hio

It's been a while since I have posted a three letter mixtape. As you know, I take a song or few and figure out how they work together. These are mostly all rock and roll songs and it started with Stevie and Common Ground both at about 107 bpm and in the key of 9A (camelot style). So every song on this pick is either 8B or 9A or 9B. Which means they all are key mixable. I sorted all the tracks by key and ascending BPM. All that means is that they should sound pretty good if you play it all in a row. I've listened now a few times and sure enough it does. Like usual the three letter title is random. Eyes closed and hit the keyboard.

hio

01 Paper Lace - The Night Chicago Died

02 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Down On The Corner

03 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business

04 Haim - Rock N Roll Rules

05 Scorpions - The Zoo

06 Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

07 Darkside - Guitar Voodoo

08 Aerosmith with Run DMC - Walk This Way

09 Def Leppard - Rock Of Ages

10 Common Ground - This Is America

11 Stevie Nicks With Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

12 Sweet - Ballroom Blitz

13 Eagles - One Of These Nights

14 Tubes - She's A Beauty

15 The Byrds - Eight Miles High

16 Guess Who - Undun

17 Foreigner - Feels Like the First Time

18 Oasis - Roll With It

19 Question Mark And The Mysterians - Can't Get Enough Of You Baby

mzG

The title is three letters because that is how these get named, as usual. Hit the keyboard, see what comes up. Leftover tracks needed a home and enough of them piled up to justify a post. At least one track was a suggestion by one of you for another post. Finally got on here. The Three Letter Mixtape series always gets a spiral of some sort on the cover, that part is easy. What I actually spent time on this week was trying to find a decent spirograph video, failing, trying to make one with AI, and failing again. Completely unrelated. My pick for a set that came together cleaner than the artwork research did.

mzG

01 Marshall Jefferson - Ride The Rhythm (Remix)

02 Kraftwerk - The Mix Medley (Razormaid Mix)

03 Sole Patrol - Step On It

04 DJ Funk - Work That Body

05 Debbie Gibson - Electric Youth (Deep House Mix)

06 DJ Polinate - Ready, Fire, Aim

07 Paula Abdul - Cold Hearted (House Mix)

08 2 Men a Drum Machine & a Trumpet - Tired of Getting Pushed Around (Mayhem Rhythm Remix)

09 Jaxine - Jack Me Free (Less Summer Mix)

10 Pink Coffee - Another Brick in the Wall

11 Coldcut with Yazz & the Plastic Population - Doctorin' the House

12 House Engineers - Hit the House

13 Rhythim Is Rhythim - It Is What It Is

Ait

I really can't believe I am having two of these within days of each other after not having any for a while, but here you go another mixtape pick that belongs in the three letter category for me. More rock and roll and all of it around 92 bpm. These edits fit well together and are in camelot key order (I almost typed odor.) Oops! A couple of these were big hits, but much of it are secondary should be hits. None stink. No way whatsoever to be able to explain the title. I have no reasons but there is some rhyme in here. BTW, track 18 is not named properly (it is those guys, that's right) But it is also G3. Saw a version of G3 in concert. They were great, but it was a different version. It's always Joe, but the guys with him change.

Ait

01 Jefferson Starship - Love Too Good

02 Triumph - Fight the Good Fight

03 Spinal Tap - Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight

04 Sammy Hagar - Three Lock Box

05 Digger and the Pussycats - Coming to Get You

06 J Geils Band - Freeze-Frame

07 Black Sabbath - War Pigs

08 AC-DC - Back In Black

09 Beatles - I'm Down

10 Living Colour - Cult Of Personality

11 Sweet - The 6-Teens

12 Switchfoot - Out Of Control

13 The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind

14 The James Gang - Funk # 49

15 Kneel Dung & Psychotic Pony - Paid For By A King

16 Scorpions - Every Minute Every Day

17 Maroon 5 - How

18 Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson - My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama

