Shifting Moods For Shifting Seasons - Mix-Tape Series #1

So for the few who may actually keep tabs on this here blog (which has a big transformation coming) i am going to start posting what I am dubbing (for a lack of a better title) my "mix-tape series". Here is my first installment entitled "Shifting Moods For Shifting Seasons." It is a winter themed mixture with a scattered emotional pulse that seems to accompany me during the colder months. Topics include (but are not limited to in their scope) my current struggles with people leaving and dealing with an absence of a true sense of "home" for the first time in my life.

Enjoy.

1. William Elliott Whitmore - "Buildin' Me A Home"
A fitting introduction, this is partially a dedication to my friend Chris who is currently doing just as the title literally proclaims hundred of miles from home and finding satisfaction, direction, and meaning in all of it.

2. Kevin Drew - "F-cked Up Kid"
"You killed me with a kiss, like a glorious fire I wish I missed." We're all a little fucked up.

3. Imaginary Baseball League - "A Song No One Likes"
"And he just about loses his mind in all this magnificence… there's just one thing he still needs to find. Will he find it? Who really ever finds it?"

4. Black Before Red - "Spilt Milk Mistake"
"Thought all the years would change, but the family carpet is stained in giant index finger shapes and the never ending spilt milk mistake." See the next track's explanation for why this passage is significant.

5. Grizzly Bear - "On a Neck, On a Spit"
When I returned home this winter to stay with my family I had to sleep on the living room floor. This is something that had a more profound effect on me than I initially anticipated. " You can't come home again. Each time it's different. And the yards around your feet fall away while you're asleep."

6. Ed Harcourt - "The Last Cigarette"
A song about reflection in a time like no other for me to be reflective, also gorgeously pleasant to listen to.

7. Jens Lekman - "Maple Leaves"
This is the beginning of the section of the mixture that delves into a winter fling, where misconceptions and misunderstandings seem to pile up, and I am relatively oblivious to them and the reasons behind them. Also it is one of the most beautiful songs ever quite simply.

8. Amandine - "For All The Marbles"
Hearts collide, confrontations, arguments, all the bad stuff boils over. This is the end, even quicker than it began.

9. Okkervil River - "Love To A Monster"
Feelings of being overwhelmed and vulnerability combine to create the natural reactions. First taking shots and being spiteful, and then moving on to the next "blonde in the bleachers." I never learn, who does really.

10. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "The World's Greatest"
Simply, the inflated sense of ego that accompanies inflated bachelorhood. What better than a cover of the most arrogantly lyricized song ever to express it. Almost a too perfect conclusion to cycle.

11. Hallelujah The Hills - "Wave Backwards To Massachusetts"
The desire to flee is almost too great some times...

12. Tacks, The Boy Disaster - "Frozen Feet"
"come with me or so it seemed, there's greener grass beneath our frozen feet, but if we wait too long it'll be too late."

13. Sufjan Stevens - "Holland"
This song gives almost foggy references to summer and warmth, a feeling that is so hard to recreate when you are wearing 3 sweaters. "Lose our clothes in summer time. Lose ourselves to lose our minds. In the summer heat, I might"

14. Bowerbirds - "Knives, Snakes & Mesquite"
"I see your claws come off and your knees come out. Like an iceberg, like a secret offer. Sailing the waves of that icy morning, While all in between theres a new wind blowing."

15. Destroyer - "Painter In Your Pocket"
"I was blinded by the sun. it was a welcome change from the sight of you hanging like a willow off the arm of yet another visionary prophetess east van. punk. I didn't stand a chance, I couldn't stand at all. You looked OK with the others, you looked great on your own.

16. Ryan Adams - "Call Me On Your Way Back Home"
Because I'll always be missing someone, somewhere. Now more so than usual. "Honey I was just a kid, bubblegum on my shoe." & "Honey, that ain't nothing new."

17. Rocky Votolato - "Montana"
The people you love are why you don't flee even in the lousiest of times. This serves as a reminder.

18. William Elliott Whitmore - "Everyday"
I need to treat certain people better, hence... this.

19. Peter And The Wolf - "Where Summer Goes"
"every traveler knows, like the wise migrating bird we go, where summer goes." & "oh you know my head is so full of troubles sometimes, well nah nah nah, hey hey hey."

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