Here’s a fairly short mix, considering that a few songs wouldn’t really meld with the others, and then the links for some of them weren’t working anymore, and I’m too lazy to upload them myself! It’s quality over quantity, in any case. I should probably mention that while the name of the artist just brings you to their website, the song title will get you the song… with all the long band names in this mix, it didn’t seem as intuitive.

Bossanova – Calvary – (MP3, 3 MB)

This is something of an indie-piano-pop-rock song, which would mean it’s catchy, upbeat, interesting, and prominently features a piano.

Harvey Danger – Cream And Bastards Rise – (MP3, 4.5 MB)

Ever since Douglas posted a bunch of their songs, I’ve realized that hey, Harvey Danger is a pretty good band. He also really should have posted this song, so I’m posting it now. “Fools and charlatans, they may get wise / But only cream and bastards riiiiiiiiiiise!”

J. DiMenna – Raggedy Ann – (MP3, 4 MB)

This is the most quiet song on this mix, but it’s still not boring. It’s got a bit of country and a whole lot of awesome, at least if you enjoy lyrics that mention silly squirrels.

The Black Angels – The First Vietnamese War – (MP3, 3.5 MB)

Truly amazing, a song about Vietnam that sounds like it could have been written during Vietnam! It wasn’t, but I bet you could trick people into believing that it is, and that’s good enough for me.

The Icicles – Whirling – (MP3, 5.6 MB)

This is definitely one of my favorite songs on this particular mix, possibly because it sounds something like the more mellow Exit Clov songs.

The Morning After Girls – Hi Skies – (MP3, 3.8 MB)

I’m not sure how popular the concept of female-fronted grunge rock is in this day and age, but the singer for The Morning After Girls screams like Kurt Cobain and that is awesome!

The Shaky Hands – The Sleepless – (MP3, 2.6 MB)

Here’s a lo-fi indie-pop song that reminds me a lot of Brando, only this one isn’t quite as strange.

The Veils – Jesus For The Jugular – (MP3, 4.4 MB)

The Veils!! They are sometimes too good, and I love their singer’s ability to sound like he’s choking to death… melodically!

Thomas Lunch – Leonard Nimoy – (MP3, 2.6 MB)

Here’s a rompin’ tune with a chorus that I tell Douglas he has written: “I’ll fuck you ten times, girl, today!!!” It’s not as trashy as it probably sounds, and it’s thrice as catchy!

There seems to have been many ways to discover the music of Geoff Berner; while he’s been mentioned on a few semi-prominent blogs (which is where I discovered him), he’s also got a song on a compilation entitled Funky Jewish Sounds From Around The World. That compilation’s even got my favorite song of his on there, Lucky Goddamn Jew. As he sings ever-so-awesomely, “I’m a lucky goddamn Jew, lucky goddamn Jew! Got some food, got some booze, women who will sleep with me!” After that, you’ve got Good Luck Now, which is something of a sequel to that song, at least lyrically. And then you’ve got the excellent Whiskey Rabbi, which sounds like it could be a song by The Tiger Lillies, at least for the five seconds, and only because of the accordion. I really should have just posted this as “Jewish + accordion + violins = awesome,” but someone, somewhere, somehow, would get angry.

Downloads

From The Wedding Dance Of The Widow Bride
Good Luck Now – (MP3, 2 MB)

From Whiskey Rabbi
Lucky Goddamn Jew – (MP3, 2.2 MB)
Whiskey Rabbi – (MP3, 4.4 MB)

It is somewhat strange how I believe myself to be a huge fan of psychedelic folk music, and yet it appears that I have never written about such a band. I’m partially remedying this right now by posting the entirety of Ex Reverie’s excellent EP, Phronesis. Orange Flame is somewhat representative of why I love this particular genre, Perennial reminds me of Jefferson Airplane (and so is a better start for the uninitiated), and Thumbtacks starts out haunting and melds into more straight-up psychedelic. I know I’m not the only person out there who’s hippie enough to appreciate this sort of music, so you can expect more of it in the not-too-distant future.

