For NaNoWriMo a number of years back I wrote a pseudo-spy novel. I didn't really have any idea what I was doing, because I've read precious little spy fiction. But oh well! It was fun anyway.
And one of the things I love about 8tracks is diving into the tags. And one of the tags that the mix I made and this one I found had in common was "espionage". Which is also the title of the playlist.
From the 8tracks description:
For those who carry the film noir excense, blending amongst the citizens and shadowed alleyways, heart breakers with guns hidden under trench coats, eyes covered by the cold fog and secrets that invite them into violent missions;
Get ready for another playlist with a great atmosphere. I hope you find it inspiring!
I don't know how much introduction this mix needs, since the title really does explain it all. It's got that perfect atmosphere and some incredible instrumental tracks.
Someone in the comments on this playlist said it "satisfies my needs for a grimdark Star Trek AU" so. That should really tell you everything you need to know.
Hope you find it as creepy and inspiring as I did!
Okay, full disclosure here: While I absolutely adore the Dragon Age series with every fibre of my being, I have not actually played through much of Mass Effect.
I tried once! And got stalled and stopped and never tried again. But I have read a lot of spoilers and watched a metric tonne of clips online.
Like all of the Garrus romance ones. And the Kaidan romance ones.
So, I mean, I have a pretty decent idea of the story arcs and plots and what have you.
And oh. You guys. I adore Garrus. (And Kaidan, but shush, this is a Garrus/Shepard mix so.)
This is a post ME3 mix with the tag line: "Garrus is alive. Shepard isn't." So uh. Be prepared for all the feelings.
I really enjoy listening to instrumental playlists. I put them on when I need background music, but don't want to get too distracted from whatever else I'm doing.
I mentioned how I use instrumental playlists to help me power through my marking, and this playlist is another one I discovered while staying late after school to mark tests.
There's just something about the ambiance and atmosphere that just really hooked me. The tracks chosen for this were perfection and I knew I had to click the like button before I was halfway through.
I've loved all of Rainbow Rowell's books, so it was no surprise that I picked up her newest, Carry On, pretty much the minute it was released. And it ended up being my hands down favourite book of 2015.
I'd been anticipating Carry On since it was announced, because I'd absolutely loved the world of Simon Snow when it was mentioned in Fangirl. And oh, I just adored the characters and the magic and everything...
But especially Simon and Baz.
As I mentioned in my favourites post, Carry On reads like your favourite fanfic in book form. And Simon and Baz's relationship was just so perfect. I put sticky tabs in my copy of the book and I never do that.
So is it really surprising that after putting the book down I immediately went on the hunt for fanmixes?
(No, no it is not.)
I have a few saved on 8tracks that I really enjoyed, but I'll do my best to spread them out... for now, enjoy this one.
If you didn't already know, I'm a teacher. And in case you were wondering, marking can be the most tedious thing ever. Seriously.
I've also become rather old lately, and I tend to have a difficult time listening to music with lyrics when I'm trying to multitask. I usually ends up with me stopping whatever else it is I'm trying to do in favour of lip synching along.
Put these two things together and you get to the subject of my "marking" music. What tends to happen is I go to 8tracks and search the "epic" tag. Marking eight-grade math tests is never actually epic, but I can usually convince myself I'm achieving greatness with the right soundtrack on anyway.
So rewind to a few weeks ago, the beginning of school after Christmas break--and lo and behold, marking. That's when I stumbled upon this wonderful playlist.
It is just the right mix of all the wonderful adventure-y songs. Upbeat, charming and impossible not to love. Hence why I needed to showcase it for this week's mix. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
The title of this is going to throw people off, so let me explain.
From The Smiths song Rubber Ring:
But don't forget the songs that made you cry And the songs that saved your life Yes, you're older now, and you're a clever swine But they were the only ones who ever stood by you
I started listening to The Smiths in earnest in 2004. More specifically, my first year of university. And for whatever reason, those lyrics stuck with me. For a number of years, after my spring semester was over and I was getting ready for summer break, I made a lengthy playlist. My "Rubber Ring" playlist--the songs that I'd discovered during that school year that I listened to over and over. Songs that I couldn't believe I'd only just started listening to, because it seemed like I'd known them for so much longer than just one school year. Songs that "saved my life", or at the very least, my sanity.
Music has always been important to me. And though I can't always have it on a background noise any more (or, at least, not if it has lyrics) there are still songs that have shaped my year.
So here's a slightly different Monday Mix for you. A list of songs that I started listening to in 2015 that are important to me.
Ingrid Michaelson - Can't Help Falling in Love
Just a gorgeous and haunting cover. There are a lot of Ingrid Michaelson songs I could put here as well, but this is the one I'm drawn back to over and over.
