Please enjoy jwz mixtape 030.

This one's almost all new stuff, to make up for the fact that the last three have trended toward the old. Generally I've been aiming for the mixtapes to have about 1/3rd new stuff (where "new" means "released in the last three years or so") but that doesn't work out so well when I'm doing goofy themes like "reptiles", or obsolete genres like "vaguely industrial breakbeat".

Do you tend to prefer the mixtapes that are mostly newer stuff, or the ones that are mostly older stuff? I'm guessing that since I've had so many comments from people saying "I've never heard any of this before", most of you don't notice the difference...

Last time I asked whether you thought of this as compilation albums or a radio show. One big difference is that if it was a radio show, I wouldn't be trying as hard to avoid ever playing the same song twice.

Jane Jensen just posted 160kbps MP3s of her awesome (but out of print) 1996 album Comic Book Whore. I love this album a lot. Go get it!

Please enjoy jwz mixtape 029.

You Are Hereby Advised --

Tonight:	Xanopticon @ DNA Lounge
Wed, Apr 30:	The Breeders @ Slim's
Thu, May 01:	Iron Man @ Metreon, 8pm
Fri, May 02:	Sons and Daughters @ GAMH
Sat, May 03:	Point Break Live @ Xenodrome, 7:30pm
Tue, May 06:	Ultraviolet / Electric Valentine @ Red Devil Lounge
Thu, May 08:	Dolores Park Movie Night: Soylent Green
Thu, May 08:	Emerging Illusions Fashion Show @ DNA Lounge
Fri, May 09:	The Trucks @ Du Nord
Fri, May 16:	Hubba Hubba Revue @ DNA Lounge
Sat, May 17:	The Kills @ Slim's
Sat, May 17:	Pop Roxx @ DNA Lounge
Sun, May 18:	Dresden Dolls @ Fillmore
Mon, May 19:	Clinic @ Independent
Wed, May 21:	Presets @ Mezzanine
Thu, May 22:	Meat @ DNA Lounge
Fri, May 23:	Mortified @ Make-Out Room
Sat, May 24:	Mortified @ Make-Out Room
Sun, May 25:	Hex Rx @ DNA Lounge
Tue, May 27:	Ladytron @ Fillmore
Thu, May 29:	Bong-Ra @ DNA Lounge
Fri, May 30:	Bohemian Carnival @ DNA Lounge

By Order of His Majesty King Mob, please enjoy jwz mixtape 028.

How's this whole mixtape thing working out for you? What are your listening patterns? Do you think of them as compilation albums, or a radio show? And why do they provoke so little actual discussion of music?

Please enjoy jwz mixtape 027.

This one goes out to our ectothermal overlords from Alpha Draconis.

Please enjoy jwz mixtape 026.

What do you have to say for yourself this time?

Since the PearLyrics guy gave up, every now and then I look for a new iTunes plugin that downloads and displays lyrics. There are surprisingly few. But I recently came across GimmeSomeTune, which, despite the terrible name, seems reasonable. But I think it gets lyrics only from lyricwiki.org, which means it doesn't have a very big set to choose from. Still, the UI is mostly reasonable, and it has a menubar iTunes controller built in too (I had been using ByteController for that.)

Please enjoy jwz mixtape 025.

And how does that make you feel?

Please enjoy jwz mixtape 024.

Consisting of roughly 50% music that I've discovered within the last month! So very current. You will contemplate. You will discuss. You will recommend. You have your orders. Carry on.

Yellow Drum Machine Robot! The cuteness, it burns!

Notice how the robot first plays on the object it finds (or is forced to find by the angry cameraman), plays a small beat, and records the beat it plays on it. Then this recorded beat is played again, and it starts to play on the object (an belt tracks and everything else it has),and also playing this sampled beat :)

What it does? Basically:

• Navigate around, collect some data, avoid obstacles, until it

• Finds something "worth playing on" (a single isolated object or a wide flat surface that it can find an angle onto)

• Snakes into place

• Plays some beats on what it have found, and samples this, checking it has a "good sound"

• Based on data collected in the area, and sample just made, then compose a little rhythm, and plays this along with the sample

The navigation is complicated because it is not just a matter of navigating around obstacles - that was the easy part. Second the robot has to find good places to drum; A single, isolated object, or a flat wall. Then the robot has to place itself on a good angle to the wall, or straight infront of the object.. All with only L/R/F with the head ;) But it does it quite well now! I am usually amazed of what it finds to play on, when I just let it drive around.

Please enjoy jwz mixtape 023.

I tried to be all topical and do one with only songs about bunnies and Jesus, but it turned out pretty bad, so nevermind.

Please enjoy jwz mixtape 022.

Questions? Comments? Outrage?

You know, when I listened to all of the 2007 and 2008 SXSW torrents, I thought that was kind of hardcore.

I was wrong.

Paul Ford is hardcore. He listened to all of the 2008 songs, all the way through, and wrote six word reviews of each.

Such as:

Plus digressions such as:

AWESOMENESS VS. CUTENESS

It's easy to quantify male vocalists: they are either douchebags, or, if they play guitar as well, double dog douchebags. But I also found myself dividing the female vocalists — and there are surprisingly many, which is a promising development — into two camps.

First, there are twee little things who will sing about forest sprites and make you collages when you have the flu. Then there are the tougher ones who wear glitter and make eye contact.

The question I asked myself, to divide between the awesome and cute, was: would this woman (1) help you to get an abortion? Or (2) just write a song about it? The ones who would drive you to the clinic without judging you, in my opinion, make better vocalists. I could be wrong but I think Martha Wainright, and the women from Creature, would go with you.

If you weren't one of the thirty people to see Dandi Wind last night at Bottom of the Hill, you screwed up. That was one of the most entertaining shows I've seen in a long time. They were a guy playing keyboards and a girl dancing like a spastic monkey. She was radiating Nina Hagen levels of crazy the whole time, it was awesome.

I wish the Centro camera wasn't so utterly worthless:

Also re-discovered on my phone: here's bathroom graffiti from some random Mission bar from a few weeks ago: