#0097 – IRON DJ Graduation edition: 1988

It’s IRON DJ time again! Which means that a bunch of people are going to upload themed mixes and try to compete with me! Unfortunately for them, not only do I have unbeatable taste in music, but this time around I even have the IRON DJ theme going for me: GRADUATION YEAR.

The idea is to put together a mix where the theme is the year you graduated high school.  I graduated in 1988, and there was so much good music made that year that I could have made 3 mixes that would blow your mind.

But instead I made this one.  It’s semi-autobiographical, in that for the most part, the songs are played in the order in which I discovered them.  Not all of this is music I’d have listened to back in 1988, but it’s all great.  I hope you dig the mix, and whether you do or not, leave me some feedback in the comments please!

1. Danzig – Mother
2. INXS – Devil Inside
3. Living Colour – Desperate People
4. The Church – Reptile
5. Dead Milkmen – Stuart
6. They Might Be Giants – Ana Ng
7. The Pursuit Of Happiness – I’m An Adult Now
8. Bad Religion – What Can You Do?
9. Fishbone – Bonin’ In The Boneyard
10. Jane’s Addiction – Mountain Song
11. Pixies – Gigantic
12. Fugazi – Give Me The Cure
13. Cowboy Junkies – Sweet Jane
14. The Pogues – Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six
15. The Waterboys – World Party
16. Dinosaur Jr. – Freak Scene
17. Sonic Youth – Teen Age Riot
18. Galaxie 500 – Temperature’s Rising

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#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

#0058 – IRON DJ – Tabula Rasa

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Iron Deejay

The subject of this delinquent-but-still-special mix is John Locke. No, not that Limey philosopher who theorized that the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate). I’m talking about the character on ABC’s wildly frustrating and popular TV series Lost. Season whatever just closed with some major revelations about my boy John. Like the show, this mix deals in flashbacks, semi-present island time, and, if you’re lucky, flash forwards. But mostly, it doesn’t make sense. Beware that this mix contains spoilers.

Get lost in the mix:

    1. Electric Light Orchestra – I’m Alive
    2. The Ramones – I Believe In Miracles
    3. Guns N’ Roses – Paradise City
    4. Eels – My Beloved Monster
    5. Neutral Milk Hotel – King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1
    6. Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Follow You Into The Dark
    7. Downset – Anger
    8. Jane’s Addiction – Had a Dad
    9. Lodger – I Love Death
    10. Men At Work – Down Under
    11. Soundgarden – Blow Up The Outside World
    12. Bad Company – Bad Company
    13. Queen – All Dead, All Dead