Tao Lin mixtape for The Media: Very Okay

SOME OF MY FAVORITE SONGS from fvckthemedia on 8tracks Radio.

[via lizpelly on tumblr]:

a mixtape by Tao Lin for fvckthemedia.com 

1 algorythx and gurantaxtaxq by blackblack
2 teenage unity song by the miracle of ‘86
3 together again by falling for a square
4 the commuter by falling for a square
5 blue of distance by very okay
6 where you go by very okay
7 tampa bay by johnny hobo and the freight trains
8 where is my coffee? (where is it?) by johnny hobo and the freight trains
9 diana by p.s. eliot 

Thanks to Tao Lin for putting not one but two Very Okay songs on this mixtape for The Media, whom I love. I miss being in this band, and playing music with these people!

Here's some things that us Very Okay bandmates are up to now:
(me) // Angie // Cynthia // Jared

MIX TAPE #7: YOU'RE JUST HOPELESS

YOU'RE JUST HOPELESS: A(n) (Anti-) Valentine's Mix

Jean Grae - Get It

The Parting Gifts - Keep Walkin'

Weezer - I Don't Want Your Lovin'

Antwon - Skullkrush

Tenement - City Bus #30

Allergic to Bullshit - I'm Not Ashamed

that dog. - Ms. Wrong

Bouncing Souls - Hopeless Romantic

Lost Weekend - A Bushel & A Peck

Weezer - Waiting on You

Beyonce - Resentment

YOU'RE JUST HOPELESS: A(n) (Anti-) Valentine's Mix from wisdomtooth on 8tracks.

Valentine's Day isn't normally even a subject I touch on, save for the once-a-year-riot-grrrl-bonanza organized by my friends and comrades that has brought me many positive memories. So why You're Just Hopeless? I had been creating a mix in my mind gradually, as I've had a bunch of new must-listen-to's lately. Everyone's favorite hate-to-love/love-to-hate holiday is swiftly approaching, and I realized a theme was emerging in the songs: difficult love, love that doesn't quite work out, nontraditional love.

Rivers' hesitant laugh - or cracked voice - as he sings "I don't want your lovin'..." is a moment I savor every time I hear that song. It's one of those songs where you're likely to tune out whatever lyrics don't apply to you so you can sing the chorus over and over again. The catchiest vocal melody, and so affirming.

I made this really brash mix last year that I never posted, and in the post I divulged a lot about how I think rap music can be the best healer, and how Jean Grae in particular helps me face the fine line between wanting to give up altogether and ruthlessly defending your right to live. I find that in more of her songs than not. Her spin on marriage is great here ("And I'm not going anywhere / cuz me and life is married / and I ain't getting divorced"), making it a real dedication to herself and no one else: self-love, self-as-valentine. On a related note, my V-Day post from last year is a love letter to the the bad-assery of singledom, as said best by a Nikki Darling and Beyonce pairing. B'Day on V-Day just sounds like a good idea.

I had already planned on adding Jean to the mix, but it seemed even more appropriate when I remembered I'm headed to the event she's hosting at WORD tonight, "Just Working On My Breakup." Right in my neighborhood! At one of my favorite bookstores!

As I started putting this mix together I thought it would be funny to bring in some more desperate tunes. Allergic to Bullshit's "I'm Not Ashamed" (a cover) has resonated with me since my late teens, many times over, each while I was helplessly infatuated with someone, of course. Lost Weekend's "A Bushel & A Peck" is about sisterly love from what I hear (wink), which can be a particularly fraught and under-appreciated yet truly special kind of love.

So, here it is, for better or worse. Happy Valentine's Day, y'all.

MIX TAPE #6: TO KEEP

TO KEEP

Nirvana - Ain't it a Shame (demo)

Jay-Z ft. Chrisette Michele - Lost One

Tenement - Cage That Keeps You In

that dog. - To Keep Me

Swearin' - What a Dump

Texas is the Reason - Blue Boy

No Doubt - End it on This

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Almost Cut My Hair

Far - Waiting for Sunday

Remember when I said there wasn't gonna be a mix? I lied. Here's the winter mix for 2011.

Inspired by Robin Browne's "Xmas Cake" mix, cabin fever, and a victorious end to the YEAR OF HEALING^TM. Made in honor of my Northern-turned-Southern friends whom I won't be seeing this holiday season (like I did this time last year).

MIX TAPE #5: TEENAGE SUMMER

Remember when I promised a "teenage summer" mix last year? In June of this summer Jason Roy and I accidentally created a new teen mix. This is the first mix collaboration I've done and it is absolutely the sound of teen summers past. It won't be fall for about two more weeks, so soak it up if that's yr thing (hint: it's not mine, I'm just about ready for apple picking and pumpkin carving).

I think the Goldfinger to Suicide Machines transition is my favorite.

* I know I usually use 8tracks but this was too convenient.

The Chinkees - Big World
MU330 - Tune Me Out
Link 80 - Verbal Kint
Operation Ivy - Freeze Up
Goldfinger - Mabel
Suicide Machines - I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Impossibles - Back for Attack
Rancid - Sidekick
Millencolin - Bullion
Blink-182 - Dumpweed
MU330 - Stagnant Water
Dance Hall Crashers - Shelley
The Broadways - 15 Minutes
Rancid - The Brothels
NOFX - We Threw Gasoline on the Fire and Now We Have Stumps for Arms and No Eyebrows
Less Than Jake - Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts
The Silencers - Policeman
Hepcat - I Can't Wait
The Slackers - Have the Time
Misfits - Hybrid Moments

MIX TAPE #4: FULL CIRCLE

or IF I AIN'T DEAD ALREADY...