19 Pat Travers - I La La Love You

bdh

I was thinking of three songs while I was making this mixtape. My pick comes from there. The Blondie song was on my mind as was Adult Net since I had been listening to anything from Clem Burke. But it also was Tony Orlando and Dawn who was an ear worm with this track (click on that link for more catchy songs). That also started me on tomorrow's pick, but you'll have to wait for that one. Surprising but Dawn with or without Tony didn't make it on my Too Catchy series. What was I thinking? But lots made it on this three letter mixtape. Some easy listening and some harder. I love the Nina Hagen. Always good to include her. And anytime I can include A Drop In The Gray, The Models and Dramarama in a mixtape, I'll do it. I am more familiar with Paper Lace than Bo Donaldson even though the latter was the version played on US radio. Mostly because I loved their follow up hit The Night Chicago Died, which is not on here. The title came because of Bo and the Heywoods.

bdh

01 Vicki Lawrence - The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia

02 Flying Machine - Smile A Little Smile For Me

03 Poco - Crazy Love

04 Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice

05 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Down On The Corner

06 ZZ Top - Jesus Just Left Chicago

07 Hoodoo Gurus - My Girl

08 The Box Tops - Call Me

09 Dramarama - Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)

10 Blondie - Shayla

11 Models - Out Of Mind Out Of Sight

12 Adult Net - White Night (Stars Say Go)

13 Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods - Billy, Don't Be A Hero

14 Frankie Valli - Can't Take My Eyes Off You

15 Kinks - Sunny Afternoon

16 Nina Hagen - Personal Jesus

17 Deep Purple - Woman From Tokyo

18 Tony Orlando & Dawn - Candida

19 Thin Lizzy - Rosalie

20 Doobie Brothers - Jesus Is Just Alright

21 A Drop In The Gray - All The Same

22 The Fall - Cruisers Creek

tgr

Working from yesterday's Rhumba connection, this pick became a mixtape starting with Wire. I had that song and then wanted to get to Big Black. Instead I went all around, old and new, past a bunch of other stuff. But it does flow. Not sure why, because by all accounts, it shouldn't. But it does. I do like the three letter cover. I am going to have to use the marble in something else coming up.

tgr

01 Wire - Three Girl Rhumba

02 Sisters Of Mercy - Black Planet

03 Roman Holliday - One Foot Back In Your Door

04 Kinks - Wish I Could Fly Like Superman

05 New Order - World In Motion

06 Martha And The Muffins - Several Styles Of Blonde Girls Dancing

07 Sam Cooke - Twistin' The Night Away

08 The Four Tops - Don't Walk Away

09 Barry Blue - Dancin' (On A Saturday Night)

10 Doug Sahm And Band - (Is Anybody Going To) San Antone

11 Big Black - The Model

12 Turtles - Eve Of Destruction

13 Pixies - Here Comes Your Man

14 Ral Donner & The Starfires - Girl Of My Best Friend

15 Major Lance - Hey Little Girl

16 Paul Anka - Are You My Destiny

17 Badlands - Dreams In The Dark

18 Grateful Dead - Truckin'

19 Original Casuals - So Tough

20 Miss Kittin & The Hacker - Frank Sinatra

21 Chi Coltrane - Thunder And Lightning

22 Halestorm - You Call Me a Bitch Like It's a Bad Thing

23 Grand Funk - Bad Time

24 Billy Joe Royal - Cherry Hill Park

Hmm

This pick became a mixtape because of another mixtape. On around November 10th or so, I made a pick I called Blecch! It had a song by M which is really Robin Scott. It was a remix of Pop Musik. It reminded me of some other music from Scott which I liked and put aside. I put them into a holding folder that already had some disco remixes in it. When I went back to listen, they kind of all fit together. I added a couple more tracks and voila! here this was. To myself, I had to say Hmm when it all worked out. Here is the result. For some reason I've been liking these compilation mixtapes with three letter titles. The background of the cover is a sponge! I added sparkles and a weird transparent symbol. I'm still saying...

