Simo's Untitled Mixtape

It's my birthday and here's my mixtape. There's no overarching theme to it - just 8 songs I like a lot lately.

http://8tracks.com/jessem131/dss

1. Sundials - "Hidden Books"
Really fun 90s style punk. So catchy and every time I listen to this band I'm hooked for a few weeks at a time.

2. Bomb the Music Industry! - "Everybody That You Love"
One of my favorite bands and such a fun live show.

3. Mixtapes - "Soups Whatever"
Mixtapes are quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. This is the first song I ever heard by them and after I heard it I went and downloaded everything they had.

4. The Clippers - "That's Not Me"
This isn't the usual kind of stuff I listen to but I loved this band as soon as I got their EP. They only have like 7 songs total I think. It's kind of a poppier Minus the Bear sound. And apparently they were arrested and thrown in jail last night.

5. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - "Modern Mystery"
One of the best Missouri bands going right now. I've seen 'em a bunch of times and they're really great despite their ridiculous name. This song is just really great indie pop, with maybe a touch of 90s emo.

6. Cheap Girls - "Hey Hey I'm Worn Out"
More awesome 90s sounding stuff. Great band. Bummed I missed their show last week.

7. Justin Townes Earle - "Christchurch Woman"
One of the better folk singers around these days. He's got a new record coming out soon.

8. A Drum and an Open Window - "There Will Be Fields For Us"
Stumbled across these guys on the internet years ago and have been a huge fan ever since. I don't think they're a band anymore, which is a real shame. They put out some of my favorite songs/albums ever. If you like Paul Baribeau, you'll probably like these guys.

happy birthday!

Happy Birthday dude.
and

hell yess to Justin Townes Earle

Happy Birthday, duder!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

Really enjoyed the second half of this in particular. Cheap Girls and JTE are two of my favourite artists.

Yes Sundials! Band rules so much. Whole mixtape rules too, good job. Happy B-Day too mans.

Gonna listen to this in a bit (listening to some 1372 Overton Park right now ^_^), but any mixtape containing mixtapes is a winner in my book (even if they try too hard to be DIY to a fault) so I have high hopes for this one.

Haha what do you mean by that? And 1372 Overton Park is always a good choice.

simo wrote:

Haha what do you mean by that? And 1372 Overton Park is always a good choice.

Did you see how pissed they got because some band decided to use kickstarter to raise funds for a new album / tour? They were complaining on Facebook and Twitter about how there was no way a tour or album needed to cost that much and how bands should never ask for money from their fans. Came across as "oh look at us we're so DIY that makes us awesome" when they should've just shut up and not tried to force their own band values on a different band in a different genre with a completely different fanbase.

Ah I guess I see what you mean. We talked about that actually. I still think that band was being ridiculous. $40K for a two week tour is a little much.

simo wrote:

Ah I guess I see what you mean. We talked about that actually. I still think that band was being ridiculous. $40K for a two week tour is a little much.

But it was 30k for the album and 10k for the tour. 5k of which included fixing their van. And they all have families to help take care of.

Plus when I asked them if that made Bruce bad because he almost certainly spends 10k+ per *stop* they were like "no its okay because Bruce doesn't ask for the money upfront". So apparently they are just upset that a band dared to ask their fanbase to help support them.

Whatever, they still make good music. Seeing them next week. Should be a party. (sucks they had to tour with SYG though. Theres a band that is so douchey I can't even enjoy any of their music. Why couldn't TWY have found room on their tour for Mixtapes?)

You're right there actually. I think The Classic Crime did a bad job of explaining it at the beginning which made it sound worse - like the money was for the tour only. I guess I can't really judge because I've never been in a situation where I could ask for $40K and get it but I'm not sure what I would think if Gaslight or someone like that did something similar.

My main issue with Kickstarter in general is more to due with how much the rewards cost rather than the overall amount of money bands ask for. I've seen some where you have to donate $25-30+ just to get a copy of the CD. When It's that much of a rip off I would rather just wait and order it for $10 after the fact.

All the people in Mixtapes are really super nice though. My band played a show with them last week and they couldn't have been friendlier to us.

If you think about it as a pre-order, yeah Kickstarter isn't a great value. If you think about it as donating money to help something you like get made and getting a small reward in return its great. Keep in mind bands with labels still need to sell their CDs for $10, so its not like a band without a label can get away doing the same thing. They still need that initial capital boost.

I totally respect Mixtapes right to not use kickstarter or stuff like it if they feel it violates their bands integrety or something. I also respect their right to voice their opinions on such matters. I just disagree with them and don't see why they cared so much that another band was asking for help from its fans and their fans were willfully helping. Its not like when Punchline used threatening to quit to get their fans to buy their album... and yeah, I agree that TCC didn't handle things perfectly either

It was probably more all the fans reactions that bugged me than Mixtapes itself. Too many people have the "The band I like is always in the right" mentality which *really* annoys me. If Mixtapes had just been like "This is crazy what this band be trying to do" and everyone was like "Dude Ryan chill. They are not actually spending that much on the tour and have families to support. Plus no one is forcing you to extort us" and then Ryan was like "whatever man I can do what I want" everyone would've had a laugh. I have to wonder how many of the kiddies supporting Mixtapes didn't mind Punchline's stunt or at least would've contributed to a Mixtapes kickstarter. A lot of the support seemed to get very fanboyish in nature. Band members are human. Just because I love pretty much everything Brian Fallon does doesn't mean I like that he smokes. And maybe all the people supporting them really did feel that way, I donno. Either way they certainly shouldn't've started attacking TCC / writing hatemail on their facebook page. Thats what really put a a bad taste in my mouth for the whole modern pop punk genre. If so many fans of a band like Mixtapes that from every other observation I've had is super friendly and nice and down-to-earth can start acting like d-bags just to 'defend pop punk' I'd hate to see what happens when a bigger band starts a fight with another band. Its one thing to just post your own views in your own space, but once you start looking for a fight I'm no longer going to support that. You're just making trouble for troubles sake. Music, especially the punk sub-genres, is supposed to be about finding a place where you can be accepted and included not where you go picking fights.

But I've rambled too much. In the end of the day, I still like Mixtapes music. I'm still going to see them play next week. I just have a slightly lower opinion of them than I did before the whole incident began.