"Boats Against The Current"

First round on the FTOTZ boards
March/April 2005
for: isyche

1. Nico - These Days
2. Wilco - Heavy Metal Drummer
3. Dream Academy - Life in a Northern Town
4. Stars - Reunion
5. PJ Harvey - You Said Something
6. Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
7. Johnny Cash - Hurt
8. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
9. The Shins - New Slang
10. Rufus Wainwright - 11:11
11. Loretta Lynn - Miss Being Mrs.
12. Pulp - Disco 2000
13. Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind
14. The Delays - Long Time Coming
15. Bishop Allen - Ghosts Are Good Company
16. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
17. Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
18. The Beatles - Penny Lane
19. Stellastarr - Untitled
20. White Stripes - We're Going to Be Friends
21. Tom Waits - Martha

Notes on the mix: This is probably the first truly "themed" mix I ever made. I had the idea floating around for a while: a mix of songs that are, in some way, fixated on the past. Some of the selections here fit that concept better than others, but it was a legitimate attempt. This is also the rare mix that I put together before I was assigned my mixee. But as it turned out, isyche seemed to have the appropriate tastes. Some of my choices seem a bit dated now (and I can think of several newer songs to swap them out with) but this mix is also notable for including a lot of my big time favorite songs (like 3, 5, 6, 12 and 13). The Bishop Allen song I've used just an embarrassing number of times on the Club. It's versatile!

Notes on the cover: I like the way I used stock art in a non-obvious way, but my favorite thing about this cover is the way it wraps over to the tracklisting. The title of the mix comes from "The Great Gatsby." The full quote also wraps to the tracklisting side. I'm not a big fan of the book, but that famous, lovely quote perfectly captures what I was trying to do on the mix.