Tag: depeche mode

#0098 IRON DJ: 1984

An impenetrable, majestic fortress of some of the best songs, samples, and sounds from 1984.

As I started looking at songs, I realized that there was a ton of great music released in 1984, when I graduated high school. So much of it, though, falls into that category of “80s music.”  We hear it in elevators, barber shops, or shopping malls on any given day….all those songs that are compiled on hundreds of “Best of the 80s” CD compilations. So, I eliminated any of those right off the bat, with perhaps one or two exceptions, but exceptions that are so good, they justify their own existence on this mix. Many of the songs I listened to back then, but I heard a lot of them later in the 80s too. All songs were released in 1984. Besides too many big hits, I also kept away from some heavy favorites like Iron Maiden, Accept, and Priest and tried to include some different things (so that eliminated Aces High, Losing More Than You’ve Ever Had, and Jawbreaker).

At first I was trying to cram the songs I wanted into an hour long package. But then I thought about old cassette mix tapes. The ones that really sucked were the tapes that were 30 minutes on each side, or one hour mixes. 90 minute mix tapes were okay, but I really  liked 100 minute cassette mix tapes, which is the length that I ended up settling into over time. And so that’s what I made here. The longer format works for some mixes, and I think it works for this one too.

Hope you like it.

1. *Repo Man Theme (Instrumental) – Iggy Pop
2.  Death Ship – Hoodoo Gurus
3.   Wonderin’ – Neil Young**
4.  Wait – Wang Chung
5.  A Friend I Call Desire – Ultravox
6.  Got Me Under Pressure – ZZ Top ***
7.  Priestess – Wendy O. Williams
8.  Master and Servant – Depeche Mode
9.  Handsome Devil – The Smiths
10. Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell
11. Pink Turns to Blue – Husker Du
12. Jam On It – Newcleus
13. Ivo – Cocteau Twins ****
14. Mama’s Boy – Ramones
15. It’s My Life – Talk Talk
16. Realization – The Art of Noise
17. Nobody’s Home – Deep Purple
18. I Would Die 4 U – Prince
19.  Stay the Night – Chicago
20. Snaggletooth – Motorhead
21. 88 Lines About 44 Women – The Nails*****
22. Maybe Partying Will Help – Minutemen
23. 99 Red Balloons – Nena
24.  Show Me – The Pretenders
25. Slippery People – Talking Heads******
26. Fight Fire With Fire – Metallica

*          Repo Man
**        Ghostbusters
***      Spinal Tap
****    Making the Grade
*****  The Man with Two Brains
****** Red Dawn

#0087 – Lollapalooza 2009

Music culling my favorite performances from Lollapalooza 2009!

So many pleasant and welcome surprises this year.  Acts I thought might just be “okay” were insanely, life-changing phenomenal.  Acts I had high hopes for — some delivered better than my high expectations; others faltered.  At the end of the three days, I surmized a few things: I’m getting too old for this sh*t; new music is totally awesome and no matter how mild the summer is, Lollapalooza will always land on the hottest weekend of the summer.

Lollapalooza 2009

I had the BEST time hanging out with my buddy Michael (@romacafe) the entire weekend.  I was so happy to hang out as much as we could with my old pal Dennis and even with twitter friend (and major huge Tool fan) Lisa (@kavka).  Everyday we seemed to make friends around us, despite inclement weather.

I hope you like this mix.  Santigold brought something more than an A-game with her this year.

  • Depeche Mode – A Question of Time
  • Souja Boy Tell ‘Em – Turn My Swag On
  • Hold the Line – Major Lazer
  • Brooklyn Go Hard – Jay Z
  • Shove It – Santigold
  • The ’59 Sound – The Gaslight Anthem
  • Fitz and the Dizzyspells – Andrew Bird
  • Wolf Like Me – TV On the Radio
  • Everyday I Love You Less and Less – Kaiser Chiefs
  • We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed – Los Campesinos!
  • Little Secrets – Passion Pit
  • This Tornado Loves You – Neko Case
  • Jambi – Tool
  • The General Specific – Band of Horses
  • Creator – Santigold
  • Unstoppable – Santigold
  • Red F – Dan Deacon
  • Vampires – Thievery Corporation

#0082 – Spring Broke

I know it’s about time for Spring Break, and we’re all pretty strapped for the cash. Even with that situation, I’m all good. I hope you are, too!

midget_broken_valve_spring

There’s no voiceover on this mix.  In fact, I really didn’t have a theme for this mix until it came to me.  These are just some tunes I’ve been rolling with for the past couple of weeks.  Then last night and again this morning, it became clear.  These songs are all about some state of dysfunction.  Broken people, broken promises, broken thoughts, broken dreams… pretty much everything but the last song which is so sweet but so earnest that it almost balances out the hour-plus of dystopian irony that precedes it.

Even the theme is kinda stretching it with the awesome power of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” which would be a great anthem to start pretty much any lovely day in Spring.  Closing it out with Fleet Foxes, you’d almost never guess the theme except for the dark but catchy tunes that lay betwixt them (yes, I used “betwixt”).

Steady yourself from being hamstrung by the theme of the mix.  It’s frankly just a good mix of tunes and interesting side note: I had this mix brewing for the last month or so, but as it turns out, many of these artists are rumored to be taking the stage at Lollapalooza this year (Tool, Depeche Mode, Beastie Boys, Jane’s Addiction).  That’d be pretty sweet if I called it in this mix.  Guess we’ll find out in a few months — it would be incredibly sweet to see Arcade Fire and Morrissey, but I’ve heard no rumors about either.  Still, one hopes.

