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OAO: Mix Tape Trade Response Thread

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KharBevNor:
Got my cds yet, Brittany?

jeremy:
I got my mix cd from El Opium yesterday, and just had the time to sit down and give it the attention it deserves.

First, I must say, the packaging is very cool. Handpainted cardboard with velcro clasps. And it's nice to get a bit of info on each artist/track on the included tracklist.

I am familiar with Dead C (better than I remembered) and Sonic Youth (about the same as I remembered, and I still don't like them), but the others are all new to me.

The Swans track didn't do anything for me. I'll have to check out some of their earlier material, as they certainly seem like the sort of thing I'd be pretty impressed by if only they were a bit wilder.

I liked The Fire Show's use of strings, but not the use of distorted vocals or whatever the hell that effect is on the vocalist's voice on the first line. I dunno. Too many bad memories of early/mid 90's alt-rock crap like Filter or whatever. I know that has nothing to do with this song/band, so...moving on...the vocalist's voice is pretty annoying. And maybe it doesn't help when he's singing "I'm soft inside / I'm not so ba-aa-aa-aad." Uh...yeah, I'm sure your mom says your cool, but I'll just have to take her word on it.

The Empty Flow...a Finnish band, although it's not exactly a sound that I associate with that country. It's kinda nice to hear something a bit different from Reindeerland, but on the other hand I really can't like this. It does remind me of the Cure (as El Opium noted), but unfortunately I don't like the Cure. It is all very pretty.

Circle (also from Finland) would be a hell of a lot better if the vocals didn't annoy the hell out of me. I really enjoy the Finnish language set to rock music, which I suppose is what this is, but this is missing the sort of frantic delivery I think makes Finnish rock so much fun. Of course, I'm more likely to pick up an Eppu Normaali record or something before any Finnish prog rock. Still, I'm glad I was exposed to this, in the same way that I'm glad I was made to read James Joyce when I was in high school, even though I know I'll probably never read him again.

Skullflower: Hey, this is neat! A big droning noise and repetative riff. And no vocalist to ruin it. I could do without the little two-note lead guitar bits that pop in and out, but even those fit in with the overall concept, so they don't distract too much. If I got stoned, I'd listen to this in the process.

Lau Nau: No! No, baby-voiced Finnish woman with wimpy harmonies and sparse acoustic guitar accompaniment (which gives me nothing to focus on when she starts in with her howler monkey impersonation at about 3:42)! If I want a woman playing solo acoustic guitar and singing, I'll listen to some Yanka Dyagileva. At least she had some fucking cajones.

Pan Sonic: I don't like techno. Ever. Sorry. Why is this song 7 minutes long?!

Le Fly Pan Am: I'm sure glad I don't know who Godspeed You Black Emperor are, or else I might be prejudiced in listening to this track. As it is, I don't like this. It seems like they shoved as much random crap as they could on top of what would've been a very lackluster song to make...a very lackluster song with a bunch of random crap going on over the top of it! Meh.

Yellow Swans: I swear to god my washer made this exact same noise last time I tried to wash all my bedding at once. You see, if you overload it or load it unevenly, it starts freaking out, throwing clothes all around, splashing water everywhere, and...whew. It's a big mess. I should've known better.

Gang Wizard: Hey, this DOES sound quite a bit like Dead C. That's pretty neat. More close to home, they also remind me of a California (I think) band that were active in the mid-90's called Monoshock. Monoshock put out one really, really amazing double LP in about 1996 called "Walk To The Fire." It is MUCH better than this, but I stupidly sold my copy about 5 years ago. I wish I could find it again. Damn this track for reminding me of it! (though I did enjoy it a bit)

Slowdive: If a song runs for 6 minutes, shouldn't it go somewhere? I mean, I could see this being given away in every 100th bottle of Nyquil or something, but other than that...what purpose does this sort of music serve? It's not really BAD, but if I played it around my girlfriend, it would depress us both, and she would call me a pussy. And she would be right. Not because music has anything to do with a person's masculinity or femininity, but because this really does sound like if that guy from Oasis fronted PM Dawn, and that's the most sappy movie love-scene sort of music I can imagine. I listen to a lot of what I guess could be termed "wimpy" stuff (new wave, mostly), but this just strikes me as schmaltzy. And that's a word at 1:51 in the morning. That's the word for this.

Charalambides: Before the vocals come in, the music reminds me of the original music in "Amores Perros." That's a great film. This song is not so good. When the vocals start, I sorta cringe because it reminds me of the Finnish lady warbler earlier on the CD. The difference being that there aren't any real words in this, just a lot of "oos" and "ahhs." OK, it is kinda sweet that they're made up of a husband and wife duo. Hmmm. Scratch that. Ex-husband and wife duo. I'm not making a joke out of that, but I will say that I don't really like or hate this song, but it does make me think that I could think of many better songs I could listen to with the nine minutes and forty-two seconds of my life that this song took up. Ah well.

In conclusion: I genuinely liked three songs. A lot of the mix seemed geared towards the pretty and dreamy end of things, which isn't bad, but certainly isn't the sort of thing I can listen to on a regular basis. And the loud and noisy tracks, while providing a nice counterbalance to the soft stuff, generally don't have the staying power to stick in my head once they're done. Maybe I just have an enormously thick head. I will say that El Opium did a great job with the packaging, track sequencing and variety of the material. A lot of it wasn't to my taste, but that's okay. My tastes are pretty unpredictable, so I'm just glad I found at least a few  tracks enjoyable. Thanks, El Opium!

MrTeapot:
I am definatly going to take part in the next round of this, assuming there will be one. Theres one track that I put as an opener on any mix CD, regardless of overal mood, its the kind of track that will get anyone rocking out in their underwear.

El Opium:
I'm glad you liked a few of the songs on there Jeremy. When I was browsing around one time I found out this Monshock comp
http://www.sl.net/~ttbooks/moolala/cat.htm
doesn't look like it includes the album though. Something tells me the album is worth quite a pretty penny these days.

jeremy:
Yeah, I figured as much, 'cos when I looked around for the album maybe 2 or 3 years ago it was already fetching $25+. I am an idiot.

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