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10:51 a.m. - April 27, 2007
Mixmania - The TIME Mix!
It�s time again for Mixmania! Woot!

If you don�t know what I�m talking about, here�s the cliff notes version. Patriside gives us a topic (or sometimes no topic) and we mix to the topic. We send it to someone, keeping anonymous both you AND the mix, and then post our mixes on a prescribed date so everyone has to find which mix you have.

So it�s time to post the mix, and the topic was �time� in honor of Daylight Savings Time. Of course, I went a route less traveled and thought of time not totally in hours, minutes, seconds, but in larger chunks of time and all and things related to time and space. It just seemed like the right thing to do and the right way to do it.

Without further ado, here�s TIME by Smed. Enjoy and get it on!

1. When The Alarm Clock Rings � The Blossom Toes. Oh, why not start this bad boy with something from the UK Psychedelic movement, because that�s what EVERYONE would think I would do, right? Right? Actually, it is rather hackneyed to start a mix on time talking about alarm clocks, but if the subject is trite, in a way, the song is not. It�s one of those perfect songs for the era. Should have been a hit, but alas, not to be.

2. Put The Clock Back On The Wall � The E Types. They were an obscure San Francisco band that released a few singles back in the hippy dippy daze of the 60�s. This is a near perfect psychedelic number with great harmonies and pop sensibilities. Seek it out!

3. Let�s Live For Today � The Grass Roots. In honor of everyone�s favorite slacking quality assurance representative at Dunder Mifflin, Creed Bratton, I put this song on here. Yes, Mr. Bratton was in the Grass Roots before he became an actor. And this is the first example of breaking out of the minute / second / hour concept of time. Time is NOW, peeps.

4. More Today Than Yesterday � The Spiral Staircase. Oh, you hip cats. Dig it. Dig the Vegas horns, the steady drumbeat, and the pleading high register vocals. Woot!

5. Wait Until Tomorrow � Jimi Hendrix. Poor Jimi. He�s ready to go out and be with Dolly Mae, but she says to wait. But his lament is tastefully done with a great guitar riff (played with great skill and emotion) and a super bass line too. But Jimi gets it in the end, unfortunately. Sigh.

6. A Day In Erotica � The Three O�Clock. Long time readers know of my love for this late lamented Paisley Underground band. This is a near-perfect psychedelic pastiche and homage.

7. 25 O�Clock � The Dukes Of Stratosphear. The recipient of this mix must by now think I�m a total psychedelic nutball. Well, it just seems that a lot of songs having to do with time, space and dimension are psychedelic. And I didn�t choose some ones that were low-hanging fruit, as it were. This band was actually XTC in disguise, though, but those with excellent ears could pick out who they were when this was originally released in 1985. Two years later, they fessed up.

8. Six Months In A Leaky Boat � Split Enz. Oh, what the US did or did not do to bands of this ilk. They coulda, shoulda, woulda been big if we had some taste in our ears, but we didn�t and it was our loss.

9. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow � Dada. Ah, now we lunge forward into the 90�s, but still there�s a touch of the wobbly 60�s in there. Anyway, this is an inventive trio that wears a lot of influences on its sleeve and creates fascinating music. I dig the low guitar tone in the solo.

10. 24 Hour Candy Machine � Lodger. Now, who would turn off a candy machine during the night time? I mean, really. Late nights are great for scrounging up a Twix or a Kit Kat.

11. Yours Truly, 2095 � ELO. The whole Time album was about THE FUTURE! And this is about some bloke who has fallen in love with his android servant. Poor guy. Just ask Frank Zappa�s characters in Joe�s Garage on how that worked out to plook a machine. Is that what you want?

12. Happy Hour � The Housemartins. It�s everyone�s favorite Christian Marxists! And guess who the bass player is? It�s none other than Fatboy Slim! (No foolin�!) I guess it�s a long standing tradition for British pop groups to mask difficult lyrics with happy happy joy joy pop music.

13. Clockout � Devo. Look at �em scoot! I don�t know why everyone though they were like weird�.oh, wait. Yeah. They were weird. But this is still a groovy tune! Down on all fours!

14. For Hours � The Salvation Army. I�m going with the name of the band as they were when they recorded it, since they had to change it to the Three O�Clock thanks to that organization that seemed to already have that name locked up. Anyway, this was an outtake from their first single, and it�s pretty much simple punk rock, though you can really tell that Michael Quercio was already developing great melodies. He just needed to get rid of Johnny Blazing, a name less apt for the kind of guitarist he was ever.

15. 1970 � The Stooges. Yes, a year is a point in time, is it not? Alright then, so this fits, just like the other songs about days, weeks, months, years, etc. So there. This is just an ugly, ugly song, and that�s what makes it great. The bass line is hypnotic, the guitars are just nasty and Iggy is Iggy. When he says, �I feel alright!� you really don�t believe him. I really wonder what the hippies thought of this band in the time.

16. Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World � The Ramones. Only a bunch of nice Jewish boys from Queens could get away with singing this, right? It�s a stitch!

17. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo � Pere Ube. Not a stitch at all. This is a pretty darn serious song. It�s moody, intriguing, unsettling. The sound is fascinating, and it really draws you in � then it freaks out � then it comes back together again, in a sense.

18. Tomorrow�s Dream � Black Sabbath. There was some Sabbath-esque qualities in that Pere Ubu song, so why not go for the entire thing, right? Oh, the sludge! God love the sludge!

19. 25 Minutes To Go � Johnny Cash. This is the classic version from At Folsom Prison as the crowd response just adds something to it. It�s always bugged me a little bit that he skips a few of the minutes, but you know I bug easily sometimes.

20. Kit Kat Clock � The Bottle Rockets. Even for a niche genre like alt-country, this band is in the cracks, as they�re not serious enough for some alt-country folks and sometimes rock a bit too much. Purists, feh. They rock, they�re funny, they�re down to earth and they�re great. So what?

21. Yesterday�s News � Whiskeytown. Ryan Adams proved he had the stones to make it when he trotted out songs like this for his band.

22. Got The Time � Joe Jackson. I had to put this on here, even though it may have seemed a bit trite for a mix about TIME, but you know, this rocks on many different levels and it�s always nice to throw out some early Joe Jackson on to someone, so yeah.

23. After Hours � The Velvet Underground. This is a fitting way to close this. The dulcet tones of Mo Tucker in a sweet gentle little tune. You can�t really tell she�s from Noo Yawk�oh wait, you can.

Well, there it is. The �TIME� mix. It�s tree-mendous, and yeah there are a bunch of other songs I could have put on there but I wanted to be spartan and not be predictable. I hope I succeeded.

 

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