WARMER MIXTAPES #733 | by Daniel Johnsen Baer [Dog People] of Cymbals Eat Guitars

 1. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band | Against The Wind
I Learned How to Play This Song Because I Loved the Piano Solo In It. It's really nice and uses Octaves and Trills and Appogiaturas (Grace Notes). I played it One Time and my Friend's Dad, who was 60ish, was Listening from the Other Room that Afternoon and Wept Openly. He was on a Lot of Pills I think At the Time. He just Sucked Up a Phlegm at the End, Nodded and Said Good song!.

2. Wilco | Via Chicago
Didn't We All Have a Wilco Phase... This Song Was Tied Up In My Memories of Cymbals Eat Guitars, 'cause Joe introduced me to Wilco and was a Wilco Nut. I think Jeff Tweedy Appeals to the Big Overgrown Man Baby in All of Us. I Rest my Head on a Pillowy Star and a Cracked Door Moon that Says I Haven't Gone Too Far. Probably Got Those Lyrics Wrong. Fuck It.

3. Brights Eyes | Poison Oak
Another Fixture of my Squandered Youth, the Vainunglorious Bright Eyes was a Touchstone For, I Think, All My Friends. Poison Oak says I Don't Think I Ever Loved You More Than When You Turned Away, When You Slammed the Door, When You Stole the Car and Drove Towards Mexico, And You Wrote Bad Checks Just To Fill Your Arm, la la la... AND I NEVER THOUGHT THIS LIFE WAS POSSIBLE... YOU'RE THE YELLOW BIRD THAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR... THE END OF PARALYSIS, I WAS A STATUETTE, NOW I"M DRUNK AS HELL ON A PIANO BENCH, AND WHEN I PRESS THE KEYS, IT ALL GETS REVERSED, THE SOUND OF LONELINESS MAKES ME HAPPIEEERRRRRRERRR... ERRR...

4. Tarkio | Keeping Me Awake 
Somewhat Little Known Earlier Colin Meloy Band, this track was Oh, So Sweet, with a Kind of Ephemeral Longing that Never Goes Away. Stare at the Moon. It's Keeping Me Awake. Angel Moon. Ghastly Phantom Moon. Here Comes the Phantom. AGHGHGHG. Seriously though, the Violin or Fiddle in this song Makes Me Weak. It is Vulnerable and Lithe, and Perky Like a Foal. I once told my friend (who's nickname for me was Sgt. Diapers) that I Loved This Song More Than Life Itself. No One Gets It Except Griffin Peets.

5. Benjamin Britten | War Requiem: Dies Irae - Lacrymosa (Performed by Makvala Kasrashvili and Anthony Rolfe Johnson)
Reflecting On a Dead Soldier Lying in the Sun in the Snow... Think...Think... How it Wakes the Seeds, Woke Once the Clays of a Cold, Cold Star. Are Limbs so Dear Achieved, are Sides, Full-Nerved, Still Warm, too Hard to Stir? Was it for This the Clay Grew Tall?... What Made Fatuous, Fatuous Sunbeams Toil to Break Earth's Sleep at All... Wilfred Owen (WWI Poet and Casualty). Benjamin Britten's Masterpiece, In My Humble Opinion.

6. Reba McEntire | Is There Life Out There
Used to Play This Song at Open Mics in Philly. People Would Stare. Allison Wadsworth would Whoo-Whoo and Lose Her Fucking Mind. Typifies Quiet Desperation of Domestic Womanhood. Anyhood. Plus it is White Trash and I _Love_ White Trash. She thought, She'd Done Some Living, Now She's Just Wonderin' What She's Livin' For. She's Done What She Should/Should She Do What She Dares, She Doesn't Wanna Leave, She's Just Wondering If There's Life Out There.

7. Jewel | You Were Meant For Me 
Her Voice Cracks and Cries. Poor Lost Love. I Heard This Song When I was About 13 or 14 just Always Takes Me Back to First Having Those Emotions. Break the Yolks and Make a Smiley Face. Heheh...

8. Regina Spektor | Samson
Broken Up for Three Months with My Girlfriend Track. Broken Up for One Year with My Girlfriend Track. My Girlfriend Won't Talk to Me After 6 Years Track. For the Longest Time I Thought the Lyrics Were Your hair was blonde when we first met. And Mine Was. And I Loved Her First. And I Still Do. This is a Song About How I Always Love the Other Person More. And How That Is My Weakness. All My Hair Is Gone. I Let Her Cut It. Now I Have No Strength. I'm A Puddle. I'm Your Love Puddle. Bitch.

 9. The Weakerthans | Left And Leaving 
Listened to This Track (and Album of the Same Name) the Year I Set Out On My Own for the First Time and Lived in New York City. I Was Surrounded by Broken Emo Contemporaries, All Darling Youths. All Just Out Here Tryna Function. All The Tracks on this Album Exemplified the Cold, Senseless New York Winter Surrounded By Millions of People and Not Knowing Any Of Them. Waiting For The Winter To Be Done. My friend Laura was Cheated On by Her Boyfriend and my Mutual Friend Griffin and Kind of Went Insane for A While. I Always Think of Laura. And Her Spirit. And She Loved This Song. And We Did Tiny, Thoughtless Bumps Out of a Tiny, Thoughtless Baggie Before We Even Knew It Was Bad For You While Talking About Our Tiny, Absent Minded, Tryna Function Feelings, While Sitting on a Sandbin on the Empty Night Subway Platform Waiting for a Train Outside of Coney Island.

10. David Gray | Gutters Full Of Rain 
This is Not the Best David Gray Track, maybe a Better Bummer One Would Be What Am I Doing Wrong or Birds Without Wings or even The Other Side which is Sublime. But David Gray Can Write a Bummer. Naked Sadness is the Best. Coming Down is a Fucking Fantastic Song. So, So, So Cry. When I Hold You Naked... When I Hear You Laugh... I Got a Sword to Stem the Rivers and Cut the Moon in Half... Frozen Stars Above Me Mingle with the Blood Inside my Veins... Empty Hours that Should be Holdin' You Close Through Nights of Winter Rain... And I'm Tryin' to Spell What Only the Wind Can Explain... It's Colder Than Ever... Comin' Down. Comin' Down.