The Art 11 song collection, recklessly compiled by ChrisBone.

For starters let me say that I know my disk is not as good as yours. But, I put a lot of [by which I mean ‘some’] thought into it, so I figure I better explain the individual songs as best I can. They are, in order of appearance:

1] Do One | Gomez
Gomez is a Mexican band, I think. I like this song because it’s kind of loud. I don’t know what we, the listeners, are supposed to “do one” of. Perhaps it’s one chore a day. Or one thing from our “bucket list” before we die. Because, if you die and haven’t done anything from your list — man, what’s your problem? So, I chose this song because I thought it would be cool to have the first song have the number one in the title.

2] Fear of the South | Tin Hat Trio
I didn’t expect to crap out on the whole title/numbering thing so quickly. And maybe since it’s a trio, I should have put it third. I don’t know. This tune is an instrumental that’s about how scary everything is in the South. Like barbecue, for instance. Ever try to get a barbecue stain out of a tuxedo shirt? If so, what were you doing eating barbecue in a tux? See what I mean? Scary.

3] Collapse | Soul Coughing
Ever since I got a really bad sinus infection four years ago, I haven’t been able to sing nearly as high as I used to. This song is in a key that I can sing without my voice sounding shitty. I think maybe the song has something to do with a collapsed lung or something. I figured that’s kind of like a bad sinus infection. Also, the coughing part.

4] I Have Seen | Zero Seven
Boy, I just realized that this song should have been seventh on my list. Jeez, what’s it gonna take, Henson?

5] Girl Laying Down | Anna Ternheim
Don’t let the violins in the beginning fool you. This song is pretentious all the way through. I only put it on here because my wife said I had to. I think it’s about a very lazy girl.

6] Punch Bowl | Punch Brothers
Yeah, I know. It’s bluegrass. A friend of mine says the Punch Brothers sound like the “Yes” of bluegrass. Maybe I should have put a Yes song on here too. Maybe that would make my "friend" happy.

7] Waltz | Robin Holcomb
I think this was a typo and it was supposed to say “Walt’s” as in: “Walt Disney’s.” Also, the guitar solo on this song is by Bill Frisell. And everybody knows who he is.

8] Spoonful | Chris Whitley
This is a tribute song to the band “Lovin’ Spoonful.” Here’s a bit of trivia for you. I have no idea who “Lovin’ Spoonful” is, when they were a group, or what songs they played. So now, if you ever get asked what Chris Henson knows about that band in one of those trivia games, dude, you’ve so got this one.

9] Blood Makes Noise | Suzanne Vega
A lot of people don’t know that Suzanne Vega is a hemophiliac, which loosely translated means she’s got “very loud blood.” It’s why her songs sound the way they do. Try this experiment. In a quiet room, stuff gauze deep into your ears. If you hear something that sounds like blood, you’re getting there. Keep pushing the gauze in. Now, try to write a song that doesn’t sound like this one.

10] Trampoline | Joe Henry
For her fourth birthday, we bought our daughter a trampoline. It was fun and all. But, after you hear a few of the “horror stories” about trampolines, you start to think, “Man, I should have just bought a loosely-capped vial of the Ebola virus.” At least, that’s what I thought until the vial arrived. My advice? Go with the trampoline.

11] Day After Tomorrow | Tom Waits
Everyone knows Tom Waits is a big movie buff, right? Well, this is his song about the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” The connection to the movie is really hard to get from the lyrics. You sort of have to change them in your mind. I think he also did one about “Bad Boys II.” But, I couldn’t find it on Rhapsody.

Final notes: I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me to be a stowaway on your musical excursion. If the whole point of it was to introduce me to new, interesting and great music, then “Mission Accomplished!” And I mean that in the real way. Not in the “I’ve just screwed up really badly and I’m covering my ass” way.

Credit goes to some guys in a New Wave/Punk band in Blacksburg circa 1985 for coming up with the idea of "Art 11." I should also thank Joe Dashiell, from WDBJ7, for the photos of Artie Levin. “Thanks, Joe!”

Round I ends, looking ahead

With Chris Henson up this week, the CD squad moves into its final rotation. People have asked what we're going to do.