Hmm

01 M (Robin Scott) - Neutron

02 M - Pop Musik Remix (12 inch)

03 Diana Ross - Love Hangover (Extended Alternate Version)

04 Fox The Fox - Precious Little Diamond

05 Ryuichi Sakamoto & Robin Scott - The Left Bank

06 Prince - Raspberry Beret (12 Version)

07 Foals - In Degrees (Purple Disco Machine Remix)

08 House of Prayers - Disco Stepper (Original Mix)

09 CJ & Co - Devil's Gun

10 Hi-Tension - British Hustle

11 Saturday Night Band - Touch Me On My Hot Spot

12 Cerrone - Trippin On The Moon

aqk

Just one more three letter mixtape for this pick. No real reason for the letters I chose this time. I picked the letters randomly from the keyboard. A couple of tracks from The Jam and a couple by XTC. That wasn't random. I had them playing in my mind all week. Same thing with Free and Robyn Hitchcock. The rest I chose to fit around them, I almost added another track from the former two, but decided against it in the end. I put in a variety of older and newer tracks to add something to the playlist. I like how the cover turned out. Almost looks like the letters were carved out. That was accidental, but it looks cool. The letters are lowercase although the font used makes it look uppercase.

aqk

01 The Jam - Town Called Malice

02 Free - All Right Now

03 Television - Friction

04 Grand Funk Railroad - Some Kind Of Wonderful

05 Translator - Everywhere That I'm Not

06 Split Enz - I Got You

07 Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You

08 Stranglers - Duchess

09 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business

10 The Jam - Away From The Numbers

11 Guess Who - Undun

12 Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper

13 The The - This Is The Day

14 XTC - Generals and Majors

15 Kiss - Rock And Roll All Nite

16 Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Heaven

17 Infant Sorrow - Bangers Beans & Mash

18 Junior Brown - Highway Patrol

19 XTC - Making Plans for Nigel

20 Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town

dmh

Another three letter mixtape. I seem to be getting a few of these picks posted up lately. A couple of these I was going to use on my last one, but it didn't quite work out to make them fit, but I liked the songs anyway. Jeff Back and Tom Scott if you cared. I used another Manzanera track, just because I like that album a lot. All the tracks are in camelot key order and are around 125 bpm, but varying degrees of energy. I almost cut out the beginning of the Blue Oyster Cult song so it would mix better, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. The Eno track I switched in for another track that I wanted to use, but this fit better. And I have to figure out how to use Switchfoot more often, because I really like that band. My daughter's middle school teacher was into the band and I got caught up with the ferver and still like them after all these years (decades now).

dmh

01 St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review - Policy Of Truth (Europen Edition)

02 Tom Scott - Rock Island Rocket

03 Moe. - Downward Facing Dog

04 Grand Funk - The Locomotion

05 Bauhaus - Earwax

06 Blue Oyster Cult - Golden Age Of Leather

07 Brian Eno - Backwater

08 Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart (Wonderous Mix)

09 Armageddon - Buzzard

10 The Dinky Toys - The Sweetest Hangover

11 AC-DC - T.N.T.

12 Cake - Never There

13 ABC - Poison Arrow

14 Joshua Moses - Pretty Girl

15 Jeff Beck - Where Were You

16 Phil Manzanera - The Flex

17 Switchfoot - More Than Fire

18 Buzzcocks - Sixteen

Blame It On A.L.S.

I will not take the blame for this pick. It's not my fault, once again. That's just the way it goes. That each song is the same bpm at 148 and that it just happens to be five more than the last one and that this is posted five days past the last one is ALL COINCIDENCE. And it certainly means I bear no responsibility for it. Although it is werid that just yesterday someone was talking about Feargal Sharkey. I will have to do something someday with some songs of his. All that being said none of these maladies and illnesses are anything fun, so don't take my flippance to have anything to do with the actual three letter diseases.

Blame It On A.L.S.

01 Revolting Cocks - Something Wonderful

02 Sleater-Kinney - Oh!

03 Kissing The Pink - Love Lasts Forever

04 Brian Eno & David Byrne - Help Me Somebody

05 Chuck Higgins - Pachuko Hop

06 Daryl Hall & John Oates - Sara Smile

07 Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

08 Soft Cell - Sex Dwarf

09 Bang! Bang! - Candystop

10 Chicago - 25 Or 6 To 4

11 Malo - Nena

12 Rockpile - Teacher Teacher

13 The Undertones - Tearproof

14 Jim Croce - Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

15 Beatnix - Stairway to Heaven

16 Devo - Mongoloid

17 Joy Division - Novelty

18 Nails - 88 Lines About 44 Women

19 Roy Orbison with kd Lang - Crying

20 Scientist - First Dangerous Match

21 Sammy Hagar - Red

qBk

Every so often I end up with songs that did not make it into other picks, not because they were not good enough but because they just did not fit what I was building at the time. Rather than let them disappear I started throwing them into the three letter series, and the name is exactly what it looks like. I just randomly hit keys. This pick has no real theme and I am not going to pretend it does. What it has is twelve songs I genuinely like that needed a home. They should not go together and yet somehow they sort of do. Have a listen and see if you agree. That is what this is.

