I’ll be honest, I’ve had this idea for months now, but the editorial a week or so back finally gave me the name for it.

Mini Mixtape is a new weekly thing where put up four songs I’ve been listening to this week with a little blurb on each of them. And like a real mixtape, it’s totally open. Some weeks it might be random, some weeks there may be a theme…really, anything goes. It’s like an opposite Radio Rant. So, let’s get started!

Sonic Youth – Antenna (2009): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B_NVayA_VI
“Antenna” is kind of a summation of what 00’s Sonic Youth sounds like. It’s chill but still has tension, it’s structured but has a jam section, and Thurston Moore’s lyrics sound cool enough without making a lick of sense (seriously, that chorus is so singalongable and I still have no idea what it means). And never in its 6 minute length does it feel too long or slow.

Flogging Molly – Seven Deadly Sins (2004): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plfVQV-klZo
Flogging Molly mix together pirates, punk rock send ups (the Tommy Gun line is a Joe Strummer nod), and their brand of Celtic Punk for almost three minutes of unchained tomfoolery. Sheer fun at it’s drunkest.

Streetlight Manifesto – Here’s to Life (2003): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srFcYHosjsc
Streetlight’s made a career out of musically kicking the ass out of every other ska band, off the wall energy, and Tomas Kalnoky’s rapid fire philosophy essay lyrics. And all of those elements are awesomely represented in this Latin tinged anti-suicide number.

Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945 (1998): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCjpbjCH5L0
Never has a song about Anne Frank sounded so peppy. Probably the most accessible song on the band’s masterpiece In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, “Holland, 1945” is a poppy, horn laden, and fuzzed out addition to the canon of indie rock.

Well, that was fun. See you next week!