Roadtrip Mix Tape

UFO Expert - Half Japanese

Formed A Band - Art Brut

Alive With Pleasure - Viva Voce

The Future - Leonard Cohen

As promised (although about a week late), today marks the first installment of the Official Transmissions From Wintermute Roadtrip Mixtape. Sorry for the delay, but my house is still intra-netless. However, I just started a second job at my sweet little neighborhood coffee shop, east of downtown Madison, so soon I should be able to syphon informational superhighway juice from my employers’ pipes. Hopefully my co-bloggers will soon be posting contributions to this mixtape as well, when they’re done riding Camels in Cairo (like Laz) or attending chemistry symposiums in Baltimore (like DJ).

I recently moved from Boulder CO to Madison WI, and it was along that Nebraskian stretch of 1-80, while my copilots were sleeping, that I started brain storming the perfect roadtrip tracks. But although that last trip cross-country was the catalyst for this mixtape, it’s true inspiration is from the roadtrips the four members of this blog have taken together in the past, piling into OMGIMike’s Honda like a big sexy alternative family. Personal journeys of wonder, like THIS ONE to Stockholm Wisconsin, or THIS ONE to Interlochen Michigan, or THIS ONE to Devil’s Lake which resulted in the picture above, or our ongoing roadtrip through the blog-O-sphere into your hearts.

Anyway, here are a few tracks to help kick off any good roadtrip. Burn them onto a CD with my co-bloggers contributions, and Transmissions From Wintermute guarantees your roadtrip will completely and utterly kick ass.

No one rocks like pop-genius Jad Fair (the driving force and only consistent member of Half Japanese, the authors of THIS FIRST TRACK). This song is actually off the last CD I bought at Denver’s famed Wax Trax before moving back to Madison, Fire In The Sky, but after hearing it I can’t think of any possibly better way to start off a pilgrimage. This CD is one of Fair’s several collaborations with VU drummer Moe Tucker (she produced it and plays on a few tracks).

NEXT, some brit-rock. I love Art Brut, and I think their debut Bang, Bang, Rock and Roll was certainly one of the best albums of 2006. The new rock revival as we all know has been done to death, but there’s a refreshing sincerity, uniqueness, and unapologetic yet modest cockiness gushing from Art Brut’s cock rock. As lead Singer Eddie Argos states squarely on this track, “It’s not irony, it’s not rock n’ roll, we’re just talking, to the kids.” By being unique without being self-important and by playing balls-out garage rock without layers of ironic references, Art Brut’s sound is made all the more powerful and immediate, a point made clear by the stunning superiority of their set at the Pitch Fork Music fest last summer (which this blog roadtripped to, to bring you back sloppy first hand coverage) over their whinny self-important shoegazer counterpoints.

NEXT we have Alive With Pleasure. This song by California’s Viva Voce, off their 2004 album The Heat Can Melt Your Brain soars with sonic wonder, perfectly fusing impenetrable double-neck guitar rock with an emotional and musical vulnerability. It’s the perfect accompaniment for your bloated metal eagle as it careens down the blacktop.

Like with all aspects of a successful roadtrip, you’ve gotta pace yourself. Otherwise you might flip your van in the middle of Nebraska. So around TRACK 4 you gotta bring it down a little. The inhumanly beautiful and penetrating voice, as well as the immaculate songsmithship of the legendary Leonard Cohen will provide the perfect backdrop as the initial rush and excitement of your journey melts into the solemn contemplation of the open road.

I think Cohen’s line here, “Give me crack and anal sex. Take the only tree that’s left. Stuff it up the hole, in your culture.” is one of the more brillant nuggets of wisdom pop music has ever had to offer.

And there you have it. Now go get out on the open road and burn some blood-oil like a true American, even if your not American (the world’s oil reserves aren't going to deplete themselves you know, we all gotta do our part).

Stay Tuned for a review of tonight’s Cold War Kids show.