qBk

01 Transglobal Underground - Temple Head (Burundi Mix)

02 Ozomatli - Cut Chemist Suite

03 Cage The Elephant - Shake Me Down

04 Not Bnot Avraham - Rai (instrumental)

05 Black Ivory - Mainline

06 Material & Nona Hendryx - Bustin'out

07 North End - Kind of Life (Kind of Love) (12 inch Vocal)

08 Santana - Oye Como Va (Remix)

09 Maximum Joy - Stretch

10 Emilie-Claire Barlow - These Boots Were Made for Walkin'

11 Shriekback - Nemesis (Extended Mix)

12 Michael Bennett - I Regret It All

KML

It was just time for another three letter mixtape pick. This time it's KML. No idea why it became all caps this week. Just turned out that way. Not much in common with each other except that they are all around 121 BPM and are in Camelot mixing order. There's a tiny jump between Supertramp and Sparks and also between Fine Young Cannibals and The Gourds, but then there would have to be anyway. Enjoy it anyway. And yes, it was The Residents that started my train of thought on this one (not Hall & Oates). It is amazing how my mind tends to wander sometimes.

KML

01 George Harrison - My Sweet Lord

02 Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart (LP Version)

03 The Residents - Betty's Body

04 ORS - Moonboots (US Special 12'' Disco Mix)

05 The Jesus And Mary Chain - Just Like Honey

06 Benny Mardones - Into the Night

07 Ray Barretto - A Deeper Shade Of Soul

08 Supertramp - It's Raining Again

09 Sparks - More Than A Sex Machine

10 Killing Joke - Turn To Red

11 Casio Social Club - Rock The Discotheque (Original Mix)

12 Daryl Hall & John Oates - Kiss on My List

13 Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Women

14 Fine Young Cannibals - Blue

15 The Gourds - Gin And Juice

16 Skinny Fabulous - BTW (Behaving The Worst)

17 Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes

18 Train - Drive By

19 The Beat Farmers - Big Rock Candy Mountain

sld

Can't come up with a good narrative around this mixtape. A couple of songs on my mind and I only used one of them on this pick. That was the Mike Clark. A bit ago I told you the dance craze thing my wife kept showing me. So the song was on my mind. I keep an eye on specialty dances and keep them all in a folder. Maybe I'll share some of them sometime. But I was trying to fit some songs that didn't quite fit (and maybe will become another three letter mixtape too in the future.) But I also found a bunch of songs all around the 115 BPM range which is where the Clark song is. This is those songs. Some funk, some dance, some ne wave and some... who knows what. I do have to say something about Raining Jane. I really like this band. Saw them a few times in the Bay Area at really little clubs. Now they are just the backup band for Jason Mraz. But they were really good solo. I guess they are still good now. I like them both ways. Very cool drummer! Nice and cute.

sld

01 Xavier - Work That Sucker To Death

02 David Bowie - Let's Dance

03 Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk

04 Mike Clark, Jr - Keep On Steppin

05 Michael Jackson - Rock With You (Masters At Work Remix)

06 Funkadelic - (Not Just) Knee Deep (Part 1)

07 Was (Not Was) - Walk The Dinosaur

08 Earth, Wind & Fire - Jupiter

09 Tower Of Power - Walkin' Up Hip Street

10 Cameo - Word Up!

11 Raining Jane - Big Girl

12 Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams - Get Lucky

13 Texas Tornados - (Hey Baby) Que Paso

14 Bowling For Soup - Ghostbusters

15 Village People - Village People

16 Garbage - Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)

17 Grateful Dead - Truckin'

18 Shalamar - Make That Move

pfs

Another one of my three letter mixtapes. This pick is all around the 140-150 bpm range. Seems pretty fast sometimes. But a few don't seem as fast as the others. The songs go from new wave to dub. A couple are fairly well known tracks and some are fairly well known artists with deeper cuts or weird remixes. Human League, Eurythmics, Front 242 and Depeche Mode are telling you these aren't our mainstream mixes. The Flying Lizards are better known for their robotic vocal type songs, but I like their lesser known dub album. It's got some cool tracks on it, including this one. Monaco and Klark Kent might bring up comparisons to New Order and the Police and for good reason. They are part of the family picks for those bands. And btw, the title has nothing to do with an insurance company.

