I'm making a mix cd to send to Tim in Iraq. Problem is, I'm not sure of his taste in music. Also, I didn't want anything to be too much of a downer. So I tried to go with a good mix and some fun things. Here's what I came up with:

America- Simon & Garfunkel

Dammit- Blink 182

Chariot- Gavin DeGraw

Yo Vanilla- Vanilla Ice (Very fun two second intro I end up using on everyone once)

Afternoon Delight- Will Ferrell

Build Me Up Buttercup- The Foundations

Light & Day/Reach for the Sun- Polyphonic Spree

I Believe in A Thing Called Love- The Darkness

Flowers in the Window- Travis

Hungry Like the Wolf- Reel Big Fish

Penny Lane- The Beatles

If You Leave- OMD (Inside joke. He used to wait on Andrew McCarthy at the restaurant he worked at in college.)

July, July!- The Decemberists

Solsbury Hill- Peter Gabriel

The Way You Move- Outkast

Try a Little Tenderness- The Commitments

What I Got (Reprise)- Sublime

When I Come Around- Green Day

Collide- Howie Day

Tessie- Dropkick Murphys

I know it's a little incongruous, but that's the way (uh huh uh huh)I like it (uh huh uh huh). It's been a while since I've put together a good mix cd for someone. I rather missed it.

I'm not averse to rap being on the playlist, but it has to be something that people could sing along with. Gin and Juice would qualify, early Beastie Boys, Sir-Mix-Alot.

I have a version of Gin and Juice, but it's silly hard rock, and I heard a kind of girlie version by, I think, Sissy Bar.

I heard a kind of girlie version by, I think, Sissy Bar.

That cover rocks. So funny.

Any Tori Amos fans- I stumbled on a pre-release from her next album that got added to the iTunes store today. Is good.

That cover rocks. So funny.

I'm unsure why, but it makes me think of a parody of Six Pence None The Richer doing "There She Goes" and I laugh like a loon.

Any Tori Amos fans- I stumbled on a pre-release from her next album that got added to the iTunes store today. Is good.

Hey, cool, I didn't know she had a new one coming out.

I made a fun mix last night of South African music, for the dual purpose of sending to Angus and giving to a friend for a belated Christmas present. Angus, it should go out tomorrow along with my Buffista mix CD. If anyone else wants a copy, let me know. (I don't have it with me or I'd post the setlist: some Miriam Makeba, a few tracks from the Indestructible Beat of Soweto album and the Radio Freedom album, Hugh Masekela, Brenda Fassie, a couple of big-chorus gospel songs, etc.)

Any Juluka/Savuka, Kate? Or Ladysmith Black Mambazo?

Hey, cool, I didn't know she had a new one coming out.

I didn't either, so I toddled over to Amazon to check. The album is The Beekeeper , due Feb. 22nd, and the track is called Sleeps with Butterflies.

Any Juluka/Savuka, Kate? Or Ladysmith Black Mambazo?

Nope and nope. I don't have any Juluka/Savuka, and I do have LBM, but I figure that's usually the first thing people know about South African music, and I wanted this mix to skew a little more towards the relatively-unknown (er, you know, apart from the Hugh Masekela and the Miriam Makeba...).

Hee. I learned about LBM, Hugh and Miriam all from the same place, Paul Simon's Graceland tour. People will say what they will about him, but that tour/album did make people much more aware of South African music at the time. Johnny Clegg and crew(s) I knew previously from my sister's year in RSA.