Just a couple updates…
Volume 5 of the Green Monkey Music Project will be published today or tomorrow.
I thought of a kinda cool idea as well.
When someone has participated in three of the GMMP mixes, they will be given the choice of being a guest mixologist on a future mix. They will determine the theme of the mix, number of participant slots available, etc.
After the completion of their guest mix, the participant will be entitled to a GMMP Master Badge.
I have really enjoyed the last four volumes of the Green Monkey Mix Project, but I’m extra-special excited about this one.
I was holding off on doing this one, worried that I would have trouble finding participants with tastes of the international persuasion.
My worries were unfounded!
Here are the songs which will soon be available for your listening pleasure.
01 – Buckwheat Zydeco – Drivin’ Old Grey [chris]
02 – Ibrahim Ferrer – Boliviana [chris]
03 – Fred Buscaglione – Porfirio Villarosa [chris]
04 – St. Moses Choir of South Africa – Halefa Tshele Wetswe [chris]
05 – Los Fabulosos Cadillacs – Vasos Vacios [chris]
06 – They Might Be Giants – Greek #3 [chris]
07 – Paolo Conte – Genova Per Noi [chris]
08 – Edith Piaf – Hymne a l’amour [chris]
09 – Lassie Singers – Hamburg [splotchy]
10 – Gilberto Gil – Sai Do Sereno [splotchy]
11 – Pugh Rogefeldt – Små Lätta Moln [splotchy]
12 – Michel Polnareff – Le Desert N’est Plus En Afrique [splotchy]
13 – Faust – Psalter [splotchy]
14 – Boubacar Traoré – Samba [splotchy]
15 – Tom Zé – Ui! (Voce Inventa) [splotchy]
16 – Ohio Express – Yummy Yummy Yummy (Italian) [splotchy]
17 – DJ Krush – Le Temps (with DJ Cam) [manx]
18 – Happy End – Natsu Nandesu [manx]
19 – Seu Jorge – Rebel Rebel [manx]
20 – Mouse On Mars – Lasergum [manx]
21 – Bonga – Mona Ki Ngi Xiça [manx]
22 – Trey Parker & Matt Stone – Let’s Fighting Love [manx]
23 – Caetano Veloso – Terra [manx]
24 – Aphex Twin – Windowlicker [manx]
25 – Shakira – Ojos Así [pj]
26 – Shakira Feat. Alejandro Sanz – La Tortura [pj]
27 – Amr Diab – Habibe – Ya Nour El Ain [pj]
28 – La Bomba by Ricky Martin [pj]
29 – Tarkan – Simarik [pj]
30 – Les Nubians – Makeda [pj]
31 – Umoja – Unomathemba [pj]
32 – Pizzicato Five – Sweet Soul Revue [samuraifrog]
33 – Ludivine Sagnier – Papa t’es plus dans l’coup [samuraifrog]
34 – Seu Jorge – O Astronaute De Marmore (Starman) [samuraifrog]
35 – Jacques Brel – Amsterdam [samuraifrog]
36 – Milla – In a Glade [samuraifrog]
37 – Petula Clark – Downtown (German) [samuraifrog]
38 – Ruben Blades – Buscando Guayaba [samuraifrog]
Hi, here’s a little background on my choices for the What’s In A Word? mix.
Luna – Slide
The first song off their first album, Lunapark. In Luna, singer Dean Wareham’s lyrics are generally less sincere and more sarcastic than his old band, Galaxie 500 (“You can never give the finger to the blind”). In this song I think Wareham also makes a clean break with his previous band, when he subtly refers to his Boston bandmates, singing, “New England has the foliage, but I’m not going back.” A nice kickoff to his new band.
Frank Black – Headache
Off the wonderful album, Teenager Of The Year. This is actually the only Frank Black album I own. I should prolly try out his other stuff, as I love this one so much. There was a lovely video made for this song:
B-52’s – Roam
Who doesn’t love this song? If you don’t, you’re probably Satan. For the video, along with a pointless observation by yours truly, click here.
Brazilian Girls – Pussy
This is quite the lovely song from their eponymous debut. What does eponymous mean, again? A snippet of this song cropped up in one of my earlier posts.
Suicide – Girl
This song mostly consists of some nice keyboard grooves by Martin Rev, with Alan Vega doing some relatively creepy vocals. Hey, it’s not like you’re sharing an elevator with him. Relax. This song — wait for it — is from their eponymous debut.
