Secret Fort Mix

This mixtape will be perfect for:

A. hiding

B. alone time

C. hibernation

D. delving head-first into any sort of project

E. getting lost in your own hide-out

It's all right HERE for the taking ... enjoy!

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So again, this past week was just chock-full of commissioned paintings, which always makes me happy ... and speaking of happy, the weather has stayed reasonably warmer, so hooray!

Below is evidence of completed commission stuff and just how much of a wreck my studio space becomes when i am such a busy bee:

The weather has also been :

1. off & on rainy

2. really windy

Sunday the Bad News Bearons were gonna have a nice pick-up softball game, but alas it poured down all day long ... which was sad because I think most of us were planning on showing up

Oh yeah, one more thing ... a while back, the external hard drive that has all of my music on it (which is a LOT of music = 500 gigs worth) died ... fizzled out ... kaput ... it almost felt like a dear friend old friend had passed away ... thankfully though, I had everything backed up on DVDs ... LOTS & LOTS of DVDs ...

so recently I finally bought a new external hard drive and for the last 3 or 4 days I've been slowly but surely loading all of my music onto it, which has been a grueling process but does inevitably allow one to rediscover all sorts of great albums and artists that you'd long forgotten ... and today was that happy day when I found myself loading the last final DVD into this computer ... ah, the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment! and oh, the endless hours of music I now have to look forward to! Yipppeee!!!

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Video-wise I have a pretty random collection of new stuff to show:

1st of all is this new one from Beach House, whose new album "Teen Dream" was released TODAY ... the video is pretty awful (& dull) if you ask me, but the song (along with the entire album) is nothing short of amazing:

Next is a really nice Halloweeny one by funk poet, Gil Scott-Heron ... my favorite part is when the cop car screeches to a deafening halt and startles the skater kids:

And last but certainly not least is the rather hilariously epic "Sesame Street meets bad acid trip" video for Dan Deacon's immortal "Woof Woof" song from last year's "Bromst" album:

Charlene's MIx It Up^ Mix

This mixtape was created for you by the brilliantly beautiful Charlene (a.k.a. Charlie) Smith ... and it's a truly exciting mix to behold ... Funny how just last week we heard another Charlie (Sanders)'s excellent wintery eclectic and magically moody mix ...

and now we have a mix that's really the polar opposite by Charlie Smith ... a warm, loud and raucously rock & roll adventure in sound ... Appropriate, really since the temperatures this week have risen up to the lower 60's!

Charlie says she's really stoked about this mix, because a lot of the bands on it are ones she's freshly discovered ... And you can hear the excitement in the music too somehow! Speaking of which, I need to say that I'm very grateful to Charlie for always turning me on to so many great bands & videos! Thanks, Charlie! Speaking of which, she's gonna be doin her own blog with mixes on it soon ... I'll link it up when it's ready!

So get yer dancin boots out cuz HERE it is !!!

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It's the Birmingham run-off mayoral elections today so I'm about to head out and VOTE for Patrick Cooper ... I hope everybody else in this city runs out and does the same! We don't need another criminal in office

This week has been full of small commissions and finishing up small works for Naked Art's "Microlove" Valentine themed art show ... I also went insane and completely deep-cleaned the kitchen while Peter was away visiting his long-distance girlfriend, Christine ... I don't know what came over me (the warmer weather?) but I'm glad it happened! That place was a collection of strangely organized piles until now

Also, Peter and I's gas bill was a whopping $395 this month! So I went out and bought a ton of ugly blankets and sleeping bags to put over every entrance and doorway in our place for insulation (witness the photos below ... somehow they all make me think of Harmony Korine's "Gummo" ... haha)

and on a random note, this is just weird ... on Google maps I typed in Peter & I'd address and there's this whole street view thing ... they must've done it some months to a a year ago cuz the old tree is still there in front of our place (the tan house with screen-in porch on top)

View Larger Map

oh yeah, sadly the great Memphis rocker Jay Reatard (29) died this past week ... R.I.P. Jay

(click video if picture is chopped off)

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This week, Charlie herself took care of the "video news" ... Take it away, Charlie!