I had assumed we'd take a week or two off and start up again. With changes, perhaps. People have suggested: Inviting more members, inviting a community school student, removing the mandatory 11-song cap, removing people who want out.


This post was created to collect thoughts as we go forward.

Harrison's track list

1- Yo La Tengo -- The river of water.
I understand there may be some YLT haters out there. To them I extend an insincere apology.
Yo La Tengo is an enigmatic band. Half their songs are filled with catchy melodies. The other half are drawn-out grinding songs that only the most hardened guitar-head could appreciate. So which is it? Are they a pop band that occasionally cuts loose or are they a noise band with a softer side?

2- The Sea and Cake -- Showboat Angel
If you ever thought that "restrained screaming" is an oxymoron, this song is here to prove you wrong.

3- Esther Phillips -- Don't Put No Headstone On My Grave
This song has no business with all the other songs here. But I love how heartfelt it is so I included it.

4- Avett Brothers -- Talk On Indolence
I saw this band at the Coffee Pot at few years ago and the place was packed with teenyboppers. The Avett Brothers are a kind of bluegrass boy band but it's OK because they're completely nuts.

5- Neko Case -- Star Witness
I like how this song has a sort of slacker-gothic tinge to it. Especially the line "Come on pretty baby get high with me/ We can go to my sister's if we say we'll watch the baby..."

6- Beck -- Hollow Log
A delightfully absurd hobo romp. Like a mid-90's Big Rock Candy Mountain.

7- Coco Rosie -- Ohio
While you were out, a child ghost called and left this haunting message on your answering machine.

8- Pixies -- Caribou
Alaska and its fauna have been much in the news lately. Consequently, this song has been in my head.

9- St. Etienne -- You're In A Bad Way
Because, really, who doesn't need occasional reminding that your "jeans are old and your hair's all wrong/ Don't you know that crew cuts and trainers are out again?"

10- Mason Jennings -- Empire Builder
Mason Jennings has been voted the Minneapolis musician most likely to become a superstar for something like 10 consecutive years. We're still waiting.

11- Luna -- Sweet Child of Mine
Is it sacrilegeous to say I like this better than the original?

CD Squad Synergy!

I'm loving the way this club is a'bumpin' and a'thumpin' along.

I say we now -- given the amount of tech geeks in attendance -- branch out to include the occasional member-made video.

This is, of course, largely because I've already made a couple of music videos and have one to post.

But I'd love to see more pop up.

Here's my entry which a few of you have already seen. And as I've also noted in the Youtube comments, your enjoyment of this will be greatly improved if you click "VIEW IN HIGH QUALITY" in the lower right-hand margins of the screen, which you can really only access by following this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3VQ_wQTRvo

This was cobbled together from random footage I shot with a point-and-shoot, using only natural light, usually while on my dinner breaks from work. Flimsy as it is, it owes great debts to the early work of Gus Van Sant and to the wonderful closing credits in the film, "Comedian."

Patriotic Songs

01 Jamas te olvidare, chucho avellanet
I don't think you need to speak Spanish to understand it's a mixed blessing when Chucho says he will jamas te olvidare ("never forget you"). It's like he's walking the Latino version of Johnny Cash's line between menace and flattery with questions like "Where could you be? Who are you with? And tell me who ... who are you kissing?"
Fortunately the bright horn section smooths out any lingering weirdness, and maybe reminds his woman how much fun Chucho is.

02 Electric feel, MGMT
SCENE: My 5-year college reunion, 2:14 a.m.
PETE: Where's Matt?
MATT'S X-GIRLFRIEND: He's playing bass for this one band. They're big in Europe. What do you do?
PETE: I write for a newspaper. It's small in Virginia.

03 White winter hymnal, fleet foxes
I hear the Beach Boys' influence in a lot of music right now. Here, we see what Brian Wilson might have done as a 14th century minstrel.

04 Fidelity, regina spektor
Strictly a crowd pleaser. Its batting clean-up because my girlfriend suggested some of these might potentially alienate a listener. Now the haters can say, "I skipped everything but that HA-A-A-A-A-A-ART song."

05 After laughter (comes tears), wendy rene
Macy said she doesn't like minor songs. But there's hope here. The way Wendy wails at 2:45 suggests some bittersweet make-up lovin.

