Mixtapemotions

I’m 33 years old as of January 2021, and I’m listening to a song called “Letter to Myself” from the year 2002. Now I’m imagining that I’m back in my dusty room in a house my parents moved away from in 2006. Of course we packed, but let’s imagine that we didn’t. I see the loft that my dad built, some plastic shelves, my now rusting dumbbells. I see the two dressers. I open up the drawers and see the old t-shirts, my socks, boxer shorts–and I notice some papers written. Old songs? Poems? I cringe. Imagine that when listening to this old song. Where were you back in 2002–if in fact you were alive? What would your 14 or 15 year old self tell the 33 year old? What were the hopes and fears of year? How have they changed? What’s still the same?

DEAR ME. Pop singer Anne-Marie released a song called “2002” a few years back in which she uses a bunch of familiar choruses from Britney Spears, *NSYNC, Nelly, and others. At that time, I had an interesting relationship with pop music. I thought it was a worldly influence. I listened to Active and Alternative and Classic Rock because I thought that it could inspire my own music, but I felt the safest place was Christian Rock. I had started making the switch from CCM to Christian Rock maybe the year before (2001-ish). My memory of pre-2001 Christian Rock scene was hardcore and metal, and it seems around 2001-2002 there was more middle ground between Steven Curtis Chapman and Zao and there were cooler groups than Audio Adrenaline and the Newsboys. For instance, there was Switchfoot, who, my dad said were just a knock-off of the Foo Fighters. Switchfoot, of course today, can’t be compared to the Foo Fighters. There was Earthsuit, the Benjamin Gate, and Starflyer 59. But I digress. 

TRUTH IS FICTION. 2002 was also the beginning of the war in Iraq and the insane gas hike. At church they were telling us we certainly were entering the last days. No one could have imagined what had happened on 9/11. In the Fall I started going to a new Christian school, which was more Baptist and more Republican than anything I had ever experienced. We learned that there was never a justified abortion and about the ideals for gender roles. “Truth is fiction, a lot of confusion, maybe some additions.” (the internet was so slow back then) I think my parents did their best to provide an education for me and my sisters. They talked about their views, especially when they were different from what we learned at school. But still, who was right? I wanted to be right and liked by everyone. Wow, what an unsatisfying goal in life.

A RELATIONSHIP MAY SAVE YOU, OR ENSLAVE YOU. COUNT ON BOTH TO HAPPEN. I’ve been thinking a lot about spiritual abuse lately. How much Christians idolize their pastors and trust them to interpret the scriptures for them. How few lay Christians can actually read the original scriptures, and how that’s not encouraged at all. It seems that when you control the reading of the scriptures, you can control the people. I’m sure I’ll get into this better later throughout the year, but I’d imagine that the letter to myself would have scripture and lines from pastors or Bible teachers’ manipulations. 

BEFORE YOU SAY GOODBYE. I’d wonder what I would have told myself to keep my future self grounded. I would have thought that I would still be playing music. But if I could write a letter of encouragement to my younger self, I would say not to worry about what some small-minded people in the foothills of North Carolina thought about me. I would tell myself that the world is a much bigger place and there are different kinds of people to call your friends. I would say don’t waste your time or money pursuing orthodoxy. If God is real, he finds you where you are. And finally, check your levels of obsession. Be passionate, but watch out for when they take out the Kool-Aid. Don’t drink it. Just don’t.

WAKE UP YOUR EYES. It’s difficult to pick a track from this record. Although it was released in the fall of 2008, my first year off at college, it was really the dead of winter of 2009 that has burned this record into my memory. The winter of 2009 was particularly cold, even for East Tennessee. There were lots of grey days which had nothing particularly special but Easy Mac and fresh laundry. Saturday nights or Sundays some friends would drive into Chattanooga for dinner and then we’d just go back to the dorm to do our homework. Rather mundane stuff. This album was a soundtrack to those grey days. Songs like “Should You Return” was a song of hope that the spring would finally come. “The Grey Man” was a song about wallowing in the the uncertainty of things ever looking up. “Chin Up” was a melancholic song about the futility of trying too hard–though the song never actually makes you want to give up. 

I’M AFRAID YOU STOPPED TO LICK YOUR WOUNDS. Then the flu struck in the middle of sixteen credit hours. A high fever. I couldn’t get out of bed a couple of days. A couple of missed classes and a bunch of homework to catch up on, a nagging cough that lasted for at least a month. Songs like “The Day I Lost My Voice” and some other songs from the second half of the album really resinate with that time. And yet, I don’t hold any grudges to this album. I can still listen to it and fondly think of the time that I could be sick in bed, comforted by Aaron Marsh’s voice and the guidance of Aaron Sprinkle.

THE KINDEST LOVE IS STILL BLEEDING FROM THE LAST SHOT. So, today’s song is “Good Morning Fire Eater.” It’s a grey day in Korea in January and pretty uninteresting. The world is hopefully healing from a pandemic, although we still have a lingering cough. Not every day has to be interesting. We need the chilly days that we return to the covers. We need the days that we take extra comfort in our coffee or echinacea tea. It’s nice to take a walk on a damp day so long as the rain doesn’t catch you without an umbrella. 