pfs

01 Underworld - Shudder-King Of Snake

02 The Cure - Bananafishbones

03 The Flying Lizards - Lime And Salt

04 The Fibonaccis - Purple Haze

05 Human League - The Sound Of The Crowd (Riton Re-Rub)

06 The Jesus And Mary Chain - Kill Surf City

07 Eurythmics - Grown Up Girls (Hot Tracks)

08 Bill Laswell Meets Style Scott - Emergency At The Plant

09 Front 242 - Religion (bass under siege mix)

10 Monaco - I've Got A Feeling

11 Klark Kent - Love Lessons

12 Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead

13 Jah Wobble - Car Ad Music 3

14 Depeche Mode - Barrel Of A Gun (Underworld Hard Mix)

15 KMFDM - Never Say Never (Edit)

What's The Connection? Disco 1

I have several volumes of disco songs on this blog, but this is not the same. In fact the genre didn't matter. The songs didn't need to be disco songs (although several of them are). All they needed was to have the word Disco in the title. It couldn't be just a "disco remix" to make it on this connection. It had to genuinely have disco be part of the title. It could be used as a noun like the place called the Disco or an adjective like a ball or a person who was Disco. It could be even used as a verb like you were going to Disco all night or for five minutes. I had another three letter playlist that I called mag that started this one. It was sixteen days ago. It had the Michael Jackson and the Isley brothers on it which made me thnk of doing this. I used a different shorter version of the Isley Brothers on this one.

What's The Connection? Disco 1

01 The Clash - Going To The Disco

02 The Brides Of Funkenstein - Disco To Go

03 Tubes - Slipped My Disco

04 Michael Jackson - Burn This Disco Out

05 Sun - Everybody Disco Down

06 El Coco - Disco Carnival

07 Ritchie Family - The Best Disco In Town

08 GQ - Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)

09 T-Connection - Disco Magic

10 Cristina - Disco Clone (Single Version)

11 Tom Tom Club - As The Disco Ball Turns

12 Ohio Players - Feel The Beat (Everybody Disco)

13 Devo - Disco Dancer

14 The Trammps - Disco Inferno

15 Yello - Daily Disco

16 Isley Brothers - It's A Disco Night

17 Sylvester - Dance (Disco Heat)

18 Shonen Knife - Chinese Disco

19 Frank Zappa - Disco Boy

mag

Another three letter mixtape for this pick. Four different extended versions on this pick, that started with Earth, Wind & Fire. I guess I could have called it ewf. But it's a mix of disco and new wave and pop. Not so much the big hits, although a couple were. I am not convinced that all these 12 inch versions were the best versions of the songs, but they are all interesting and I don't always use the long versions, so I thought I would on a few of these. I don't have an extended version of the Michael Jackson song, but it seems ripe to have one. The ZTT mix of Grace Jones is brilliant and horrible at the same time. Sonicwise it's great like most all the ZTT related stuff (Frankie, Art Of Noise, etc) is, but it's also annoying in a way. Either way, it's what I chose.

