Mixology: April Amplification

Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes (or CDs) I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.

April Amplification (April 2006)

What were you doing (almost) five years ago? I was watching my wife run the Boston Marathon (and joining her for the last nine miles), training for the Vermont City Marathon, watching the Leafs miss the playoffs and celebrating Hannah's 4th birthday.

I was also making this mix, which featured plenty of the so-called indie rock. Five years later, I'm digging it for the most part. Wolfmother definitely doesn't hold up, but pretty much everything else does. That first Arctic Monkeys album still stands out as an amazing collection of tunes by a young band. I've enjoyed both of their albums since, but their debut was a startlingly good surprise.

The mashup of "Eminence Front" by the Who and "Root Down" by the Beastie Boys is a lot of fun. This was probably the height of mashups and there were some pretty good ones. I used to enjoy it when WBCN DJ Bradley Jay would mash up songs back in the mid-'80s; he was good at matching seemingly disparate songs. I don't have a ton of mashups but the best ones seamlessly graft different songs together in an original way.

I Gotta Feeling (Just Nineteen) - Eagles of Death Metal
I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor - Arctic Monkeys
Rifle Called Goodbye - The Minus 5
Aftermath USA - Drive-By Truckers
Frontin' on the Root Down - I-Train (mashup of The Who and Beastie Boys)
Twin Killers - Deerhoof
The Funeral - Band of Horses
Your Blood - Destroyer
Publish My Love - Rogue Wave
Star Witness - Neko Case
Louisiana - The Walkmen
I Burn Today - Frank Black
The Bones of an Idol - The New Pornographers
I Love You - Matthew Sweet
Spider's Web - Mission of Burma
World Wide Suicide - Pearl Jam
Revenga - System of a Down
Feeding Frenzy - Early Man
Dimension - Wolfmother
Step on It, Jean - Sloan
Hockey Monkey - The Zambonis with James Kochalka


Dance floor:


Hockey monkey: