I really like this week’s mix. I’m looking forward to dig into the albums underneath.

Anyway, I’ve still got piles of music left to listen to and I’ve already made the next 5 mixes, so there may well be more than 52 mixes in total. Or maybe some mixes will be 20 tracks instead of the usual 10. We’ll see.

Mixaroo 2010 #41

1. Shampain – Marina And The Diamonds
2. Kites  -Geographer
3. Light It Up  -Blood Red Shoes
4. Never Been Alone – Cutaway
5. Never Listen To Me – The Thermals
6. Big Wave – Jenny and Johnny
7. A Roof Somewhere – Lonely Drifter Karen
8. Cameras – Matt & Kim
9. Live There – The Lonely Forest
10. Middle Name Period – Egyptian Hip Hop

So here’s Mixaroo #40 for 2010. It’s hard to believe I’ve made one for every week of 2010 so far. Just a reminder of the rules I set myself:

• one mix per week
• each containing 10 tracks from 2010
• each track I like (or liked at the time, or continue to think amazing)
• only one track from the same band/singer/artist/whatever per year (this is the biggest challenge)

I’ve got a really good routine for gathering, sorting, thinning out and listening to all the music I need to do this. I’ll put this in a separate blog post…

In other news, I went to see Grinderman on Friday. I’ve never seen Nick Cave live before, mostly because I thought I had missed the boat. The Bad Seeds have so much music and I don’t have a hope of being able to live up to other fans’ knowledge. But, never again. He, and the band (especially the best kept secret rock star of Warren Ellis) are spectacular live.

Mixaroo 2010 #40

1. In Your Dreams – Dark Dark Dark
2. Round The Moon – Summer Camp (video)
3. In The Dirt – S. Carey
4. Run Like Hell For Leather – Dominant Legs
5. Bullfighter Jacket – Miniature Tigers
6. Stranded –  The Walkmen
7. Tell Me It Isn’t Your Blood – Long Long Long
8. Lost In Dances –  Freedom Or Death (video)
9. The Endless Field of Mercury – ANR
10. The Way That You Are –  Paul and the Patients

Mixaroo #37 | Mixaroo #39

Ah sheeeet. It seems I never blogged last Monday, although I did make a mix. I’m tempted to skip it but that doesn’t seem fair. So 37 and 39 are below. I skipped 37 for the EOTR special. I’m tempted to start zipping them up and putting them up for download, though it takes much more effort… Anyway, maybe next year.

We’re almost at Mixaroo, and therefore week, 40 of the year. That’s 12 mixes, or weeks, left in the year. Scary.

Mixaroo #37

1. Talking Walking Cloud – Dustin Wong
2. Tailored To Fit – Mark Berube
3. Central Park – Gamble House
4. Shannon – Bearstronaut
5. Move Along – Mock & Toof
6. Hollow Pleasure – Mellows
7. My Car Is Haunted – Royal Bangs
8. Only Existing Footage – The Extra Lens
9. Mama – Mickey Mickey Rourke
10. Thank You For Your Love – Antony & The Johnsons

Mixaroo #39

1. A Biting Wind Followed By An Occasional Drift Of Snow (Was No Way To Cure A Hangover) – Victorian English Gentlemens Club
2. Glitter – No Age
3. Bad Vibrations – The Black Angels
4. An Iris – All Tiny Creatures
5. Sleep Forever – Crocodiles
6. Lights In Lines – Tweak Bird
7. New York City Hotel Blues – Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s
8. Say It Aloud – The Foxymorons
9. Let’s Get Out of Here – Les Savy Fav
10. Frozen Zoo – Tera Melos

Despite longstanding (read: 2-year old) traditions, we didn’t make it to End of the Road festival this year, as mentioned last week. But I have still made a EOTR special, so I can listen to the music and feel jealous of everyone there.

Mixaroo 38 – End of the Road 2010 Special

1. I Dreamed I Saw Jesse James Last Night – Charlie Parr
2. Boy – Ra Ra Riot [VIDEO]
3. If Time Was For Wasting – Dylan LeBlanc
4. Belly of June – Horse Feathers
5. Dusty Fruit – The Ruby Suns
6. The Burning Mountain – Voice Of The Seven Thunders
7. Soft Skin – Mountain Man
8. Liza – Emily Jane White
9. Mausoleum – Wintersleep

This weekend I missed one of two annual events that I’m really sorry to miss. It was a great private party held by a friend’s family in Mytholmroyd (it took me two years to learn the spelling). Next weekend I’ll be missing End of the Road festival. I’ll definitely be doing an EOTR special, and I’ve been enjoying this mix while painting and sanding and stripping and getting all our housework done before it gets cold…

Mixaroo 2010, Volume 36

1. 8 Years – Colour Revolt
2. Nerves of the Nightmind – Frontier Ruckus
3. The Hair Song – Black Mountain
4. 2012 – P.S. I Love You
5. Famous Last Words – Ed Vallance
6. Begs Me Not to Beg – Brass Bed
7. Love Lies Bleeding – The Ettes
8. Down by the Water – The Drums [VIDEO]
9. Permanent Record – The Golden Dogs
10. Heathen Child – Grinderman [VIDEO]

Before that, my first journey. I don’t live within reach of any docks, so I got the bus as far as Oval. When I got there, I had to track down a place with available bikes. When I got there, one bike remained…which wouldn’t unlock. I understand that this is quite common. I walked to another dock and got a bike, unlocked it and I was off.

