It's the Plume's Mix Entry! It was bound to happen. Burn baby burn.

Ages of REM 1 - 1980-1989 (1:19:38) (All live R.E.M.)

01 - White Tornado (820514)
02 - Hippy Hippy Shake (801004)
03 - These Days (870914)
04 - Turn You Inside Out (860617)
05 - Orange Crush (860617)
06 - Begin the Begin (890303)
07 - Get Up (860617)
08 - Superman (870914)
09 - (Don't Go Back to) Rockville (811106)
10 - Gardening at Night (830709)
11 - Pretty Persuasion (811205)
12 - Swan Swan H (890303)
13 - All the Right Friends (810110)
14 - Have You Ever Seen the Rain (850510)
15 - Skip a Rope (850813)
16 - Radio Free Europe (811205)
17 - So Central Rain (850510)
18 - Fall on Me (Original Lyrics) (851029)
19 - The One I Love (860906)
20 - Perfect Circle (890609)
21 - King of Birds (860617)
22 - Camera (840624)
23 - It's the End of the World As We Know It (890609)

Comment: The first of four planned R.E.M. mixes. Cover here.

It took me a long time to make this. I kept finding new concerts to pick versions from. And I just enjoyed listening to all the concerts so it took longer than it should. But finally finished. And I'm very happy with the selection. 80s R.E.M. isn't my favourite period but I got to appreciate it a lot more while making this mix.

It starts off with the instrumental White Tornado. That was a late inclusion. I only added it after I had cut audience and banter from the other tracks and realized I had some extra time left over to fill. I had originally taken it off because there was no room, but I'm glad I fit it in in the end. Or rather in the beginning, track 1.
After that it's Hippy Hippy Shake which is mostly for fun. The real stuff starts at track 3, These Days. One of my favourites. And it starts a heavy hitting section of the mix. These Days - Turn You Inside Out - Orange Crush, that's the best part of the mix. Very rocking, very passionate. And it goes on like that, rocking out. Around Rockville on track 9 it gets a little less intensive. Replaced by classic old rem. Rockville, Gardening at Night, Pretty Persuasion and so on. A more simple rem than their later periods.

Track 15, Skip a Rope, is a cover I think. Maybe it doesn't fit in so well, it's not typical old rem but I couldn't resist it. Had to fit it in somewhere. After that we have some old hit tunes. Radio Free Europe, So Central Rain, Fall on Me (With interesting early lyrics), The One I Love, Perfect Circle. Getting more mainstream. Finishing off with two soft ones, King of Birds and Camera. King of Birds and These Days have been the great discoveries for me while making the mix. Brilliant songs. And finally, of course, It's the end of the world. You just have to finish with that. Proper R.E.M..

A very nice mix if I may say so myself. A lot of classic old skool R.E.M.. Hit potential and raw early footsteps on what was to become a glorious journey. I am already looking forward to the next chapters.

Comforting Sounds For Skye (1:18:27)

01 - Air - All I need
02 - Zwan - To Love You
03 - Zwan - Nobody 'Cept You
04 - Zwan - All Day and All of the Night (020408)
05 - Zwan - Never My Love (030119)
06 - Coldplay - Hunting High and Low (010704)
07 - Zwan - Endless Summer (030208)
08 - Zwan - A Certain Kind of Change (030208)
09 - Foo Fighters - Everlong (acoustic)
10 - Mew - Symmetry (0210xx)
11 - Coldplay - The Scientist
12 - Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me
13 - R.E.M. - Arms of Love
14 - Travis - The Humpty Dumpty Love Song
15 - R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful
16 - Chantal Kreviazuk - Feels Like Home
17 - PJ Olsson - Ready For a Fall
18 - Psyched Up Janis - Be My Baby
19 - Blur - You're So Great
20 - R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People
21 - Mew vs Plume - comforting outro

Comment: My mix for Skye. There's a cover here. Although the usual bad screenshot. I like the mix though. Put together with love & care. I hope it shows a little. More commentary to come.
And here it comes:

It starts off with Air's All I Need. When I was putting together the mix I thought the way this song started would be a great opening sound for a CD. After having it all done I'm not so sure. But I still like the song a lot, it's sweet and mellow and sounds good to me no matter what anybody says so there. And moving on, the first part of the CD is quite heavy on the Zwan. But I won't bore you with the good old story of Billy Corgan and his bands and their importance to me and Skye and the way his music has gotten more positive as if it was in tune with my life. I won't bore you with that at all. To Love You is perfect solo acoustic Billy. Unfortunately it's not complete but it's still very good. And then there is their new b-side Nobody 'Cept You. A perfect Dylan cover by David Pajo, a beautiful soft song just like To Love You. And the lyrics are perfect too. Nobody 'cept Skye.

Two soft songs followed by a little louder and funnier All Day and All of the Night. It's another cover with more sweet lyrics, "girl I want to be with you all day and all of the night". And then Zwan does another cover with Never My Love. "You ask me if there'll come a time when I grow tired of you? Never my love. Never my love. You wonder if this heart of mine will lose its desire for you? Never my love. Never my love". It's a beautiful song. I had to use live versions of these songs even though Skye isn't a fan of live music like I am. I got album versions of as many songs as possible but the first part of the CD does have a few live ones. And to break up the Zwan show there is Coldplay's cover of A-Ha's Hunting High and Low. It's a beautiful cover methinks. And then back to Zwan for two songs from their concert in Café de la Danse in Paris. It was a great acoustic show and I absolutely love the version of Endless Summer they did. That was one song where I could have taken the album version, but I wanted the live one. And also from that concert A Certain Kind of Change, another really good unreleased Zwan song.

And following those two acoustic songs we take acoustic Everlong by Foo Fighters. I love acoustic songs, can you tell? "Breathe out so I can breathe you in.. hold you in". And after that there is even more acoustic. Mew's Symmetry. The second time I could have chosen an album version but prefered the live one. It's missing the female vocalist but I love Jonas Bjerre's vocals anyway. They sound so delicate and fragile in this version. There is a point where his voice almost breaks and some people would say it's bad singing and not how it's supposed to be, but to me it just heartbreakingly beautiful. And the song has great piano too. Which also goes for the next song, Coldplay's The Scientist. I wanted a live version here but since the CD is for Skye and not for myself I replaced it. And it's a beautiful song too. "It's such a shame for us to part. Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it would be so hard". That describes parts of our relationship pretty well I think.

On to Sixpence and Kiss Me. Maybe it's a big sellout song, maybe it's easy listening pop. Who knows, who cares. It has always been sweet and beautiful to me. And then R.E.M's Arms of Love, although it's a cover. This song holds some history for Skye and I. And to boot it's also very beautiful and full of hope. And then another song I wanted to use a live version of, Travis' Humpty Dumpty Love Song. I love this song, I love it a lot. At first it seems quite unremarkable but it's really very good. "I just need you". And I can picture myself as a broken humpty dumpty egg so well. "You got the glue". I'm telling you, give this song a chance.

Back to R.E.M. for At My Most Beautiful. I've always adored that song. Great piano. Sweet and funny lyrics. "At my most beautiful, I count your eyelashes.. secretly. with every one, whisper I love you. I let you sleep. I know you're closed eye watching me.. listening. I thought I saw a smile". I'm no expert and my opinions are of no great importance but to me that's just brilliant songwriting. Or maybe it's just the piano, I can't resist pianos.

More piano in Chantal Kreviazuk's Feels Like Home. I still don't really know who she is but the song is very beautiful nonetheless. "If you knew how lonely my life has been (...) And if you knew how I wanted someone to call my love. And change my life the way you've done". I guess when you relate to the lyrics so much you can't help but find the song beautiful too. Followed by PJ Olsson's Ready For A Fall. Both of these songs are from the Dawson's Creek soundtrack and it's nice to be able to listen to them and think about Skye and have good feelings and hope for the future. Instead of an insane obsession of the past.