I know it’s about time for Spring Break, and we’re all pretty strapped for the cash.  Even with that situation, I’m all good.  I hope you are, too!

  1. The Arcade Fire – Wake Up
  2. Morrissey – Something is Squeezing My Skull
  3. Depeche Mode – World In My Eyes
  4. Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes
  5. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – We Call Upon the Author
  6. Jane’s Addiction – Standing in the Shower
  7. Pearl Jam – Glorified G
  8. Ra Ra Riot – Dying is Fine
  9. David Bowie – Queen Bitch
  10. Book of Love – I Touch Roses
  11. Franz Ferdinand – Lucid Dreams
  12. Spacious Thoughts – N.A.S.A. (featuring Tom Waits and Kool Keith)
  13. Beastie Boys – Root Down
  14. Tool – Vicarious
  15. The Cramps – Garbageman
  16. I’ll Take Care of It – Sleep Out
  17. Sleep When I’m Dead – The Cure
  18. Fleet Foxes – Ragged Wood

#0078 – Get Up to Get Down

In another first for Radio Gen1us, Jim and Aaron tag-team to bring you the most awesomest mix so far this… month! No voiceover. No explicit lyrics (or hardly recognizable). You can’t help but move to your own beat listening to this mix.

dancing-feet

In another first for Radio Gen1us, Jim and Aaron tag-team to bring you the most awesomest mix so far this… month!  No voiceover.  No explicit lyrics (or hardly recognizable).  You can’t help but move to your own beat listening to this mix.

Aaron:  We wanted to do something stemming from all the excitement and joy around the Inauguration.  And even though the times are certainly getting tight for us and everyone we know, we’re doing our best to keep spirits up.  We started each with a set of songs with the premise of being positive, but not love songs or not overly sappy songs. This was a challenge for me, because I have a certain leaning to going ironic and witty.  Fortunately, when it came time to actually get together we scrapped that.  There could easily be an entire episode with just us talking about how we collaborated on this mix, working off each other and how we generally approach putting together mixes, but this time we’re just going to make you shake your money maker.

Jim:  He should have called it “Jim and Aaron at Tanagra.”  2 playlists met in the vasty deep and their captains could only communicate in the language of music.  We didn’t have time to put together any voiceovers but the mix doesn’t need it ’cause I think if you check it out you’ll be feeling us by the end.  Like Aaron said, we started out trying to do an upbeat celebrational inaugurational mix, but the conversation ended up in other places.  Darmok, baby.  Darmok.

  1. The Beach Boys – Dance, Dance, Dance
  2. Was, Not Was – Walk the Dinosaur
  3. The Spinners – Rubberband Man
  4. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Up Around the Bend
  5. The Submarines – You, Me and the Bourgeoisie
  6. The Hold Steady – How a Resurrection Really Feels
  7. The Call – Let the Day Begin
  8. The Beastie Boys – Stand Together
  9. A Tribe Called Quest – Scenario (Young Nation Mix)
  10. Junior Senior – Move Your Feet
  11. Depeche Mode – Just Can’t Get Enough
  12. Luther Allison – You Can’t Always Get What You Want
  13. Fishbone – Everyday Sunshine
  14. Al Green – Take Me to the River
  15. Matisyahu – King Without a Crown
  16. The Pogues – Fiesta

#0053 – File under: This is the Way the World Ends

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Aaron “Not with a whisper, but with a bang.” Heavily inspired by the post-punk sounds included in the oeuvre of director Richard Kelley in movies such as Donnie Darko and Southland Tales, this mix goes wonderfully dark without being frightening. This is a playlist I like to bike long-distances to, imagining I ride towards destiny.

  1. Echo and the Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
  2. Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls
  3. INXS – Never Tear Us Apart
  4. The Pixies – Wave of Mutilation
  5. Tears for Fears – Head Over Heels
  6. Depeche Mode – Walking in My Shoes
  7. Curve – Horror Head
  8. Siouxsie & The Banshees – Cities in Dust
  9. Moby – Chord Sounds
  10. The Cure – Fascination Street
  11. Thom Yorke – Black Swan
  12. Roxy Music – More Than This
  13. The Church – Under the Milky Way
  14. Peter Murphy – Cuts You Up
  15. Wang Chung – To Live And Die In L.A.
  16. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
  17. The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done

    Also folks — only two weeks left to get your mixes in for our first Iron Deejay competition. All contestants receive a free copy of Audacity software for your Mac or PC.

    #0038 – Superfluitant Mix

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    guest dj kevin: No regular fluitant here for this themeless mix of The National Lampoon, Afrika Bambaataa and The Soulsonic Force, Cadence Weapon, Bafing Kul, D’Gary, Covenant, Tom Jones, Branch Manager, The Cramps, The Cult, Depeche Mode, The Dixie Chicks, Tammy Wynette, Pat Benetar, Ted Nugent, and Smokin’ Joe Kubek. Dag-nabby!

    #0004 – File under: New Wave, Movies

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    We’re moving and jamming out to songs that even the kid can listen to, so put on your time travel helmets as we revisit John Hughes movies and a few other 80’s New Wave/Pop hits. Artists this week include The March Violetes, Oingo Boingo, Split Enz, The Knack, The Smiths, Gary Numan, The Cars, Joy Division, The Fixx, Naked Eyes, Wang Chung, Echo and the Bunnymen, Peter Murphy, Duran Duran, Yaz, Depeche Mode and The English Beat. Totally, dudes.

    Continue reading “#0004 – File under: New Wave, Movies”