End of the road. COPPER SAFETY contains a Mindless Self Indulgence cover of the Biggie Smalls song that John Darnielle was referring to in “Fall Of The Star High School Running Back”. It also contains that one song. You know.

Tracklist:

01 NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB Get Lucky (single)
02 A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS To Fix The Gash In Your Head (web)
03 MURS Murray’s Law (Murray’s Revenge)
04 WINTERGREEN When I Wake Up (The Extended Play EP)
05 TAPES’N'TAPES Cowbell (The Loon)
06 THE HOLD STEADY Chips Ahoy! (Boys And Girls In America)
07 THE KNIFE We Share Our Mother’s Health (Silent Shout)
08 MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE Big Poppa (Shut Me Up + 3)
09 MILKY WIMPSHAKE Hackney (Popshaped)
10 THE CHANGES When I Wake (Today Is Tonight)
11 GNARLS BARKLEY Crazy (St. Elsewhere)
12 SWAN LAKE All Fires (Beast Moans)
13 AARON SCHROEDER A Movin’ Movin’ Train (Southern Heart In Western Skin)
14 LADY SOVEREIGN Blah Blah (Public Warning)
15 FLIN FLON Darlings (Dixie)
16 NOW IT’S OVERHEAD Walls (Dark Light Daybreak)
17 THE FORMAT Time Bomb (Dog Problems)
18 THE DELGADOS 4th Channel (The Complete Peel Sessions)
19 THE STARLIGHT MINTS Seventeen Devils (Drowaton)
20 FOG Inflatable Ape, Pt. 1 (Loss Leader EP)
21 THE CAPES Shinjuku Hi 5 (Hello)
22 KUDU Love Me In Your Language (Death Of The Party)
23 NOMEANSNO Heaven Is The Dust Beneath My Shoes (All Roads Lead To Ausfahrt)

Thank you for listening.

Small print: The Delgados song is originally from the 1997 album Domestiques, but this recording was left off the disc of BBC sessions they released in 2000. The Knife album will be reissued later in 2007 with, like, two bonus discs or something.

* This is the last mix of eight for 2006.
* Graphics by The Grave-Robber Of Sacramento.
* Unalloyed help by the Pharaoh Beatrix.

* Mix by

* your favorite inaccessible portion,
* JJ Rackjobber.

Despite being under no delusions about any set of record labels having a monopoly on good music, I do always find myself just a little bit more amazed when I hear something truly great from a musician who self-releases their music as free mp3s. Add’s Divider Why Are You Doing This? provided one of those moments a few years ago, so I was disappointed not to like the “beta version” of this album when he posted it last summer. Luckily, either I’m paying more attention now or the changes (which he says were minor) did exactly what was needed.

The unreal sound of songs like “Let It All Burn” is mostly gone; these tracks could pass for recordings by a band made of, you know, multiple people playing at the same time. I don’t miss that as much as I thought I would, maybe because the strange emotional scenery is still around. Jeff sounds more upset asking to have the TV turned down in “I’m Having Trouble Concentrating” than he does defying a torturer the track before.

(What does that song, “I Know My Rights”, have to do with America’s new open governmental approval for torture? Probably something, given the subject matter of Divider, but the answer is not obvious.)

Actually, the other nice thing about Internet musicians is that their releases are generally a surprise. I feel jaded, to find that that matters so much.

As the end of last year gets farther away, these mixes start looking older and older to me, and I get back in the swing of listening to new things. So it’s nice that this week contains a song by one of the artists whose new albums I had on repeat this weekend, Food For Animals. (Fair warning before you skip directly to that track: it’s hip-hop based around electronic noise. With that and the Momus song, this one is likely unsuitable for playing to coworkers.) Also, if you like the White Rose Movement song you should definitely hear Klaxons, and vice versa.

