Best Melodic Alternative Rock 2010

Soft-Alt CD Compilation by BLANCONADA (80 mins)

1. Best Coast - When I'm With You
2. Citay - Careful With That Hat
3. Beach House - 10 Mile Stereo
4. Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss
5. Crystal Castles - Celestica
6. Papercuts - Dead Love
7. The Radio Dept. - Heaven's On Fire
8. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Bright Lit Blue Skies
9. Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill
10. Blitzen Trapper - Destroyer Of The Void
11. Girls - Laura
12. Josh Ritter - The Curse
13. Surfer Blood - Swim
14. Broken Social Scene - All To All
15. The National - So Far Around The Bend 
16. The Morning Benders - Excuses
17. Mystery Jets - Alice Springs
18. Josh Ritter - Long Shadows

Best Melodic Alternative Rock 2008

Soft-Alt CD Compilation by BLANCONADA (70 mins)

1. TV On The Radio - Halfway Home
2. Raphael Saadiq feat. Joss Stone - Just One Kiss
3. Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood
4. The Ruby Suns - Adventure Tour
5. Midlake - Roscoe
6. Animal Collective - My Girls
7. Deerhunter - Never Stops
8. A Camp - Here Are Many Wild Animals
9. Darker My Love - Two Ways Out
10. Annuals - Confessor
11. Copeland - The Grey Man
12. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
13. Cut Off Your Hands - Happy As Can Be
14. The Ruby Suns - Oh, Mojave
15. Autolux - Plantlife
16. Dodos - Fools
17. Snow Patrol - Lifeboats
18. TV On The Radio - Family Tree

Interesting facts:
1. The lead singer of A Camp, Nina Persson, fronted The Cardigans ("Love Me")
2.  Jenny Lewis is the singer for Rilo Kiley.
3. The Ruby Suns & Cut Off Your Hands are both from Auckland, New Zealand.

Valentine's Day Mix: Obscure & Forgotten Retro & Indie Love Songs

Most of you will know a few of these. This compilation is men singing for women. I'll do a women singing for men mix eventually. Regardless, they sound great together and will make your sweet lady-love go all googly-eyed over you and your exquisite taste. Enjoy, playa!

1. Queen - Best Friend
2. Big Star - For You
3. Byrds - It Won't Be Wrong
4. Jesus & Mary Chain - Almost Gold
5. Lou Reed - Perfect Day
6. The Doors - Indian Summer
7. The Youngbloods - Sunlight
8. John Lennon - Love
9. Roxy Music - I'd Love To Turn You On
10. Shriekback - The Only Thing That Shines
11. Nick Drake - Time Has Told Me
12. The Ramones - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
13. The Rolling Stones - She's A Rainbow
14. Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater
15. Love - Orange Skies
16. Red House Painters - Summer Dress
17. Neil Young - Harvest Moon
18. Magnetic Fields - The Book Of Love

Best Melodic Alternative Rock 2007

I made this compilation the year my best friend, Jason, died. It's haunted by his ghost.

Soft-Alt 2007 CD Compilation by BLANCONADA (80 mins)

1. PJ Harvey - The Devil
2. Band Of Horses - Is There A Ghost
3. Spoon - Blow Out Yr Cherry Bomb
4. Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks
5. Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
6. Teddy Bears feat. Neneh Cherry - Yours To Keep
7. The Shins - Phantom Limb
8. Sea Wolf - You're A Wolf
9. !!! - Myth Takes
10. Tegan & Sara - Burn Your Life Down
11. Deerhoof - Cast Off Crown
12. Radiohead - Reckoner
13. Bat For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do?
14. Thurston Moore - The Shape Is In A Trance
15. Blonde Redhead - 23
16. The National - Apartment Story
17. Feist - I Feel It All
18. The Broken West - You Can Build An Island
19. Let's Go Sailing - Sideways
20. The Clientele - Here Comes The Phantom
21. Spoon - The Ghost Of You Lingers


Interesting facts:
1. Thurston Moore is the lead singer of Sonic Youth.
2. PJ Harvey, !!! and Arcade Fire will be at Coachella this year. I have tickets.

Best Melodic Alternative Rock 2006

Soft-Alt 2006 CD Compilation by BLANCONADA (80 mins)

1. Yellowcard - Three Flights Up

2. Slow Runner - The SeaIs Never Full

3. Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body

4. Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

5. Animal Collective - Did You See The Words?

6. The Spinto Band - Oh Mandy

7. Band Of Horses - The First Song

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Dudley

9. My Morning Jacket - Gideon

10. Arctic Monkeys - Riot Van

11. Golden Smog - 5-22-02

12. Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken

13. Death Cab For Cutie - Marching Bands Of Manhattan

14. Emily Haines & Soft Skeleton - Our Hell

15. Regina Spektor - Samson

16. Band Of Horses - The Funeral

17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - The Warrior

18. Ray LaMontagne - Be Here Now

19. Johnny Cash - If You Could Read My Mind

Interesting facts:

1. This year marked the big national break-outs of Arctic Monkeys, Band Of Horses, Death Cab, My Morning Jacket and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs (even though most had earlier popular college releases).

