Here is the inaugural edition of Monday Morning Mixtape, Puke on Your Birthday's newest community activity based on around music. Here's the deal. Each week, we'll announce a theme, and then you send us songs that fit that theme, as well as a short blurb (between 50 and 250 words) that you wrote about (or around) each song. We'll compile all the songs and publish the Mixtapes at the start of each Monday for you to enjoy.
That's it! As is often the case with this type of thing, it might take a few weeks to get our bearings straight. I'll be providing light feedback regarding your blurbs, but I didn't feel the need to make up "rules" for writing or selecting songs at this point. We might get there, or we might just play it by ear for a while.
Here are the playlists, both for Spotify and YouTube (if you make the playlist in any other format, drop a link in the comments!). I put the songs in order based on alphabetization of artist name, but will change up the order week-to-week. Blurbs are underneath the music, and each blurb's author is noted at the end of the blurb.
"Thank You for the Music" by ABBA
"Thank You for the Music" by ABBA
from The Album, 1978
"Music Is Worth Living For" by Andrew W.K.
What would life be without a song or a dance? Starting off 2025 with everyone's favorite Swedish pop supergroup, ABBA. Easy listening, karaoke-able, "Thank You for the Music." A quick and easy song about how much we love and need music. A little inception moment, if you will. Essentially is ABBA just thanking themselves at this point? Discuss. —Sara
"Music Is Worth Living For" by Andrew W.K.
from You're Not Alone, 2018
Lightly scrolling any playlist, one's eyebrows and heartbeat raise a bit when reading "Andrew W.K." Not every song is an absolute banger (or maybe it is), but every song encapsulates the feeling of partying until you bleed out your eyes, the joys of camaraderie, and the extreme ecstasy of music played at 11 and beyond. This song is as literal as it gets—NO SUBTEXT. KEEP PARTYING. MUSIC FUCKING ROCKS. P.S. If you watch this music video, you'll notice he and the band are playing this song at the end of the universe, or something. —Sunny
"Lowest Part Is Free!" by Archers of Loaf
from Archers of Loaf vs. the Greatest of All Time EP, 1994
from Archers of Loaf vs. the Greatest of All Time EP, 1994
Ok. Not the greatest start if we are talking about music positively, but few bands made a career out of being indie rockers singing about indie rock-ing quite like the Archers of Loaf did. This band is not for everyone, but it is for my people. I think a good New Years Resolution for people who have not already done so is "get into Archers of Loaf," and start with Vs. the Greatest of All Time EP. After those few songs, you'll know whether you want to continue. —Gilson
"Kick Drum Heart" by the Avett Brothers
"Kick Drum Heart" by the Avett Brothers
from I and Love and You, 2009
Music is so good, it's the beat of your heart. When I hear the Avett Brothers, all I can think of is the Mann Center. I feel like they come around every summer or early fall to Philly, and it is consistently at the Mann Center. Which is a great venue, but is absolute ass logistically to get to and from. —Sara
"Substitute" by Frank Turner
from Love Ire & Song, 2008
Music is so good, it's the beat of your heart. When I hear the Avett Brothers, all I can think of is the Mann Center. I feel like they come around every summer or early fall to Philly, and it is consistently at the Mann Center. Which is a great venue, but is absolute ass logistically to get to and from. —Sara
"Put Your Records On" by Corinne Bailey Rae
from Corinne Bailey Rae, 2006
from Corinne Bailey Rae, 2006
In figuring out how I want to approach this project, I thought about many things. How many songs should I include? Three seems reasonable. I don't have to prove my musical knowledge to anyone, but fuck, I have good taste, and you should all know that. I'll try to include one song each week that is a little bit of a curveball and off my beaten path. Make no mistake: this is not some type of performative choice. This song fucking rips. It always has, and it always will. —Gilson
"One More Time" by Daft Punk
from Discovery, 2001
Before Daft Punk gets into their endless (and well-earned) repetition of the aphorism "music's got me feelin' so free," they first let us know what else music does to us. In the bridge, we get: "Music's got me feeling the need." The need to what? To celebrate. That's it! That's the hook! Music makes us celebrate! It literally does not get any more basic than this. There are a billion reasons why music is awesome, but most of them boil down to this—we celebrate. That's good enough for Daft Punk. That's good enough for me. —Joe
"Substitute" by Frank Turner
from Love Ire & Song, 2008
Not my favorite song off this pretty solid album from RC last year (that would be "Reasons Not to Be an Idiot" or "Prufrock," probably). It is, however, the most upfront in the Love, Ire, and Song themes from the album. Music may not be a one-to-one substitute for capital-L love, but it's bloody close. —Sunny
"Girls Like Status" by the Hold Steady
from Boys and Girls in America, 2006
How many songs on this mixtape will be the Hold Steady, I wonder? Knowing my compatriots, the answer should be "a lot," though I'm guessing, like me, they have limited themselves to one song by them, or none, in the interest of sharing the wealth and assuming (rightfully) that we all know the fucking Hold Steady. This is also a little bit self-referential on my part, because this song references my last song choice for the Yearlong Song Challenge (RIP). —Gilson
"Paprika" by Japanese Breakfast
from Jubilee, 2021