Radiohead – Optimistic
I still haven’t been entirely bit by the bug that is Radiohead, but I heard this on shuffle a while back and liked it. This song seemed to be a nice transition from the Suicide song. Off their album Kid A.
Handsome Family – Stalled
From their non-eponymous album Through The Trees. Short and sweet.
The Kinks – Brainwashed
I almost used Starstruck from The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, but I decided instead to pick this track from Arthur. There’s an interesting blog post in there somewhere. No, on second thought, there ain’t.
Volume 4 of the Green Monkey Music Project has been completed, and is available for download!
If the participants of this mix want to discuss their own selections, please feel free to do so! I’ll put a pointer on this post if you end up posting about it on your own blog (or you could always just add comments here, I suppose).
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WHAT’S IN A WORD?
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The Participants Discuss Their Selections:
Allen L.!
Splotchy!
Beth!
The Songs:
Get the mix in chunks!
Zipped file of Songs 01-08 (All of Anandamide’s songs!)
Zipped file of Songs 09-16 (All of Allen L.’s songs!)
Zipped file of Songs 17-24 (All of Splotchy’s songs!)
Zipped file of Songs 25-32 (All of DGuzman’s songs!)
Zipped file of Songs 33-40 (All of Beth’s songs!)
Track Listing
01 – Gary Numan – Cars [anandamide]
02 – The Housemartins – Anxious [anandamide]
03 – Television – Friction [anandamide]
04 – The Stone Roses – Waterfall [anandamide]
05 – Sly and the Family Stone – Poet [anandamide]
06 – Fairport Convention – Sloth [anandamide]
07 – Stevie Wonder – Superstition [anandamide]
08 – Gregory Isaccs – Rumors [anandamide]
09 – Against Me! – Stop! [allenl]
10 – The Pierces – Boring [allenl]
11 – Ani DiFranco – Fuel [allenl]
12 – Edwin Starr – War [allenl]
13 – Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Happy [allenl]
14 – The Hellacopters – Envious [allenl]
15 – Paper Sun – Oceans [allenl]
16 – The Cat Empire – Sly [allenl]
17 – Luna – Slide [splotchy]
18 – Frank Black – Headache [splotchy]
19 – B-52’s – Roam [splotchy]
20 – Brazilian Girls – Pussy [splotchy]
21 – Suicide – Girl [splotchy]
22 – Radiohead – Optimistic [splotchy]
23 – Handsome Family – Stalled [splotchy]
24 – The Kinks – Brainwashed [splotchy]
25 – Tracy Chapman – Bridges [dguzman]
26 – Indigo Girls – Ghost [dguzman]
27 – Ani DiFranco – Dilate [dguzman]
28 – The Go-Go’s – Vacation [dguzman]
29 – Alison Krauss & Union Station – Stay [dguzman]
30 – U2 – One [dguzman]
31 – Fiona Apple – Criminal [dguzman]
32 – Pretenders – Kid [dguzman]
33 – The B-52’s – Topaz [beth]
34 – David Bowie – Fashion [beth]
35 – The Clash – Clampdown [beth]
36 – Magnapop – Garden [beth]
37 – Johnny Thunders – MIA [beth]
38 – R.E.M. – Stumble [beth]
39 – Sonic Youth – Incinerate [beth]
40 – Squeeze – Tempted [beth]
Here it is, folks.
What’s In A Word, Volume 4 of the Green Monkey Music Project, will be published some time in the next few days.
