First Quarter, 2011
This mix is by Katie Chow and is about Q1, 2011.
Why It’s Pretentious: Because I feel the need to obsessively catalog and track my interests (I’ve had the same last.fm account for six years), here is a mix of fifteen favorite songs from the first quarter of 2011. It features comeback tracks from the Kills, Architecture in Helsinki, and MSTRKRFT, as well as clever pop culture-referencing raps from future collaborators Das Racist and Childish Gambino. I know that all of this is pretty pretentious, because I’m a music journalist who trades having a real social life for spending too much time on the internet, thus living in a weird digital cavern of mp3s and arguments about microgenres. However, you should listen to this anyways; “Love & Lust” by Arveene & Misk is a great electro banger and Oberhofer is one of the best live acts I’ve seen so far this year. Also, I’m just going to confess now that I wish there was a mash-up of both songs called “Hot Mess” from Chromeo and Cobra Starship. Does that make me sound any less pretentious? No? Fine. Just go listen to all of Zonoscope by Cut Copy, because it is phenomenal.
Stream via 8tracks.
Tracklisting after the jump.
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Minority Rapport
This mix is about minority-loving minorities.
Why It’s Pretentious: So if you follow me on Twitter, you may have realized that I only like to talk about two things: Sundance and my Asian roommate. This mix encompasses (or, at the very least, vaguely touches on) both of these things!
As an Honors student — ding! goes the pretentious bell — this is my only free semester to study abroad or “away” at our New York or LA campuses. Instead, I decided to fake-study-abroad and take a trip each month. January, I volunteered at Sundance for five days (One of the films I got to see was Ice-T’s rap documentary “Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap.” That means I’ve been feeling the West Coast rap since I got back last week. Keep that in mind as we continue on this journey.)
So my Asian roommate Sarah (obviously also Honors) decided to use her free semester to book it to LA for the spring semester. Before she left, I made her a few going away mixes. This one is comprised of hip hop/rap songs that mention Asians, bookended by songs about California. (In the interest of featuring multiple artists, there is only ONE song by Childish Gambino.) I didn’t tell her the theme beforehand, but since she has a highly-tuned Asian-dar, she was able to guess it by the second song, i.e., the first song that mentions Asians. Priceless. Anyway, we’ve all missed our little Japanese rose, but GUESS WHAT. February’s trip is to the Grammy’s, so I will see her next week! So this mix is in honor of Sarah Champion! Of Asians! Of LA! Of Ice-T (who is not actually featured in this mix)! Of friendship!
Maybe the next mix I post will not be about race, but I find that highly unlikely. This blog is slowly but surely becoming “ridiculous race-related mixtapes I made in college.” BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN NICHE MARKETS.
Download: Right click, save-as.
Tracklisting after the jump.
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