Welcome to Monday Morning Mixtape, a PoYB Contributor-curated playlist of songs, made just for you on the first Monday of each month.
Welcome to our new monthly format! Regardless of what it does to participation, at the very least I don't have to put together Spotify playlists every week now, which is cool! Speaking of cool:
"Cool Cool Cool"
Give us the coolest songs you know (since we are bloggers, and are thus authorities on the concept of cool)
chosen by Joe
"Aching" by Mannequin Pussy
from I Got Heaven, 2024
I'm not gonna lie, this is the MMM that has given me the most stress since at least the Women's History Month one. The first problem is that I don't think that I am cool (the theme's explanation was sarcasm, obviously), and thus I get an intense imposter's syndrome when attempting to speak on what is cool. The second problem is that someone believing that they themselves are cool is the most uncool thing you could possibly do, and so I wouldn't dare even approach that line of thinking. The third problem is that I have a very narrow definition of what "cool" means, especially in the context of music. I can basically run every song through my head and come up with a reason why it's not cool. That's on me, though. And so I'm basically choosing songs that have the weakest arguments in my head. I couldn't think of too many reasons why Mannequin Pussy would be considered uncool. —Joe
"Icky Thump" by the White Stripes
from Icky Thump, 2007
Here's what I'm speculating where my personal definition of cool comes from: grade school bullies. I use "bullies" extremely lightly, of course. No trauma, no hardship. But there were actions from me and reactions from others, and that trained me over time. The action was, uh, finding success, academically, in the small pond of elementary school. The reaction was "Joe is a fucking loser" because of that. I didn't bail on getting good grades (not until my last year of college, and even then, I got by), but I did build a protective layer. That layer looked something like "I will never show anyone that I care." Coolness isn't defined by what you do, but how you react to what you do, is what I found. I can get good grades but the crucial part is to pretend that I don't care. Cool is effortless and humble success. Uncool is having success and showing anyone that you're proud of it or that you tried really hard. And so I am trapped in this mindset, even though I realize how unfair it is. And so I apply it to music, within the context of this mixtape. What is cool? Cool is music from people who are really good at making music but don't ever show that they care. —Joe
"Puppet to the Man" by Kurt Vile
from Smoke Ring for My Halo, 2011
I asked Pam what she thought of this prompt. Her mind was not twisted in the same way as mine was so her definition of cool was a lot broader. The first artist she named as an example of music that is cool was the War on Drugs. The first artist I had named was Kurt Vile. The dichotomy of those two answers is actually pretty useful in trying to explain what I think is certifiably "cool." I like the War on Drugs' music a little better, but I think Kurt Vile is cooler. The reason I like the War on Drugs' music a little better is because the care so fucking much about the craft, and the music is large and epic and feels like it's important, and that they are giving fucking everything when they make that music, and it makes my heart swell. That's what makes it good, but that's also what makes it not as cool. Kurt Vile has rarely, if ever, made music that felt epic. His music sounds like a stoner making the shit he wants to make while hanging out in his garage (that's because that's literally what the music is). He obviously cares about his craft, but the presentation suggests that he doesn't care. That's what the difference is! Not the action, but the reaction. He's cool as fuck. —Joe
"expectations" by Olivia Rodrigo
from you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, 2026
This one finds me in the gap between knowing that the artist is cool and wanting to believe that the artist is cool. Besides, ya know, the whole idea of operating within the pop music industry that requires false pretenses for the sake of entertainment to the widest audience possible, Olivia Rodrigo feels to me to be the pop star most able to overcome those hurdles and present the truest version of herself that she can (again, understand the circumstances, which are trying for those who wish to present their true selves). She's working against the pop music grain in terms of music style (this being, what, an art rock song, post-punk, new wave, something like that? something that you would never fucking here from a banal Swift sort?) and in terms of play-it-safe PR shit (pretty outspoken about abortion rights; LGBTQ+ advocacy in a world that is actively trying to kill trans people; donations and forthrightness about UNICEF relief efforts for Palestinians who are currently being murdered by the Israeli government, in a culture that seems designed to silence such relief efforts). I believe that Olivia Rodrigo is working in an industry at a level that makes it impossible to make good art and act like they don't care, but I believe that Olivia Rodrigo gets closer to that cool ideal than basically any of her peers. —Joe
"You're Gonna Miss Me" by the 13th Floor Elevators
from The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, 1966
So much of what's cool and what's not cool comes back to the reaction outside of the artist, that it makes it pretty much impossible for any well-liked artist to actually be cool. I'm still describing my own fucked-up brain, mind you, so take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt. But my reaction to something being popular is still, after all these years, "that's not cool." Again, this is completely separate from the "is this good" discussion. The Beatles are very good, one of the best to ever do it, but they are NOT cool. Way too popular to be cool! This took me so long to distinguish, that these were two different conversations, like an embarrassingly long time. There is so much great music out there that I love, despite the fact that it is popular. There is so much great fucking music out there that I love, despite the fact that it is so fucking lame. My love of music is vast, and is not strung up on whether it's cool or not. My love of cool music is small and narrow, and that's because my definition of "cool" was irrevocably damaged at a formative age. That's not cool. —Joe
"What It Is" by the Cool Kids
from The Bake Sale EP, 2008
The exclusion of rap music from my own inner "what is cool" monologue has to do with the fact that I don't consider myself cool, and I certainly don't consider to cool to try to talk about what is cool regarding things I'm not knowledgeable about. I already said that there is a difference between caring and not caring, or at least the presentation of caring vs. not caring. But what would be a mortal sin would be the presentation of caring about something that you don't actually know jackshit about. The irony is that the very first rap album that I ever actually listened to of my own accord and appreciated and thought was cool because I grew to know it well and it became a part of my during my formative years was by a rap duo literally named "the Cool Kids." Do I think the Cool Kids are cool? Yeah, I do. Not every song on The Bake Sale EP is cool, but some of it is, because they feel like they are just fucking around, which is cool. I don't know if the Cool Kids think about coolness in the same way I do. Maybe what I think about cool doesn't matter. Probably it shouldn't. —Joe
NEXT MONTH: TBA for the next MMM on Monday, September 7th!