Psyched Up Janis is from the past too, they're broken up by now. Be My Baby is of course a cover of the classic. I like this version a lot, and the lyrics fit the CD theme pretty well. So do Blur's You're So Great. I think it's Coxon on vocals? Nice song with a nice ray of hope, "And I feel the light when you tell me it's OK. Cos you're so great, and I love you". Sweet and simple. Sometimes I just need Skye to tell me it's ok. When I get scared and think I can't do things. She helps me. She makes it ok.

And the final proper song is R.E.M.'s Shiny Happy People. Just a shiny positive closing, not looking for deeper meanings. Followed by a comforting outro. Since there was no room for Mew's 10 minute Comforting Sounds, a little 30 second instrumental edit closes the mix nicely instead.

There, all done. It makes me feel good to look at the CD. I even made a little lyrics booklet for Skye's copy. Hehe. Well, I tried. It was just really nice making it all and trying to put some emotion and feeling in it. I'm not always good at that.

Mr P's Beautiful Mix (1:18:35) (all live Eels)

01 - Your Lucky Day in Hell (970823)
02 - Dark End of the Street (000710)
03 - Not Ready Yet (000710)
04 - Open the Door (980510)
05 - It's a Motherfucker (020403)
06 - Nothing Inside (000710)
07 - Flower (970824)
08 - Novocaine for the Soul (970824)
09 - Get Your Beautiful Freak On (020403)
10 - That's Not Really Funny (020403)
11 - Packing Blankets (000710)
12 - Livin' Life (980510)
13 - Cant Help Falling in Love (000326)
14 - Daisies of the Galaxy (020314)
15 - Woman Driving, Man Sleeping (020403)
16 - 3 speed (980510)
17 - Ant Farm (980930)
18 - Electro-Shock Blues (980930)
19 - Sad Clown (020403)
20 - Climbing to the Moon (980510)
21 - The Medication Is Wearing Off (980510)
22 - My Descent into Madness (980510)
23 - Mr. E's Beautiful Blues (000710)
24 - PS. You Rock My World (Beautiful Freak) (980930)

Comment: All live Eels. The name might suck but Mr Plume has the last say. At least he didn't go with "Your Lucky Mix in Hell".
Best song of the mix: Nothing Inside. It's a little gem, they oughta release it sometime.
Biggest regret: That I couldn't fit a 15 minute version of Not Ready Yet.
"Get Your Beautiful Freak On" is a cover of Missy Elliot's Get Ur Freak On. Very interesting.
And there's a CD cover too. It's a bad screenshot and I haven't worked out how to use the program properly and so on and so forth but you can get the general idea.
This mix is sort of dedicated to Abigail who is the mix master and made me interested in it. And also rekindled my passion for Eels. Two for the price of one.

Plume's "Pop Is Dead" (1:19:36) (all Radiohead)

01 - Permanent Daylight (930615)
02 - courtesy of the disney corporation
03 - Reckoner (010623)
04 - Pearly* (010814)
05 - Dollars and Cents (010930)
06 - Climbing Up the Walls (live EMI promo)
07 - A Wolf at the Door (020730)
08 - Big Ideas (010803)
09 - Follow Me Around (001017)
10 - Thinking About You (930615)
11 - Street Spirit (010530)
12 - Idioteque (010930)
13 - You and Whose Army? (010929)
14 - Alligators in New York Sewers (live & acoustic)
15 - Like Spinning Plates (010808)
16 - There, There (021026)
17 - True Love Waits (021027)
18 - After the Gold rush (021026)
19 - Motion picture Soundtrack (live & acoustic)
20 - Black Star (live & acoustic)
21 - Pop Is Dead (live & acoustic)
22 - Wonderwall (live & parody)
23 - How I Made My Millions

Comment: Starts off with an instrumental Permanent Daylight which leads into a brutal Reckoner. And I do mean brutal. Sets the mood for a loud and rocky start to the CD. Along the way it gets quieter and towards the end it becomes acoustic with some solo Thom too. Alligators in New York Sewers renamed to Fog and released on a b-side. There, There is the first single of their new album. The CD ends with How I Made My Millions which is the only track that isn't live. It is however my favourite Radiohead song and one of my alltime favourite songs in general.

Alternate title: "Staring the fucking devil right in the eyes".

My first mix cd :)

More to come eventually...