06 Man made lake, calexico
I've spent a lot of time with most of these songs, so I wanted to include one I heard for the first time last week. I imagined Smith Mountain Lake.

07 Don't be scared, a.r.e. weapons
This song's message is particularly important in the post-9/11 era.

08 Nashville, liz phair
Liz's building, almost breaking, voice at 1:50 is one of my favorite song climaxes. Once, after a concert, I asked her what it meant to "feel it seep through the slick divide." She sang the lyric softly to herself and said, "Well, I was hanging out with Urge Overkill a lot then and it sorta felt like I was about to be famous."

09 Heaven is a truck, pavement
I got into this band when I was in my 20s, but always wished a cool uncle had said "You should listen to Pavement" when I was a teenager. I was iffy about including it. Then Matt mentioned he liked piano hooks.

10 The trident pool, pedro + the dolphins
This is me and my buddy Laurence. Every word is true. My mom walked in on us and, at 1:17, asks "Guess who called." It was still our best take so kept it.

11 Blue room, chet baker
This is like a cross between a love song and a ghost story. Chet Baker was a lifelong addict, who said he had to use the horse to even be able to sing in his unmanly tenor. And here it is totally naked.



Afterword: I wanted to order these songs so that they would be undressing production-wise -- like from heaviest production (Chucho) to as bare as it gets (Chet).

saturday = youth

1. "Underground" by Das Pop from Das Pop (2009)
This is a somewhat unknown outfit from Belgium, which is why I lifted the infectious single from their forthcoming self-titled album. I wanted the first track of the mixtape to be something unfamiliar.

2. "Doing It Right" by The Go! Team from Proof of Youth (2007)
Off the Reading, England, quintet's sophomore effort, this track leaves me exhilarated almost every time I listen to it.

3. "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice from Cross (2007)
"That song made me want to sing the alphabet." That's what Jared said when he heard it. That's what I was hoping someone would want to do.

4. "Strange Love" by Depeche Mode from Music for the Masses (1987)
The only reason I included this in the mixtape was to have A Song That Is Actually From the 1980s. It didn't fit in the mixtape the way I hoped it would.

5. "Red Socks Pugie" by Foals from Antidotes (2008)
"You put in too much of that dance shit you like." One of the recipients of the mixtape said that. I don't remember if that was what (s)he said verbatim, so I won't say who it is.

6. "Foundations" by Kate Nash from Made of Bricks (2008)

7. "Dawn of the Dead" by Does It Offend You Yeah? from You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into (2008)

8. "Pogo" by Digitialism from Idealism (2007)
This song is a perfect example of that dance shit I like. They're a German duo, and their entire debut album is excellent.

9. & 10. "Montreal -40" and "Pate Filo" by Malajube from Trompe-L'oeil (2007)
The dudes from this Quebec outfit (say it MAL-a-zhoob) manipulate old-time pop craftsmanship to create tracks that are at the same time funny and beautiful. They can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with artists like Arcade Fire or the Flaming Lips, but most people will never hear about them because they sing in French.

11. "Patrick Swayze Lenny Kravitz" by Adelphi from myspace.com/adelphi (2008)
This is a band from Baltimore County, Md., and an example that many people out there, somewhere, are making awesome music in a basement, somewhere.

Matt's Eleven Songs

Here you go, my rendition of our eleven song standard.

First things first: the odd title on your disc (each disc has a different one) is an anagram of "Matts Eleven Songs."

Methodology: Well, I just started by picking my seven or eight favorite artists and/or songs that I thought the crew might appreciate. I borrowed Jorge's ethic of choosing more accessible songs if the artist might be more obscure.

After that I just organized what I had organically. I knew what I wanted first, and each song after that is one the previous song reminded me of on some organic level, which I either won't disclose or can't articulate. I filled out the remaining songs based on that idea -- this song or that reminded me of one I didn't have in the mix yet, so I added it. Somewhere in my pea brain, these all flow perfectly one to the next.

The numbers: Being a data guy, I can't help but notice the numbers. Eleven songs, 48.9 minutes. That's an average of almost 4:30 a song. Pretty long. Four songs here are over five minutes, and one is over six. Three are four over four minutes.

