WARMER MIXTAPES #1001 | by Steven Schayer (The Chills) and John Andrew Fredrick of The Black Watch
Photos by Steve Keros
SIDE A | by John Andrew Fredrick
1. The Beatles | And Your Bird Can Sing
It's my Favorite Song of All Time, not just the Now-Time. An inexplicable thing--that harkens back to boyhood and my obsession with John, Paul, George, Ringo. On rare Rainy days in Sunny Santa Barbara when we couldn't go out to play on Schoolground Playgrounds, we would put on Revolver and pretend we were the Fabs. Memories of blond kids dancing falling madly backwards.
2. Sparks | The Decline And Fall Of Me
Sparks is a Sentimental choice, seeing as they were the First Concert I Ever Went To. Insistent Riffs that are of course Melodic and memorable? Check. And what I look to mix in in my own Songwriting.
3. David Bowie | Where Are We Now?
Plaintive and patient, this song builds with Veteran Stateliness. I Love to death a simple Guitar Riff that repeats as the Base Chords change. It's all that more Majestic that this happens halfway through the song. A build, slow and seductive, sends me every time. Especially with Majestic Bowie--and such a welcome return, his.
4. My Bloody Valentine | Soon
Played this for my girlfriend Anne Wolfe-Andersen who is making her first Short Film. Because she's got Rhythm par Excellence herself and dances like a Fairy Queen Nymph Viking Indian Warrior Princess. MBV's greatest Dance track (right up there, for me, with Sly and Stevie Wonder's best work) is, to boot, Cinematic as all get-out. That's why I turned Anne on to it.
5. The Radio Dept. | Pulling Our Weight
They are Masters at High Grade Lo-Fi. New Order Copyists, yes, but they wear their rue with a difference. I obsess on them from time to time.
6. Brenton Wood | The Oogum Boogum Song
I want to Cover this song Acoustic.
7. The Glove | And All Around Us The Mermaids Sang (aka Torment) (RS Vocal Demo)
From time to time I torture/delight myself by seeing how many times I can listen to a track on repeat. T'other day I got up to 27 with this one. Because I am mad, I'm sure. Repetition Compulsion pays off. Er, somehow. I don't know how. Robert Smith's most extraordinary and underrated song. It reminds me of being head over heals in Love. With someone, with Music.
8. Sonic Youth | Teenage Riot
There are no words why.
9. The Who | Glittering Girl
Rickenbackers. I consider the whole of The Who Sell Out one long Masterpiece of a song. So let's just say the entire album's my favorite song right now.
10. Sparks | Girl From Germany
There they are again--Russell and Ron. This is a Sexy as Hell track. I fall for the Chugga-Chugga. It imitates the Act of Love, somehow. I shall go put it on right now!
SIDE B | by Steven Schayer
1. The Apartments | Cannot Tell the Days Apart
I can’t really express how much I Love this song (and, in fact, the entire album wherein it resides, The Evenings Visits... And Stays For Years). I probably first heard it while working at Vinyl Fetish, one of the First Imported Record Stores in Los Angeles. I might have read somewhere that the leader of the band (Peter Milton Walsh) had very, very briefly been in the Go-Betweens. That certainly would have piqued my interest. Although the world the Apartments conjure up on this album, Musically, is in some ways reminiscent of the early and more angular Go-Betweens (say, Before Hollywood-era), there’s a certain sparkly moodiness to many of the songs you don’t often find in the Go-Betweens. It manages to be inviting while at the same making you feel sort of like you’re being let in on something intensely personal. Mr. Walsh released several albums and then took a rather too long break from making with the Music. He has recently committed his particular brand of excellence to both Vinyl AND the Stage. He is also a very nice person and French people dig him. Vive la France!