Downloads

From Phronesis
Orange Flame – (MP3, 8.3 MB)
Perennial – (MP3, 7.1 MB)
Thumbtacks – (MP3, 6.4 MB)

Peter Walker is a fellow from California, but his music doesn’t quite match the Californian stereotype. While its basis is modern indie rock, some of the singing on I’m Through wouldn’t be out of place in a country rock song. Besides that, while it’s catchy, it’s not quite catchy, which gives it more of a lasting appeal. Oh I know, lasting appeal shouldn’t even be mentioned on music blogs, where it is all about the newest hotness, but there’s little I dislike more than writing about a band only to realize a week later that their music really isn’t that good. Luckily, I doubt I will have any such hang-ups with Mr. Walker.

Downloads

From Young Gravity
What Do I Know – (MP3, 3 MB)

From Landed
I’m Through – (MP3, 3.6 MB)

For no other reason than I am bored, here are some songs by The Mathletes. The songs are usually intensely nerdy electro-pop songs, and while Joe Mathlete claims that making music requires only “a rudimentary grasp of the English language,” his songs go far beyond that. Otherwise, the songs wouldn’t be so nerdy and awesome. As he sings on I Hate Math, “You’re a functions graph and I’m an asymptote / We will never touch, but we’ll come awful close.” That is both the most hilarious AND the most heartbreaking lyric in the history of existence. Perhaps to balance this out, his song Pinocchiobot is about his desire to become a toaster oven. He has good reasons for it, as well, but I will leave their discovery up to you! In addition, he explains Marmaduke in his aptly-named blog Joe Mathlete Explains Today’s Marmaduke. It is hands down the most hilarious webpage I’ve ever read, so don’t read it in a library or you just might get kicked out for laughing too much.

Downloads

From Fort Awesome
Pinnocchiobot – (MP3, 5 MB)
Your Wings Are Made Of Gold (I Remain Unimpressed) – (MP3, 2.7 MB)
Joe Mathlete Reflects Upon Raisins And Mortality (Mostly Raisins) – (MP3, 3.8 MB)

I’m not entirely sure where I heard of Abigail Grush, but she’s another good singer making strange music from Portland. She goes more places musically than you usually hear on a single album, which is a good thing if you have diverse tastes. Mine are probably not as diverse as necessary to fully enjoy her music, but her newest album, Through Being Mean, has some good, fairly accessible songs, and none of them are bad. Only In My Dreams is something of a cabaret-pop song with violins, and my favorite on the album for both the jazzy singing and this lyric: “But when I’m asleep, I insist that you exist only in my dreams.” It seems I am becoming a sappy bastard in my old age! Another standout is Avoidance Techniques which is also something of a cabaret-pop song, but with a lot of guitars as well, and then a saxophone kicks in at the end. It’s not as overwhelmingly strange as it might sound, though. You can download the rest of the album on her webpage, too.

Downloads

From Through Being Mean
Only In My Dreams – (MP3, 4.3 MB)
Avoidance Techniques – (MP3, 6.8 MB)

While I have mentioned this band before, a mere mentioning here and there is not nearly enough! They are one of the finer gypsy punk groups out there, and certainly the best with a female singer. The singer, Yula, also plays bass for the band, and used to play bass for The World/Inferno Friendship Society, so she is no musical slouch! The rest of the band doesn’t have any slouches either, as the guitars and drums on Red will certainly attest. The songs from the EP below are samples, just quite lengthy ones (1:45 each) … they’re also demos of songs that would later appear on their full-length debut, A Carefully Planned Accident. And since I do not feel like ending my streak of mentioning some awesome lyrics, there’s a real keeper on Captain Sensible Calling in the form of “Oh you dour motherfuckers!” Makes me laugh every time.

