Mash Note

Date
November 7, 2013

Miracler
Laura Compton

Locations 
San Francisco & Sacramento

When we left off with Ms. Compton,
We were bopping our heads to her Green Eyed and Blue, which Your Hostess hard an especially hard time putting down. And some of you had a similar time of it, with comments like (29 of em, and so gushy, I have to set em in smaller type so you don't sprain your wrist/thumb scrolling on your device:     

Laura, your mixes are among my favorites. This one does not disappoint. Thanks lady!    This mix starts out like an favorite sweater: makes me want to close my eyes and wrap myself up in it (despite the recent balmy weather). There is a tone here that seems to be reaching in through the edges of my shoulders, simultaneously hitting something in my sacrum and my cerebellum. Like a bittersweet melancholy. I'm finding this mix very moving in a moment when it feels so welcome to be moved. I always enjoy your mixes, Laura, and this one is feeling extra special. Thank you so much.   Always luvs me a Laura Compton mix. Our musical Venn diagrams overlap (er, intersect) in such a sweet shady summer spot. Thanks!    Enjoying the ladies here. And the time travel capabilities!    It's like a modern day John Hughes sound track - meant in the best possible way. A lot of my faves in here. And I agree with Doug about Mr. Bennett on Wilco. Never been the same without him (though I still like them). Thanks for the fun mix.    Since this newest mix was posted I went in to my itunes and typed Laura Compton and so I turned up listening to all your songs. Some of which were my absolute favorites of the prodge - I am talking Maps, Pumped up kicks, and some of my old personal favorites - Chuck E, Love and Affection and anything by Ivy. I also love the free form mixes of new and old. I'm in love with that song Laura! Thanks for the mixes!    Another classy mix! and I mean that in a good way. I love the similarities in the guitars and cool beats from one song to the next. Yay Beastie Boys. Love that song in particular.    Normally, I loathe the Style Council, but this track is in their sweet spot: lovely little ditties. Thanks for the memories. Especially the memories of playing Absolute Beginners on loop at the video store.    Cuyahoga is an old favorite from when I knew that album as one long song (didn't even know the name of the band) when a friend gave me an unmarked cassette tape and I listened to it only in the early mornings riding my bike around the outskirts of Florence with a walkman and headphones. Pure bliss!    I just wouldn't be a mix from you without an Ivy song, now would it, Laura? And it's from my favorite album. (Well, by Ivy.)     I've enjoyed every bit of this mix, and I'd say my absolute favorites were by artists I'd never had the pleasure of hearing before: Lloyd Cole and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Specifically, the melancholy vocals on "Charlotte Street" were a warm embrace, and I really dug the bouncing untamed nature of the Beck production on "Greenwich Mean Time".    Hurray for Lloyd Cole! Ditto Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dean & Britta, and Tracey Thorn. And thanks for the Beastie Boys track. A lovely song on an album that I own, yet don't believe I've ever really listened to (wait—there's something on it besides "Body Movin'"?). Thanks, Laura!    PS — I miss you, Jay Bennett. And so should Jeff Tweedy, that sad sack loser.    Just jumping on the Ivy bandwagon to say thanks for including that track. They're a long-time blue-mood fave and, hey, misery loves company, right? I've also been a Lloyd Cole fan since '88 so I'm glad to see him here.    Smiled quietly to myself when I hit track 3, as I was in Cuyahoga County, OH when I clicked it on. Caught my mood perfectly with this mix - thanks.    A mix by Laura is always a welcome bundle of pop eclecticism, and this is no exception. Summertime Mod Blues you said? I'm buyin'!    Thank you Laura for the Dean & Britta tip, I had lost all contact with the Wareham but this album you mention sounds very interesting (Lou Reed's bit in particular! Never heard that before, yum).    Also thanks for the Lloyd Cole flashback! "Charlotte Street" was a big part of my soundtrack to 1985. Ah, memories.    Nice mix Laura. Particular standouts for me are the beautiful Canadian soul of "How Come You Never Go There." The mellow workin' the chorus "Eyes in My Smoke." Have you read Black Postcards? Took me back. It's like the indie rock version of my dad's pals who have been bass, piano, vocals, husband/wife duo of the American songbook my whole life.    What a great mix. I'd never heard the Dean and Britta song or the Frankie Rose song or the Ivy song. They are fantastic. Nicely done.    As always, yours is one of my faves. Lots of loves here, esp. charlotte street. You and I share the Lloyd Cole thing, if you remember. I also forgot how much I love Tracey Thorn's voice. Right on!    Charlotte Gainsbourg is cool. Her mom leaned over me once. I like the Beastie Boys & DJ Shadow cuts but I especially like how trick-questiony they are. Thanks for sharing, Laura! :)    I like the twinkling bright wit in this mix, and damn Tracey Thorn can sing. and all I can say about the DJ Shadow treatment is --- Shit yeah, the production just perfect. And must admit any time I hear REM it brings up my love hate relationship to the band, but this reminds me of the love side of the register. I like your sensibility, kudos.    Really, really dig the Charlotte Gainsbourg song, Laura. First noticed Gainsbourg in The Cement Garden nigh on 20 years ago. Then, ten years back, I was barfed-out by seeing a video of "Lemon Incest." There she is, at 13 or so, singing a sex duet with her dad Serge, on a bed. It's a pleasure to hear her singing without Pops. I do like Serge's music. But, well, yeah -- he was a freak. Then there'e her mom, Jane Birkin. Pretty beguiling family, y'know?    I entirely agree with Doug about Jay Bennett although I think it's true of many pairings that the sum is grater than the whole, starting from Lennon & McCartney and progressing down. Great Dean & Bretta track.    Don't know if the European / Canadian / American mix was intentional but love it regardless.    Seems a bit superfluous to comment after Christina has so righteously described the feel of this mix, and lame as it is I can only say that I agree with every bit of her comment. Standouts for me were the Feist, Gainsbourg, and Dean & Britta tracks, and although I've never been big on REM I liked that song quite a bit. Very lovely mix.    Another super A+ mix, Miss Laura. I too have so many old favorites from your last mix (You introduced me to Pumped Up Kicks waaaaay before anyone else) I am also now a Dean & Britta fan thanks to you. Loved the Beasties, DJ Shadow and Feist track....really, the whole darn thing is so groovy cool. And right on with all the lovely lady singers! Thanks Laura!    Really enjoyed this mix Laura, especially Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is new to me. Hell most everything on here is and they all work (tho Style Council not my cup o tea). Dean & Brita, Ivy and the Beastie Boys (surprise!) all jumped out on the first listen thru. Thanks for turning me on to some great new stuff.