Anyway, welcome to THIS GREAT SECRET:

01 PORTASTATIC You Blanks (acoustic) (Some Small Things You Can’t Defend)
02 EPIC MAN & PLAN B More Is Enough (single)
03 CHRISTINE FELLOWS Souvenirs (Paper Anniversary)
04 WHITE ROSE MOVEMENT Girls In The Back (Kick)
05 NEW FLESH Arms House (Universally Dirty)
06 TH’ FAITH HEALERS Hippy Hole (Peel Sessions)
07 GIRL TALK Too Deep (Night Ripper)
08 KATIE THE PEST Sober (This Giant Will Kill You)
09 ARMALITE I Am A Pancreas (I Seek To Understand Me) (Armalite)
10 MOMUS Ex-Erotomane (Ocky Milk)
11 THE WHITEST BOY ALIVE Burning (Dreams)
12 MARK RONSON Just (Exit Music: Songs For Radio Heads compilation)
13 MAXIMO PARK A19 (Missing Songs)
14 THE BLOW Fists Up (Paper Television)
15 HAYWOOD Far Rockaway (As Long As There Is Track, I Will Not Go Back)
16 SPITALFIELD The Only Thing That Matters (Better Than Knowing Where You Are)
17 KEENE BROTHERS Island Of Lost Lucys (Blues & Boogie Shoes)
18 ORENDA FINK Bloodline (Invisible Ones)
19 FOOD FOR ANIMALS Elephants (Cut And Paste Your Face EP)
20 AMY RAY Driver Education (Prom)
21 TUNNG Surprise Me 44 (Mother’s Daughter And Other Songs)
22 JURASSIC 5 Get It Together (Feedback)
23 SMOOSH Find A Way (Free To Stay)
24 KLAXONS Gravity’s Rainbow (Xan Valleys EP)

Small print: “You Blanks” appeared in original form on a Portastatic album that also came out last year; this version was better. Th’ Faith Healers’ song is from a new BBC archival release. Katie The Pest’s EP may or may not have been recent enough to include, technically; the webpage and the CD’s own credits conflict. But come on, it kills. Finally, that Haywood album doesn’t actually exist. Apparently.

* This is the seventh mix of eight for 2006.
* Graphics by The Grave-Robber Of Sacramento.
* Permanent help by the Pharaoh Beatrix.

* Mix by
* your favorite XXXXXXXXXXXX,

* JJ Rackjobber.

GREEL STAGES contains the absolute best segue any of these mixes has this year. Not that you ought to care, but if you do…

Track listing:

01 THE LOUD FAMILY & ANTON BARBEAU Mavis Of Maybelline Towers (What If It Works?)
02 THE FUTUREHEADS Back To The Sea (News & Tributes)
03 CLEA Keep It Cool (Trinity)
04 PAPER MOON String Of Blinking Lights (Broken Hearts Break Faster Every Day)
05 BOY KILL BOY Suzie (Civilian)
06 SPANK ROCK Backyard Betty (YoYoYoYoYo)
07 ERIC MATTHEWS Needle In The Hay (To: Elliott / From: Portland)
08 THE HOLLOWAYS Malcontented One (So This Is Great Britain?)
09 WHITE FLIGHT Now (White Flight)
10 MATMOS Kendo For Yukio Mishima (The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast)
11 MR. LIF Murs Iz My Manager (feat. Murs) (Mo Mega)
12 MARIA TAYLOR One For The Shareholder (11:11)
13 FALL OUT BOY The Music Or The Misery (From Under The Cork Tree reissue)
14 BOB HILLMAN Have You Heard The One About The Rabbi And The Priest? (If You Lived Here You’d Be Home)
15 TY Sweating For Your Salary (feat. Wumni & Dele Sosimi) (Closer)
16 THE RAKES Binary Love (Capture/Release)
17 BEN FOLDS Lost In The Supermarket (Over The Hedge soundtrack)
18 MENEGUAR House Of Cats (I Was Born At Night)
19 VIENNA TENG Whatever You Want (Dreaming Through The Noise)
20 COLDCUT True Skool (feat. Roots Manuva) (Sound Mirrors)
21 BIT SHIFTER Activation Theme (Information Chase EP)
22 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE SexyBack (FutureSex/LoveSounds)

Small print: Those Clea and Holloways discs were UK-only releases, and I think the Ty record might have been too; normally Big Dada gets distribution in the US, but I just never saw it show up.

* This is the sixth mix of eight for 2006.
* Graphics by The Grave-Robber Of Sacramento.
* Unshakable help by the Pharaoh Beatrix.

* Mix by
* your favorite developmental stage manager,

* JJ Rackjobber.

The 80s production is just a little too much, but “You Can Call Me Al” actually sounds pretty good in context. When I was younger I thought that I was supposed to already understand what the point was, or else that the song was vapid. Immersion in Paul Simon’s studied-but-hapless construction of irreal socialization has me made comfortable believing neither of those is true.

