"Off Season"

November 2005 (EC trade)
for: glammonkey

1. Return to Hot Chicken - Yo La Tengo
2. Railroad Man - Eels
3. Liezah - The Coral
4. Chelsea Burns - Keren Ann
5. Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
6. All Tomorrow's Parties - The Velvet Underground
7. You've Got Her in Your Pocket - The White Stripes
8. A Wrong Turn and Raindrops - The Field Mice
9. Gone For Good - The Shins
10. Fly - Nick Drake
11. I Don't Blame You - Cat Power
12. Some Velvet Morning - Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra
13. Here - Pavement
14. First Day of my Life - Bright Eyes
15. Sleep the Clock Around - Belle and Sebastian
16. Let it Die - Feist
17. Surf Song - James Yorkton and the Athletes
18. Things Are What You Make of Them (reprise) - Bishop Allen
19. Shiny Cattle - Magic Car
20. Is this Desire? - PJ Harvey

Comments on the mix: This was an Extracurricular Trade. (glammonkey sent me an inspired double-CD set of girl bands.) This mix came out of an idea that had been brewing in my head for a while. I liked the idea of a mix for "a beach house in winter." Not that I have a beach house, but it could fantasize about it. A cozy place, with wind rattling the shutters, and seagulls cawing outside. The music is warming — and almost nostalgic. (I've actually revisited the idea of a "cozy" mix several times since.) Ultimately, "Beach House in Winter" struck me as too long and cumbersome a title and I decided on "Off Season" instead. I do love traveling in the off season... There's a bonus track on this mix: Track 21 is the sound of seagulls, from PJ Harvey's "Uh Huh Her." This is one of my all-around favorites I've made for the Club.

Comments on the cover: The photo is of St. Ives, Cornwall, taken on a very rainy, off season day. One of the rare occasions I've used one of my own pictures for a cover. I filtered the hell out of it, however. The photo wraps around to the tracklisting, which is nice. I drew the little circles to make up the Off Season "typeface" myself, using Gil Sans as a guide. The type is supposed to evoke a busted light-bulb sign on the boardwalk. I'm very pleased with this one.