Mix #6: 7/1/01

Click here to listen to the whole playlist.

1. Friday Xiii – Deer Tick
2. Peggy Sue – Buddy Holly
3. I’m Designer – Queens of the Stone Age
4. Gin and Juice – Snoop Dogg
5. The Dirge – Japanther
6. Passing Complexion – Big Black
7. Black Sunshine – White Zombie
8. Return to Sender – Elvis Presley
9. Jaggernaut – Scissorfight
10. (Ghost) Riders in the Sky – Johnny Cash
11. I Will Survive – Cake
12. Hello, I Love You – The Doors
13. Drips – Eminem
14. Jolene – Dolly Parton
15. The Irony of it All – The Streets
16. Solo Flights – Eagles of Death Metal
17. Institutionalized – Suicidal Tendencies
18. The Gangsta, The Killa, and the Dope Dealer – Westside Connection
19. High and Dry – Radiohead
20. She’s Wicked – The Fuzztones
21. Cure For Pain – Morphine
22. Take On Me – A-ha
23. Little Fluffy Clouds – The Orb
24. William DeVaughn – Be Thankful for What You Got
25. My 1st Song – Jay-Z

Deer Tick: Friday Xiii

If more country lyricists mentioned horror movies on late-night cable, they would probably be less dull to listen to.

Buddy Holly: Peggy Sue

One time my old roommate and I were sitting around and he said, “Yeah, put on some music!” I flipped through some tunes until I found this one and we sat back and enjoyed it for about thirty seconds, before realizing that it’s not really the coolest song for two dudes alone in a room to be listening to.

Queens of the Stone Age: I'm Designer

I saw a documentary once where Josh Homme was talking to Dave Grohl about how he wanted the drums to sound on a song they were working on together. “Make it like you’re a robot with broken arms!” Then he did some funny arm motions. It feels like that concept has been expanded to this entire song. Some of my favorite QOTSA lyricism in this song.

Snoop Dogg: Gin and Juice

How much MTV did I watch as an impressionable youth? I didn’t even like hip-hop when I was a kid, but I still must have watched this video 1000 times, because I certainly haven’t seen it since MTV stopped showing videos in 1996, and I still remembered the whole thing like it was yesterday.

Japanther: The Dirge

I once posted a lyric from this song, “Now that I know what it’s like to have sex / I want to see some things that I haven’t seen,” on my Facebook page, and got a bunch of serious responses from family friends who thought I had awkwardly just lost my virginity. Somewhere in the great Midwest, Ryan Ahern gasps.

Big Black: Passing Complexion

The only time in my life that I had a hangover, I listened to this song a thousand times in a row at maximum volume while drinking a gallon of Mountain Dew mixed with a gallon of orange juice. I ended up feeling better around play 750.

White Zombie: Black Sunshine

I was playing this song the other day so I could get my flow right, and my roommate asked me what I was listening to. It made me feel old. There are people who grew up as big music fans who DIDN’T spend all of their free time watching MTV (see Gin and Juice, above)?

Elvis Presley: Return to Sender

Why won’t they take away our Netflix or bills any more? Is the USPS in such bad shape that it somehow can’t afford to pick up outgoing mail from mailboxes any longer? Or is it something personal maybe that the members of our house have done to this guy? Is anybody else having this problem?

Scissorfight: Jaggernaut

me: I'm doing Scissorfight this week.
Devon: +
what song?
me: Jaggernaut.
Devon: that's exactly what I was thinking
me: People need to be eased into Scissorfight.
Devon: I agree whole heartedly
me: Not even a little bit of dissent.
Devon: not when it comes to the fight
They're tough
took me a little getting used to even.

Johnny Cash: (Ghost) Riders in the Sky

Enjoy the fireworks this weekend.

Cake: I Will Survive

You can’t find higher credit for a cover song than to play it on the stereo and have somebody go “Who’s doing this great Gloria Gaynor cover? It’s better than the original!” (Debatable statement, by the way.)

The Doors: Hello, I Love You

One of my friends has a very entertaining theory that a person’s overall coolness is inversely correlated to how long their adolescent Doors phase lasted.

Eminem: Drips

If I made a playlist filled with songs I’d be absolutely horrified for my mom to know I really enjoy, this would be at the top of the list.

Dolly Parton: Jolene

For my birthday this year, I’m allowing myself some time to sit back and think about Dolly Parton (see Solo Flights, below).

The Streets: The Irony of it All

This is one of those classic examples of a song, where if it comes on around a couple, the man will notice it’s kind of catchy and has a story, and he'll try to listen closer to the lyrics. The woman, meanwhile, since 80% of women don’t listen to lyrics unless they’re slow and sad or sung by a woman, will think he’s crazy and keep trying to distract him. Then the song takes on extra importance to the man because he knows he’s going to get in trouble for ignoring his wife. I’ve seen it a million times.

The Eagles of Death Metal: Solo Flights

It took me a few tries to understand that this song is about killin’ it.

Suicidal Tendencies: Institutionalized

I remember seeing this video as a kid and thinking man, I REALLY want to hang out with this guy. He’s all confused but there’s all sorts of cool stuff going on around him and check out that bandana!

Westside Connection: Tha Gangsta, The Killer, and the Dope Dealer

I remember one time in the 90s my friend Errinz, who was a huge hip-hop fan (Compton, Compton!) was like “DUDE, Trent Reznor and Dr. Dre are in the studio together! I saw a picture! They’re doing an album!” I know there was a remix and some soundtrack work, but I’ve already got so far off track that I don’t think I can loop it back around into this song the way I originally intended.

Radiohead: High and Dry

There’s a massive disconnect between a missing cat poster on a telephone pole in a neighborhood that has a lot of missing pet posters, right above a missing person poster on the same phone pole in a neighborhood that never has missing person posters. It makes you want to listen to Tom Yorke do his sad routine.