Alison Krauss - If I Didn't Know Any Better
Sometimes I listen to Songza to help fall asleep--and one night this came on. I haven't been able to stop listening to it since.
Fall Out Boy - Centuries
Catchy as all get out, I always turn up the stereo in my car when this one comes on.
Bear's Den - Agape
I just adore this song. The chorus just gets me every time.
Walk The Moon - Shut Up and Dance
I really like catchy pop songs, can you tell? There's a reason this is my ringtone.
Sleeping At Last - Light
Picking one song from this collection was really tricky. All of his songs are so gorgeous. Please do yourself a favour and listen to Atlas: Year One in its entirety immediately.
Lord Huron - The Night We Met
I heard this first on a Shepard/Garius mix on 8tracks and immediately fell in love with it. The melody is so haunting and I just cannot get over the perfection of the way the chorus descends with each line.
Taylor Swift - Bad Blood
Aka my favourite music video of all time. But also a song that I will absolutely drop everything in order to dance in my kitchen when it comes on.
Seth Glier feat Crystal Bowersox - If I Could Change One Thing
Another song that came up on Songza as I was trying to fall asleep and I've just never stopped listening to.
Lorde - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
I have a lot of feelings about those characters I was telling you about from high school when I listen to this song. It was pretty much on repeat the last few days of December because I could not get over how well it fit the villain.
Birdy - Words As Weapons
Another Songza discovery. I just love it a lot. It almost made the cut for my "Like Weapons" playlist, for obvious reasons.
Jasmine Thompson - Stay With Me
This cover is just so so good. Just listen to it. Ugh. I adore it.
Elizabeth & the Catapult - Wish I Didn't
(Warning for NSFW language) Another Songza discovery. The first line immediately captivated me and here we are.
Phew! There we go! Hope you enjoy. Let me know what songs you can't stop listening to!
Okay, so remember all that explanation from last week? Good, that's the context for this mix too.
Except these are two different characters.
Right at the beginning of the story there's transportation to another world, right? Well, before we were told we were Chosen, we got shipped off to magic school. Not like Harry Potter though, the magic was elemental based and...
Anyway, you don't really care.
One of the characters we meet at magic school becomes the love interest for the character based off my best friend. It's sort of a will-they-won't-they kind of deal that doesn't get a chance to turn into much because destiny awaits and we break out of magic school and leave him behind.
So there's some pining and angst, and who doesn't love that?
There were complicated plans "down timeline" for what happens in between, but there were plans for them to be reunited. Not without complications, of course, but these two are also endgame FIGHT ME.
Anyway! The tags for this are: angst, mutual pining, first love
This requires a little bit of explanation, I think.
When I was in high school my friend group made a hilariously disastrous foray into Dungeons & Dragons. None of us really knew what we were doing and the actual roleplaying didn't last long. However, there was a pretty complex storyline behind the campaign that had potential. So one of my best friends started writing book one as a novel.
It's a fairly typical tale: six best friends get magically transported to another world to find out they're the Chosen Ones. And each friend was, naturally, based off of each person in the friend group. There is an evil Empress, a magic school, a doomed mentor figure, a captive prince... and, of course, a lot of love interests.
Listen. We were like fifteen.
For most of high school, we played with this universe, drawing fanart, writing fanfics, making playlists. You name it. And as I was doing some housekeeping over the summer I found some old print outs. Which lead to looking for old word documents. Which lead to me playing with some of my favourite parts of the "down timeline fic" in my head.
Which lead to a fanmix.
Or rather, two fanmixes, but you'll see the next one next week.
And honestly, this is probably one of my favourite mixes I've made ever. (And I'm not just saying that because it's about a character that was based off me.)
I've tried to write a summary for this a few times, but it comes off as really self indulgent. But this is my blog so who cares, right?
These two characters are stubborn and start off on each other's bad sides. There's bickering and fighting, but eventually they fall for each other, only to be torn apart shortly after. We never actually officially wrote the end of the series, and at fifteen I wouldn't have said these two were endgame, but now I really hope that's how it would've turned out.
I've tagged this on 8tracks as: heartbreak, break up, dysfunctional relationship, mutual pining
So if that sounds interesting and all this rambling hasn't scared you off yet, here it is!
Okay, if we're getting this blog back underway, we have to reinvigorate Monday Mix. I still freaking love making and listing to mixes. So let's go!
Last December I started replaying Dragon Age: Origins and then immediately picked up DA2 and rang in the new year with Inquisition. Someone talk to me about Dragon Age because I have so many feelings.
One of these days I'm going to make an Alistair mix, because I choose Alistair over everyone else. But Cullen is a close second. How could I not romance him?
So let's kick this off right with a Cullen/Inquisitor mix. Or, as I like to affectionately call this: Cullen is a big sap mix.