2. Sun Kil Moon | Carry Me Ohio
I revisit this song fairly frequently, as well as Glen Tipton from the same album. Every time I listen to them I think to myself, Jesus, they have so many albums I’ve never even heard!... And then I promise myself to do just that…Right after I listen to this song over and over and over again. But then I don’t. But I will. I swear. (p.s.: Nick Drake - Road)
3. Look Blue Go Purple | Grace
I’d heard the first few Bars of this song in a Record Store, immediately purchased the 12” EP it was on and went home to listen to it. I listened to it all night as I recall. Though I know I’d listened to other bands on Flying Nun before, this all Girl Group seemed to embody all the Magic that I later grew to hear and appreciate in so many of the other bands from this particular period in Flying Nun’s History. Bands like The Clean, The Verlaines, the Able Tasmans, The Jean Paul Sartre Experience, Sneaky Feelings, etc. And, probably, most importantly, the Chills who, once my own band The Clay Idols disbanded, I was fortunate enough to be asked to join. And in that process, I got to meet and become (and remain) dear friends with many of the members of these bands. Maybe this songs represents all that to me. Or maybe it’s just an incredibly great song by five incredibly talented and lovely people.
4. Chris Bell | I Am The Cosmos
Well, it’s Stunning. What else can I say. The first time I heard it was when Martin Phillipps played it for me on a Walkman in a Hotel in Burbank during a break in the Sessions for the Recording of Soft Bomb. It’s both breathtakingly epic and yet very delicate. The Universe pauses and marvels at the beginning of the Guitar Solo. You know what I mean? (p.s.: Big Star - Night Time)
5. The Teardrop Explodes | Reward
A month doesn’t go by after all these years of loving this song where I don’t get the urge to avail myself of the Trumpety Goodness of its Pop Greatness.
6. Monks | Oh, How To Do Now
The Lunacy of the Electric Banjo. The Cheesy Organ. The Wacky Get-Ups. The Tonsures. The superior way the Lead Singer delivers the line make you mine/long long time/ today. That’s why. Unbearably Dig-Worthy. (p.s.: Brian Eno - The True Wheel)
7. Buffalo Springfield | Burned
I just borrowed the 4 CD Boxset and trust me that’s a whole lot of Buffalo Springfield to get through, folks. But, I was reminded how much I Love this song. And then I was reminded how much I Love Sit Down I Think I Love You, Mr. Soul, Go And Say Goodbye, Pay The Price and heaps more. But I’ll go with Burned and trust you’ll get the picture.
8. Jefferson Airplane | She Has Funny Cars
When the Jefferson Airplane did that 20th Anniversary of the Summer Of Love Tour they played in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. So, a bunch of made our way up there figuring if you have the chance to see the Jefferson Airplane Live in Golden Gate Park then you should take it. So up from L.A. we did drive. I remember waiting outside of the perimeter of the Park on the day of the Show, waiting to meet up with some friends who were (being San Franciscans) running late before making our way down into the area where the band was playing. In the distance I heard the distinctive Opening Drum Beat to this song and said, Fuck it! and refused to wait any longer. I recall running uphill and then down along some sort of wooded path that led down to where the band were playing; I could hear them but not see them as I rushed through slower moving old hippies and various meandering human beings. I distinctly remember nudging Robyn Hitchcock out of my way as he was taking his sweet ass time moving along. It’s a song that I Love so much it makes me impatient. And perhaps a little rude to Robyn Hitchcock. (p.s.: Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra - Sand)
9. Patti Smith | Land: Horses
For the part where the song begins its sweeping stride into Historic Greatness:
...When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by
Horses, horses, horses, horses!
Coming in in all directions...
White Shining Silver studs with their nose in flames...
He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses!
It gives me shivers. It really does. It’s importance can’t be overstated.
10. The Gun Club | She’s Like Heroin To Me
Or just as easily For The Love Of Ivy... The Gun Club were just an amazing band to behold during this period. The songs on this album, Fire Of Love, have a Potent and Malarial Sensuality that’s both Creepy and Spellbinding. She’s Like Heroin To Me is the more concise example of their Musical Voodoo Charms while For The Love Of Ivy encapsulates the unbridled Expression of their Considerable Power. Not to mention Jeffrey Lee Pierce’s Ability to Commit Lyrical Menace to Vinyl and still make it Appealing to the Ears. I never tire of it. I just listened to it yesterday. I just might listen to it again tomorrow. (and my final p.s.: The Velvet Underground - All Tomorrow's Parties)...