The Beatles - Yer Blues

Grass Widow - Shadow

Jay Reatard - No Time

Toots & the Maytals - Louie Louie

Far - I Like It

The Movielife - Sailor Tattoos

Reigning Sound - I'd Much Rather Be With the Boys

The Thermals - I Hold the Sound

I named this mix FULL CIRCLE because it marks one year of mix tape-making on this blog. Do you guys realize how long a year is? It's pretty long. I'm getting outta dodge for New Year's, so this is my holiday card, farewell card, and Happy 2011 card to you all. 11 is a lucky number, so let's hope next year is like, better than this one.

P.S. 8tracks should be paying me for this shiz!

MY "DEEJAY" DEBUT

Jared had his last 'tending shift at Coco 66 and I created a just-about-four-hour playlist for the occasion. Hence "deejay" in quotation marks.

Here it is! It's kind of just like if someone asked me to narrate the last four years of my life in a four hour mixtape.

MIX TAPE #3: ENDLESS BUMMER

 Rod Stewart - (I Know) I'm Losing You (Temptations cover)

Jawbreaker - Into You Like a Train (Psychadelic Furs cover)
Big Soda - I Know You

Nomeansno - Tired of Waiting

Descendents - Everything Sux

Discount - Antiseptic

Cleveland Bound Death Sentence - Drain
The Weakerthans - Anchorless
Superchunk - Swallow That

MIX TAPE #2: SAD SAP/SAD SOP

Jay-Z ft. Swizz Beatz - On to the Next One

Jay Reatard (RIP) - Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle

Grass Widow - Tattoo

The Evens - Blessed Not Lucky

Rough Francis - Hangin' On

Bikini Kill - In Accordance to Natural Law

Built to Spill - Singing Sores Make Perfect Swords

that dog. - Never Say Never

Big Eyes - All Alone

TIME TO GET YR MIX TAPE ON!

I figured out how to legally share my mixes with you.

So if you go back to WISDOM TOOTH MIX TAPE #1: ONSET OF WINTER, there is a little player thing where you can listen. Clearly, the "once a month" mix is probably more like once a season. I am working on a SAD SAP / SAD SOP mix at the moment, which will go up for spring. Oh, also, I am not a total flake, and I do respond to actual cassette tape requests, even if they are half a season too late:

Consider yrself tagged.

MIX TAPE #1.5: DON'T ASK THE BIRDS TO CHANGE THEIR SONG

This mix tape includes saccharine sweet love songs, late 90s emo jams like The Movielife, and the taboo of two songs in a row by the same band. Also, you may notice some repeats from MIX TAPE #1. I mostly posted it here to share the birds with you.

A.

DON'T ASK THE BIRDS TO CHANGE THEIR SONG

Full of Fancy - 30 Days

Ringers - Thirty Three on Forty Five

The Nerves - Hanging on the Telephone

Reigning Sound - I'm Holding Out

Reigning Sound - Stormy Weather

The Lemonheads - Rudderless

The Movielife - Speed Demon

Weezer - Jamie

P.S. Eliot - Hail Mary

Everclear - The Swing

Dead Moon - Walking on my Grave

B.

THEY SING IT ALL DAY LONG

Kyle Gilbride - The Flood

John K. Samson - Heart of the Continent

The Evens - You Fell Down

The Pixies - Hey

Uncle Tupelo - Whiskey Bottle

Damien Jurado - Honey Baby

Little Lungs - Things Fall Apart

Wipers - Telepathic Love

Jawbreaker - Shirt

 THAT'S JUST WHAT THEY DO:

MIX TAPE #1: ONSET OF WINTER

The Beatles - Cry Baby Cry
Ben Folds - Golden Slumbers (Beatles cover)
Billy Bragg - The Saturday Boy
The Chieftains ft. Elvis Costello - St. Stephen's Day Murders
David Bowie - Oh! You Pretty Things
The Evens - Shelter Two
George Harrison - Got My Mind Set On You
John K. Samson - Heart of the Continent
Madeline - Dumpster Dive Mother
Paul McCartney & Wings - Live and Let Die
Pixies - Hey
Queen - Somebody to Love
The Replacements - Answering Machine



A new thing: I will be posting mixes along with a drawing every now and then.

I'll try for once a month. Here's number one! Just in time for yr favorite season of lovey-dovey times, snowflakes, presents, and stuffing yrself with food. And hibernating... forever. Or tackling mountains of schoolwork with all of that good stuff nowhere in sight. These songs bring about all those mixed up feelings. Nostalgia and longing, dudes! That's what the winter is about.

* e-mail me for a copy!

DOG DAYS: a dogtown mix

dog days will be a mix tape when it is officially finished. the version i am showing the world via the internet at this very moment is a double-disc limited birthday edition for my dad, Peter Charles, on today, his 52nd birthday! i also made him a delicious vegan chocolate and peanut butter pie.

cover:


track listing:


disclaimer/intro:


FINAL PRODUCT:


if you want a copy (i don't know how many double-discs i'll be willing to make, from now on they're taking the form of one 120-minute tape) e-mail me or comment here !

note: i am still tweaking the mix. after a few listens, i have decided to replace the social distortion cover of "death or glory" with the clash original.

time up here is always so slow, but summer's fast

"stay awesome"