01 – Gary Numan – Cars [anandamide]
02 – The Housemartins – Anxious [anandamide]
03 – Television – Friction [anandamide]
04 – The Stone Roses – Waterfall [anandamide]
05 – Sly and the Family Stone – Poet [anandamide]
06 – Fairport Convention – Sloth [anandamide]
07 – Stevie Wonder – Superstition [anandamide]
08 – Gregory Isaccs – Rumors [anandamide]
09 – Against Me! – Stop! [allenl]
10 – The Pierces – Boring [allenl]
11 – Ani DiFranco – Fuel [allenl]
12 – Edwin Starr – War [allenl]
13 – Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Happy [allenl]
14 – The Hellacopters – Envious [allenl]
15 – Paper Sun – Oceans [allenl]
16 – The Cat Empire – Sly [allenl]
17 – Luna – Slide [splotchy]
18 – Frank Black – Headache [splotchy]
19 – The B-52’s – Roam [splotchy]
20 – Brazilian Girls – Pussy [splotchy]
21 – Suicide – Girl [splotchy]
22 – Radiohead – Optimistic [splotchy]
23 – Handsome Family – Stalled [splotchy]
24 – The Kinks – Brainwashed [splotchy]
25 – Tracy Chapman – Bridges [dguzman]
26 – Indigo Girls – Ghost [dguzman]
27 – Ani DiFranco – Dilate [dguzman]
28 – The Go-Go’s – Vacation [dguzman]
29 – Alison Krauss & Union Station – Stay [dguzman]
30 – U2 – One [dguzman]
31 – Fiona Apple – Criminal [dguzman]
32 – Pretenders – Kid [dguzman]
33 – The B-52’s – Topaz [beth]
34 – David Bowie – Fashion [beth]
35 – The Clash – Clampdown [beth]
36 – Magnapop – Garden [beth]
37 – Johnny Thunders – MIA [beth]
38 – R.E.M. – Stumble [beth]
39 – Sonic Youth – Incinerate [beth]
40 – Squeeze – Tempted [beth]
I’m going to try my darnedest to get participants in the Green Monkey Music Project across all the seven continents.
Most of the participants so far have been from North America.
Lulu represented Asia in The Under 3.
PJ is representing Europe in the upcoming Volume 5, No Speak English mix.
Three continents down, four left to go!
To the denizens of:
South America
Africa
Australia
Antartica
Let’s rock!
I now give you the the rules for Volume 4 and 5 of the Green Monkey Music Project.
Volume 4 will be called, What’s In A Word?
What’s In A Word? is a mix that once again has a rather simple rule to follow. All songs submitted must have a title consisting of only one word. The word can’t be a proper noun (a person’s name, a place — if it has a capital letter, it’s a no-no).
When in doubt, use the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary. If it can’t be found there, it’s not allowed. Hey, I’d love to use Neil Young’s “Powderfinger” and Yo La Tengo’s “Sugarcube”, but they’re just not words you find in a dictionary (well, this particular one, at least).
I also want to give you the rules of Volume 5, because I don’t someone missing out on Volume 4 and automatically sign up for the next volume without knowing what they are getting into. Volume 5 will require participants to be at least a little versed in music of a more international flavor.
Volume 5 is called No Speak English. Songs for this mix must have some kind of vocals in them. Whatever singing or speaking there is in the song, it can’t be in English.
I’m not doing these mixes concurrently. You can sign up for Volume 5, and once I finalize the participants, you can submit your songs, but just be aware that I’m not going to get to it until Volume 4 is published.
Volume 4 will have five participants, but with me in the mix, that only leaves four open slots. Allen L. and Anandamide expressed interest in joining the next mix, so I’m holding two openings for them at the moment.
Volume 5 will have up to five participants as well — all four slots are open.
After these two volumes, I think I’ll take a break for a couple weeks on these mixes. But fear not, there will be a nice holiday-themed mix coming up in late September!
UPDATE!
We have our participants for Volume 4, “What’s In A Word?”!
Anandamide!
Allen L.!
Splotchy!
Dguzman!
Beth!
Participants, please add a comment to this post indicating your song choices (w/artist). Please provide no less than five songs, and no more than eight.
We also have our participants for Volume 5!
Chris!
Splotchy!
Manx!
SamuraiFrog!
PJ!
Volume 5 participants, please feel free to leave your choices as a comment as well. No pressure, though — like I said, I’m not starting on putting together Volume 5 until Volume 4 is published and available for download.
Thanks everyone for your participation!
Volume 3 of the Green Monkey Music Project has been completed, and is available for download!
If the participants of this mix want to discuss their own selections, please feel free to do so! I’ll put a pointer on this post if you end up posting about it on your own blog (or you could always just add comments here, I suppose).
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THE UNDER 3
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The Participants Discuss Their Selections:
J.D.!
SamuraiFrog!
Splotchy!
The Songs:
Get the mix in chunks!