THE DAY IS DONE AND EVERYONE’S GONE NOW. Finally, I will finish up the post with the music video. The video is so captivating. The first time I watched it, my roommate and suite-mate stopped their conversation and were entranced by it. Again, the theme of transcending the banal as the office workers put aside their work to go “fight the dragon.” However, much like this song and this album, you have to be in the right mood for it. The third or fourth week of January will do. Also if you are college students with very little money for entertainment and your mind is numb from homework that will do. Enjoy!

https://genius.com/Copeland-good-morning-fire-eater-lyrics

“Lyrics“

Tooth & Nail Records is been know throughout the years for its eclectic catalogue of mostly Christian artists. This came to ahead in 2008 when they signed Country artist Corey Crowder. This one-off album the Tooth & Nail cannon could be easily lost. I first heard this song on a compilation along with pop-punk and hardcore bands and was struck by how different it sounded–in a good way. But more on that later. For context, this was an era of music that Brandon Ebel, CEO of Tooth & Nail, was desperately trying to find the next hit to save the company in the downward spiral of the music industry. Ultimately, the record label survived a divorce with its major label backer, EMI, but a lot of artists were sacrificed in the the restructuring. So, this hiccup–Tooth & Nail’s strange venture into Country music–is all but forgotten.

Back in high school or college, you’ve probably given a mixtape to someone or received one from a friend or potential love interest. Depending on your age, it may have been on a cassette tape, a burned CD, or a shared playlist on a streaming site. Some music experts are calling playlists the future of music consumption, and that has its pros and cons. There are so many curated and auto-generated playlists available, but I found that I prefer to listen to my own music in mood-based playlists. So the idea came to me late in 2018, what if one song could encapsulate the mood of a day? What if a playlist could encapsulate a month? So in 2019, I started to make playlists based on what I thought was the best song of the day. In 2020, I started writing about those songs, but choosing songs based partially on how appropriate they sound and partially on which song that I listened to that day that I couldn’t get out of my head.

I decided to write a blog entry about each song because I love the stories behind the songs that I uncover, and if I can’t find a story, the song usually tells me a little about itself and it becomes my own story.  I write as a fan with rudimentary knowledge of music theory and virtually no knowledge about production. I find both of these aspects fascinating along with chart statistics. When I talk about these aspects in my blog posts, I try to cite YouTubers and writers who are much more knowledgeable on that subject.

My blog NewYearsDay Project comes from the first song of every year, “New Years Day” by U2. The idea was to make a playlist of songs that puts the listener in the mood for the month. I’ll leave links for my general monthly playlist and the specific playlists from last year. When I write about a song, I try to tell an interesting story I’ve read about the artist around the time that the song was released. Sometimes a good story drags me into the artist in a way that the song alone does not. Another way that I get into music is through connections with other artists. Sometimes I want to hear a band that sounds like ______, so a streaming platform will recommend similar artists. Also, if bands tour together or namedrop, I’m more likely to check out the artist. 

Before I start the NewYearsProject I should lay down a few confines I’ll try to adhere to. 

1) One main artist per month. For example one anberlin song per month.

2) An artist may appear multiple times as a guest/featured artist with another main artists. For example Troye Sivan’s “Dance to This” ft. Ariana Grande doesn’t disqualify Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left to Cry” from appearing later that month. 

3) Songs must contain lyrics.

4) I will try to provide an English translation for K-pop (or Spanish, German, etc) songs that appear on the list. 

5) I will try to leave readers with useful links to music videos, news articles, podcasts, etc.

6) I’ll try to stick to about 500 words on each blog post. 

7) I’ll write about myself and my history with the song/artist/album, etc. So please bear with the personal stories.

8) I’ll try to link you to my YouTube and Apple Music playlist. Some songs may be available only on YouTube, particularly if it’s a cover that really struck me. I don’t have Spotify, but I’d welcome any reader to start a list.

9) The song should encapsulate the mood of the day. In other words, something about the music or the lyrics should sound like autumn if it’s autumn, should sound like summer if it’s summer, should sound Christmasy even if it’s not a Christmas song.

Now some disclaimers for my haters–this is me pretending like I’ll have readers 🙂

1) My musical taste is eclectic. Feel free to disagree respectfully.  

2) Things may get personal. I need to be able to write about anything on my mind without censoring my audience. I want to reveal myself and my beliefs organically as the writing prompts me. I try to write respectfully toward others. I will not use the real names of people, places, or institutions unrelated to the music. 

3) My writing is the result of about an hour’s work from start to finish. These are rough drafts. I hope to look over them when I have more time, and if I see something glaring, I’ll update it. My research is imperfect, but I will continue to research and update the post later if I find something wrong.

4) Big disclaimer: My views do not necessarily reflect the views of the artists I write about.  There’s going to be some problematic songs on this list and they will have been catchy enough for me to write about them. I fully disagree with them, but the song still has relevance to the day.

There are a few truths about Simon and Garfunkel we hold to be self-evident. First, Simon and Garfunkel is a duo from the 1960s that remains relevant to any playlist today. Their music holds up on any rock playlist (heavy metal, excluded of course). Second, very few covers of Simon and Garfunkel actually hold up. Last winter around this time I was in a brewery with my sister and this awful country rendition of “The Boxer.” Just like Adele covers, you don’t cover a song unless you’re going to add something to it. This reminds me of two Memphis Mayfire covers I heard yesterday. They covered Stone Temple Pilots’ “Interstate Love Song” using double bass drums. *Skip* Then they did Linkin Park’s “Faint.” It sounded good but didn’t add anything that Chester and Mike did. Nope. I’ll post a worthy cover of this song. My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way recorded this song for Umbrella Academy’s first season. The third truth, Paul Simon NEEDS Art Garfunkel, and Garfunkel certainly needs Simon. Even though Paul Simon has had a successful career, I find him a bit like peanut butter. It needs some milk otherwise your mouth gets stuck shut. Or Jelly. Fun fact. My mom had two turtles named Simon and Garfunkel. Simon died and Garfunkel is still alive. Alternate universe?

AN (UN)HAZY SHADE OF WINTER. I listened to Simon and Garfunkel’s greatest hits today. This song might be more appropriate for later January, I’m posting it today. I went for a walk and the sky was clear. The leaves were brown, but there was no patch of snow on the ground.