NYLON - June 2008 - (Page 132) MIXTAPE:THE LONG BLONDES Log on: g Muxtape.com Shame on me, but I can’t remember the last time I made a mix for someone. Not a playlist, or a burned CD, but a bona fide mix—handcrafted cover, track listings painstakingly transcribed, and songs that are all chosen because they mean something. Muxtape.com isn’t quite that, but it’s still a hell of a lot more personal than yousendit. Created by New York-based photographer and web designer Justin Ouellette, muxtape lets you upload songs, and then send a personalized link (yourname.muxtape.com) to whomever you want. “I felt like there was a lot of unrealized potential on the Internet for discovering new music, and with infinite access we’ve lost touch with some of the old models for discovery, mainly mixtapes,” Ouellette says. “Besides being wonderful and romantic as objects, tapes also had restrictions and expectations that forced their creators to be especially considerate in their selection. The hypothesis behind Muxtape is that when curators are limited to a certain number of songs the overall listening experience will be much better.” So go ahead, make one for someone you love—or hate. KATE WILLIAMS The Long Blondes’ may have called their latest album Couples, but when it comes to making a mixtape, don’t expect guitarist Dorian Cox to be all lovey-dovey. Instead, Cox put together a list of his favorite (drumroll, please) death songs! Murder songs, suicide songs, and just downright depressing songs—they’re all here. LOU REED “The Kids” (Berlin) Reed’s none-more-morbid 1973 album tells the story of two heroin addicts. This song talks about the junkies’ kids being taken away by social services and, legend has it, the producer went home one night, told his children their mum was dead, and recorded their hysterical crying for inclusion on the track. Not exactly a feel-good hit. FAIRPORT CONVENTION “Matty Grooves” (Liege & Lief) There’s a long tradition within English folk music of songs about murder and suicide, but this Romeo and Juliet-esque story, of a woman who takes her life after her lover is killed by her husband in a duel, is one of my favorites. There are probably loads of versions out there, but none top Fairport Convention’s, who stretch it out to over eight minutes of tragedy and heartache. THE MONOCHROME SET “Silicon Carne” (Disquo Blue) Lots of Monochrome Set songs talk about the more disturbing side of life with a smirk and a wink, but with lines like “She looked just like an old Mae West when you cut the skin inside her chest,” this song takes the biscuit. THE WHYTE BOOTS “Nightmare” (Single only) 1960s girl-group music has a rich history of dead boyfriend/ girlfriend narratives, but this cult classic is head and shoulders above the rest. It’s the story of the leader of a girl gang who gets into a fight with a rival, gives into peer pressure, and kills her. Nightmare! ASSOCIATES “Gloomy Sunday” (Sulk) This song is often linked with Billie Holiday, but it was written by a Hungarian composer who killed himself, causing the song to be banned for fear of copycat instances. It was also covered by the Associates on their classic 1982 album, Sulk. Singer Billy Mackenzie not only recorded one of the best performances of the track, but also committed suicide in 1997. DAVID BOWIE “Station To Station” (Station To Station) This song is not technically about death, but it forms a central part of the soundtrack to Christiane F, a particularly harrowing film documenting teenage drug addicts in 1970s Berlin. The clunky, doom-laden piano chords and U-Bahn sound effects make this an ominous 10 minutes of listening. ELTON JOHN “Candle In The Wind” (Single only) Way to cash in on a national tragedy. EDITED BY KATE WILLIAMS BOOKMARK: SING ME BACK HOME New York Times editor Dana Jennings’ Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death and Country Music (Faber and Faber) is not an academic history of country music, and it offers scant more facts than could be gleaned from a good romp through Wikipedia. What it does present, though, is an unflinchingly real picture of rural, white, and poor America from the 1950s through the 1970s, a time period and population that Jennings considers to be particularly defined by country music. Taking blunt descriptions of racism, alcoholism, sexism, and abuse from his own childhood, the author provides a context for the people for whom the classic country music of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard (the book takes its name from a Haggard song), Loretta Lynn, and Patsy Cline rang incredibly true. The lyrics were often harsher, and featured more references to dislocation, jail, addiction, and violence than many contemporary punk or rap songs, and Jennings makes sure to differentiate this from the MTVready country music of Shania Twain or Garth Brooks. The book sheds new light on a common way people define their tastes, and shows that “I like everything except country” reveals a lot more than just musical preferences. AUGUST HEFFNER the long blondes and simian mobile disco illustrations: danny sangra. tyler malin and eric szmanda: photographed by piper ferguson. http://Muxtape.com http://Muxtape.com http://yourname.muxtape.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.