Zipped file of Songs 01-08 (All of SamuraiFrog’ songs)
Zipped file of Songs 09-16 (All of J.D.’s songs)
Zipped file of Songs 17-24 (All of Distributorcap’s songs)
Zipped file of Songs 25-32 (All of Splotchy’s songs)
Zipped file of Songs 33-40 (All of Lulu’s songs)
Track Listing
01 – Todd Rundgren – International Feel [samuraifrog]
02 – Scissor Sisters – I Can’t Decide [samuraifrog]
03 – Richard Thompson – Oops! I Did It Again (live) [samuraifrog]
04 – The Zombies – Summertime [samuraifrog]
05 – Django Reinhardt – Swing Interpretation of the First Movement in D Minor by JS Bach [samuraifrog]
06 – JoJo – Times Like These (live) [samuraifrog]
07 – Adam and the Ants – Jolly Roger [samuraifrog]
08 – David Bowie – Bombers [samuraifrog]
09 – Lindsay Lohan – Frankie & Johnny [j.d.]
10 – Shigeru Umebayashi – The Echo Game [j.d.]
11 – KT Tunstall – Hold On [j.d.]
12 – Jennifer Hudson – Love You I Do [j.d.]
13 – Kelly Clarkson – Respect [j.d.]
14 – Panic! At the Disco – The Only Difference Betweeen Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage [j.d.]
15 – Meg & Dia – Monster [j.d.]
16 – Lisa Simpson and ‘Bleeding Gums’ Murphy – Jazz Man [j.d.]
17 – Eric Clapton – After Midnight [distributorcap]
18 – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – You’re All I Need To Get By [distributorcap]
19 – Canned Heat – Going Up The Country [distributorcap]
20 – Aretha Franklin – You Make Feel Like A Natural Woman [distributorcap]
21 – The Crystals – Then He Kissed Me [distributorcap]
22 – Joni Mitchell – Chelsea Morning [distributorcap]
23 – Jan & Dean – The Little Old Lady From Pasadena [distributorcap]
24 – The Turtles – It Ain’t Me Babe [distributorcap]
25 – Wire – It’s So Obvious [splotchy]
26 – Pere Ubu – I Will Wait [splotchy]
27 – Commodores – Machine Gun [splotchy]
28 – Bo Diddley – Mona (I Need You Baby) [splotchy]
29 – The Clean – Franz Kafka At The Zoo [splotchy]
30 – Cat Stevens – Tea For The Tillerman [splotchy]
31 – Robyn Hitchcock – My Favourite Buildings [splotchy]
32 – The Champs – Tequila [splotchy]
33 – Blue Meanies – The 4th of July [lulu]
34 – Weezer – Buddy Holly [lulu]
35 – Dead Kennedys – Too Drunk To Fuck [lulu]
36 – The Pogues – If I Should Fall From Grace With God [lulu]
37 – Supersuckers – Creepy Jackalope Eye [lulu]
38 – The Dirtbombs – Get It While You Can [lulu]
39 – Traitors – I’m So Happy When I’m Hated [lulu]
40 – Deerhoof – Dinner For Two [lulu]
Hi, here’s a little background on my choices for The Under 3 mix.
Wire – It’s So Obvious [0:53]
A nice, fast song off their first album, Pink Flag. And it’s under one minute! Delightful.
Pere Ubu – I Will Wait [1:47]
I finally get a Pere Ubu song on a mix! This is a nice poppy-yet-skronky song off their second album, Dub Housing.
Commodores – Machine Gun [2:41]
I had a pretty serious soul and funk awakening a year or so back, during which time I first heard this song. This is a great instrumental track off their album of the same name. Listen closely near the end — there’s a great funky riff the Beastie Boys sampled for their song “Hey Ladies”.
Bo Diddley – Mona (I Need You Baby) [2:22]
I don’t really like a lot of schmaltzy love songs, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like love songs as a rule. Take this song, for example. I can’t think of a better song expressing a sense of longing — sexual, emotional and otherwise — than this.
The Clean – Franz Kafka At The Zoo [1:58]
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I really dig this New Zealand band. While they are a great pop band, they would also play around and experiment. This is kind of a spooky-sounding song off their album Unknown Country.
Cat Stevens – Tea For The Tillerman [1:01]
I think I have Cat Steven’s Greatest Hits on vinyl, so I know “Moonshadow”, “Peace Train”, etc., but I owe my knowledge of this song, off the album of the same name, to the great BBC show Extras, by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The song would play at the end of each episode, and it really fit the mood of the show. Thank you, Extras!
Robyn Hitchcock – My Favourite Buildings [2:50]
One of my favorites (or favourites, rather). This is off the first album I bought by the man, I Often Dream Of Trains.
The Champs – Tequila [2:11]
This is one of my all-time favorite songs. I can’t help but smile when I hear it.
Participants thus far (sorry, Lulu! you have to scroll to get to you!):