"2009 Lives"

December 2009
for: Diane Court

1. Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat - Beck
3. Treat Me Like Your Mother - The Dead Weather
4. Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen - PJ Harvey & John Parish
5. Sabali - Amadou & Mariam
6. Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear
7. Lisztomania - Phoenix
8. My Girls - Animal Collective
9. Periodically Triple Or Double - Yo La Tengo
10. You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II) - Sunset Rubdown
11. French Navy - Camera Obscura
12. Two - The Antlers
13. Slush - Jarvis Cocker
14. Beware Your Only Friend - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
15. Magpie To The Morning - Neko Case
16. Snookered - Dan Deacon
17. Everyday - Vetiver

Comments on the mix: My annual year in review.

"Crazy 2008"

January 2009
for: Masticator

1. You! Me! Dancing! - Los Campesinos!
2. DLZ - TV On The Radio
3. Each Year - Ra Ra Riot
4. Kids - MGMT
5. Psychotic Girl - The Black Keys
6. Dead Sound - The Raveonettes
7. Lights Out - Santogold
8. Fools - The Dodos
9. Ready For The Floor - Hot Chip
10. White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
11. So Everyone - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
12. Skinny Love - Bon Iver
13. Split Lips - Sons & Daughters
14. California Girls - The Magnetic Fields
15. Cheap and Cheerful - The Kills
16. Salute Your Solution - The Raconteurs
17. Strange Victory, Strange Defeat - Silver Jews
18. Children's Crusade - Oxford Collapse
19. Along The Way - DeVotchKa
20. More News From Nowhere - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Comments on the mix: Annual year-in-review mix. See 2005, 2006 and 2007. (Printer still dead.)

"Lucky 2007"

December 2007
for: Sgt Howie and Nocturne

1. Fake Empire - The National
2. I Feel It All - Feist
3. Teardrop - José González
4. Mama, Won't You Keep Those Castles In The Air And Burning? - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
5. There Are Too Many Birds - Arthur & Yu
6. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb - Spoon
7. Paper Planes - M.I.A.
8. Keep The Car Running - Arcade Fire
9. Wait For Me - Dean & Britta
10. Missed The Boat - Modest Mouse
11. Love Today - Mika
12. Lay Your Head Down - Keren Ann
13. You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
14. Don't Let Him Waste Your Time - Jarvis Cocker
15. Effect & Cause - The White Stripes
16. Night Majestic - Au Revoir Simone
17. White Chalk - PJ Harvey
18. Boy With A Coin - Iron & Wine
19. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem
20. Cut And Run - Electrelane

Comments on the mix: After 2005 and 2006, here's my third year-end wrap up. Unlike the previous two mixes, I don't own all these albums (1, 4, 10, 11, 12 or 13 are just singles I picked up). Jarvis Cocker and Au Revoir Simone were my dud purchases this year, but there was lots of fabulous music to compensate! (I actually put this together at the end of November, so who know what I might buy in my final month.)

"This is 2006"

December 2006
for: Masticator

1. Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura
2. Cheated Hearts - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. Chinese Translation - M. Ward
4. God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash
5. Sheela-Na-Gig - PJ Harvey
6. Sunday Noises - Califone
7. Repeat To Fade - The Shortwave Set
8. Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case
9. Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby - Islands
10. Level - The Raconteurs
11. Lady Lawyers - Oxford Collapse
12. Painter In Your Pocket - Destroyer
13. The Disco Song - Au Revoir Simone
14. You Can Make Him Like You - The Hold Steady
15. Lived In Bars - Cat Power
16. Honey Child What Can I Do? - Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
17. No Bad News - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
18. Ida, My - Annuals
19. Absinthe - Beth Orton
20. Tonight - TV On The Radio

Comments on the mix: My second annual year-end wrap up. As with last year, this is really a retrospective of albums. I hardly pretend to keep up with singles. The PJ track is off the 2006 Peel sessions album; it was actually recorded in 1991. The Annuals album was the only dud of my purchases here. Otherwise, this strikes me as a pretty good year for music.