I close my eyes and I see myself onstage and I feel the warm hush of the crowd as the spotlight shines down upon me as I stand there in the center of that stage and I take a deep breath and open my mouth and... Then I open my eyes and I'm back here, at my office job, being told that I am stuck here for the next three decades and if I fuck up then I will lose the ability to feed or house myself in the two decades after that, and no, no, I will never make music, I will never be able to create like that, I will just stay here, and listen, and appreciate, and use the art as a shield against the rest of that bullshit. Music is awesome because it's a self-defense maneuver. —Joe
"Dance Music" by the Mountain Goats
from The Sunset Tree, 2005
Fortunately, I did not have nearly as traumatic a childhood as John Darnielle did. But we all can benefit from the healing powers of screaming along to songs we love. This is not my go to Mountain Goats song for that purpose, but the lyrics are explicitly about that idea. So this is what the volume knob is for. —Sam
"Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder
from Songs in the Key of Life, 1976
I love that conspiracy theory that Stevie Wonder is faking his blindness. You ever see this one? I can't find it now, but there was a video clip of Wonder catching a microphone or something before it hit the ground. This was the "proof." As with many conspiracy theories, there's an easy explanation (good reaction instincts supersede not being able to see the reaction). And, as with many conspiracy theories, they make sense until you ask one simple question: why? Why would Stevie Wonder fake blindness? What benefit would that be to him? Have you fucking heard "Sir Duke"? You think this is a good song because the artist who made it is blind? No, obviously not. "Sir Duke" is a classic, and people with 20/20 vision drop their microphones all the time. —Joe
"Excursions" by A Tribe Called Quest
from The Low End Theory, 1991
Q-Tip and his father bonded over the shared legacy of two different genres of music—hip hop and bebop jazz. I guess that's somewhat of a throwaway line, but I've never took it as such. I take it as gospel. Music is what binds us together. Yes, sure, we all have different tastes, and arguing over those tastes is what makes this so goddamn fun. But if you step back and get a wide enough vantage point, you can see that it's all related. Why shouldn't I love rap, or jazz, or country, or house, or Broadway? It's all music, isn't it? Just stay open-minded, and you'll get there eventually. —Joe
"I Love My Label" by Wilco
from The Whole Love (bonus track), 2011
I first heard this song while walking around Denver in January 2012, killing time before the Wilco concert, listening to The Whole Love to get myself ready. This is a bonus track to that album, and so I had never heard of it. Wilco's struggles with its previous labels were well documented. It must be cool to have a label that you like. This is an experience I can't relate to and may never be able to relate to. I do want to know about publishers, though, and what it's like to publish a book. May I know what it's like to hate my publisher, because that would mean I've been in contact with one. —Zach
"Play That Funky Music" by Wild Cherry
from Wild Cherry, 1976
The specification by Wild Cherry that it is a "white boy" who is playing said funky music is at once the worst artistic decision in the history of music and the best commercial decision in the history of music. It's not inclusive, is the thing. The irony of a "white boy" playing music that has traditionally been shaped by Black communities is the thing that gives me a bad case of the cringe. At the same time, it sure has gotten a whole lot of white boys up out of their chairs and dancing to some dumb '70s funk song. I've literally never known the race of the members of Wild Cherry until the very moment, when I looked it up. They are white. I have no idea if this makes it better or worse. —Joe
NEXT WEEK'S THEME: "Jukebox Hero" — It's 7:30 PM on a Saturday at your local dive. Most of the seats are full, but not a lot of standers yet. What are you playing on the Touch Tunes? (chosen by Gilson)
12 comments:
I just listened through the whole playlist, this experiment so far is a smashing success. I forgot all about Kick Drum Heart and probably would have forever if not for this.
"Sir Duke" and "Dance Music" as my picks for best songs. Undecided as to whether I should commit to a "worst song" running bit, because I don't know if that would go against the spirit of the project here. I'm also always a little weary about saying that ABBA sucks ass because I know how important those fuckers are to some people around these parts.
Music I Will Download This Week Because of MMM: Okay, sure, I'll take the bait for Archers of Loaf. Gonna start with Icky Mettle though. You (Gilson) can let me know if that's a bad call.
Echoing Zach in saying that this was a success. Good mixture of music, a good mixture of writing. Hopefully this thing can keep going for a while.
I am happy to name a worst song of the week and will do so shortly.
That’s where I started so no complaints. Great first record for them.
Worst song: Frank Turner.
See, this is why I was reluctant. TERRIBLE choice for worst song. That's a great goddamn song right there!
C'mon, the part at the end where the backing vocals come in, then the soft organ, then the even softer trumpet (I think? maybe with a mute?), that's some good music-making right there.
The category isn't "worst music-making right there," it's "worst song." and this is it.
This is a safe space to piss off the MM2C lmao
"but fuck, I have good taste, and you should all know that" Gilson confidently coming into 2025. I want to make fun of it, but Put Your Records on was my favorite song on this list. I've been got!
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