2. Golden Smog featured members from The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum & Wilco.

3. Emily Haines is also a member of Metric & Broken Social Scene.

4. The Johnny Cash cover of Gordon Lightfoot was recorded in 2003, just prior to his death (which came just 4 months after the death of June Carter).It was released in 2006 and broke my heart in half.

Best Melodic Alternative Rock 2003

Soft-Alt 2003 CD Compilation by BLANCONADA (60 mins)

1. Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips - Night Nurse

2. Clem Snide - Curse Of Great Beauty

3. Damien Rice - Delicate

4. Death Cab For Cutie - Death Of An Interior Decorator
5. My Morning Jacket - Golden

6. The Sleepy Jackson - Morning Bird

7. The Sleepy Jackson - Great Dancers

8. Flaming Lips - It's Summertime

9. Grandaddy - I'm Okay With My Decay

10. Liz Phair - Little Digger

11. Mull Historical Society - Oh Mother

12. Jet - Look What You've Done

13. Fountains Of Wayne - Hailey's Waitress

14. Eels - Fashion Show
15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

16. Rosie Thomas - October

17. Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?

18. Langley School's Music Project - Desperado

Interesting facts:

1. Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips were from the band Luna.

2. My friend Monica is the sister-in-law of Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips. Yes, I've met him.

3. My friend Amber is a friend of Rosie Thomas. No, I haven't met her.

4. The Langley Schools Music Project was recorded in 1977 but released in 2003.

COACHELLA 2011 ELECTRO MIX

I'm going to demonstrate how you can make your own jank-ass techno mix in iTunes, where all these tracks should be available (if not, try FrostWire). To edit in iTunes, right-click the song, scroll to "edit info", and select "options". Here's where you can edit start & stop times for any track. I sometimes shave that shit down to the milisecond (as shown below). Do you hate the intro to a song? Is the outro too long? Crop it, brother!

Compilation length: 1 Hour

1. The Bloody Beetroots feat. Steve Aoki - Warp 7.7 (out 3:49)
2. Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand (in 0:01.7, out 3:09.4)
3. Steve Angello - Knas (no edit)
4. Robyn - We Dance To The Beat (out 4:16)
5. Boyz Noise - Lava Lava (in 0:00.5, out 3:06)
6. Laidback Luke w/ A-Trak - Shake It Down (out 2:34.2)
7. Tinie Tempah - Pass Out (in 0:01, out 3:03.2)
8. Skrillex - Fucking Die (in 1:31, out 3:50)
9. Yelle - A Cause Des Garcons (Tecktonik remix) (in 0:00.1, out 2:40)
10. SBTRKT - Hide Or Seek (in 2:02.3, out 4:43)
11. 12th Planet - 68 (in 0:27.35, out 3:09.1)
12. The Chemical Brothers - It Began In Afrika (in 0:00.1, out 3:46)
13. DJ Chuckie - Let The Bass Kick (no edit)
14. The Presets - I Go Hard, I Go Home (no edit)
15. Afrojack - ElectroJack (in 0:03, out 2:49)
16. Paul van Dyk - Another Way (in 0:00.6, out 3:06.8)
17. Andy C - Nosher (no edit)
18. Lorn - Automaton (out 3:16)
19. Crystal Castles - Celestica (no edit)
20 The Chemical Brothers - Another World (no edit)

Also remember to choose "part of a gapless album" if you burn it for anybody.

COACHELLA MIX 2011

Just because Coachella sold out in six days doesn't mean you can't enjoy the music. Once again I've tried to steer away from the obvious (Kings of Leon, Interpol, Arcade Fire, etc) which would make me look like a chump. Also, I disapprove of the way Coachella can sometimes be split between spineless alternapop (Glasser, Scala & Kolacny Bros, etc) and electronica knob-twiddlers (up to 17 PER DAY!). It's as if KCRW broadcasted next to a disco on Ibiza.

Anyway, here are some talented bands who play actual instruments:

CD Length 70 mins

1. Sleigh Bells - Kids
2. The Presets - Let's Go
3. Phantogram - Mouthful Of Diamonds
4. Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream
5. Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Bobby Booshay
6. The Kills - Cat Claw
7. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
8. Cage The Elephant - Shake Me Down
9. The Joy Formidable - Cradle
10. The Radio Dept. - Heaven's On Fire (edited: begin at 18.1 secs)
11. YACHT - It's Coming To Get You
12. CSS - Meeting Paris Hilton
13. Foals - Balloons
14. The Love Language - Sparxxx
15. Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss
16. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Come Saturday
17. The Joy Formidable - Austere
18. The Morning Benders - Waiting For A War
19. Broken Social Scene - Swimmers
20. Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights
21. Trampled By Turtles - Wait So Long
22. Warpaint - Set Your Arms Down

Next up: for all you raver kids with pacifiers hanging out of your grindy jaws, I'll teach you how to edit together your own Coachella 2011 Electro-Mix (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em).