The notes:

1. "Use It" by The New Pornographers.
Great band, Canadian I think, and this is among their latest releases, if not their latest. I wanted something with pace and energy to start with. I listen to this album often, and picked this for, among other reasons, the great piano hook. I love poppy kind of hooks.

2. "To Go Home" by M. Ward.
Neil turned me on to M. Ward in a mix he gave me before we started the group. My fave song by this guy is the one Neil gave me, but I didn't want to gift that back to Neil, so I picked another off the same album, which I bought immediately after hearing "Chinese Translation, which Neil posted in video form on this blog. More piano here, kids singing backing vocals, which I think is cool, and this great lyric: "God it's great to be alive, takes the skin right off my hide, to think I have to give it all up some day.

3. "While You Were Sleeping" by Elvis Perkins.
Pandora introduced me to Perkins. I loved this song instantly, the way it builds from a simple folk song with guitar and vocals to a kind of acoustic riot by the end, with each verse adding an instrument. Perkins, if you don't know, is the son of actor Anthony Perkins of "Psycho" fame and who died of AIDS may years ago. His mother was on a plane that hit the World Trade Center on 9/11. He can be kinda dark, but I love this album.

4. "Elephant Gun" by Beirut.
Jorge gets credit for turning me on to Beirut, which is mainly this teenage prodigy (when he started the band, anyway) from New Mexico. It's the atmosphere and ethnic flavor of this stuff that grabbed me, along with the horn hook.

5. "All Her Favorite Fruit" by Camper Van Beethoven.
Before David Lowry turned out to be an enormous asshole and Cracker went to crap, Lowry wrote amazing songs for Camper Van. The European flavor of the Beirut song I think reminded me of this tune, a favorite of mine for its mood and lyrics. "She serves him peppered steak, and corn... and pulls her dress up over her head."

6. "Hang Down Your Head" by Tom Waits.
Back when I was an unrepentent punker, it was Tom Waits who opened my mind to the music I was missing by blowing my mind. I saw him on Letterman one night doing "In the Neighborhood" from "Swordfishtrombones." Bought the LP the next day at The Record Exchange and I've loved Waits ever since. This is from "Rain Dogs," the follow up to "Swordfishtormbones," an album more guitar-driven and country and blues flavored than the former. Keith Richards plays on a few tracks.

7. "Dried Up" by the Ass Ponys
If Skynard and Crazy Horse had a bastard child and left it in an orphanage in Cincinnati, this is what it would sound like. Simple songs here, alt.country basically, lyrically moody -- and often hilarious, though not on this song. Alot of these songs evoke for me being a kid in the 70s and having a teenage brother. "I recall the smell of summer on your skin. We were 17 and everything was pounding and it wouldn't top." I feel like I've seen this before, kind of like when I watch "Dazed and Confused."

8. "Two Way Monologue" by Sondre Lerche
Chris introduced me to this album by this Norwegian guy, which is alternately Beatle-ish, poppy and jazzy. Great arrangements, too.

9. "Fiery Crash" by Andrew Bird
This is Bird's second appearance on an 11-song disc, and this is from the same album Beth chose hers from. I could have picked any number of songs from the album, but chose this one because earlier this year, I was sitting in O'Hare in line to board a plane and this song came on my iPod. "You have to imagine the fiery crash."

10. "Real Estate" by Scott Brookman
This guy is from Salem -- Salem!!! Scott's an old, old friend of mine who I used to play a lot of music with when he stilled lived here. He's based in Richmond now. Scott's enamored of 60s pop, even the stuff you might consider dreck, like Burt Bacharach. But bear in mind that people as uber-cool as Elvis Costello have recognized Bacharach's genius and recorded with him. I find Scott's whole album -- and I say this with obvious bias for my friend -- to be absolute candy. (Shameless plug: Available on iTunes and eMusic.)

11. "Missing the War" by Ben Folds Five
This may be the most common song on the disc, but I love Ben Folds and I love this song because it evokes the life of a middle-age male pretty damn well. I think one of the main reasons I included it, though, was to give the song before it some context. Plus, it builds to a terrific finish, which every mix needs.