Cover of Autumn Defenses' Circles

Silence (and a New Mix)

The following is my first contribution to a mix CD swap that was organized by some friends. If you want a copy, send me your mailing address. I’d love to get a mix in return, but it’s not required.

I had two main goals with this mix. First, I decided to divide it evenly between older and newer music. There’s always a jump of at least 15 years from tune to tune. But I also wanted the mix to be coherent, so I was looking for a tone that could maybe be described as “Songs that might actually sound better if they were played on an old, hissing record player.”

Actually, I guess I also had a third goal: Like a Wes Anderson or Cameron Crowe soundtrack, I wanted to see if a good mix could help rediscover some kitsch-free relevance in “classic rock.” At one point, I gave myself the challenge of successfully integrating a Permanent Waves-era Rush song. No luck. The one song that didn’t make the final cut but that I really wanted to include is Hall and Oates’ “Sarah Smiles,” which, imo, is one of the most beautiful pop songs of the last thirty years.

  1. “Silence” by The Autumn Defense
  2. “Back of a Car” by Big Star
  3. “So It Goes” by Anders Parker
  4. “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (S&G cover) by Aretha Franklin
  5. “The Eyes of Sarah Jane” by The Jayhawks
  6. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” by David Bowie
  7. “I Will Internalize” by Martha Wainwright
  8. “Amelia” by Joni Mitchell
  9. “Nowhere Near” by Yo La Tengo
  10. “Ibiza Bar” by Pink Floyd
  11. “Bathtime” by Tindersticks
  12. “Generation Landslide” by Alice Cooper
  13. “Southern Belle” by Elliott Smith
  14. “Into White” by Cat Stevens
  15. “Great Waves” by Dirty Three with Cat Power
  16. “Ten Years Gone” by Led Zeppelin
  17. “Jesus Christ Was an Only Child” by Sun Kil Moon
  18. “Girl from the North Country” by Bob Dylan
  19. “The Shadowlands” by Ryan Adams

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