the Micky & Sylvia track (which I'm not ashamed to admit I only know because of Dirty Dancing....) and didn't realize it was Sugar Hill Sylvia....thanks for that tidbit!]
Neither did I !! She was really something!
I had never heard this version of 'Gimme Shelter' before. I like it immensely. I finally had the opportunity to play the whole mix in its entirety at work, and I am in a much better mood than when I started. For some reason the Nino Rota made me feel as if suddenly everything was ok...Thanks Tim!
What I love about this mix: such a great blend of
1) songs I know but sung by someone I dont know (Merry Clayton, ex)
2) artists I've heard of but never heard (Lyn Collins, ex)
3) artists I've heard, but tracks I'm unfamiliar with (Ry Cooder, ex)
4) songs I love but haven't listened to in forever (Amarcord, ex)
5) songs I've never heard by artists I've never heard (Mastretta, ex)
Think about it. Is that not the definition of a perfect mix? Isn't that what we all are going for when we make them? For me the answer is Yes.
I've been behind on my listening and commenting due to too much record shopping (oh, the horror!) ... and I am the one paying the price. This mix is spectacular! I don't want to think about the hours I could have spent listening to it on endless loop. Sob.
Some gems from the last TC mix (Psychedelic Woman, Tropical Hot Dog Night) were on my 'Top Songs of Spring 2011' playlist. Mastretta rocketing to the top of this Fall's playlist.... Many many thanks, Tim.
Wow, John Lurie, Mickey & Sylvia and Tom Waits on the same list, just fantastic. And Berlin is by far my favorite Lou Reed record. The Merry Clayton cut is just dynamite.
Toby -- Paranoia is a common side effect of The Game O' Fame. Get well soon, Mr. Lurie! Thanks for the link.
Arthur B and Sam K -- It's weird that Liquid Liquid never broke bigger. Thirty years after a brief post-punk heyday they still play here and there -- recently on Jimmy Fallon's TV show, even. Wandering around Iceland in the late 90s, I saw a Liquid Liquid CD on display in the window of a Reykjavik record store. Snatched that baby right up.
Kellen -- Recently caught my stepson singing that other Hot Chocolate song, "I believe in mi-RA-cles, since you came along, you sexy thang." Colin said it's on a TV ad. That got me thinking about this s-l-o-w-m-o version of "Everyone's a Winner." Sounds like Gene Ween, don't you think?
Alix -- I never saw Dirty Dancing, but for me, too, it was a movie that supplied the turn-on to Mickey and Silvia: Terrence Malick's most awesomely excellent Badlands. Takako Minekawa is sublime and trippy. She's married with Cornelius, the alleged wig-wearing Japanese pop weirdo sometimes shorthanded as "The Japanese Beck."
Doug -- Yeah, man. "Frank's Wild Years" will forever be the unbeatable closer. Had it as the last song on this mix until I tried on the sequence for a few listens. Had to shuffle things up a bit. Dreamy "Amarcord" had initially been the opener, meant as a kind of a fake-out for the soul shot coming after it. Oops. Like starting out the morning with a handful of Oxycontins: Zzzz....
Stephen B -- Merry Chandler's solo recording of "Gimme Shelter" came to this radar via Richard Metzger's treasure trove, DangerousMinds.net. Here's a link to the "Gimme" story: http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/deconstructing_gimme_shelter_listen/
If you're a fan of the Stones at their most debauched (and who isn't?), Dangerous Minds also sports linkage to the Stones' long-suppressed "documentary" Cocksucker Blues, on view in its entirety. Simultaneously boring and riveting.
Danny Lee -- I know next to nothing nothing about Mastretta, or the woman singing on the song. Someone loaned me a CD of his about ten years ago. The whole record is light and quirky. You're so right about there being just enough theremin.
Xtina -- Thanks for the kind words! By the by, I hear Ry Cooder has a new record out. 21st Century Grapes of Wrath songs. If not for scraping by in this current freelance magazine illustrator dust bowl, I'd be buying Ry's latest album lickety-split. Cooder does no worng. Weirdly varied, the guy started out with Captain Beefheart, did session guitar for the Stones, brought Cuba to America, and on and on and on.
Wes -- As a mid-70s stoner kid, Lou's car drove into town in reverse. First came Rock 'N' Roll Animal. Then we worked backwards to Berlin. Finally we discovered the Velvets. It was weird to discover the songs we loved were revisions of older recordings. I still have a soft spot for the anthem bombast of Rock 'N' Roll Animal.
Returned from travel and gave myself over to this mix. Twists. Turns. Wow. This is a great mix, and a worthy object of Stockholm Syndrome.
PS "Paradise" remains in heavy rotation in the household.
Stockholm Syndome? Funny, ST!
I've always wondered if the perverted captor-captive phenomenon explains my dog's apparent devotion. She may well think of me as her Cinque With A Can Opener.
I continue to be amazed by that slowed-down version of Every 1's a Winner...
Some fun stuff here, it's a bit of a jumble but I'm mostly along for the ride. That Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban album is an all-time fave. I'd like to hear more of Nino Rota, this song makes me want to drive through sunny countryside with a polka dot scarf on my head and some cat-eye glasses.
This is indeed some very fresh stuff. I like that Takako she is very ka-wa-eee! Agreed about the polka dot scarf and cat eye glasses.
Ahhhh Takako is married to Cornelius??? Damn those crazy cool hipster uber couples!!!
(still loving this mix...)
Liquid Liquid, The Cavern = Grand Master Flash and white lines on Prozac. Crazy.
Enjoyed your genre-hopping mixed bag. That 'Pop A Top' song is an instant favorite, especially with the 'pop' sound effect. Did I detected a bit of wah-wah pedal in 'Do Your Thing'? Maybe not, but I do like some wah-wah.
Boy did I enjoy this --and most of it I didn't see coming, like Mastretta (I know the guy, good chap, but I thought no-one knew him outside of Spain) or the 45-at-33 recording of Hot Chocolate. Impressive!
I also didn't know the Sylvia of Mickey &- fame was the Sugar Hill Sylvia. Right on!! Thanks for the trivia, my favorite type of knowledge :)
Now with your permission I'm going to play "Pop a Top". Again. And Again.Thanks!
Hey there Tim,
I wanted to thank you for Bed no. 1 which was a sleeper hit for me - maybe appropriately so?
I have played it and all of the songs over and over in the last year, but somehow it got by way back then.
It doesn't bode well for timely comments, but being able to pull into the stockpile of music is one of the biggest benefits of being in the 3mpm group.
xo!
Jeanne-Marie: Thanks for liking "Bed." Muchly digging your most recent creation, it's obvious your definition of Pop Music reaches way, way into Jazz . The power of perfect, honest stupidity of three chords is undeniable, but -- hey! -- even Iggy Pop loves him some Jazz.
Pepe: You know Mastretta? Alright! An all-Spanish mix would be great to hear. If that appeals to you, I'd be happily educated. Growing up in this stubbornly self-contained land my tastes eddy towards American and Anglo Pop, Rock, Folk, and Jazz. Meanwhile there's a big, big world out there. Maybe I'll try on a No-merica mix next? "Out of Africa" maybe.
Peter: There's a documentary out there on the Wah-wha pedal called Cry Baby. Have you seen it?
http://vimeo.com/20902369
Liz and Alix: Here's a remix of Takako's "Milk Rock" done by Cornelius (who puts on an amazing live show, by the by): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLIlEJWtQ70&feature=related
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