The Giant Golden Radio

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I wanted to squeeze one more episode out of 2008, so I’ve been working feverishly to crank out this gem. I’m nearly out the door to go ring in the nuevo ano in warmer climes, so there’s no time to explain the particulars of this episode. But I think Laura Viers (pic) & co will keep you company through this turbulent time vortex that is the ’08 to ’09 transition. Hold onto your hats and I’ll see you on the other side!

1. Neutral Milk Hotel – Song Against Sex
2. Point Juncture, WA – Sick On Sugar
3. M83 – Kim and Jessie
4. Modeselektor – Let Your Love Grow
5. Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane remix ft. Au Revoir)
6. Feist – Sea Lion (Chromeo remix)
7. Youth Group – Shadowland
8. Parts and Labor – Nowheres Nigh
9. The Long Winters – The Commander Thinks Aloud
10. Bound Stems – Happens To Us All Otherwise
11. Bjork – Its Not Up To You
12. Passion Pit – I’ve Got Your Number
13. Mulatu Astatke – Yekermo Sew
14. Sigur Ros – Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur

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We live in the greatest country on Earth. We’ve just gone through a long stretch there where you’d have been hard-pressed to convince me of that. But we’ve just done significant and so powerful, something that will change the course of history and that will inspire billions of people, that I can’t help but feel immensely patriotic right now.

Look at this kid. Any child growing up in America from this point forward will view society with a completely different social lens. They will never question whether someone’s race or their name are significant factors in determining what they are capable of accomplishing. “Obviously not,” they’ll say, “just look at our president.” And that is worth. fucking. celebrating.

1. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
2. Jim Noir – Happy Day Today
3. Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream
4. Conor Oberst – Cape Canaveral
5. Bon Iver – Skinny Love
6. Jolie Holland – Mexico City
7. Headlights – Get Your Head Around It
8. Brazilian Girls – Good Times
9. The Notwist – Boneless
10. TV On The Radio – Love Dog
11. Roots – Criminal
12. Stellastarr* – My Coco
13. Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire
14. Cut Copy – Feel The Love
15. Crystal Castles – Air War
16. Doves – Pounding

(And to folks seriously bumming over Prop. 8: don’t worry, this is only a speedbump. More and more bigots are dying off every day!)

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You know that feeling when you wake up on a sunny Saturday morning and while you’re lying in bed, you think to yourself: “My sole responsibility for today is to get as many people as possible to come kick it at Madison Beach. And I mean, kick it HARD.” Maybe you don’t know that specific feeling, but I do. So you go spend the afternoon in the sun as more and more folks trickle in, and by about 2:00pm there you are, wedged in on some old beach towels amongst about 8,000 fellow it-kickers and weirdos, and it. is. perfect. You’ve got cute girls in big hats on your right, bizarre old guy in a speedo working on his model boats on your left, the constant amateur diving (and belly-flopping) show out on the float in front of you, and a big ol’ quilt full of pride weekend flamboyance behind you. This is why I live in Seattle. This is why people from here get all smiley and dream-eyed when they talk about summers in Seattle. And this is why I make these podcasts, so that these kinds of days will have a soundtrack worthy of them. So here is the latest offering. In it you’ll find some Cut Copy (pictured), whose album I’ve had on blast for the past couple months. All spare you the details on all these other tracks, but I want to give you a heads up that there is an acoustic R. Kelly cover buried in here. Let’s say it’s in celebration of his recent acquittal. Whatever. That guys is still a major freak show and I don’t need some judicial decision to know that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.

1. Feist – I Feel It All (Brit Daniels remix)
2. Frightened Rabbit – The Twist
3. Metric – Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT remix)
4. New Order – Temptation
5. The Dodos – Ashley
6. Sera Cahoone – Baker Lake
7. Bonnie Prince Billy – The World’s Greatest
8. Cut Copy – Strangers In The Wind
9. The Ting Tings – Great DJ
10. Esau Mwamwaya – Tengazako
11. Wolf Parade – Language City
12. TV On The Radio – Staring At The Sun (Diplo remix)
13. Flight Of The Conchords – Foux du Fafa
14. Mates Of State – The Re-Arranger
15. Devotchka – How It Ends

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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.