Mix Notes: Another Year 2005

This is something I've been meaning to get out for a while. It was originally intended to accompany my last mix disc, made at the end of 2k5 as sort of my own personal year in review of music. As it happened, only a handful of the intended CDs were ever given out, and none of them included my mix notes. I had the whole thing written up, but I just never got around to actually sending it out. So anyways, here goes. Bear in mind, this was written in December, which should make all the "Christmas letter" references and whatnot make more sense.

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1. Bloc Party: So Here We Are

So here we are, end of another year. And with the end of the year comes, as is typical of me, an end-of-the-year mix. But just to raise the degree of difficulty score on this seasonal tradition, I've decided to mix it with another seasonal tradition: the Christmas letter. You hold in your hands mix notes, a music year in review, and a year in review of my life. And Karen's life, of course, because they're pretty well intertwined. But she sort of rolled her eyes when I told her about this idea, so it's mostly my telling. I sort of think she might issue her own companion piece with entries like, "Cary continued to get crazy ideas like that it would be great to combine mix notes with a Christmas letter, but I put up with him anyways."

In any case, this document right here is some history in the making. It's wildly indulgent, overlong, and crammed with information that may only be of interest to me. But hey, the CD is 75 minutes long, so it might be fitting that the accompanying letter takes you that same amount of time to read.

2. Wolf Parade: Shine a Light
3. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: By the Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

It worked out pretty nicely that Bloc Party, Wolf Parade, and CYHSY lead off this disc, because I'd probably have to pick these three albums as my top albums of the year. They've certainly been the ones that were played the most in our apartment(s).

4. Broken Social Scene: 7/4 (Shoreline)

Seems as good a place as any to talk about all of the traveling Karen and I did this year, much of it in the weeks just before and after 7/4 and much of it up and down the (Shoreline) of the Eastern Seaboard. (I know, it's a weak connection. I'm struggling a bit here, this is harder to write than I thought it would be. Bear with me.)

As is probably to be expected for someone of my age (27) and social caste (overeducated kids just now entering the "real world" and finding it too terrifying to go it alone), weddings were almost alarmingly frequent occurrences. (Which reminds me: Ben and Biana, Dave and Liz, Kyle and Rachel, Mike and Peishan, and Andy and Jenny–Congratulations!) My final totals: one Vegas bachelor party, one Atlantic City bachelor party, one New York City bachelor party; three weddings actually attended (out of four attempts–long embarrassing story there–with a fifth wedding in the mix where I could not attend because it was on the same day as one of the others) in such geographically diverse locations as northern New Jersey, Boston, and New Hampshire. I was a groomsman in two of the weddings, and a former roommate to four of the five grooms. Open bars were raided, dance floors were shimmied upon. Sadly, not once–NOT ONCE!–did I get to see anyone object to the wedding in the middle of the ceremony. I really, really want to see that happen. In fact, I'm getting a little itchy to make it happen. If I don't see it soon, I fully intend to do it myself. So, you know, fair warning to all of you getting married in the near future.

5. Dungen: Panda

Swedish psychedelic rock! The whole album sounds like this, it's fantastic. If you're struggling with the lyrics on this one, it's because they're sung in Swedish. (The Caesars, track 6, are also Swedish. But they sing in English. Which you probably have noticed already, if you've skipped ahead to track 6.) As it turns out, real Swedish doesn't sound exactly like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets, which is disappointing to me on many levels. I assume that the song is about Butterstick, the new panda at the National Zoo. (The Man keeps trying to tell us the panda's name is Tai Shan, but we know better.) Karen and I are huge fans of Butterstick, and every so often if she spots a picture of him she just starts giggling hysterically and saying "You're so cute! Yes you are, you're so cute! Aren't you so cute? Yes! Yes you are! Woojy woojy woojy woo!" It sort of devolves from there. But here's the interesting thing: Karen's panda talk actually sounds sort of Swedish, or at least Swedish Chef, so it brings us right back to the song. Connection? Almost definitely.

6. The Caesars: Over Fore It Started (Live in Detroit)
7. The Go! Team: Huddle Formation (Glasgow Beat 106 FM Session)

Some fun live stuff from two of the many bands we saw this year. In addition to the Go! Team and the Caesars, we saw the Arcade Fire, Bloc Party (twice), M83, British Sea Power, Ambulance LTD, Wilco, the Roots, M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem, Interpol...just a great year for concerts. I developed an arcane set of rules to determine who would and would not appear on this mix, which in its initial form ran for just over five hours. Karen wisely convinced me to keep it to one disc, but otherwise it would have included pretty much every one of those bands. Their absence says more about the lack of space than about their worthiness. LCD Soundsystem... M.I.A....Arcade Fire...can you ever forgive me?