mag

01 Grace Jones - Slave To The Rhythm (Original 12 Inch)

02 Ashford & Simpson - Solid As A Rock (Original 12 Inch)

03 Level 42 - Love Games

04 Chicago - We Can Stop The Hurtin'

05 Heatwave - State To State

06 Michael Jackson - Burn This Disco Out

07 Electric Light Orchestra - Sweet Talkin' Woman

08 Roxy Music - Love Is The Drug

09 New Order - Temptation

10 Stranglers - Skin Deep (Extended Version)

11 Iggy Pop - I'm Bored

12 Isley Brothers - It's A Disco Night (Parts 1 & 2) (Special Disco Version)

13 Talk Talk - Talk Talk

14 Earth, Wind & Fire - Magnetic

15 Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone

cVb

This pick is one of the three letter mixtapes I make. No rhyme or reason to the name this time, except that it is consecutive letters on the keyboard (and I must have hit the shift key in the middle). Mostly just tracks I had been thinking about putting in a playlist and just hadn't done it yet. Leftovers. I had the idea of using the Ohio Players and a cover of one of their songs, so that went in. I was also talking with my buddy (who also was working on my pool) and he had recently seen the Whispers with the O'Jays in concert (I never have seen either, unfortunately) so they were on my mind and that made me think of The Spinners and The Four Tops. The others were already there.

cVb

01 The Style Council - Blue Cafe

02 Alphaville - Big In Japan

03 Four Tops - Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)

04 Blow Monkeys - Digging Your Scene

05 Spinners - Could It Be I'm Falling In love

06 Ohio Players - Skin Tight

07 Tom Tom Club - L'Elephant

08 Talking Heads - Road To Nowhere

09 The Residents - This Is A Man's Man's Man's World

10 Air - Sexy Boy

11 The O'Jays - Used To Be My Girl

12 Heatwave - Gangsters Of The Groove

13 Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down

14 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Love Rollercoaster

15 Whispers - It's A Love Thing

16 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

17 The The - Kingdom of Rain

18 Grand Funk - Some Kind of Wonderful

19 Roman Holliday - One Foot Back In Your Door

mfw

This is another one of my three letter mixtape picks. I started with one track and then just picked around that one, branching as I saw fit. My starting track was the Paula Yates one. I wish she had recorded more stuff as I like this cover. Considering who she hung out with/married you would think there would be more recordings of her. Unfortunately not and since she's dead there is little chance of that ever happening. Some of the other tracks are similar. Cristina has a few tracks that remind me of her. Anyway, that Nancy Sinatra cover started this journey. One other that I really like is The Fall. I like all the stuff they did, but especially the Brix Smith era. I probably should have included a track of Brix solo, but I didn't. The 12 inch version of her and the Fall was good enough, I guess.

mfw

01 Gun Club - Sex Beat

02 British Electric Foundation featuring Paula Yates - These Boots Are Made For Walking

03 The Creatures - Right Now

04 Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11

05 Haysi Fantayzee - Shiny Shiny

06 Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria (12 mix)

07 Dominatrix - The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight

08 Wall Of Voodoo - Do It Again

09 Magazine - A Song From Under The Floorboards

10 Vicious Pink - I Confess

11 Human League - I Love You Too Much

12 Book Of Love - Boy (Extended)

13 Disko Junkie - U Spin Me (Extended Mix)

14 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Genetic Engineering

15 Tuxedomoon - What Use

16 The Genetic Terrorists - TGT (Anthem) (Remix)

17 Cristina - Is That All There Is (Long Version)

18 The Fall - C.R.E.E.P. (12)

fnj

This three-letter pick, fnj, is made up of leftovers from the last week or two of compilation picks - tracks I didn’t end up using, but couldn’t bring myself to drop. They didn’t land where I first imagined them, but they still move, still groove, still do the job. No theme, no cleanup, just a stack of rhythm-forward records that earned a second life together. Thrown into camelot key order and nudged along by bpm, because that’s how my brain hears them anyway. Just a mixtape of things that refused to disappear. The title is just randomly chosen letters I hit on the keyboard with my eyes closed, so don't gain any meaning from that.

fnj

01 Kongas - Anikana O

02 Maceo & The Macks - Cross The Tracks (We Better Go Back)

03 Imani Coppola - Legend Of A Cowgirl

04 Orgone featuring Fanny Franklin - Who Knows Who

05 Bunny Sigler - Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing

06 Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait (Long Dutch Remix)

