a little bit of me for you

Ms Lauren has organized a Life CD Swap. The directions for the actual CD read: "Make one CD that encompasses you (yes, you), your experiences, and your personality in musical form. Be sure to print a song list for your recipient. Make it pretty."

I don't know who my random recipient is yet, but I've already made up my CD (Ms Lauren's CD is here). This mixed tape thing is addicting, even if I end up putting pretty much the same stuff on each one I do. That might be a clue for me to get some new music.

There's no common theme here. Some of the songs express my nostalgia for college, some of them I use to vent my frustrations at my father, some of them are looking hopefully toward the future. Without further ado:

Squirrel Nut Zippers- Hell It's been far too long since you've heard this song. I just wanted to make sure you didn't go through 2004 without it.

Erykah Badu- Apple Tree I recently recorded a couple of tracks with a jazz band in the studio where this album (Baduizm) was cut. "And if you don't want to get down with me, then you don't want to pick from my appletree." Yep.

Youngblood Brass Band- Brooklyn This band epitomizes being a music student at UW-Madison. See them at the Terrace if it's warm enough, otherwise, dance your pants off at the King Club. Nat, why did you have to quit?

PJ Harvey- The Letter This song is horny as hell. I empathize.

Ryan Adams- Sylvia Plath I wish I had a Sylvia Plath too.

Wilco- Why Would You Wanna Live? I chose this song as the one that would run during the credits after the movie of my life is over. It's all in the way the lyrics swap at the end: "Why wouldn't you want to live in this world? Wouldn't you? Wanna live?"

Buck-O-Nine- My Town My official San Diego song.

Ani DiFranco- Adam & Eve I can't say that this song currently bears any significant meaning for me, other than that I have this great idea for a tattoo involving the lyrics "I just happen to like apples, and I am not afraid of snakes." I think it's time we give Eve a little credit. Combine these lyrics with the awesome power of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and you've got a recipe for female rebellion against the Christian religion.

CAKE- Daria You also probably haven't heard this song in forever, which is a shame and I'm here to remedy that. My love for CAKE goes back farther than any of my other musical obsessions, expect for maybe the guilty pleasure that is Billy Joel. CAKE still puts on possibly the best live show I've ever seen.

Jamiroquai- You Are My Love Every time I drove with Jerry to La Crosse, we listened to this album. It still conjures up images of western Wisconsin for me.

Jeff Buckley- So Real I will have sex to this song someday. I will have sex to this entire album someday. Jeff Buckley is sex.

Incubus- Favorite Things "Too bad the things you hate are my favorite things." Dedicated to my dad.

Tower of Power- You're Still A Young Man Complain I may, there is a part of me that does enjoy being surrounded by so many Drum Corps types. In high school, having a Santa Clara Vanguard alumni as a marching band instructor meant we played all this old seventies brass stuff. The Bill Chase/Tower of Power diet. I was thinking about this song the other day when I swore the exercise one of the band directors I work with was teaching his trumpet players was the opening segment of this piece.

The Postal Service- Such Great Heights I know this song has been played to death lately, but that doesn't stop me from thinking it's the goddamn most touching thing I've ever heard.

Beck- Debra This song has followed me around just about everywhere I go. It was the theme song of my dorm room freshman year of college, I gifted it to my friend Jennii when she was searching for songs with her name in them ("I met you at JC Penney- I think your name tag said Jenny"), and then it turned up in the guise of a drama geek exercise at Blue Lake. Suddenly fifteen year old girls were coming up to me and emoting the following lines: "I said, Lady, step inside my Hyundai...cuz when our eyes did meet, girl you know I was packing heat." Definitely not camp appropriate. Little did they know that I had the song in my possession, and that the other counselors and I would blast it in the unit when they were off at afternoon rehearsal.

This may change or get swapped around a bit, but for now, it's the basics.