Downloads

From A Carefully Planned Accident
Red – (MP3, 2.9 MB)

From Nanuchka EP
Anyway – (MP3, 1.6 MB)
Good Well – (MP3, 1.6 MB)

From Drink The Best Wine First
Captain Sensible Calling (feat. Jack Terricloth) – (MP3, 3.1 MB)

Quasi was the first band to be featured on either/or, nearly a year ago. That alone wouldn’t be enough for me to post about them again; rather, they are an exceedingly awesome band (from Portland, of course), and while I have heard some complaints about the “whiny” vocals, the lyrics are just way too damn good to pass up. But before I start spewing out a bunch of their more memorable lyrics, I should probably talk about the band themselves. There’s singer Sam Coomes, formerly of the band Heatmiser, who jams out on what is essentially a keyboard; when I saw them in concert, during some of the more chaotic keyboard moments, he would play the keyboard with his knees. It was amazing, to say the least. Besides him, there is drummer Janet Weiss, who is more well-known as the drummer for Sleater-Kinney. One thing that’s commonly said about this band is that they can make a hell of a lot of noise for just two people, and it’s definitely true. From the fittingly raucuous The Rhino to the 2nd-best breakup song ever I Never Want To See You Again (Ben Folds’ Song For The Dumped takes the cake in that department), Quasi has something for everyone. And because this post is definitely not long enough, it is time for some memorable lyrics.

“You’re the new newest thing, we’ve seen it all before / In fact I’ve seen it many times, and I’ll see it many more / You know it won’t last, you know it never does / But better to be a has-been than to be a never-was” – All The Same

“You worship the future like it’s some kind of saint / But it’s just like the past with a new coat of paint / Try to save a world that doesn’t want to be saved / Scold it like a child when you think it’s misbehaved” – All The Same

“See how you grasp at the stars, so far away / You can’t even see what’s right in front of you” – I Never Want To See You Again

“I used to think love was real / But it’s just the way you feel at the moment / And when it’s gone, it’s like it never existed in the first place” – In The First Place

“It’s raining, it’s raining, there’s nothing you can do / It doesn’t only rain on you / But you’re acting all upset / Like you’re the only one who’s wet” – It’s Raining

“Work and slave and skimp and save / But you can’t buy yourself a bigger cage” – Sea Shanty

“You need the money, so you got to play you’re dumb / But if you play it long enough, it’s just what you become” – The Happy Prole

Downloads

From When The Going Gets Dark
The Rhino – (MP3, 2.4 MB)

From Hot Shit
Drunken Tears – (MP3, 3.1 MB)

From The Sword Of God
It’s Raining – (MP3, 2.9 MB)

“I used to think love was real / But it’s just the way you feel at the moment / And when it’s gone, it’s like it never existed in the first place” –

Piney Gir is another band I stole from blogs, though their name is strange enough that I would have downloaded it from Doug eventually (for he has this album as well). Anyhow, this is a band that truly sounds different with every song. From the electro-pop of Boston to the country twang of Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye to the violins on K-I-S-S-I-N-G, you really don’t know what to expect from the next song. That isn’t necessarily a good thing, but at least it keeps you on your toes.

Downloads

From Peakahokahoo
K-I-S-S-I-N-G – (MP3, 2.9 MB)
Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye – (MP3, 3.9 MB)

Back in the day, when I whored blogs much more than I do now, I wrote e-mails to myself listeing all the bands I enjoyed, along with a short description. In the case of Space Mtn, the description consisted of “sweet pop.” Upon listening to them more thoroughly, I’ve decided that I was using the slang term for sweet, because while these songs do not evoke the sugary-sweet melodies of The Beach Boys, they are definitely friggin’ sweeeeet. These three are especially awesome; any one of them is better than 90% of songs, and they’re all on the same album! In so many words, that is bonkers.

Downloads

From A Drawing Of A Memory Of A Photograph Of You
My Bright Side – (MP3, 4.9 MB)
Hovercraft – (MP3, 4.1 MB)
Oh – (MP3, 1.9 MB)