Mix #15: 9/2/2011

Click here to listen to the whole playlist (and we only got 23 of 24 songs this week, but I'm going to keep saying "Click here to listen to the whole playlist" until somebody calls me on it). Check below for indiviual videos and entertaining notes for each song.

1. If I Had a Heart - Fever Ray
2. Stay Lit - Holy Fuck
3. Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
4. Shut Up and Let Me Go - The Ting Tings
5. SexyBack - Justin Timberlake
6. I Heard it Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
7. Use the Force - Jamiroquai
8. Drunken Tears - Quasi
9. I and I - Taja Seville
10. Cop Shoot Cop (String Session Mix) - Spiritualized
11. Wanna Make It Wit Chu - Desert Sessions
12. Age of Consent - New Order
13. Wynona's Big Brown Beaver - Primus
14. Doing Dumb Shit - Ice Cube
15. Moment of Clairty - DJ Danger Mouse
16. Fuck Shit Stack - Reggie Watts
17. Paper Planes - M.I.A.
18. Comfort Eagle - Cake
19. The Tyson Shuffle - Audio Bullys
20. Mrs. Buttersworth (demo) - Nirvana
21. Quitter - The Toadies
22. God and Country - The Thermals *
23. Interference - Cop Shoot Cop
24. Window Pane - Coil

* = video not found

Fever Ray: If I Had a Heart

Some of you who watch alt television shows would recognize this song from Jessie Pinkman's go-kart scene in Season 4 of Breaking Bad.

Stay Lit: Holy Fuck

Of the two current almost-mainstream bands that are trying to, like, make statements with their names and do irreparable damage to the ability of the FCC and THE MAN to control our lives through conspiracy theories, I'll take this band over Fucked Up any day of the week.

Stevie Wonder: Higher Ground

The nerve of this guy to cover the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Ting tings: Shut Up and Let Me Go

I heard the manager of that screwed up bread place where I get my coffee say the other day “No two Paneras are alike!” He was wicked psyched and proud of that information! He went into the back room to count the change, and I heard him listening to this song back there.

Justin Timberlake: SexyBack

Playing this song is about as embarrassing (to me) as playing Marilyn Manson was a few weeks ago, but men love it, women love it, and anybody in between loves it, so let's not fight it. Let's just absorb through osmosis.

Marvin Gaye: I Heard it Through the Grapevine

The nerve of this guy to cover the California Raisins.

Jamiroquai: Use the Force

Speaking of using the force, Cowboys and Aliens is the cheap emotion hit of the summer. If you drink two whiskeys before and three Rolling Rocks during, your opinions will be stronger than the rest of your viewing party.

Quasi: Drunken Tears

Hey heterosexual dudes who aren't too fat, it really is okay to sit next to each other at the movies. I have no idea where I got this song from, but the name of the album is HOT SHIT.

Taja Seville: I & I

Jesus Christ, speaking of movies, I spent a summer working at a movie theater, circa 1997 or 1998, and this song was on the the official Sony Theaters' playlist, which means I heard it two to three times a day for longer than I needed to. This might have been one of the first albums I had a computer nerd college friend download for me from a newsgroup or something, well before Napster came out.

Spiritualized: Cop Shoot Cop (String session mix)

I had been aware of this song for a long time, because it was the same name as one of my favorite bands once the internet was invented, so most of my early web searches led me to zero information about the band, but plenty of hits for this song, which I habitually skipped over. I didn't dig into the LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WE ARE FLOATING THROUGH SPACE album until about a year ago. Both this song and this album would have a very good spot on any sex mix you're putting together.

Desert Sessions: Wanna Make it Wit Chu

Speaking of sex mixes, I'm not sure if this actually happened, but the way I remember it in my head, is that this was the first dance song when my friend got married.

New Order: Age of Consent

If this song was a person, they would wear bracelets to cover the scars they picked up when they went through their pre-adult cutting phase.

Primus: Wynona's Big Brown Beaver

I just heard a brand new Primus song the other day, and the reviewer said that it was the best thing they've put out since this song about beavers. Which made me sad because the new song wasn't that good, and I've bought all my Primus albums in the ten years since they put out their last album, and my sense of their non-hit legacy is scrambled.

Ice Cube: Doing Dumb Shit

How can you not giggle to yourself any time Ice Cube says "Then the nut came gooshin'"?

DJ Danger Mouse: Moment of Clarity

Just think and wonder what the world would be like if Danger Mouse never mashed together the Beatles and Jay-Z. WE NEVER WOULD HAVE HAD GIRL TALK!!!

Reggie Watts: Fuck Shit Stack

Is this hip hop or is it comedy, or does it exist on some enlightened plane elsewhere?

M.I.A.: Paper Planes

Part of me wants to wait another seven or eight years before I use this song because it's probably at its apex of being overplayed (which I totally understand, because as a jam, it's HOT SHIT), and it seems clear at this point we're never going to hear from M.I.A. again, but I can always come back again in half a decade with a remix.

Cake: Comfort Eagle

Has anybody seen Cake play live before? What are they even like? I feel like there's a possibility you could have a dozen people crowded on the stage looking all new-agey, but it could also be coffee-house scrub style. Yes, I'm aware I could YouTube a plethora of Cake performances, but I enjoy anecdotal experience from peers, so you tell me.

Audio Bullys: The Tyson Shuffle

I just have a hunch that ten years from now, nobody is going to be writing songs about the Klitchko brothers.