As for the Caesars and the Go! Team, more needs to be said. The Go! Team are probably the best band in the world that would be appropriate for 4-year-olds. They're giddy and silly and exciting and just generally excellent, and as good as the album is (it's fantastic–like some weird cross between cheerleaders, Sesame Street, and theme music from '70s cop shows), the live show tops it.

The Caesars, meanwhile, are a really odd case. We saw them in July at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC, where they were touring in support of their great and utterly overlooked album, Paper Tigers. The whole album is catchy and diverse, with a great '60s psychedelic feel, and they got a lot of exposure because their song "Jerk It Out" was featured on the iPod commercials. So it was baffling that the 9:30 Club was 2/3 empty for their show. Have you ever seen a band give an outstanding, engaging, just plain rawkin' performance in front of a near-empty house? It's weird. So anyways, I've taken it upon myself to push these guys in the hopes that they'll get some recognition and come back again, because as good as their show was, it would have been killer if it had been in front of a full audience that was fired up and into the music. So, my deal to you: if you like this song and go out and get Paper Tigers, I'll hook you up with a bootleg of the Detroit show where this song came from. Cool?

8. French Kicks: The Trial of the Century

For Karen and I, the big trial of the year was the New York bar exam that we took in July. It was not, in fact, calm and pleasant like "The Trial of the Century." Nevertheless, we soldiered through and both passed with flying colors, or at least passing scores. Taking a bar exam is a deeply crappy experience, the sort of thing that ruins a whole summer because you study intensively from late May to the end of July. In August you look around and wonder where the time went, and by the time you get your bearings, it's September. That's just the sort of test it is: a test without mercy, a test without remorse, a test with essay questions as well as multiple choice. Merciless, remorseless multiple choice.

But in the end, it was worth it because it allowed Karen to come to New York City in September and start her job as an attorney at Arnold & Porter, following her graduation from Georgetown Law in May. And it allowed me to follow her to New York City and take a job with ____________, a prominent and exciting law firm/government agency/private consulting company/fast food joint (pick one). Okay, so that part of the story is still a bit fuzzy. I leave a blank so you can later fill it in when I do find a job. Hopefully not too much later.

It was a sad decision to leave Washington DC. I left behind a job with Ackerson Kauffman Fex, the law firm I worked at for the past year–good people, all. I left behind good friends, of course. Not to mention a really excellent record store, CD Warehouse–very pertinent for much of the music you're listening to now. And scarcely a day goes by that I don't miss my status as a regular at the local Quiznos, where everyone knew not to put tomatoes on my sandwiches. These are relationships you build up over time, and it was hard to leave that. But it was worth it to make the leap, as New York provides me with a much needed change. Not to mention that I get to be with Karen. As Karen goes, so goes my nation.

9. Koushik: Be With
10. Edan: Promised Land

The hipster rule of thumb, when making year end mixes or best-of lists, is that you must have at least one but no more than three hip hop artists/songs. Hence Koushik and Edan. Incidentally, Edan's Beauty and the Beat album was, hands down, my favorite hip hop album of the year, no contest. I'd put it up there with the Wolf Parade/CYHSY/Bloc Party albums, easily.

The reason for including the dash of hip hop is to show that we, the artsy, self-consciously "cool" hipsters listen to all sorts of diverse types of music and not just indie rock. In fairness, you might have gotten the idea that all I listened to this year was indie rock, at least from listening to this CD. However, there was a lot more in music this year that I enjoyed that just didn't fit in this mix. Diplo's incursions into more and more esoteric pockets of world music, favela funk from Brazil, M.I.A.'s strident provocation and thumping beats, the many variations and permutations and outgrowths of "minimalist" techno on labels like Kompakt, and more abrasive stuff like pretty much everything to come out on DFA Records all shared significant amounts of my headspace this year. So yeah, the B-Sides compilation to this mix is gonna sound completely different.