"20 Year Reunion: 1986"

June 2006
for: razzy

1. Open Your Heart - Madonna
2. Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads
3. If You Leave - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
4. Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths
5. Walk Like an Egyptian - The Bangles
6. Kiss - Prince & the Revolution
7. Take Me Home Tonight - Eddie Money with Ronnie Spector
8. Pretty In Pink - The Psychedelic Furs
9. Addicted To Love - Robert Palmer
10. Left of Center - Suzanne Vega
11. Walk This Way - Run-D.M.C.
12. She's an Angel - They Might Be Giants
13. You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon
14. A Question Of Time - Depeche Mode
15. When I Think Of You - Janet Jackson
16. Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money) - Pet Shop Boys
17. Life in a Northern Town - The Dream Academy
18. Bring On The Dancing Horses - Echo & The Bunnymen
19. Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel
20. Fall On Me - R.E.M.

Comments on the mix: This mix had the longest gestation period of any I've done for the Club. I think it was in January of that year that I got the idea. I must admit I was inspired by the fact that I own a "Best of 1986" CD, which I bought years ago for "Life in a Northern Town," my favorite one-hit-wonder of all time. That CD provided five tracks here. The "Pretty in Pink" soundtrack gave me four more. Then I had to scrounge up the rest. Looking back on 1986 (which I decided was a great year for music) from 2006 seemed a strong concept, so I was determined to follow this through. It turned out I had enough '80s stuff to balance the whole thing out, and only had to buy "Sledgehammer" from the iTunes store. So I ended up with 20 tracks — perfect! I liked the variety, it reflects my own musical history in 1986 where I was making the shift from mainstream pop (represented by Madonna, who I still really like) to Alternative rock (represented by R.E.M.). It's still pretty cheese-heavy, so I waited a few rounds before I thought I had a mixee who would really appreciate it. Ultimately, this is one of my favorite mixes, and I think I sent it out as a bonus for every remaining round that year.

Comments on the cover: The cover here also took extra time, because I scanned all these pictures from an old yearbook. I picked the people with the worst '80s hair (sorry guys!). I need to point out that despite the way this album was titled and packaged, I was only in junior high in 1986. Still, 20 years... Damn!

"Best of 2005"

Selections from the New Albums I've Heard This Year
November/December 2005
for: Neant

1. Your Ex-Lover Is Dead - Stars
2. Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) - Eels
3. Kids With Guns - Gorillaz
4. This Modern Love - Bloc Party
5. First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
6. Greatest You Can Find - Keren Ann
7. Paul Simon - The Russian Futurists
8. The Power Is On - The Go! Team
9. Bells - Electrelane
10. Forever For Her (Is Over For Me) - The White Stripes
11. Mushaboom - Feist
12. Sénégal Fast Food - Amadou & Mariam
13. Gideon - My Morning Jacket
14. Rodeo Town - The Kills
15. Medicine - Sons & Daughters
16. Over and Over Again (Lost and Found) - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
17. The Price & Style - Robbers on High Street
18. Oh My God - Kaiser Chiefs
19. Go It Alone - Beck
20. Marx and Engels - Belle & Sebastian

Comments on the mix: My first "best of the year" mix came with a lot of caveats. Since I primarily listen to music through albums — and remain generally unaware of hot singles — I compiled a list of albums and then picked songs from each. The mix does give a picture of what I listened to that year — with albums that I adored (Stars, Eels, The White Stripes, Amadou and Mariam) and albums that I wished I hadn't spent money on (The Go! Team, My Morning Jacket, Robbers of High Street, Kaiser Chiefs). I included Belle & Sebastian as a bonus track ("Push Barman to Open Old Wounds" was released in 2005, although the song is older).

Comments on the cover: I was working with the idea of The Best ... Dressed, which I thought kind of worked, given the FTOTZ's fondness for celebrity gossip. To promote the "magazine" look, there's a big halftone pattern on the images (kind of lost in the jpg above). The tracklisting also included the name of each album.