Mixtape 21: Early November 2005

1. Fatlip – Today’s Your Day (Featuring Chali 2na)
2. This Bike is a Pipe Bomb – Better Off Dead (Live)
3. World Leader Pretend – Bang Theory
4. Spoon – Sunday Morning Wednesday Night
5. Why? – Broken Crow
6. Stephen Malkmus – Post-Paint Boy
7. Alec Ounsworth – Wide Awake
8. Sonic Youth – Superstar (Carpenters cover)
9. Animal Collective – We Tigers
10. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & Matt Sweeney – Death in the Sea

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Compare (Frank) Black (Francis)'s vocals on Come on Pilgrim with those on Honeycomb. Compare Tom Waits' on Closing Time with those on Real Gone. Thurston Moore's on Confusion is Sex with his on Murray Street. Fatlip's on my leadoff song vs. those on, I don't know, "Ya Mama." Point is, there is a long history of singers/rappers' voices changing over the years, and Fatlip is part of that great tradition (I just remembered Bob Dylan). "Today's Your Day" is what I like about The Pharcyde and Jurassic 5 and all those groups. Fatlip's voice may have gotten a little gruffer (that's a word), but his flow remains effortless and his writing priceless: "Built the empire from the underground, then retire / Who said I was on crack? Youse a muthafuckin' liar!" That's just a taste.
"Superstar" is one of the best pop songs ever. The Carpenters' version is best known (and best), but Sonic Youth's (recorded for tribute album If I Were a Carpenter) kind of holds a candle to it. That's actually high praise. Better to be a good cover of an amazing song than an amazing cover of a horrible song. Whatever.
"We Tigers" is right up there with Clinic's "The Second Line" on my list of favorite gibberish songs. I've written enough about Animal Collective, but suffice to say that this song ranks up there with Sunburned Hand of the Man as some of the most frightening music in my library. It's also inspiring; oh, what can be done with a tambourine and an open mind. And mescaline.
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney's "Death in the Sea" is probably my favorite song off of the astonishingly good Superwolf album. It's a little more triumphant than standard Oldham fare, but still sufficiently gloomy: "Someday I must die / It ain't for me to know why / And I want to die in the sea." Emotionally it's a step above "I hope that someday buddy... we can stop our whoring," but not by much.