Bizarre Mixtape #1

It's been awhile since I've tried to shove music (that wasn't my own) down people's throats, en masse. So let's do the damn thing. I have crafted for you all what I feel to be a pretty eclectic mixtape. There's something for everyone here.

1. Outkast - "Rosa Parks" - Off the Aquemini album; one of their best. Everyone should know this, but I put it on here anyway.
   
2. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - "How Near How Far" - Don't let the band's name fool you. It's indie rock, not death metal.
   
3. Jamie Cullum - "Frontin'" - Jazzy. Poppy. Smart-alecky. Great song.
   
4. The Seatbelts - "Piano Black" - Speaking of jazz. This band did all the music for the anime Cowboy Bebop, but you wouldn't know it was an anime soundtrack from listening to it - trust me, I fucking hate anime with the notable exception of this series and at least half of that is because of this band.
   
5. Saul Williams - "WTF!" - Featuring Trent Reznor, this is the crunk song for people who don't like crunk music. I defy you to listen to this and not want to plow someone to it.
   
6. Amon Tobin - "Easy Muffin" - Simultaneously chill and ominous trip hop. Great shit.
   
7. The Clash - "The Guns Of Brixton" - Do I need to say anything at all here?
   
8. The Kills - "Tape Song" - Drum machines and raw, dirty garage guitars. For the four of you that read, I posted a link to the album Midnight Boom a few months back.
   
9. io echo - "Doorway" - I posted this one a few months back, too. A good continuation from The Kills, as previously mentioned.
   
10. Arctic Monkeys - "Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?" - They blew up huge in the UK and didn't get quite as big here - and here they are questioning their own renown a few years down the road.
    
11. Kanye West - "Flashing Lights" - Everyone knows this one too but it's Kanye's hottest beat ever, period.
    
12. Lil' Wayne - "Shooter" - I had to put this in here because for the most part I really can't stand Lil' Wayne. This song is a rare exception.
    
13. Gorillaz - "El Manana" - One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists off one of my favorite records.
    
14. Puscifer - "REV 22:20" - Dark, sexy, and creepy.
    
15. Incubus - "Wish You Were Here" - Always loved the guitars in this.
    
16. Nine Inch Nails - "In This Twilight" - I've lately started to think this might be my favorite song of all time. I have no idea how a song so full of static and noise can simultaneously be one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. A hopeful, atmospheric song...you know, about the end of the world.
    

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I'm really, really NOT DEAD.

Still just really lazy. And I definitely did not come back "tomorrow." But here we are now. Let's get up to speed here. What's been going on?

First of all, I've been really stressed out and bummed with the direction a few things are going in, mostly my life and lack of career direction. The worst part of this is that I have a very clear, concise, extremely feasible way forward. I would like to be doing audio design for Red Storm Entertainment here in Cary, a job - nay, career - that would be extremely fun and quite lucrative. In order to get to that place I need some kind of degree in audio design and since the School of Communication Arts offers exactly that and has close ties with Red Storm, you would think that would be the place I would be going.

Well, I would be. If I had about $65,000. Which I do not. There is no possible way to get into that school without the aid of parents until you're 24 (I turn 22 in June) and private loans aren't gonna happen - I'd even be willing to take out that much and just pay it all back the rest of my life at this point, but I can't get 'em. I really just want to be in school and nothing else. I don't want to have to work while I'm in school, which is where that figure comes from. This doesn't come out of laziness, this comes out of experience - if I have to work, I'm going to have to work constantly, and it's going to take a toll on school work. Plus the hours I have now are solid and I couldn't keep my current job whilst being in school because I can't be two places at once. It's really fucking frustrating, and even moreso when all of my friends, who go to that school, regularly skip class because they want to sleep in or play WoW or "don't feel like it," to the point that one of them actually got dropped from the very class I am dying to take. They have a gift and they don't realize it.

Enough about that. Music is going well, but not in the same way it has before. I haven't been devoting much attention to my solo efforts of late, and while I've started recording for that new album, all of it's gone. My friend's external hard drive, which had two or three songs in various stages of completion, decided to fail on us. Don't ask me why he hasn't sent it off yet, especially considering it broke just under warranty and probably isn't any more.

But anyways, the music I'm talking about now is the new band I've started. Kind of the same badn I referred to a few posts back, but kind of not. Same ideas, same concept, and brainchilded by me and one of the same people, but the lineup has been completely rotated. We have another new drummer, as well as a newly-hired bassist and keys player, and all of these dudes kick holy ass. We have settled on the name Flight Of Osiris for now but I really have very quickly started to fucking hate that name and I'm hoping that we change it. If we don't, oh well. The music is GREAT and I find myself looking forward to weekly practice. I'm also looking forward to it being summer so we can practice more often than that.

Beh. There's been a host of other bullshit going on but at risk of this sounding like a goddamn diary, I'm not going into any of it. I'm out this bitch for now.