07 The Blendells - La La La La La

08 Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun

08 Johnny Guitar Watson - Gangster Of Love

09 Mandrill - Fencewalk

10 2Nu - This Is Ponderous

11 Laid Back - White Horse

12 The World's Famous Supreme Team - Hey DJ (Extended Version)

13 James Brown - Get On The Good Foot

14 Lala Guerrero - Pancho Rock

15 The Premiers - Farmer John

16 Cannibal And The Headhunters - Land Of 1000 Dances

Zwarte Piet

Growing up Dutch-Indo in California, December 5th was amazing! While everyone else was waiting for Santa, I was sweating it out for that chocolate letter 'P' and dodging the sack! I found out later in life that my Opa was Zwarte Piet. He would drive an hour to get to our house, knock on the door and throw stuff inside and hide around the corner while we picked up the goodies (and then he drove home.) This playlist is basically the soundtrack to that childhood adrenaline rush of the dogs barking and the whole craziness, but reimagined with enough rock and funk to match the chaos. Let’s be honest, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet were basically buddies in an action movie. I did try to find a rockin' version of the last song in Indonesian (which my pop taught all us boys) but I failed. This pick does kick off with the panic of that first loud knock on the door, rides the energy of the horses stomping on the roof, and gets into the gritty "coal and soot" vibe of the chimney descent. It captures that rebellious feeling of hoping you weren't too naughty, the absolute chaos when the pepernoten started flying, and finally that sweet victory of unwrapping the goods before the visitors head back to Spain. It’s loud, it’s messy, and it’s pure Pakjesavond magic. 

Zwarte Piet

01 AC-DC - Back In Black

02 Henk & Henk (Het Goede Doel) - Sinterklaas (Wie Kent Hem Niet)

03 Samson & Gert - Daar Wordt Aan de Deur Geklopt

04 Dave Edmunds - I Hear You Knocking

05 Drifters - Up on the Roof

06 Osmonds - Crazy Horses

07 Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes

08 Elvis Presley - Trouble

09 JD McPherson - Bad Kid

10 Beatles - Bad Boy

11 Inner Circle - Bad Boys

12 Chivv - Expose Zwarte Piet

13 Lee Dorsey - Working In The Coalmine

14 Rolling Stones - Paint It Black

15 Grateful Dead - Black Peter

16 Paul Weller - Bag Man

17 Brian Setzer Orchestra - (Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag

18 The Archies - Sugar, Sugar

19 Six Feet Under - Chocolate Sugar

20 Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy

21 MannelijkeMannen - Sinterklaas Kapoentje Death Metal

22 Three Dog Night - Never Been To Spain

23 Bløf met Counting Crows - Holiday In Spain (Spanje Als Besluit)

24 VOF De Kunst - De Witte Zwarte Pieten

25 The Kik & De Grote Pietenhuis Band - Sinterklaas Kapoentje

Happy Mother's Day!

Have a brunch in honor of your mom! This connection is all Mama songs. Part one of the Mama songs was last year. A wider variety of mama songs this time (and none about Mother.) All kinds of different Mama's, too. Some means your mother, some means your woman. I combined them this time. I am lucky that my mother is still alive and doing well. I don't get to see her much since she lives a ways away, but other family is there. I do live with my mother-in-law which in some ways is easier and other ways is much, much harder. And I do live with my woman, although I don't call her mama or mother. I'm not Ozzy. Anyway enjoy this selection. I'll have more next year.

Happy Mother's Day!

18 Garth Brooks - Papa Loved Mama

19 Genesis - Mama

20 Annie Lennox - Mama

21 Eight to the Bar - If My Mama Could See Me Now

22 Clifton Chenier - Mama Told Papa

23 Swing Out Sister - Mama Didn't Raise A Fool

24 Black Eyed Peas - Hey Mama

25 Funkadelic - Red Hot Mama

26 Tom Tom Club - My Mama Told Me

27 Gene Simmons - Pop And Mama (Vers. 1)

28 Johnny Paycheck - I'm The Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)

29 Josie and the Pussycats - A Letter To Mama

30 Etta James - Tell Mama

31 Syl Johnson - I Want To Take You Home To See Mama

32 Three Dog Night - Mama Told Me (Not to Come)

33 Little Walter - Tell Me Mama

34 Prince - Make Your Mama Happy

35 Robert Mitchum - I Learn A Merengue, Mama

36 Slade - Mama Weer All Crazee Now

37 Ozzy Osbourne - Mama, I'm Coming Home

38 The Shirelles - Mama Said

39 Loggins & Messina - Your Mama Don't Dance

40 Toto - Mama