Hey! It feels like a good day for a mix CD!

So I've been doing this Girl Rock show this quarter and I sort of hate it, but I still spend hours every week trying to find songs for it and trying to come up with anything to say about those songs. Anyway, after nine weeks of it, I've assembled a playlist of my favorite songs and presented it here in a handy order for you.

I tried to pick the kind of stuff that I think everyone could like (even if you're not really into girl rock either), so I hope it's reasonably enjoyable. As always, you can either right-click and download the song or click the link regularly to hear it play in your browser. I've also made my best effort to supply mediocre comments and semi-correct lyrics. Have at it.

1. Huddle Formation by The Go! Team
   My brother was the first person to tell me about The Go! Team a year or two ago and for some reason I never really gave them a chance until I started tapping people for suggestions of bands with female vocalists. The lyircs are a complete mystery to everyone, including the members of the band, and the lyrics they sing in concert are completely different from whatever they're singing on the album version. But kind of like the Robert Pollard track from the last CD, it really doesn't matter. It's a total I'm-going-to-roll-down-my-windows-and-play-this-song-at-an-obnoxious-volume-and-feel-like-the-coolest-kid-in-town song. Also, according to my brother, The Go! Team is a lot of fun live, which makes me feel stupid for missing them when they played at Kuyahoga.
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2. Apple for Evan by Arrah and the Ferns
   Nancy_Baboon recommended Arrah and the Ferns to me back in my original post about needing girl music and she was so kind to send me this song as an example. And holy crap, I love it. This track is just very cute and bouncy and I like the lyrics with the whole Biblical allusion thing they've got going. The song is called Apple for Evan and their album is called Evan is a Vegan-- Evan being their female friend who (according to their MySpace page) was in the next room being dumped while they tried to write songs for their first gig.
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3. Y Control by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
   Like everyone else in the entire world, I love Karen O., the lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This song has sort of cryptic lyrics and as best as I can tell, the Y in Y Control refers to the male Y Chromosome. It's definitely a song about being fooled by someone you love, and I love the "I wish I could buy back the woman you stole" line. I spent about a month agonizing between using this song versus their song "Maps," but I feel good about picking this one. However, if by some chance you haven't heard "Maps," do so.
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4. Nobody Knows Me At All by The Weepies
   I first heard The Weepies a few months ago on Weekend Edition on NPR. I was half asleep when the segment started, but I managed to remember most of it. It's a girl-boy combo of Deb Talan and Steve Tannen, who were both solo artists before they met and were each fans of the other's work. They met and started dating and recording together, and during their interview they explained that they live together in this little house in Pasadena and they record all their songs in their bedroom. The interviewer asked, "Do you guys actually ever spend any time apart?" and Steve, whose hair I don't like at all, answered, "Well, Deb just went to get coffee a few minutes ago..." All of their songs are exceedingly cute and their album is called "Happiness," so this is sort of as dark as it gets.
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5. Parentheses by The Blow
   I love, love, love The Blow. This was another band Nancy_Baboon recommended to me and they played at CMJ and we recently put them in rotation at ACRN. All their songs are really jumpy and peppy and I enjoy Khaela Maricich's voice. When I found out about them and heard that they had an album coming out this year, I assumed it was their debut, but then I found out (like, five minutes ago) that they already have four full-length ones out there, which is awesome. As for this song, I especially love the part about the supermarket, and perhaps you will too.
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6. My Alcoholic Friends by The Dresden Dolls
   So it's probably not that interesting to read these little comments if all each one says is "Goodness do I love _____ ," but I've listened to these songs so many times that I can't think of anything else. I found out about The Dresden Dolls through a Savage Love column a few years ago and I posted one of their songs for everyone to hear. The band is made up of Amanda Palmer on piano and vocals (she also writes the songs) and Brian Viglione on guitar and drums. They're very cabaret and wear punky clothes and paint their faces white and their lips bright red, and Ms. Palmer has even plucked out all of her eyebrows and usually draws these decorative eyebrows in their place, though originally I thought they were tattoos. Also, there is an agreement error in line fifteen.
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7. Mushaboom by Feist
   Feist is the recording name of Leslie Feist, who is also in Broken Social Scene, whom we will mention later. She's from Nova Scotia (it's the part of Canada directly east of Maine) and the title of this song is another little city in Nova Scotia. I spent, like, half an hour looking at a map trying to figure out exactly where it is, but apparently I'm too stupid for maps. Actually, though, it's fitting that it's difficult to find with the lyrics like, "How many acres how much light, tucked in the woods and out of sight," and the part where she says, you know, it's not on the map. This song makes it seem like the kind of place that, when you decide that you hate your entire life, you say, "Fuck it, I'm moving to Mushaboom," and then no one ever hears from you again. This song also has been covered by The Postal Service and Bright Eyes, though I haven't heard those versions.
