Yeah, yeah, it's that time again. Winter & holidays & various other bah-humbug bullshit.
Now, don't get me wrong: I'm pleased as a partridge in a pear tree to be sharing the subsequent slew of songs with you. These are the ones that still turtle my dove and french my hen from my BEST OF OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, and DECEMBER 2007 mixes. And, truth be told, they still sound almightily righteous to these grievously aging ears.
But the holidays can be a trying time -- so much so that I've long-since stopped celebrating them. Which is why -- this year, in this place -- there shall be neither holly nor ivy. Nights shall be neither silent nor holy. Halls shall not be decked. Gay apparel shall not be donned. No maids shall be a'milkin'. No little boys a'drummin'. And nobody whatsoever a'wasasillin' (whatever the fuck THAT means).
I ask you: Who the hell cares what child this is? What business is it of mine if you hear what I hear? And, frankly, if you saw your mommy kissing Santa Claus, your mommy is a whore.
But be ye not taken aback by my Grinchy bitterness -- 'tis but a passing phase. A phase of squashed sugar plums & shattered sugar canes. Of broken bells -- be they "silver" or "carol of the." Of unheralded angels & unroasted chestnuts & Good King Wenceslas (who everybody that knew him says was actually a real shit).
In the new year, my mood shall surely improve. And yes, yet again, there surely shall be tunes anew.
In the meantime, please enjoy these ghosts of mixtapes past...
Left-click
[HERE] or
[HERE] to download
THE 7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: WINTER 2007.
TRACKLIST ---
01 HERE COMES YOUR MAN the pixies
02 MY BRITTLE HEART lucky soul
03 PUT THE SUN BACK the coral
04 I’M SORRY BUT I’M BEGINNING TO HATE YOUR FACE eagle seagull
05 SIXTEEN the indelicates
06 HONESTLY matt pond pa
07 NO MORE LOVESONGS lacrosse
08 TIME TO PRETEND mgmt
09 DON’T STOP THE MUSIC rihanna
10 SEE THESE BONES nada surf
11 THAT TOWN sambassadeur
12 TIME IS MY EVERYTHING ian brown
13 TO THE DOGS OR WHOEVER josh ritter
14 WAVING FLAGS british sea power
15 THE MEDIUM WAY the 1900s
16 RECKONER radiohead
17 BABY I’M BROKE lucky soul
18 BLUSH the raveonettes
19 OCEAN OF NOISE arcade fire
20 THE ALISON YIP SCHOOL FOR GIRLS woodpigeon
Left-click [HERE] to go to the 7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: WINTER 2006 mix.
The dog days are over; it's the first day of fall... and it's raining cats & dogs. But as gnawing nostalgia cannot so easily be washed away, here appear 21 supremely supernatant songs first catalogued some seven years previous. (A dog's age, one might say.)
Rest assured: "Cats & dogs" not withstanding, innocent visitors to this exotic pet shop of sounds will not be subjected to Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever," Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle," Tom Jones' "What's New Pussycat?," Nat King Cole's "The Ballad of Cat Ballou," or Cat Stevens' "I Love My Dog."
Likewise: Whether your preference is for man's best friend or baby's worst enemy, you will be relieved to hear that there shall be no mention of Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out?," Lobo's "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo," Rufus Thomas' "The Dog," Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog," Rufus Thomas' "Somebody Stole My Dog," Rufus Thomas' "Can Your Monkey Do the Dog?," or Ted Nugent's "Dog Eat Dog." [And don't even get me started on Nat King Cole's "Open Up the Doghouse (Two Cats Are Coming In)."]
And thus: Like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, these are a few of my favorite things from my BEST OF JULY, AUGUST, and SEPTEMBER 2007 mixes...
Left-click
[HERE] or
[HERE] to download
THE 7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: FALL 2007 mix.
TRACKLIST ---
01 THE MIDNIGHT CHOIR the thrills
02 FOUNDATIONS kate nash
03 RUN-AWAY super furry animals
04 THIS IS THE LIFE amy macdonald
05 THIRST FOR ROMANCE cherry ghost
06 IF SILENCE MEANS THAT MUCH TO YOU emma pollock
07 TO THE SKY maps
08 WHAT’S A GIRL TO DO? bat for lashes
09 PALACE & MAIN kent
10 THE TWIST metric
11 RADIO NOWHERE bruce springsteen
12 FUNNYMAN kt tunstall
13 TAKE ME TO THE RIOT stars
14 JUPITER an pierle & white velvet
15 EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND sixnationstate
16 THESE ARE THE THINGS black box recorder
17 WATCH ME FALL APART hard-fi
18 LET’S START A BAND amy macdonald
19 LYON 1995 mushi
20 L’HEURE BLEUE division kent
21 YOU CAN’T STEAL MY LOVE mando diao
Left-click
[HERE] to go to the
7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: FALL 2006 mix.