Dex Romweber Duo - Dex and his sister are coming to Bottletree on January 31st opening for Exene Cervenka

Are Friends Electric? -I might love this version more than the original if that's possible. These guys have a ton of amazing covers.

Au Pairs - Come Again live from Urgh! A Music War.. the Au Pairs are one of my favorite bands. Think female fronted Gang of Four. FYI, the song is about faking orgasms

And this one's actually on the mix ... Nervous Patterns was a short lived project by the extraordinarily talented Jay Reatard and Alicja Trout ... brilliant!

Charlie's Falling Into Winter Mix

This mixtape will be perfect for:

A. sitting alone

B. shivering

C. reflection

D. acceptance

It was created for you by the amazing & talented Mr. Charlie Sanders and has an extremely "chill" vibe, in more than one way! After listening to it, half of it makes me think it'd be an exceptional "break up" mix and half of it makes me very relaxed and actually pretty happy that Winter is here ... and I'm not usually the biggest fan of this season, either ... I got extremely bogged-down last year around this time, as I recall ... I think a huge part of it had to do with having plastic over the windows to insulate the apartment ... something I didn't do this year because I realized that looking out of windows is very crucial to my happiness ...

Anyway, enough rambling! Onto Charlie's most excellent seasonal mix! You can download it RIGHT HERE. Thanks, Charlie!

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So appropriately enough, it snowed this week ... mostly on Thursday, but also a little over the weekend as well ... Appropriate, not only because we have the "Falling Into Winter" mix available now, but also because the "Edge Of Winter" group art show at Litebox Gallery in Pepper Place opened this past Saturday ... it was a COLD nite, too ... but not in the gallery! Tons of folks turned up, which made for a very crowded and very warm evening ... Pavo Magazine did a really nice review of the whole thing ... you can read it HERE.

Speaking of Winter, Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" has always reminded me of a cold, bleak & wintry night:

and speaking of videos, I found this new Animal Collective one:

and speaking of Animal Collective, I found this Taken By Trees cover version of their song "My Girls", which I included on the "How To Listen To Now 2009" mix:

I also chanced upon several videos this week that simply echo the words "pure gold" and "brilliant insanity" ... ENJOY!

These next two were sent to me by Andrew ... thanks, Andrew!

I saved the best for last ... haha!

How To Listen To Now 2009 Mix

Since 2005, at the end of every year I start compiling what I think was the best music of the year and then, at the start of the new year, I put all of these songs together on one CD and hand out copies to all of my friends ... I call these 'best of the year' mixes "How To Listen To Now" ... so this will be the 1st year I've made the mix available on a blog because I've only been doing this blog since February 2009 ...

of course, I'm gonna make some "hard copy" CD versions to give to everybody, but in case you don't run into me physically, HERE is the conveniently downloadable version! I'm pretty proud of the "playability" of this year's mix ... last year produced a ton of great sounds ... ENJOY!!!

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So I had a really great New Year's Eve, 1st watching Walker's band play at Rojo and then journeying down to Montevallo for a good fire & fireworks with the McGranns, Walker, Eva, Jess Marie and my brother Peter ... at midnight we opened all the windows and beat on pots & pans to scare away any evil spirits in the house! The next day, Jess Marie treated us all to delicious new year cuisine: sweet potatoes, black eyed peas, pumpkin cornbread and collard greens with cashews! Thanks, Jess!

After that, I spent my time readying 4 big paintings that will be part of a group show Saturday, Jan. 9th called Edge Of Winter at Litebox Gallery at the Pepper Place here in town ... I, along with Spencer and a couple of the other artists, help spackle the walls and paint, readying the gallery for the show ....

I delivered the paintings there yesterday ... it should be an interesting show with 14 different local artists participating ...

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Video-wise, I did something a little different this time ... Since I posted the 2009 "How To Listen To Now" mixtape on here, I went and found a video for each song on the compilation! So just scroll down past the New Years photos below and you can enjoy the video version of my mixtape! Happy New Year!!!

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"HOW TO LISTEN TO NOW 2009": the video version

(if the picture gets all chopped off, just click the video to see everything)

Major Lazer "Pon De Floor" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.