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8. Pull Shapes by The Pipettes
   Okay, so originally, I had The Pipettes' song "School Uniform" here, but after listening to this mix a few more times, I realized it was a terrible choice and that their song "Pull Shapes" is much better. It's old-timey and slow-dancey and reminds me of a song that would be on the Grease soundtrack.
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9. The Good That Won't Come Out by Rilo Kiley
   To me this song is sort of a sad motivator. The phrase "The good that won't come out of me" seems like all of the things a person could create, like a painting or a book or a song or something, and how they could be accomplished if that person actually took the time and sat down and worked on them, rather than coming up with other things to do. The part at the end about her mouth turning to dust also seems like a reminder that, if you don't, you'll just die with nothing accomplished. In actuality, I think this song is about a boy, but whatever. I especially like the last minute or so when it kicks in and also the part about charting up her insides.
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10. Letter from an Occupant by The New Pornographers
    The female lead on this song is Neko Case of Neko Case fame and I like her vocals more when she's singing rock songs in The New Pornographers than when she's singing folky, country ones on her own. However, I like her hair at all times. This song is really fun and seems to be about a couple breaking up, but when I searched a little online to get some insight into what exactly it meant by "a letter from an occupant," I unfortunately discovered that it means nothing. According to A.C. Newman, the male lead and songwriter, "I don't know what a 'letter from an occupant' is, but I'm hoping that I will figure it out at some point." If that's the case, then I think the song lyrics and title should have been "A Letter from an Astronaut," because it's the same sound and syllables and I think it sounds cooler. I like astronauts.
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11. Later Operator by The All Girl Summer Fun Band
    Yet another Nancy_Baboon suggestion. Every time I play AGSFB, I say the exact same thing. "That song is by The All Girl Summer Fun Band, and it's sort of a super group for girl bands. The members are from other bands like The Softies and Cherry Ice Cream Smile, and apparently the bassist played with Def Leopard, which is interesting and kind of strange." Anyway, the band personifies its name perfectly and this song is very cute, especially the part about cheap, cheap cake. If I could sing, I'd want to sound like the girl who does the verse about the scooter.
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12. Year of the Waitress by The Eames Era
    Goodness do I love The Eames Era. I wasn't going to put a song by them on this mix because I had them on the last one, but after seeing them at CMJ last week, I couldn't stop listening to this song. I think their album is great, but they are even better live, as I think I mentioned a few posts ago. I like the idea of the Year of the Waitress in the Chinese New Year, right along with The Year of the Rabbit or whatever. I also like the line, "I could wait a thousand tables and never get around to you." Speaking of which, the lyrics to this song are NOWHERE. Not in their CD jacket, not on their website, not on their My Space page and not in any sort of blog or online lyrics repository. Nowhere. I did my best to type them up, but there are holes, so let me know if you hear something different.
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13. Hotel Song by Regina Spektor
    I am so behind the curve on Regina Spektor. She's wonderful, of course, but I managed to go a long, long time without even hearing of her, much less hearing her music. Now that I know about her, though, I found myself agonizing over which song to pick from her for this CD. It finally came down to this song, "Fidelity," and "On the Radio," and I settled on this one because it's catchy and kind of sad and I think it encapsulates her sound. She's originally from Russia and I like the little bit of an accent she has when she sings and how she makes little instrumentation noises in the background. I'm fairly sure this song is about a prostitute?
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14. Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl by Broken Social Scene
    The vocals on this one are by Emily Hines of Metric and I think everything about this song is perfect, especially how the repetition starts out kind of quietly and eventually gets louder and crunchier.
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15. Haiti by The Arcade Fire
    My brother put this song on a CD for me last summer and every time I heard it, I had to ask him again who it was by. It sounds very pretty, but upon reading the translation of the lyrics, I realized how depressing it is. The female vocalist was born in Haiti, but left with her parents when she was very young because there was a civil war, and the song basically talks about her lost family and sort of her lost home. I like the sounds of water in the background and I think the mix of French and English is really nice. I am so exhausted.
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