Rob’s Mix: (un)familiar
07/08 (un)familiar - 62:36
Mix Compiled by: Rob Monroe
Illustrations by: Lisa Ventuso
Slow like molasses, listen on a long summer night’s drive…
Track Listing -
1. Beck - Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime
2. Rohner Segnitz - Argumentless
3. Evaangelicals - Strange Visions
4. Autolux - Future Perfect
5. The National - Santa Clara
6. Grizzly Bear - Shift (Alternate Version)
7. Jeff Buckley - The Other Woman
8. Broken Social Scene - Lover’s Spit (Radio)
9. Wilco - Panthers
10. Sufjan Stevens - Borderline
11. Arcade Fire - Cold Wind
12. My Morning Jacket - How Could I Know
13. Radiohead - 4 Minute Warning
14. Bon Iver - Wisconsin
When Dan asked me to be a part of this mix cd group I was immediately inspired. I remember walking down 14th street and instantly knowing the theme of my mix and the artists it would contain. In fact, I called Dan that moment because I couldn’t wait to share the idea with someone. He in his very smug and endearing way said something to the effect of, “Sounds cool, can’t wait..”. Unphased as I was, I walked along with iPod in hand selecting the songs one by one. The reason I came to be so excited about this idea was for the first time in a long time, I was assembling something for others to hear that was not my own musical creation. I remember in high school dubbing tapes in my room til’ the early hours of the morning to give to friends at school the next day. Designing by hand the cassete inserts and feeling like I had expressed some fleeting moment forever. With the past decade in my life coming to a close and the new digital playlist era fully taking leadership of the popular music world, we were all ultimately forced to change how we appreciate music and cope with the abandonment of the physicality of the process. Having a musical background I know how important this process can be to the artist, but being first a music fan, I know how much more important it was to me then.
With all that said I present to you “(un)familiar”. The idea behind the title was to gather many artists who I assumed would be familiar to many, but present songs that were the opposite. I gathered b-sides, demos, ep selections and just generally unfamiliar material that was excluded from the lp at the time of its making. I personally don’t think people give these excluded songs enough attention. In the making of an album a song can be cut for many reasons; lack of cohesivness with the overall product, too strong a song, or perhaps the best outcome, too personal. My intentions were to prove you could compile a large offering of these misfits and make something worth keeping on all the way through. So without further adieu, please take a long drive or in the summer night and let the slow unfamiliarty become the opposite. Enjoy.