When I saw that description, I knew I had to listen to this mix. And even better, it turns out that the creator was inspired to make the mix after reading a number of YA dystopian novels.
Though the tracks are instrumental, there's still a story told in the music.
According to the creator:
At first, everything is dark and there is no hope. Then, a hero/heroine emerges to be the symbol of the rebellion. The cruel war begins, but in the end the truth will win.
You can definitely hear the storyline as the tracks move along. And clocking in at just under 2 hours, it certainly is an epic mix.
We're going to continue the sort of nostalgia theme this week with this next mix. Because this is another mix that I just adore.
All the songs are circa the early 00s and just make me remember what it felt like to be 18 (and a little older) and listening to these songs. They transport me back to the halls of high school and through my early days of university.
As the mix says:
the pop-punk soundtrack to an adolescence full of converse shoes, band t-shirts, and black eyeliner.
This music was such a huge part of my life in the early 00s. I went to a lot of concerts while I was at university. I took the 2 hour Greyhound ride up to the nearest major centre and got bruised in the mosh pit. I slept on friend's couches and in the back seat of their car. I got back into town past 2am and still got up the next morning to go to class. I wiped mud off my shoes from Warped Tour and screamed along to the lyrics despite them threatening to end the set early due to a tornado warning.
This was the formative soundtrack of my early adulthood. It makes me super nostalgic.
And oh my gosh, it is not joking when it says this. This is the mix for any and every OTP you've ever had. From the time you were twelve until now. It's the power ballads and the lyrics about struggling to hold on to love.
I freaking love covers of songs, you guys. There's just something so cool about taking a song and twisting it around somehow to make it your own, but still maintaining some of the feel of the original.
Sometimes, though, the best covers are the ones that deviate a lot from the original.
And that's where this next mix comes in.
Aptly titled, this combines all the awesome parts of covers with the down right creepiest vibe I've ever heard. No seriously. I did not think "Stand By Me" could be creepy. And then I listened to this mix.
It's time for another 8tracks mix that I didn't make, but have been listening to a lot lately.
I found this one completely by accident. I was listening to a fanmix (surprising no one) and I didn't realize that it was over. If you've never used 8tracks before, it gives you about 10 seconds after the end of a mix to choose what to do next. If you do nothing, it loads the next mix in a "similar mixes" queue or another one by the same user.
By the time I realized I'd moved on to another mix, I was already a few tracks in.
Which is when I saw the title: 100 Driving Songs.
That's right, this mix is 100 tracks. It clocks in at just over 6 hours. "100 upbeat, feel good jams." I'm no where near done it yet, but it has not disappointed me yet.
I first started listening to Ludo in 2009 and the whole album "You're Awful, I Love You" is 110% worth your time.
But one of the things I adore about this band is their ability to write the most unconventional love songs. Love Me Dead and The Horror Of Our Love come to mind immediately. But also the newer Anything For You from their 2011 album.
If you like catchy and slightly offbeat, then you're going to enjoy this. And like last time, I had to use my favourite site: Best Of.
You may have already figured it out, but I am a huge geek. And I'm pretty proud of it too. I occasionally take my students by surprise by debating with them the finer points of various geekery. It's pretty great.
In 2009 the Star Trek movie franchise was rebooted. I saw that movie once a week, every week for the entire month of May. (N E R D.) It rekindled my love for the franchise as a whole and science fiction in general. I spent pretty much that whole summer reading all the Star Trek novels I could get my hands on.
It was kind of a big deal.
Now, while I have since taken issue with some of the things surrounding the reboot (and if you're even remotely part of the fandom, you'll know what I'm talking about) that doesn't diminish my love for the characters.
I'm going to mix it up again this Monday (haha, see what I did there). This post is going to highlight not only a band I've been listening to a lot recently but also a website I love for music listening.
I'm sure I first heard of The Neighbourhood because of some 8tracks mix I was listening to. Sometimes when I'm listening to random mixes, a song will catch my attention and I'll write it down somewhere to explore further.
However, as I'm sure you know, liking one song doesn't always mean you'll like the rest of a band's music. I used to go through iTunes or LastFM and look at popular tracks and listen to them and try and decide that way. Sometimes that can be a lot of work.
The Best Of lets you type in any band or artist and it generates a Grooveshark playlist of the top 10 or so tracks from that group. No more hunting and searching. It's pretty much my new favourite thing on the internet.
So, what are you waiting for? Follow the link to hear more!
So in 2010 this little movie called Inception came out, maybe you've heard of it?
I'm joking of course. But what's not a joke is the fact that the fandom for the movie basically took over my life from 2010 to 2011. I have the fanfic bookmarks to prove it.
And, because it's me, I made a fanmix. An Arthur/Eames fanmix, because that's just the kind of girl I am.