Same gal also entranced us with past mixes Indian Summer in July '11, Try Me On, I'm Very You a few months before that, Blue December in December '09, and I'm in Love with that Song in June '09. Forecast for today's mix: similar conditions blowing in—expect a bunch of tiny type on this one, too...

Liner Notes by LC
MASH NOTE: love letter, particularly a hot and steamy one. The future of mash notes is endangered by the internet.

Back in the '90s, when we discovered music via friends and music magazines and even the radio, I was obsessed with it. I saw one of my top 10 concerts ever, the Pixies, in Washington, D.C., in 1991, and by 1994 was working at an alternative newspaper that covered lots of different genres and working with fellow fans like Miracler Rachel Leibrock. We saw Elliott Smith at the tiny Press Club in Sacramento, Whiskeytown any number of times, and followed Sleater-Kinney up and down the West Coast.

What has stuck with me about a lot of that era's music is its authenticity and spirit of experimentation. I was reminded of it again earlier this year, reading "Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music." Calvin Johnson created a label, a movement, a pop lexicon and ultimately a legacy based purely on love of seeing bands, playing in bands, and sharing his love of bands with the world. Though I was sorely tempted to include Beat Happening, in the end I chose songs that I felt best recalled or channeled that era when music was more about fandom than commercial considerations.

Track list
1. Stick Out Your Tongue — Elvis Costello & The Roots
2. Manhattan — Cat Power
3. Pick Up — Solex
4. Stay Monkey — Julie Ruin 
5. Beercan — Beck
6. Help I'm Alive — Metric 
7. Harlesden to Vals — Rebecca Gates
8. Morning Fog (Interlude) — Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi
9. Know You — Bonobo
10. Daylight Sky — Frankie Rose
11. Life of Leisure — Luscious Jackson
12. Bird Dream of The Olympus Mons — Pixies

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