I usually try to start playlists with songs that are the opening track on their respective albums. This is also a good example of Beck's variety to people who mostly think of him (pictured right) as being that guy who can identify a good drum break and has two turntables and a microphone. It's a mood-setter.
The Books are fucking awesome and they are unlike anything you have ever heard before. If you've heard anything like The Books before, please inform me. I'm waiting. A friend of mine described this track being like "listening to a painting." You guessed it: she's artsy.
I really don't have too much to say about Andrew Bird (pictured left). The guy writes some damn good chamber folk, and he used to be a member of Squirrel Nut Zippers.
4. "Katy Song" by Red House Painters (Listen!)
Mark Kozelek is sounds like a really fucking mopey guy from his music. His songs are long, hypnotic spells of depression and self-loathing. Sample lyric: "Glass on the pavement under my shoe / Without you is all my life amounts to." Be sure to invite him to your next party.
If you haven't already heard of Elliott Smith (pictured right), you're missing out considerably and should probably fix this immediately. Elliott Smith is the man who puts all other "indie" lo-fi depressing bedroom-folk artists to shame, with his flawless catalogue that lacks bad songs and his undoubtedly manly method of suicide: it's suspected that he stabbed himself in the chest with a kitchen knife. Repeatedly.
The most popular bands in the Elephant 6 collective, such as Neutral Milk Hotel and Of Montreal, don't hold a candle to the weirdness of the lesser known artists on the label. Enter the Music Tapes. Julian Koster (pictured left) is an ex-member of Neutral Milk Hotel and Chocolate USA; he plays banjo and the saw (like the thing magicians use to slice people in half) and records his songs with Great Depression-era equipment.
7. "It's a Wonderful Life" by Sparklehorse (Listen!)
There are some people in your life with whom you constantly trade music back and forth. Then there are some people in your life with whom you only discuss music once; then you make a mental note to never do it again because that person has terrible taste in music. Lastly, there are people with whom you rarely discuss music, but one day they say, "Hey check this out," and you fall in love. Sparklehorse falls in that third category.
8. "If You're Feeling Sinister" by Belle and Sebastian (Listen!)
Nothing needs to be said about this band (pictured right).
Justin Vernon was critically acclaimed in 2008 for the album For Emma, Forever Ago. His girlfriend dumped him, so he went to a cabin in the woods and barely plucked his acoustic guitar and multi-tracked his vocals forty thousand times. Or the story goes something like that.
10. "June on the West Coast" by Bright Eyes (Listen!)
Conor Oberst: Love him or hate him, you gotta...
I don't know where I was going with that. He was kind of a drunk douchebag when I saw him live.
11. "Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens (Listen!)
This song makes me cry. Well actually, it doesn't make me cry, but if I had a soul I would probably cry while listening to this song. It's on his concept album Sufjan Stevens Invites You to Come on Feel the Illinoise. It's the second in his series of trying to write albums about every state (first was Michigan). I forever blame him for making me mispronounce the state of Illinois, because I talk more about this album than I do that state. Sorry, Illinois. Oh and I have yet to point out that Sufjan Stevens is the guy pictured on the left. Except this far in the text he's now pictured above.
Song kicks some major ass for seven and a half minutes.
13. "Holland, 1945" by Neutral Milk Hotel (Listen!)
This is probably the loudest song on this not-so-loud playlist. I think it has to do with the Holocaust or something. You can never tell with Jeff Mangum (pictured right).
You already know how I like Kimya Dawson. This is the track that breaks up the sausagefest that is this playlist. (Woohoo!) I also never realized until now that both of the female-sung songs are right next to each other. Whoops.
15. "Chemo Limo" by Regina Spektor (Download!)
Sorry about the lack of YouTube link on this one, folks! I have no idea why this song isn't on there. Oh well! Anyway, this song is heartbreaking and I'd have sex with Regina Spektor (pictured left). My dad had me explain to him that "crispy crispy Benjamin Franklin" was money and not a literally crispy founding father.
16. "A Minor Place" by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (Listen!)
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is the umpteenth moniker of folk artist Will Oldham (pictured right). I think his logic behind his constantly changing name was this: he thought that if there were different people playing music with him then the band should have a different name. Whoa, it makes sense.
This is the oldest song on this playlist. That's really the only thing that differentiates it from the rest of the disc. There's a piano and a guy who killed himself. Oh and he's heralded as classic and has received numerous accolades. The album of which this is the title track currently holds 23rd place on the all-time list at Rate Your Music.
18. "Never Get to Know" by Paul Baribeau
A while ago my in-real-life pal Griffin finally decided to put together an "album" of a bunch of his miscellaneous recordings and uploaded it to Demonoid. Most of it is pretty silly and light-hearted. Sometimes they're acoustic singer-songwriter bits and others are electronic instrumentals and some are just him fucking around. Of course I'm biased because he's my bestest buddy. But yeah it's pretty good for sixteen-year-old-kid-in-his-bedroom-core. That's a thing now.
