Here’s a discussion of my selections for the ABC mix, Volume 9 of the Green Monkey Music Project.

This was a really fun mix for me, because when I first announced the mix, I didn’t have my songs already picked out. I didn’t know what letters I would be responsible for until all the rest of the participants had gotten assigned their letters. If fact, I believe on this particular mix I ended up being the last guy to pick his songs. It’s nice to be last sometimes!

So, the letters I had were K through O (Metallic K-O!!!).

I was actually a little depressed when I put my songs together, which definitely had an influence on my choices. I’m still satisfied with how my choices turned out. It’s nice to occasionally have a particular emotion influence the selections.

King’s Lead Hat – Brian Eno
This is a very nice rockin’ song from Before And After Science. The title is an anagram for “Talking Heads”.

Love Action (I Believe In Love) – Human League
Off the great album Dare. You can find the Human League’s biggest hit, “Don’t You Want Me” on the same record, but in my opinion, “Love Action” kicks the holy crap out of it. A really great synth pop song. I was a little reluctant to include it here, as I have a future mix planned for synthesizer music where this would surely have had a spot. Oh, well. It starts with ‘L’, I reckon.

Midnight – Kramer
Wow, choosing an ‘M’ song was incredibly difficult. There are so many songs I love that start with ‘M’ — there’s “Move On Up” by Curtis Mayfield. There’s a great song by Stephin Merritt’s band the 6ths called “Movies In My Head” (with vocals by Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley!). And there were many more I won’t list here. I decided to go with a song I like a lot, but you might have not heard before. Kramer is a man of many talents (no, he wasn’t on Seinfeld). He ran a great independent record label, Shimmy Disc. He produced albums for bands like Galaxie 500. He was one-half of Bongwater, with actress Ann Magnuson. He also put out a few solo records. My wife actually had this CD, which I borrowed when we started dating. I hadn’t heard any of his music before. I think this is just a really nice pop song. I really love how the harmonica kicks in at the end.

Nighttime – Big Star
It’s an unwritten law of the music hipster. You must own a copy of Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers. It’s a really strange, haunting album. This is one of the best tracks off the record, beautiful and melancholy. An FYI: if I was assigned the letter ‘J’, I would most likely have included the song “Jesus Christ”, also off this same album.

Oblivious – Galaxie 500
One of my all-time favorite Galaxie 500 songs, off their first album, Today. A really pretty song, with some nice slightly sad, defeatist lyrics.

And now you’re right all the time
And I’m just oblivious
I’d rather stay in bed with you
Till it’s time to get a drink

Volume 9 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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ABC!
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Rules and Theme Details

The Participants Discuss Their Selections:
J.D.!
Barbara!
Splotchy!
Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein!
Tim!
Beth!

The Songs:

Get the mix in chunks!

Zipfile of Songs 01-05 (All of J.D.’s songs)
Zipfile of Songs 06-10 (All of Barbara’s songs)
Zipfile of Songs 11-15 (All of Splotchy’s songs)
Zipfile of Songs 16-20 (All of Dr Monkey Von Monkerstein’s songs)
Zipfile of Songs 21-25 (All of Tim’s songs)
Zipfile of Songs 26-30 (All of Beth’s songs)

No thanks, I’ll just pick at the songs!

01 – Amazing Grace – Hayley Westenra [j.d.]
02 – Beep – The Pussycat Dolls feat. Will.I.Am [j.d.]
03 – Cloud Nine – Evanescence [j.d.]
04 – Disenchanted – My Chemical Romance [j.d.]
05 – Everything – Fefe Dobson [j.d.]
06 – Fee Fie – The Hidden Cameras [barbara]
07 – Go to Sleep – Radiohead [barbara]
08 – Hyper-ballad – Bjork [barbara]
09 – I Fought in a War – Belle and Sebastian [barbara]
10 – Just One More – John-Rae and the River [barbara]
11 – King’s Lead Hat – Brian Eno [splotchy]
12 – Love Action (I Believe In Love) – Human League [splotchy]
13 – Midnight – Kramer [splotchy]
14 – Nighttime – Big Star [splotchy]
15 – Oblivious – Galaxie 500 [splotchy]
16 – Passionate Fight – Ute Lemper [drmvm]
17 – Quit Hollerin’ At Me – John Prine [drmvm]
18 – Respectable – The Rolling Stones [drmvm]
19 – Senior Service – Elvis Costello and the Attractions [drmvm]
20 – The Rose of England – Nick Lowe [drmvm]
21 – Up North Kids – Papa M [timdrussell]
22 – Velouria – Pixies [timdrussell]
23 – War – Tones on Tail [timdrussell]
24 – X-Flies – Mouse on Mars [timdrussell]
25 – Young Man Blues – The Who [timdrussell]
26 – Zither – R.E.M. [beth]
27 – Zurna Preserve – Brooklyn Funk Essential [beth]
28 – Zap – Guided by Voices [beth]
29 – Zazueira – Stan Getz feat. Astrud Gilberto [beth]
30 – Zebra Trucks – Young Marble Giants [beth]

It is my great honor to award a Green Monkey Master Badge to Beth!

