The Giant Golden Radio

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I’ve been working on this little ditty for several weeks now. I got a track list together that I thought was pretty decent, then I slept on it for a good two weeks, all the while deciding that I really wasn’t feeling a few tracks as much as I did at first. So after much revising, agonizing and second guessing, episode seventeen is ready to see the light of day. Just in time for one of these first few days of amazing weather that get sprinkled in amongst all the meteorological bullshit that goes down this time of year. This is one to be bumped with the windows open and the sun streaming in. We start out with a track from MGMT (again), but you know what, if an artist deserves the leadoff spot in two consecutive episodes, so be it. I’ve been eyeing Santogold (pictured here looking fresh) for a while now, but didn’t pull the trigger until I heard this XXXChange remix, which takes the original track makes it a little more of an all-out banger. I’ll let the rest of the tracks speak for themselves, but I want to set the stage for the last track by The Streets, which is one of my all-time favorite anthems. This is the last track on a concept album that tells the story of Mike Skinner losing 1000 pounds and basically everything else in his life going down the crapper. His girlfriend cheats on him with his friend and leaves him. He suspects that one of his friends took the money, and to top it off his TV’s busted. We meet up with our intrepid hero following a tussle with the TV repairman who tries to run up the fees on him. In the verse that follows, he drops some life wisdom on us: “No one’s really there fighting for you in the last garrison/ No one except yourself that is, no one except you/ You’re the one that’s got your back ‘til the last deed’s done/ Scott can’t have my back until the absolute end/ ‘cause he’s got to look out for what’s over his horizon/ He’s got to make sure he’s not lonely, not broke/ It’s enough to think about keeping his own head above.” It sounds better than it reads. Trust me.

1. MGMT – Kids
2. LCD Soundsystem – 45:33
3. White Williams – New Violence
4. The Mountain Goats – Sax Rohmer #1
5. The Dodos – Fools
6. Santogold – L.E.S. Artistes (XXXChange remix)
7. Holy Fuck – Lovely Allen
8. Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!
9. Lykke Li – Little Bit
10. Born Ruffians – Foxes Mate For Life
11. M.I.A. – Paper Planes (DFA remix)
12. Royksopp – Eple
13. Why? – Close To Me
14. The Streets – Empty Cans (Pt. 2)

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.