I have an the android widget that tells me how many bikes vs. spaces there are at each dock, but all this told me is that Westminister is great to cycle from, but awful to cycle to. So I chanced Smith Square and was prepared to cycle elsewhere if that was full. By luck, the guy who takes bikes away was there but he couldn’t unlock any bikes. With some argument, and a call to the support team, he took the bikes numbers (there was a small crowd by then) and took away our bikes.

Luckily, cycling to work on a hire bike isn’t going to be a frequent thing. Going by this morning, walking the short distance from Vauxhall will still be quicker. My reason for joining is down to the travel preferences of my lovely lady: she doesn’t cycle. That’s no big thing. I cycle to work, she gets the train. But when we meet up in town on an evening, it’s obviously a lot nicer to travel home together, not with one person on a bus and one on a bike. For this reason, I usually leave my bike at work when this happens so we can go home together.

Now, I hate getting buses and trains after work. Later in the evening is fine, but after work is just a sweatfest. Sure, cycling works up the old glands too, but not as much (for me, at least). So what the cycle hire system has given me is the power to cycle one way and take bus/train back again. At least, that’s the theory…

I still have a few questions about the whole thing, but my biggest one is: How much better for the environment is this when we numerous rack-dragging vans to move bikes around the city. Did it need to be a van?

VIDEO: The Hundred in the Hands – Tom Tom

Mixaroo #35

1. The Streets on Fire – No-one’s Fucking on the Radio
2. On and Ever Onward – Dirty Projectors (feat. Bjork)
3. The Hundred in the Hands – Tom Tom
4. Viernes – Entire Empire
5. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti – Round & Round
6. The Body Lyre – Pig
7. Janelle Monae – Tightrope
8. Foxes in Fiction – Flashing Lights Have Ended Now
9. Kid Kudi, Best Coast & Rostam – All Summer
10. Yu(c)k – Daughter

VIDEO: Kid Kudi, Best Coast & Rostam (Vampire Weekend) – All Summer

errrrrghhhhhhhh (back at work).

Mixaroo 34

1. Another Day – Apache Beat
2. Supertoys – Autolux
3. Diana – Fanshaw
4. Nobody Sees Me Like You Do – Holly Miranda
5. Home – Jon Lemmon
6. Swift Coin – Land of Talk
7. February – Night Driving In Small Towns
8. The Great Escape – Skeleton Jones
9. A Minor Pasta Breakdown – Spaghetti Western String Co.
10. Colours In Time – Team Ghost

It’s true that holidays are liberating, exiting and seemingly essential. To be able to leave your work behind for a period of time and let the small part of the world that you’re responsible for turn by itself is a great thing.

On the other hand, it just takes a little stray thought to wonder – if it could last this long without you, does it need you at all? That’s why returning to a full mailbox is a comfort…at first.

Mixaroo 33

1. I Couldn’t Save You – Sharon Van Etten
2. I Am You – Coolrunnings
3. It Is Not Meant To Be – Tame Impala
4. Hashul – John Zorn
5. Angel Island – Kacey Johansing
6. Casual – Here We Go Magic
7. Pocketful Of Rocks – Forest City Lovers
8. The Light – Forest Swords
9. No One Will Be A Stranger – Dax Riggs
10. Gonna Listen To T. Rex (All Night Long) – Burnt Ones

These are the times that are perfect for writing a nice long blog post. I’m currently mid flight to Sicily, where we fly almost every summer. Sara’s family live just outside Catania, so it makes for a perfect sunny retreat. There’ll be plenty of time to catch up with thoughts and relax, but already I’m thinking about this time last year.

We spent a significant portion of every day on the phone to our mortgage broker (never again), and trying to get answers out of them. Not an easy task from outside the country. It was a struggle, and worth every effort.

While we achieved all of this during last year’s trip, and still managed to enjoy ourselves a lot. We were devastated at the loss of our close friend, Laura. I’m still reminded of her all the time, think of her and miss her dearly.

While we’re away this year we’re missing a small festival in her memory, but that’s not to say that we won’t be thinking of her. I expect we’ll have our own, quiet, remembrance. Just like the sad, beautiful day last year when we heard and, as if in tribute, it rained briefly.