Marathonpacks’ 2006 Year-End Mixes, Vols. 1-4

So let’s just let these four stand in for my 2006 song list. I had to smush all of them down to 128k so as to not completely break the Internet, but they still sound pretty good. So here’s what they are: they’re mixes—tracks transition into one another to varying degrees of success, but I’m definitely not a DJ, nor did I have an overarching theme in mind with each mix, other than these are songs that were released in 2006. I made each one in as close to real-time as possible, just playing each song through, and digging for a good one to follow it, and repeating. When I got close to 70 minutes, I stopped. So, they’re kind of like the mix-equivalent of free-writing, I suppose—I just went until arbitrarily stopping. I did make an active attempt to vary each one re: style, and not go for too many obvious transitions (people who put all the rap songs together are lame and racist). In fact, the transitions between songs were one of my highest priorities, along with a flow that I based more on mood and tone than theme or whatever. I tried to include every single song I liked, but a few didn’t make the cut, including 2 of my Jackin’ Pop Top Ten singles: T.I.’s “What You Know,” and Birdman/Lil’ Wayne’s “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy” (not a racial thing, I swear). I would have liked to include a Newsom song, but she’s kind of a killer for these things, and that amazing Bossanova song got inserted and deleted a few times, for being too long. I wrote about a lot of these songs, and linked to my posts where available, but those mp3s aren’t there anymore. And an asterisk means that the post isn’t about the song in particular, but another one by the same artist. Enjoy, but do it quickly…these will only be up for a few days. As for me (thanks for asking), I’m going to take a few days off for the holidays—I should be back on 12/24.

UPDATE (12/20): Sendspace it is. Sorry for the middleman, but yeah.

UPDATE (12/24): Filenames fixed/#’s removed. Also, I’m trying direct links to the mixes via SS. Let me know (again) if I’ve screwed up any more.

Mix 1 (67:30/61MB) (sendspace)

1. OOIOO || “UMO” || Taiga (post)
2. The New Sound of Numbers || “Minimal Animal” || Liberty Seeds (post)
3. Yo La Tengo || “The Room Got Heavy” || I Am Not Afraid of You…
4. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone || “Young Shields” || Etiquette (post)
5. Matmos || “Steam and Sequins for Larry Levan” || The Rose has Teeth…
6. Fujiya & Miyagi || “Collarbone” || Transparent Things (post)
7. Persephone’s Bees || “City of Love” || Notes from the Underworld (post)
8. Justin Timberlake || “Damn Girl” || FutureSex/LoveSounds
9. Stereolab || “Interlock” || Fab Four Suture (post)
10. Cansei de Ser Sexy || “Let’s Make Love…” || Cansei de Ser Sexy
11. Tom Zé || “Ave Dor Maria” || Estudando O Pagode
12. American Watercolor Movement || “Flowers for Catalan” || It Takes Fifteen… (post)
13. TV on the Radio || “Wolf Like Me” || Return to Cookie Mountain
14. Califone || “A Chinese Actor” || Roots and Crowns (post)
15. The Flaming Lips || “The Sound of Failure” || At War With the Mystics (post)
16. Sonic Youth || “Do You Believe in Rapture” || Rather Ripped
17. Hanne Hukkelberg || “Break My Body” || Rykestraße 68 (post)

Mix 2 (66:06/60.5MB) (sendspace)

1. Field Music || “You’re Not Supposed To” || Write Your Own History (post)
2. Camera Obscura “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken” || Let’s Get Out…
3. Phoenix || “Long-Distance Call” || It’s Never Been Like That
4. Lilys || “A Diana’s Diana” || Everything Wrong is Imaginary (post*)
5. Junior Boys || “In the Morning” || So This is Goodbye
6. Ellen Allien & Apparat || “Way Out” || Orchestra of Bubbles
7. Skatebård || “The Faun Enters the New Age” || Midnight Magic (post)
8. The Roots || “Baby” || Game Theory (post*)
9. Lil’ Wayne & Robin Thicke || “Shooter” || The Evolution of Robin Thicke (post)
10. Amy Winehouse || “You Know I’m No Good” || Back to Black
11. Dani Siciliano || “Why Can’t I Make You High” || Slappers (post)
12. Cat Power || “Living Proof” || The Greatest (post*)
13. Brightblack Morning Light || “All We Have Broken Shines”|| s/t (post)
14. Midlake || “Young Bride” || The Trials of Van Occupanther (post)
15. Starlight Mints || “Seventeen Devils” || Drowaton
16. Danielson || “Cast it at the Setting Sail” || Ships (post)
17. Peter, Bjorn & John || “Young Folks” || Writer’s Block
18. Fiery Furnaces || “Benton Harbor Blues Again” || Bitter Tea

Mix 3 (65:58/60.4MB) (sendspace)

1. Asobi Seksu || “Thursday” || Citrus
2. Grizzly Bear || “Knife” || Yellow House
3. Bonnie “Prince” Billy || “Cursed Sleep” || The Letting Go
4. Final Fantasy || “Song Song Song” || He Poos Clouds
5. Man Man || “Black Mission Goggles” || Six Demon Bag (post)
6. Hot Chip || “Over and Over” || The Warning
7. Gnarls Barkley || “Crazy” || St. Elsewhere
8. Herbert || “Something Isn’t Right” || Scale (post)
9. The Rapture || “Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh” || Pieces of the People…
10. Rubicks || “Actress Model” || In Miniature (post)
11. Clipse || “Trill” || Hell Hath No Fury
12. Liars || “Let’s Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack” || Drums Not Dead (post)
13. Chad VanGaalen || “Gubbish” || Skelliconnection
14. Sparklehorse || “Mountains” || Dreamt for Years… (post)
15. Dosh || “Um, Circles and Squares” || The Lost Take (post)
16. His Name is Alive || “In My Dreams” || Detrola (post)
17. The Knife || “We Share Our Mother’s Health” || Silent Shout (post)
18. Scott Walker || “Darkness (The Plague of Locusts)” || Plague Songs

Mix 4 (71:08/65.1MB) (sendspace)

1. Ghostface Killah || “Shakey Dog” || Fishscale
2. Brazilian Girls || “Jique” || Talk to La Bomb (post)
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs || “Way Out” || Show Your Bones
4. Robert Pollard || “Dancing Girls & Dancing Men” || From a Compound Eye
5. The M’s || “Plan of the Man” || Future Women
6. Belle & Sebastian || “Funny Little Frog” || The Life Pursuit
7. The Decemberists || “The Perfect Crime” || The Crane Wife
8. Absentee || “You Try Sober” || Schmotime (post)
9. Euros Childs || “Hi Mewn Socasau” || Chops (post)
10. Destroyer || “3000 Flowers” || Destroyer’s Rubies
11. Xiu Xiu || “Boy Soprano” || The Air Force
12. Holland || “Yellow For Brown” || Holland EP (post)
13. Matthew Friedberger || “The Pennsylvania Rock Oil…” || Winter Women
14. The Guillemots || “Through the Window Pane” || Through the Window Pane (post)
15. Beck || “Strange Apparation” || The Information
16. The Concretes || “Grey Days” || In Colour (post)
17. Vetiver || “You May Be Blue” || To Find Me Gone (post)
18. Shearwater || “Seventy-Four Seventy-Five” || Palo Santo (post)
19. Centro-Matic || “Calling Thermatico” || Fort Recovery (post)
20. Howe Gelb || “Howling A Gale” || ‘Sno Angel Like You