Mixing It Up 2: Late Night Giddy

So, for the second disc, the idea was to gather together some upbeat and amusing songs; songs to keep you feeling a bit silly during long night drives. Maybe songs to keep your spirits up when cold rain is falling on you in the dark. As with all these mixes, these are only a subset of the songs I have that fit the theme, and I am selecting them with a little bit of a eye toward what the Minks might like, or that some of them might never have heard before.

Ani DiFranco • Freakshow (from To The Teeth)

A love song to the performing life, sequins, elephants, and parading around. You’ve got to love the “We live under a halo of held breath” line, too. This is one of my favourite songs about the life of a performer, and it seems like it might be a mood-lifter when the realities of life on the road start to settle in.

The Coup • Pimps (free stylin' at the fortune 500 club) (from Genocide & Juice)

I don’t believe I really need to explain this. Genius. I love that this is both juxtaposition comedy and legitmate social and class criticism.

Beastie Boys • No Sleep Till Brooklyn (from Licensed To Ill)

Seems like a pretty appropriate choice for cross-country touring, no? Also, I wonder if this is still the kind of essential listening it was in the years after it first came out, or if early Beasties is something that has disappeared from the radar of Da Youts. Video

Amanda Marshall • Sunday Morning After (from Everybody's Got A Story)

This is just fun. Wild women don’t get the blues. I love the “my clothes are selling on eBay” line. I am certain that there will be some mornings on the tour when at least one Mink will wake up with What-The-Hell-Did-I-Do-itis (or, what my pal Betsy calls “The Shames”). Video (An aside–a friend of mine went to high school with her, and apparently she wasn’t a wild partier back then.)

Randy Newman • Short People (from The Best of Randy Newman)

Yes, I am 6’ 2”, why do you ask? I think this might make a nice complement to “No Fat Chicks“, too. Live in 1978

Boiled in Lead • Rasputin (from Antler Dance)

Celtic punk cover of disco hit. You should totally see this live, when Flip the Mad Fiddler does the operatic YYAAAAAAAAAA bit. Russia’s greatest love machine! It’s kind of Disco, except done Rock (and Reel). The kids love the cross-genre covers, don’t they?

Bob Geldof • The Great Song Of Indifference (from The Vegetarians Of Love)

The theme song for The West. “Baby, I can watch whole nations die / And I don't care at all”. If you’ve never seen the video for this, you should find it online—it’s simple but great. And it’s certainly a very upbeat tune about not caring as the world falls apart around you–which might be on point for touring life, I suspect. Video

Bran Van 3000 • More Shopping (from Discosis)

Look, I don’t claim to understand what the band thought this was about, but to me this song is all about decadent over-sexed superspies on the Internets! How can it fail? It’s fun, it’s just a little bit dirty, and just a little bit nerdy. Video (this is the video for both “Shopping” and “More Shopping”, live with it. Make sure to stick around for the second half when Liane Balaban positively glows as our nerdy sexy heroine).

House of Pain • Shamrocks And Shenanigans (Pete Rock Remix) (from House Of Pain)

Irish white boys rapping. It’s cute. Brady Bunch references. Hanna Barbara references. A strawberry Quik simile. Pure gold. BOOM SHA LOCK LOCK BOOM! Video (for the Butch Vig remix–close enough)

Jim White • Combing My Hair In A Brand New Style (from Drill A Hole In That Substrate And Tell Me What You See)

I challenge you not to chair dance while this is on. Possibly the best hair style song ever. Pretty good album name too.
“I don’t want no hoodoos, no voodoo gurus, no spooked out priesty-beasty, no strippers with pasties, self-professed saviors of my soul, no low-down top-secret CIA moles, no crackpot psychopathic behavior specialists, no shriners, no shiners, no decisive moment existentialists, that’s right, no vegetable, no mineral, no institution gonna disrupt the constitution of my ingenious hairdo solution”

Bonzo Dog Doodah Band • Look Out, There's A Monster Coming (from Cornology)

I can’t explain this. It’s 1960s psychedelic art school rock. It has mail order brides and possibly a parable about self-improvement taken to the point of transforming yourself into a monster. You can see a performance online. The band that played at Alan Moore’s wedding was a Bonzo Dog Doodah Band cover band, if that helps.

The Flash Girls • Me and Dorothy Parker (from Maurice and I)

Sticking with the Alan Moore thing for a second, he wrote this. In addition to being an Alan Moore fan, I am quite a fan of Dorothy Parker’s writing as well. And I’ve always liked the Butch & Sundance ending, too.

Levellers • The Weed That Killed Elvis (From Hello Pig)

Sometimes things don’t have to make a whole lot of sense. You just go with it. I know lots of Levellers fans hate this album, and especially this song, but not this Levellers fan. How can you go wrong with lyrics like “I found god but I lost an eye when I smoked the weed that killed Elvis”?

Mojo Nixon • Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two Headed Love Child (from Root Hog Or Die)

Again, the title pretty much says it all. You should find the video on YouTube—MuchMusic was the only station that would air it, MTV’s censoring of it causing a Mojo-MTV feud. The video is also the only good thing, except Heathers, that Winona Ryder has ever done.

Oysterband • Don't Slit Your Wrists for Me (from The Shouting End of Life)

A love song for the body-mod generation. A nice little folk song for anyone who has piercings in places where “the gardener never goes”.

Paul MacLeod • Stanley SteamerTragically the lyrics for this don’t appear to be available online. (from Close and Play)

Everyone loves a song about carpet cleaners, right? At this point in the night, you’re so tired that you will laugh a lot at this little song about carpet cleaners… or possibly dope. I’m not telling.

Negativland • Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song (from Escape from Noise)

A song about the kind of painful experience that makes a peaceful man lose his temper. I really, really, love that album, although I must admit this is not my favourite track from the album–it’s just the one that fits the theme best. Live. (Admit it–you have no idea what a Negativland concert would really be like, and you probably couldn’t handle it anyway.)

The Mr T. Experience • I Wrote a Book About Rock & Roll (from Alcatraz)

Let us drive that final nail into the coffin of the pretense and privilege of “the critic”, and do it all punk stylee. For a less female audience, I might have gone with their track My New Girlfriend.

Marillion • Freaks (from B'sides Themselves)

See the clever bookending here with the first track? 1980s prog rock single about the fun of being an outcast, so long as you get to do it with all the other (scary) outcasts.

Aerosmith • The Movie (from Permanent Vacation)

…and fade out with the most interesting track to ever come from Aerosmith. It’s an instrumental.