A miscellaneous little mix tape

I always love reading or hearing about what my favorite musicians are listening to, because they often have some really interesting things to say about why they like it. Vienna Teng made a post a few years ago back when she had first started her blog (her scrapbook, she calls it) in which she listed tracks she might include on a mix tape for anyone reading. I think you see where this is leading... although, unlike Vienna, I can't claim to have played with all the people who recorded these songs. (Lucky her.)

1. Emilie Autumn, "Manic Depression": Emilie is one of my absolute favorite artists because it is so very tricky to pigeonhole her. Her lyrics are always sharp and witty, but she's always experimenting with her singing style. However, this song features neither her lyrics nor her voice, but rather her prowess on the electric violin: this girl can shred.

2. Snow Patrol, "If There's a Rocket Tie Me to It": Snow Patrol is one of those bands whose albums I have always meant to buy and never got around to it. However, I may now just have to give in and snag a copy of A Hundred Million Suns. I heard this one morning on XPN a few weeks ago during the drive to work. I love the energy and the rhythm of it, but it was the lyrics that caught my ear--they're unusually vivid and visual.

A fire, a fire/You can only take what you can carry/A pulse, your pulse/It's the only thing I can remember/I break, you don't/I was always set to self destruct though/The fire, the fire/It cracks and barks like primal music

3. Kaki King, "Doing the Wrong Thing": The word virtuoso always gets tossed around when people talk about Kaki because of her acoustic guitar skills, but she's definitely branched out since her first album. She creates soundscapes--I can't think of a better way to put it. Her songs may not always have words that stick in my head or a melody I can tap my foot to, but they take me somewhere else. The inside of her head must be an interesting place.

4. Gillian Grassie, "Tamlin": When I looked at who Gillian listed in her influences and saw the title of this song, I admit I leaped to conclusions and assumed it was going to be some kind of Loreena McKennitt imitation, but she takes the traditional folktale and twists it around into something entirely unexpected and original.

Do you ever get that feeling of being infinite and small?/Like you're everything and nothing at all?/My love has become a burning coal/And I'm not sure I can hold/My love, he's become a glowing coal/And he burns me/And I hold

5. The Fratellis, "Milk and Money": Ah yes, another one of my very favorite bands. This is the last song on their second album, Here We Stand, and I was lucky enough to hear it live when I saw them a few months ago. Some critics haven't been that kind to this album, but I think it shows how much they've grown since Costello Music. To me, it's songs like this that prove they're much more than "that band that plays Chelsea Dagger."

And the last chance girl in the first dance swirl/Lays her head down on the wooden floor/Won't be dancing anymore/And where do they go when the thrills have gone?/And the last song plays down at babylon/Five hundred kids shout what's the deal?/It's a very confusing way to feel

6. The Animators, "Good to Be Here": I wish I'd gotten the chance to see these guys before they broke up, but at least they left behind them two albums of good solid power pop available for free download on their web site. One of the things I really liked about them was that so many of their songs were little stories, like this one.

I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling/Look who's back, I saw the doctor smile/Careful, we almost thought we'd lost you for a while/Cecilia was the last thing I remember/On the radio of the overturned car/How long have I been here?/I can't feel a thing/But I think I'm all right

7. Coldplay, "Cemeteries of London": I started listening to Coldplay much later than everybody else did. I got Viva La Vida three or four months after it was released, and enjoyed it much more than I expected. I really like the rhythm section in this tune and the lyrics, which seem like a departure for them in that they're not relationship-focused. Plus, I happened to be reading The Graveyard Book at the time, and this went very nicely as background music.

At night they would go walking 'til the breaking of the day/The morning is for sleeping/Through the dark streets they go searching to seek God in their own way/Save the nighttime for your weeping/Your weeping

8. Solas, "Vital Mental Medicine/The Pullet": With For Love and Laughter, the most recent addition to Solas's discography, Seamus Egan continues his tradition of doing scary things with a banjo, as well as his tradition of giving his original instrumentals puzzling and improbable titles. Personally, I still want to know what "Coconut Dog" is all about...