Revisiting a mix from last year; Matt Pryor gets me

Life is a convoluted mess, at times. Expectations are killers. Immense complications require swift resolution. I can understand these things.

I've found myself enjoying a mix I made for someone two Augusts ago. It's funny that the mixes that you make for other people can actually be the one mix that you needed to make for yourself. You know that nobody would have appreciated it as much as you do.

So, with that, the last few days I've been enjoying this almost year old collection of songs that I can really identify with currently. Many things in my life run in one-year cycles. The need for this specific case of music therapy keeps the trend. The late-night walks home, the mornings spent alone with acidic palate-cleansing of a cup of black coffee, trips to work on buses in absolute thought evaporation; these are times I've been listening to "You're A Wolf" by Sea Wolf and "Jump Start" by The Hang Ups and "Lover's Spit" by Broken Social Scene.

I would have shared the whole mix with you, but it's for me...

But, I'll offer you one song that will always resonate with me; applicable to all situations deemed fucked or sticky. So once given to a girl named Linda, a mix completed on August 12th of last year; here's track one...

A Totally New Year - Matt Pryor

Revisiting another great record

I enjoy this record so much that I rebought it. Which is to say that I first scooped it up off of iTunes as a digital download, but couldn't help but buy the CD itself as a used copy found in the bins at Half Price Books.

I'll continue to support Andrew Kenny, through either AmAnSet or The Wooden Birds (who I got to see perform at The Smiling Moose last year). Know By Heart is a classic to me, however. A consistent listen all the way through, including memorable tracks "Aaron & Maria", "The Kindness of Strangers", "Choir Vandals", "The Postman", and "Punk As Fuck".

My ex-roommate Dave and I used to rock this record during roadtrips, or even just spinning it at our old apartment. This post goes out to him...

Punk As Fuck - The American Analog Set
Choir Vandals (AmAnSet cover) - Ben Gibbard

Buy this album

Revisiting an album that I love

I've gone back to it... as can be counted on me to do. I've been tracking For Emma, Forever Ago now for the past hour or so.

It's a record that seems to have nestled itself somewhere in between where I was then and where I am now. "Skinny Love" has found its way on several mixes I have made for people over the last couple of years. "Re: Stacks" and "Blindsided" still resonate with the same forlorn intimacy and aching emotion as they did the first time heard. All, personally for me, recalling those moments of love and love lost.

One more time through, here we go...

Re: Stacks - Bon Iver

Buy this album