11. Sigur Ros: Glosoli

Sigur Ros is a band from Iceland that sings in an imaginary language that they made up. (I'm not kidding.) So, with the Dungen song, that makes one song in a foreign language that you don't know and one in a pretend language that no one knows. Only two non-English tracks on the whole disc? Well off my average. I'm losing my edge.

12. Clell Watson: "No Law" (from the Deadwood Soundtrack)
13. My Morning Jacket: Off the Record
14. Calexico / Iron & Wine: Sixteen, Maybe Less

Gotta have a Deadwood reference somewhere in here. Karen and I visited the actual Deadwood, South Dakota at the end of May. We didn't check to see if there is, in fact, no law at all in Deadwood now. I did check to make sure that there was a Taco Johns there, which was fully present and accounted for. Mmm...potato oles...

The visit home was nice. I suspect maybe a little bit intimidating for Karen, but she handled it like a pro. In South Dakota we were able to catch up with the family, always nice. Chris wasn't there, as he was busy all summer traipsing around Europe and getting engaged to Mikayla. When they get married next summer, Mikayla will become the sister I always wanted. The sister I actually got, Kelli, is so going to kick me in the shins for that last line. Kelli graduated from Sturgis High School last spring and just finished up her first semester at Mom and Dad's alma mater, Jamestown College in Jamestown, ND. Mom and Dad are making the adjustment to the empty nest pretty well, from what I can tell. I trade cooking tips with Mom and complain about politics with Dad, and we're now in the fourth month of negotiations to determine when and how they can get Karen and I to take Jackson to live with us. Jackson being the family basset hound. His hobbies include drooling and howling. So do mine, come to think of it.

I only recently got the My Morning Jacket album and it's excellent, so good in fact that I feel bad to have missed out on the couple of albums they've released before now. So I'm no expert yet, but I'll work on it. The Calexico / Iron & Wine, meanwhile, was recommended by my Dad. I suspect he would have recommended the song "History of Lovers" off the album, and that might be an even better song than this. Couldn't hurt to check out the album ( In the Reins), it's really good from top to bottom and it won't set you back since it's only like $7. Which is a fair price to pay for some of the most beautiful, melodic country-tinged rock music you'll hear all year.

15. Trespassers William: Vapour Trail
16. Sia: Breath Me

Karen and I each had a favorite Mazzy Star-esque breathy-female-vocals-backed-by-lush-pretty-music song this year. For me it was "Vapour Trail," for Karen it was "Breathe Me." We're both too moody and melancholic not to have a couple songs like this on here. If you'd like, this would be a good time to take a deep sigh and look longingly out the window.

17. The Magic Numbers: Hymn for Her
18. Wolf Parade: This Heart's on Fire

Finally, two songs at the end of the mix for and about Karen, who has proven to be the greatest friend, collaborator, and partner-in-crime I have ever known. She has made her appearances throughout this letter, and in truth I can't imagine any part of this year without her. Through all of my experiences this year she's been my rock and my support. I'd like to think I've been her rock too, at least in the sense of being a big heavy object that weighs her down. (My preferred term for myself is "ballast.") I seem to make her smile from time to time, and that's more than enough to make me happy. Which leads to me smiling too, which tends to make her smile more. It's a good system.

"Hymn for Her" is just a really pretty song from a great album. At least, I think it's just a really pretty, melodic love song, but perhaps I should look up the lyrics before I make any assumptions. I have a tendency to fall in love with songs without ever really noticing the lyrics; sometimes only months or years later do I figure out that the song's lyrics are about something completely different from what I had in mind. I really like the harmony between the male and female vocalists on the chorus, and if this song doesn't mean what I think it does, it really probably should.

"This Heart's on Fire," meanwhile, may really be the most perfect lyrical summation of our relationship. Like the song says, "Sometimes we rock 'n roll, sometimes we stay at home." And it's so true! Sometimes we rock 'n roll, while at other times we stay at home. Actually, to be fair, most of the time we stay at home. If the song wanted to be completely, absolutely accurate, I suppose the line would be, "Most of the time we stay at home and order Chinese for delivery and watch Law & Order reruns, but on occasion we do go out and rock 'n roll." That would probably be a bit too wordy, though, and I'll let the original lyrics stand because the whole "rock 'n roll / stay at home" dichotomy is still appropriate. And fitting. More or less. Beyond that, though, the lyrics really do nail it. Not to get all soppy and sentimental on you here, but I can say, without reservation or qualification, that when it comes to Karen, this heart is on fire. It really is getting better all the time.