1. The Beatles | And Your Bird Can Sing
It's my Favorite Song of All Time, not just the Now-Time. An inexplicable thing--that harkens back to boyhood and my obsession with John, Paul, George, Ringo. On rare Rainy days in Sunny Santa Barbara when we couldn't go out to play on Schoolground Playgrounds, we would put on Revolver and pretend we were the Fabs. Memories of blond kids dancing falling madly backwards.
2. Sparks | The Decline And Fall Of Me
Sparks is a Sentimental choice, seeing as they were the First Concert I Ever Went To. Insistent Riffs that are of course Melodic and memorable? Check. And what I look to mix in in my own Songwriting.
3. David Bowie | Where Are We Now?
Plaintive and patient, this song builds with Veteran Stateliness. I Love to death a simple Guitar Riff that repeats as the Base Chords change. It's all that more Majestic that this happens halfway through the song. A build, slow and seductive, sends me every time. Especially with Majestic Bowie--and such a welcome return, his.
4. My Bloody Valentine | Soon
Played this for my girlfriend Anne Wolfe-Andersen who is making her first Short Film. Because she's got Rhythm par Excellence herself and dances like a Fairy Queen Nymph Viking Indian Warrior Princess. MBV's greatest Dance track (right up there, for me, with Sly and Stevie Wonder's best work) is, to boot, Cinematic as all get-out. That's why I turned Anne on to it.
5. The Radio Dept. | Pulling Our Weight
They are Masters at High Grade Lo-Fi. New Order Copyists, yes, but they wear their rue with a difference. I obsess on them from time to time.
6. Brenton Wood | The Oogum Boogum Song
I want to Cover this song Acoustic.
7. The Glove | And All Around Us The Mermaids Sang (aka Torment) (RS Vocal Demo)
From time to time I torture/delight myself by seeing how many times I can listen to a track on repeat. T'other day I got up to 27 with this one. Because I am mad, I'm sure. Repetition Compulsion pays off. Er, somehow. I don't know how. Robert Smith's most extraordinary and underrated song. It reminds me of being head over heals in Love. With someone, with Music.
8. Sonic Youth | Teenage Riot
There are no words why.
9. The Who | Glittering Girl
Rickenbackers. I consider the whole of The Who Sell Out one long Masterpiece of a song. So let's just say the entire album's my favorite song right now.
10. Sparks | Girl From Germany
There they are again--Russell and Ron. This is a Sexy as Hell track. I fall for the Chugga-Chugga. It imitates the Act of Love, somehow. I shall go put it on right now!
1. The Apartments | Cannot Tell the Days Apart
I can’t really express how much I Love this song (and, in fact, the entire album wherein it resides, The Evenings Visits... And Stays For Years). I probably first heard it while working at Vinyl Fetish, one of the First Imported Record Stores in Los Angeles. I might have read somewhere that the leader of the band (Peter Milton Walsh) had very, very briefly been in the Go-Betweens. That certainly would have piqued my interest. Although the world the Apartments conjure up on this album, Musically, is in some ways reminiscent of the early and more angular Go-Betweens (say, Before Hollywood-era), there’s a certain sparkly moodiness to many of the songs you don’t often find in the Go-Betweens. It manages to be inviting while at the same making you feel sort of like you’re being let in on something intensely personal. Mr. Walsh released several albums and then took a rather too long break from making with the Music. He has recently committed his particular brand of excellence to both Vinyl AND the Stage. He is also a very nice person and French people dig him. Vive la France!