Also, back then Graceland didn’t mean anything to me, so neither did “Graceland”. Simon’s narrator doesn’t even know why he’s going; with that awkward repetition of “I have reason to believe…” he keeps idly engaging and disengaging from his mission, like someone trying to fix a loose connection in their headphones or light socket. Starting over is a great solution to your problems if you never got anywhere to begin with.

The dry title of BID REFERENCE conceals a wealth of mellow electronic threats, reggae, and syntactically funny band names. There’s a lot of the latter; maybe I should have worked in His Name Is Alive, Now It’s Overhead, The Hold Steady and Saturday Looks Good To Me too instead of spreading them out over the other discs. Download it here. Track listing:

01 SOUTH Shallow (Adventures In The Underground Journey To The Stars)
02 GET HIM EAT HIM The Coronation Show (Do As I Tell You EP)
03 MATISYAHU Jerusalem (Youth)
04 THE ARK One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young (State Of The Ark)
05 HOT CHIP The Warning (The Warning)
06 MATES OF STATE Fraud In The 80s (Bring It Back)
07 DYKEHOUSE I Want To Give To You What I’ve Got To Put Into You (Idol Tryouts 2 compilation)
08 VOXTROT Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives (Mothers, Sisters EP)
09 PARIS HILTON Screwed (Paris)
10 CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE Young Shields (Etiquette)
11 DELAYS Lillian (You See Colours)
12 TV ON THE RADIO Wolf Like Me (Return To Cookie Mountain)
13 THUNDERBIRDS ARE NOW! PPL R ANMLS (Make History)
14 PAZA Hopefoolia (Filesystems compilation)
15 SO MANY DYNAMOS Inventing Gears (Flashlights)
16 THE MOUNTAIN GOATS Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise (Babylon Springs EP)
17 WE ARE SCIENTISTS This Scene Is Dead (With Love And Squalor)
18 CASEY DIENEL Doctor Monroe (Wind-Up Canary)
19 SEAN PAUL Bounce It Right There (Ever Blazin’ And Rare Tunes EP)
20 THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO Be Gentle With Me (The Best Party Ever)

Small print: No archival releases this week, but five of the records these are from were EPs, and more of them probably should have been.

* This is the fifth of eight mixes for 2006.
* Graphics by The Grave-Robber Of Sacramento.
* Invaluable help by the Pharaoh Beatrix.

* Mix by

* your favorite undertrick,
* JJ Rackjobber.

These days, the role of a good Fall album is mostly to redeem the salient features of whatever bad Fall albums came before it. Mark E. Smith’s voice is still wrecked, only now his wheedling and mumbling sounds aptly fevered rather than coming off as an attempt to prove that he can still rock.

To my surprise, my favorite tracks from Post TLC are the longest ones, where Mark E.’s perpetual implicit threat to wander away from the mike during recording sessions (possibly to go antagonize his bandmates) fuses with his “Last Commands of Xyralothep Via M.E.S.” schtick. Consider “Insult Song”:

“They were locked in the forest… for many years… they could not help it… they were retards! From the Los Angeles district. There was Tim… there was… Tim 2. There was Rob. There was Dave The Eagle… and the mad Greek woman, the Hydra. It was white line fever all over again! Over and over again! They had us trapped in the hills, playing their Los Angeles music. Over and over. It sounded like Amon Duul at first, but in fact… it was a plot. By three of them. We thought they wore masks… until we asked them to take them off.”

Maybe you had to be there. (Out in the UK this month, and then in the US in March. Possibly with a different tracklist or a bonus DVD or, well, whatever.)

So I got a great surprise a few weeks ago, which was that Franklin Bruno had formed a new band and released an album. The combination of the Internet and my avidity about these things means records rarely sneak up on me like that, let alone records by one of my favorite songwriters.

Civics is short: ten songs, including one by Dr. Seuss. “Professionals In Cancun” and “The Contents” seemed great right away, though I’ll be disappointed if none of the other songs achieve the same stature on further exposure; Bruno’s songs tend to spend a while sinking in. “Goods” is possibly the weirdest thing in the FJB discography… off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything close except for maybe some parts of the tape-only solo albums he made for Shrimper years ago. Let’s hope the violinist sticks around.

(My impression is that your choices for getting the CD are to go to a show– Franklin and co. are playing in Somerville March 16th– or order it online.)