My own blood in my mouth

Almost a year ago, I had this great idea for a new mix CD. Now, it should be noted that I do, indeed, take a great deal of time crafting mix CDs. Sometimes they become double-disc albums, due to sequencing and format issues. This is dorky. I admit this. Not the point.

I was compiling data (code for “list of songs”) for my newest mix. It was going to be awesome. It was going to be themed. But not themed as in, “songs about love” or “bands with numbers in their name.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that; my mix that was geographically themed and sequenced by smallest to largest populations worked quite well. Began with “Destination Moon” by They Might Be Giants and ended with “Across the Universe” by The Beatles. Pretty solid. But this mix was going to be different.

It was going to be all songs in the time signature of 8:8. That’s the time signature you can tap out as 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2. Basically a bar of 6:8 (which is two bars of waltz tempo put together) with two more beats tacked on at the end. Make sense? Good. This mix was going to be full of 8:8 songs, all very different as to highlight the versatility of the time signature. There was to be “Kissing the Lipless” by The Shins, “Icarus Schmicarus” by McLusky, “I Hold the Sound” by The Thermals, “Let’s Talk About Spaceships” by Say Hi To Your Mom, “Draw Us Lines” by The Constantines, “Party Pit” by the Hold Steady, and more. It was to be a veritable menagerie to show the multitude of ways to use 8:8.

And then the fucking Mountain Goats beat me to it. I bought their new album yesterday, and upon listening to it, I noticed that John Darnielle sure is using a lot of 8:8 these days. Like, a lot a lot. As in, he decided to make his own mix CD of 8:8 songs, but only put his own music on it.

First things first. I am a huge Mountain Goats apologist. I drove from San Diego to Los Angeles last year and paid fifty bucks to see them as part of a benefit where they played five songs. Totally worth it. I try to get everyone I know to listen to the band. In fact, you should listen to the Mountain Goats. Now.

But back to this new album, Heratic Pride. It’s thirteen tracks long. Five of which (tracks 1, 3, 7, 10, and 11 if you’d like to know) are in 8:8 through and through. Four more of them (tracks 2, 4, 6, and 9) are played on the guitar in 8:8, though the drums keep steady 4:4 time. Aside – that’s another good thing about 8:8. One bar of 8:8 maintains the same song structure as two bars of 4:4, thus being a less confusing time signature to hear, and easier to keep time with. How do you not dangle that preposition? Easier with which to keep time?

So that’s nine songs of thirteen that either are, or seem to attempt to be, in 8:8. This does not bother me a great deal from a songwriting standpoint; though I think the album is a little over-reliant on the pattern, I’m sure it will all sound more normal with a few more listens. It bothers me from a music geek with a (admittedly probably incorrect) thought that he was going to make a great mix standpoint. It makes me feel as if this mix CD I wanted to make, that I’ve spent literally months compiling (okay, months of writing down a song when I notice it’s in 8:8 – I hadn’t gotten to vetting yet), pretty much moot. Because anything I put together, the Mountain Goats have just done better. Of course, I could still make the mix, and I’m sure it would be fine. Yet, for some reason, I’ve lost the want to do so.

This is the curse of being way too into music. Or anything else, I suppose, for that matter. Something as seemingly positive as this, the simple act of listening to a new album by an artist I love, has ruined a different part of my day. I still will love the new album, no doubt, but every time I listen to it, there might be a part of me resenting that it's made me arbitrarily decide I'm unable to make the mix CD that no one other than me would probably listen to anyway. I suppose I’ll just have to wait for inspiration to strike again, and I’ll have my next mix ready by 2010.