2. Sun Kil Moon | Carry Me Ohio
I revisit this song fairly frequently, as well as Glen Tipton from the same album. Every time I listen to them I think to myself, Jesus, they have so many albums I’ve never even heard!... And then I promise myself to do just that…Right after I listen to this song over and over and over again. But then I don’t. But I will. I swear. (p.s.: Nick Drake - Road)
3. Look Blue Go Purple | Grace
I’d heard the first few Bars of this song in a Record Store, immediately purchased the 12” EP it was on and went home to listen to it. I listened to it all night as I recall. Though I know I’d listened to other bands on Flying Nun before, this all Girl Group seemed to embody all the Magic that I later grew to hear and appreciate in so many of the other bands from this particular period in Flying Nun’s History. Bands like The Clean, The Verlaines, the Able Tasmans, The Jean Paul Sartre Experience, Sneaky Feelings, etc. And, probably, most importantly, the Chills who, once my own band The Clay Idols disbanded, I was fortunate enough to be asked to join. And in that process, I got to meet and become (and remain) dear friends with many of the members of these bands. Maybe this songs represents all that to me. Or maybe it’s just an incredibly great song by five incredibly talented and lovely people.
4. Chris Bell | I Am The Cosmos
Well, it’s Stunning. What else can I say. The first time I heard it was when Martin Phillipps played it for me on a Walkman in a Hotel in Burbank during a break in the Sessions for the Recording of Soft Bomb. It’s both breathtakingly epic and yet very delicate. The Universe pauses and marvels at the beginning of the Guitar Solo. You know what I mean? (p.s.: Big Star - Night Time)
5. The Teardrop Explodes | Reward
A month doesn’t go by after all these years of loving this song where I don’t get the urge to avail myself of the Trumpety Goodness of its Pop Greatness.
6. Monks | Oh, How To Do Now
The Lunacy of the Electric Banjo. The Cheesy Organ. The Wacky Get-Ups. The Tonsures. The superior way the Lead Singer delivers the line make you mine/long long time/ today. That’s why. Unbearably Dig-Worthy. (p.s.: Brian Eno - The True Wheel)
7. Buffalo Springfield | Burned
I just borrowed the 4 CD Boxset and trust me that’s a whole lot of Buffalo Springfield to get through, folks. But, I was reminded how much I Love this song. And then I was reminded how much I Love Sit Down I Think I Love You, Mr. Soul, Go And Say Goodbye, Pay The Price and heaps more. But I’ll go with Burned and trust you’ll get the picture.
8. Jefferson Airplane | She Has Funny Cars
When the Jefferson Airplane did that 20th Anniversary of the Summer Of Love Tour they played in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. So, a bunch of made our way up there figuring if you have the chance to see the Jefferson Airplane Live in Golden Gate Park then you should take it. So up from L.A. we did drive. I remember waiting outside of the perimeter of the Park on the day of the Show, waiting to meet up with some friends who were (being San Franciscans) running late before making our way down into the area where the band was playing. In the distance I heard the distinctive Opening Drum Beat to this song and said, Fuck it! and refused to wait any longer. I recall running uphill and then down along some sort of wooded path that led down to where the band were playing; I could hear them but not see them as I rushed through slower moving old hippies and various meandering human beings. I distinctly remember nudging Robyn Hitchcock out of my way as he was taking his sweet ass time moving along. It’s a song that I Love so much it makes me impatient. And perhaps a little rude to Robyn Hitchcock. (p.s.: Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra - Sand)
9. Patti Smith | Land: Horses
For the part where the song begins its sweeping stride into Historic Greatness:
...When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by
Horses, horses, horses, horses!
Coming in in all directions...
White Shining Silver studs with their nose in flames...
He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses!
It gives me shivers. It really does. It’s importance can’t be overstated.
10. The Gun Club | She’s Like Heroin To Me
Or just as easily For The Love Of Ivy... The Gun Club were just an amazing band to behold during this period. The songs on this album, Fire Of Love, have a Potent and Malarial Sensuality that’s both Creepy and Spellbinding. She’s Like Heroin To Me is the more concise example of their Musical Voodoo Charms while For The Love Of Ivy encapsulates the unbridled Expression of their Considerable Power. Not to mention Jeffrey Lee Pierce’s Ability to Commit Lyrical Menace to Vinyl and still make it Appealing to the Ears. I never tire of it. I just listened to it yesterday. I just might listen to it again tomorrow. (and my final p.s.: The Velvet Underground - All Tomorrow's Parties)...