This is her third time participating in GMMP, which makes her a bona fide Green Monkey Master!

Congratulations, Beth!

It’s hard to believe, but we already have our track listing for ABC, Volume 9 of the Green Monkey Mix.

01 – Amazing Grace – Hayley Westenra [j.d.]
02 – Beep – The Pussycat Dolls feat. Will.I.Am [j.d.]
03 – Cloud Nine – Evanescence [j.d.]
04 – Disenchanted – My Chemical Romance [j.d.]
05 – Everything – Fefe Dobson [j.d.]
06 – Fee Fie – The Hidden Cameras [barbara]
07 – Go to Sleep – Radiohead [barbara]
08 – Hyper-ballad – Bjork [barbara]
09 – I Fought in a War – Belle and Sebastian [barbara]
10 – Just One More – John-Rae and the River [barbara]
11 – King’s Lead Hat – Brian Eno [splotchy]
12 – Love Action (I Believe In Love) – Human League [splotchy]
13 – Midnight – Kramer [splotchy]
14 – Nighttime – Big Star [splotchy]
15 – Oblivious – Galaxie 500 [splotchy]
16 – Passionate Fight – Ute Lemper [drmvm]
17 – Quit Hollerin’ At Me – John Prine [drmvm]
18 – Respectable – The Rolling Stones [drmvm]
19 – Senior Service – Elvis Costello and the Attractions [drmvm]
20 – The Rose of England – Nick Lowe [drmvm]
21 – Up North Kids – Papa M [timdrussell]
22 – Velouria – Pixies [timdrussell]
23 – War – Tones on Tail [timdrussell]
24 – X-Flies – Mouse on Mars [timdrussell]
25 – Young Man Blues – The Who [timdrussell]
26 – Zither – R.E.M. [beth]
27 – Zurna Preserve – Brooklyn Funk Essential [beth]
28 – Zap – Guided by Voices [beth]
29 – Zazueira – Stan Getz feat. Astrud Gilberto [beth]
30 – Zebra Trucks – Young Marble Giants [beth]

Oh, golly.

We have gone a little crazy in recent volumes of the Green Monkey Music Project.

Can’t Wait For Halloween had a whopping ten participants and fifty songs, while Geography Pop Quiz had nine participants with over sixty songs.

For this, Volume 9, we’re going to have a mix with only six participants, and less than thirty songs.

Here’s how it works. This mix will be called ABC.

Each participant will have letters of the alphabet assigned to them. The only requirement on the participants is that they must provide a song for each letter they are responsible for. The first word in the song must begin with that letter. For example, if you are responsible for the letter “W”, the song “Waiting On A Friend” would be valid, but “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” would *not* be valid.

Okay, so how does a participant sign up for a group of letters? Well, you pick one of the shapes to the left. I have already randomly assigned letters to the shapes. If a shape has already been picked by someone else, you can’t pick it.

I won’t tell you which letters belong to which shapes, but I will tell you how the letters are broken down:

A-E
F-O
P-T
U-Y
Z

Yes, there will be one participant that has one only letter they will be responsible for — Z!

This mix has five open slots. Each participant has to pick a shape when they sign up for the mix. I’ll be taking the sixth slot. I will take whatever shape is left after the five participants have chosen theirs.

I’ll publish the key tying shapes to letters after we get a full number of participants on the mix (if you want to know what letters you got before the mix fills up, I can email the shape/letter key to you).

This mix has everything! The thrill of chance! The magic of the alphabet! And it’s not that long!

So, sign up, already!

UPDATE!

We have our participants!

Beth! (Pink parallelogram)
J.D.! (Blue Circle)
Barbara! (Green Triangle)
Tim! (Orange Star)
Dr Monkey Von Monkerstein! (Red Square)
Splotchy! (Yellow Oval)

Participants, here are your letters! Since übermixologist Beth got short-changed on the number of selections, I said she could still do five songs, provided they all start with the letter “Z” (don’t worry, she will have *no* problem coming up with the songs).

Just post your song selections as a comment on this post.