I wrote this in the lobby of a doctor's office. Unfortunately for all you, I am not dying. This is the best mix that I have ever received, and would make my shmoo poll for this year AND my Listmania were it an album by a single artist. It nails the feelings we talked about in the initial discussion about songs like this so well: melancholy, worthlessness, drunken loneliness, and despair better than anything I could have imagined.

This is a mix for hangovers or late nights, and it evokes a melancholy that is difficult to describe if you have never LIVED it. The thing that is so great about this mix is it sounds about like the perfect soundtrack to the last 6-7 years of my life.


****The Spinanes – “Greetings From The Sugar Lick” – Immediately sets the tone for the mix: slower song, with drawn out guitar notes, and lines about “Hair of the Dog.” Not a show stopper, but it sure let’s you know where you’re at

*****Jim White – “Girl from Brownsville, TX” – With hushed tones and a more sing-songy vibe than most Jim White I’ve encountered, this song moves the mix ahead a notch. It evokes the feeling of a wandering spirit, in search of love, or redemption or something, anything to latch on to, with lines like “Busy counting bullet holes in state line signs,” and while I usually associate driving music with propulsive guitar rock, this is one of several on this mix that are perfect for cruising behind the wheel, preferably late at night, and dare I say it, drunk

*****The Bicycle Thief – “It’s Raining” This song is the soundtrack to coming in late, half drunk, but strangely untired, with too much on your mind to sleep. Probably my favorite bad feeling in the world. Reminds me of too many nights and early mornings in college. “It’s 4 am and I just got home and everybody’s asleep.”

*****Over the Rhine “Jesus in New Orleans” – Everyone I play this for thinks its Lucinda. It’s about drinking bloody marys in New Orleans and seeing Jesus, and lest anyone forget, songs about Jesus are often more mongerous than songs about sex and drugs.

*****Bob Schneider – “2002” – A lament for a life wasted in the form of an unmailable love letter to the girl who may have caused it, or more likely left because of it. This guy may be lower than I ever got, and this song is incredible.

*****Hadacol – “Drive All Night” –Not surprisingly one of the others that is slow, yet great for driving. Possibly the opposite of the previous song, because its basically about getting a girl, taking off from this “one way town” and ending up in “Austin, or Boston or San Francisco.” Anyone’s who’s ever wanted to shake off the shackle of the work a day world and find out what is out there knows what this song is like.

*****Luka Bloom – “No Surprises” Being someone who always remembers the ones that got away better than the ones that I got, this song will always remind me of a weird time in my life. With his nasal Irish voice, and sparse guitar arrangements, this song nails the utter despair that the original intends. I think Radliffe told me if he was ending it all to this song, he’d want to bleed out to make sure he heard it all.

***Chris Lee “City Woman” – Another song about a woman (natch) and it really nails the feelings of worthlessness you get when everything she does is magic, and she doesn’t even know your name.

***Nicolai Dunger “Heard it From Tim Hardin” – Piano and cracked voice tribute to a dead inspiration.

****Tim Easton “Rewind” – Another country tinged slowcore trip about trying to figure out what went wrong and if its worth the effort to get it right, and then just settling for what is


*****St. Johnny – “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” – Another 5 star inclusion, and possibly the best new-to-my-ears song I have heard this year. It has a weariness and a general tone of hopelessness that is hard to match, and with lines like “Aaw, fer chrissakes I give up,My old man says I’m weak, I ain’t got no guts, I’m a stumbling wretched fool who can’t shut up, so bottoms up” this is basically a 6 minutes dirge about drinking away the pain.

***Dave Alvin “I Won’t Be Leaving” – When you finally say screw it, it takes more effort to leave than to stay, put this on, he feels your pain

***Buddy Blue w/Romy Kaye “Missing You” – This song is good, but it seems kind of out of place here, just because it’s more of an Aretha-style soul crooner than it is related to this mix.

***The Jayhwaks “Lights” – Alt.country with harmonies is always a welcome addition to a monger mix, this is no difference, but it doesn’t QUITE nail the overall feel.

