New weekly feature for the new year here on Narrowcast! I could've gone for the more alliterative day of the week, but I avoided it out of respect for Shaheem Reid's weekly dispatch from the streets, Mixtape Monday, which is pretty damn thorough for MTV News. Basically this is a celebration of the sad fact that I still listen to and make mixes on cassettes, and am probably one of the only people I know (at least in the realm of music nerds who own computers) who still hasn't made the jump to CD burners. It kind of sucks that hardly anyone even seems to have a tape deck anymore. I'm basically eager to make mixtapes for anyone who has something to play them on (so if anyone wants to trade, get at me). But I still make mixes to listen to in the car all the time (my car radio died a couple summers ago so I keep a boombox in the passenger seat). Anyway, this week's selection, a best of 2004 mix:

side 1:
1. Twista - "Get Me"
2. Bossman - "Openin' Arguments"
3. Cam'ron - "Bubble Music"
4. Cee-Lo f/ Pharrell - "The Art of Noise"
5. Trick Daddy - "I Wanna Sang"
6. Kanye West - "We Don't Care"
7. Nas - "Getting Married"
8. Talib Kweli f/ Jean Grae - "Black Girl Pain"
9. Jadakiss - "Still Feel Me"
10. T.I. - "Prayin' For Help"
11. Fabolous - "In My Hood"

side 2:
1. Beauty Pill - "The Western Prayer"
2. Elvis Costello and the Imposters - "Bedlam"
3. Mike Watt and the Secondmen - "The Angels Gate"
4. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "The Angels' Share"
5. Spymob - "National Holidays"
6. Travis Morrison - "Che Guevara Poster"
7. Sonic Youth - "New Hampshire"
8. Ken Stringfellow - "Any Love (Cassandra et Lune)"
9. Elliott Smith - "A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free"
10. The Nels Cline Singers - "He Still Carries A Torch For Her"

That's by no means a list of my favorite songs of 2004, most of which I probably don't even own hard copies of. That's just a favorite song each from a bunch of albums I copped last year, and not all necessarily my favorite albums, since a lot of those are the one song I like from otherwise weak albums (like the Watt and the Cee-Lo). I feel kinda lame for segregating genres for the 2 sides of the tape, but I have no illusions about the fact that my album purchases are pretty evenly split between indie rock and mainstream rap (actually, it's been like that with me for a long time, since at least the late 90's), so it makes sense to give each its own side. With the hip hop side especially I made a point to avoid singles and features and go for just straight album tracks that I liked, and I noticed that a lot of my favorite songs are moody, topical midtempo songs. With some songs with children singing added for good measure. And on the rock side I seemed to pick the more rocking, rambling, jammy songs from each album, especially with the first few selections. I think those patterns say more about my mood lately than my taste over the course of the entire year, though. But I don't really know what it says anyway.

Labels: Baltimore music, hip hop, mixtapes, Nels Cline, Sonic Youth, Spymob, Ted Leo, The Posies, Travis Morrison

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 at 7:14 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.