Matt's Fall 2007 music mix

1: "War," by JJ Grey & Mofro. Heard: listening station at the Record Archive. Story: none - I just like the song.

2: "How Fast Can You Run," by Rocco DeLuca & the Burden. Heard: Pandora, then on their album I Trust You to Kill Me. Story: about a day after hearing this track on Pandora, I was in Blockbuster and happened across a documentary starring Kiefer Sutherland and this band. I rented it, thinking it was a fictional thing, but it documents their first (very small) European tour. It was only after all this that I heard "Colorful" on the radio, because I generally don't listen to the radio anymore.

3: "One Day," by KT Tunstall. Heard: Starbucks. Story: As much as I hate to admit discovering music at Starbucks, it's the truth. It's from a short album of acoustic performances.

4: "Getting Better," by Fionn Regan. Heard: MOJO magazine insert. Story: It's a cover of the Beatles song from Sargent Pepper's..., which turned 30? this year. Beatles purists will hate it, heck most people that hear it will probably not like it. But I like it.

5: "19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)," by Gorillaz. Heard: WBER a couple of years ago. Story: I finally found the album used at the Archive a few months ago. The regular version of this song is also on the album, but this remix is superior by far.

6: "Can't You See That He's Mine?" by The Bristols. Heard: online. Story: It started by listening to WBER's Spotlight Review show. The host keeps a blog where he posts his playlists, and it had a link to the blog of somebody or other in France. Her blog, in turn, had links for some French pop/rock tracks, and this is one that's just a lot of fun.

7: "Processed Beats," by Kasabian. Heard: album. Story: I first heard this band on Pandora and bought the album recently.

8: "Hey, Man!" by Nelly Furtado. Heard: several years ago at a listening station in Borders. Story: I admit it, I like Nelly Furtado! As much as she's a pop singer, she just has damn good songs, especially this first track from her album Whoa, Nelly! I re-discovered this song recently when Lisa had bought a couple of her other tracks.

9: "Henrietta," by The Fratellis. Heard: again, listening station at Borders. Story: Borders had this album cheap (a wonder in itself!), and the whole album is full of fun rockin' tunes. You would recognize the second track from their album, which was featured in one of the Apple commercials recently.

10: "Monkey Wrench," by Foo Fighters. Heard: album. Story: I found the CD used at the Archive. This is a great workout song, and I'm amazed at Grohl's extended single-breath vocal in the middle of the song. It blows my mind.

11: "Scar That Never Heals," by Jeremy Fisher. Heard: Paste Magazine sampler. Story: I bought the magazine, and most of the tracks are folk/pop kind of songs similar to this. I'm a sucker for this kind of music. Every time I hear it I think of Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia" for some reason.

12: "C'mon!" by The Village Green. Heard: Pandora. Story: no story - just like their sound.

13: "The Limit to your Love," by Feist. Heard: Pandora. Story: This one may be a little subdued for a lot of people, but people who know me know that I tend to be subdued as well. Her voice is different and great, and the instrumentation and sound of this track strike me the right way.

14: "When Your Mind's Made Up," by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (from the soundtrack to the movie "Once"). Heard: movie. Story: Hansard is the singer for a band called the Frames (?), whose music I haven't bothered to listen to. He and Irglova starred in the movie "Once," which is sort of a musical but not really. Unlike a musical, they don't stupidly break into song at random moments. However, since I've always secretly wanted to be a musician, this movie had me hooked the entire time. It's well-made, and the soundtrack music is great. Definitely in my top 3 movies I've seen this year.

15: "Proof," by I Am Kloot. Heard: Pandora. Story: no story, really - Pandora kicks ass.

16: "Creep" (acoustic), by Radiohead. Heard: Pandora. Story: After mostly missing out on Radiohead for the first 10 years or so they were around, I finally heard all of The Bends earlier this year. I had one of those feelings of realizing I've been missing something awesome for a really long time, one of those feelings that makes you wonder what else you've been missing... After this track played on Pandora, I went out & got the EP for Kevin (since I know he likes them a lot) and got a copy for myself as well. Though I like the original of this track, I somehow feel like this setting is much more appropriate to the song. That, and I can finally understand all of what he's saying.

17: "Nessun dorma," sung by Luciano Pavoratti (from Puccini's (?) opera Turandot). Heard: 2004 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Story: I (for whatever reason) watched the opening ceremony of the aforementioned Olympics, and Pavoratti closed it with this song. Honestly, it gave me chills and still does every time I listen to this song. I didn't realize at the time, but that performance was pretty much his last ever public performance. A couple months before he passed away, I remembered the track and purchased it from iTunes.