****Dramarama – A little up beat, but we are creeping back into monger territory after the last 3 songs veered away, and with it’s ‘sawtooth’ guitar lines, it puts you right back where you belong.

*****The Replacements – “Here Comes a Regular” – The only song on this mix that I have heard, and the context was a friend who wants it played at his funeral. It gets to the heart of the feeling that everyday life can be beautiful and tragic, even if it is meaningless

****Grant Lee Buffalo – Rock of Ages – Again, Dat ‘Ligion can be more mongerous than any night of partying.

"Girl From Brownsville, Texas" is my favorite song from that Jim White album.

I would love to hear this. And read your synopsis along with my first listen ...

Lemme see if I can load it up and YSI, I have been having troubles, tho.

send me a link too sir senator. sounds like a fucking killer mix.

just don't let "them" get their hands on it.

Grant Lee Buffalo's first 2 albums are killer and you can never go wrong with Dramarama.

Steve

You said it. Love this track. And Gar's right, Radcliffe could quite possibly make a nasty mix out of equal parts tin foil, haggis and battery acid like he was high on MacGyver. I rec'd his Pre-Proto Punk Junk mix a couple days ago and it goooo'. Fancy a mix swap, DD?

Yeah, c'mon...what's real scary is that there are 2 companion mixes to this:
Old Monger and Power Monger to cope with...

That's it.

You bring me burned copy this w/end.

pls k thx.


I'll need it Sunday morning for the "ritual".

Yeah, this is THE SDTK of soup-pouring/nugget dregging/Dr. Pepper swimming/robe wearing/chi-foo ordering/MONGERING.

lnk2plzthx.

Misery loves company? This sounds like a perfect companion.

Hey, thanks for the awesome review, Loogs. That doctor must've kept you in the waiting room long enough for a few of the elderly to expire.


I'm beginning to suspect, Good Senator, that despite your bluster you have the soul of a poet.


I love this song. The Bicycle Thief is Bob Forrest (of Thelonious Monster), and the guy's lyrics are pretty much straight from his daily diary. He should've/could've been rich, but instead he works as a waiter in L.A. and "spends all his money at Amoeba" (to quote the song "Max, Jill Called"). The album is called You Come And Go Like A Pop Song - and it's worth looking for.


Haq fixed me up with OTR. I'd heard them from a Paste comp and fell in love with the woman's voice. And I say unto you, it's a lasting love.


Schneider got more famous for being Sandra Bullock's boyf than for his music, but occasionally he can put together something that slays. He's a great live act, btw.


Maybe I'm a closet Radiohead fan.


I love (LOVE) the Ron Wood sorta bass playing in this song.


St. Johnny were kind of a brother band to Mercury Rev back in their noisier days. Their noise stuff was more annoying than good, but whenever they slowed it down they really shone. They seemed to know it and released Let It Come Down, which (mostly) played up their more melodic, downer side. They ended up mutating into Grand Mal.


Yeh, I guess this one is out of place. Love Romy's gutteral wails at the end of it, though.


"Right On Baby, Baby." And yep, it's that guitar line that does it for me.

Anyway, that was an incredibly thoughtful review, Loogs. Makes me wish I'd kept a copy of it for myself. I'm going ahead and compiling a slowcore vol. II - so we'll see if I can maintain the feel.

Thanks!

Rads sent me a copy of this as well and I absolutely love it. It gets a lot of driving at night play.

My favorite of the epic "Monger Trilogy"

Nice review, D.

Glad you liked it...the words just kinda came out of me, as I started listening to this again after leaving it at Bloor's for most of the summer.

I can't say enough about how much I listen to it, and its good enough that even FEMGAR and I can agree on it.

I will YSI later and post the link

Yeah, I was beginning to wonder! I'm a big Luka fan anyway, and that was a very interesting take on a cover. Can't say as much for some of the other tunes he included on that album.

I'd love to hear this as well.... so many people I've never heard before.

sounds like rads and I have pretty similar taste - I just haven't heard a lot of those bands but that mix is right up my alley based on the ones I have heard and the comments.