The totality of today's tunage has been exactingly extracted from my BEST OF APRIL, MAY, and JUNE 2007 mixes. But lest you think things have suddenly gone all pear-shaped 'round this place, let me assure you that I am merely raisin' some cain by spotlightin' some vintage ditties I'd pretty much plum forgot.
Now, it may well be that you don't give a flyin' fig about all this, but I'm just going to dismiss your disinterest as so much sour grapes. While it's certainly true that I'm fruity, it's not like I've suddenly gone all bananas and started comparin' oranges to apples; these delicious golden oldies are just as peachy-keen & very-cherry as their 2014 equivalents -- with nary a lemon in the lot.
Disagree with me? Well, you know how THAT ol' song goes: tom-AY-to, tom-AH-to...
Left-click
[HERE] or
[HERE] to download
THE 7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: SUMMER 2007 mix.
TRACKLIST ---
01 THE MAGIC POSITION patrick wolf
02 UNLESS IT’S KICKS okkervil river
03 FRIDAY NIGHT lily allen
04 BY THE MONUMENT maximo park
05 TIME LEFT FOR LOVE shout out louds
06 HOW WE ROLL plushgun
07 CHERRIES IN THE SNOW elk city
08 FOREVER LOST the magic numbers
09 COMMOTION the features
10 SHAME tiny dancers
11 JOHNNY & MARY placebo
12 PAULINE eleni mandell
13 GHANA MOT ITALIEN emil jensen
14 RHTHM & SOUL spoon
15 SELFISH JEAN travis
16 SURRENDER (we are) performance
17 THE SHOPLIFTER’S UNION the fine arts showcase
18 WHAT’S THE TIME ronderlin
19 YOU ARE DREAMING shout out louds
20 OUR LOVE IS NOT A MOVIE OR MAYBE okkervil river
21 YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF fields
Left-click
[HERE] to go to
THE 7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: SUMMER 2006 mix.
Last year at about this time, I chose to flip the typical P of A script by revisiting a rusty, tetanus-threatening sliver of my mp3 past. That sliver encapsulated some of my most treasured musical memories from the winter of 2006 and was presented in proper, karmic/cosmic conjunction with the astronomical phenomenon that is the spring/vernal equinox.
And so, as we celebrate yet another successful encirclement of the sun -- and as we in the North begin to dig ourselves out of a particularly bitter winter -- the time has once again come to cast our yearning ears rearward. For, as that old Greek goat Socrates was wont to philosophize: An unexamined assemblage of mixtapes is neither worth assembling nor mixing in the first place. (I paraphrase.)
So I invite you -- my fearless, fellow time-travelers -- to return with this inveterate mixtape assembler to a time neither so very long ago nor so very far away. A time that -- while perhaps ever-so-slightly brighter-eyed and bushier-tailed than the one we currently find ourselves biding -- we can only hope will prove as soft-focus familiar as it does sharp-contrast surprising...
Left-click
[HERE] or
[HERE] to download
THE 7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: SPRING 2007.
TRACKLIST ---
01 INTERVENTION arcade fire
02 SILENTLY blonde redhead
03 BOOKS FROM BOXES maximo park
04 A STRANGE EDUCATION the cinematics
05 ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE pernice brothers
06 BRIGHTER BEAT malcolm middleton
07 SUMMER SPECIAL land of talk
08 CEMETARY LAWNS the rosebuds
09 NO ONE TOLD ME kristoffer ragnstam
10 RISE calla
11 I LOVE YOU, YOU IMBECILE pelle carlberg
12 SUPERSTAR TRADESMAN the view
13 BACK TO BLACK amy winehouse
14 I WIN starflyer 59
15 SO SOON the poems
16 DOWN IN THE VALLEY the broken west
17 EYE FOR AN EYE telograph
18 KEEP FORGETTING the cinematics
19 MY OWN FAULT maria taylor
20 MAN UNDER THE SUN the carny
21 THE LAST BEAT OF MY HEART devotchka
Left-click [HERE] to go to the 7-YEAR-ITCH MIX: SPRING 2006 mix. [RE-UPPED]
