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I just finished the playlist for my contribution to a monthly CD mix group.

I think I can safely say there’s something to annoy everyone on this one. The list includes:

1. Flyboys: Theme Song (surf punk at its simplest and most raw)
2. Chuck D./Herb Alpert: By the Time I Get to Arizona. Gunderphonic mashup of “Whipped Cream” and Public Enemy.
3. Ferdinand: Guarantees. Great song by now-extinct band that were friends of mine, but also good. They put this song on the album at least partly because I yelled at them to do so.
4. Hervé Villechaize: Why Do We Hurt Each Other So. The pervotated mini-weirdo from Fantasy Island sings a charming song about togetherness, backed by a childrens choir. May cause seizures.
5. Neko Case: Thrice All American. One of at least two songs about Tacoma by my favorite singer. Ms. Case puts more confessional emotion in each note than anyone alive.

6. Snoop Dogg: Dogg Food ‘n’ Drank. From D.J. Drank’s Greatest Hits, a samizdat collection of banned St. Ides commercials starring the best of West Coast 90s rap.
7. Spoon: Don’t Let it Get You Down. There are a thousand Beatles-ish indie pop bands with great hooks. This is the good one.
8. Talking Heads: Houses in Motion. Live, from The Name of this Band is Talking Heads, which just finally came out on CD. Thank you Rhino and Gary Stewart! A more spare and ethereal sound than the later Stop Making Sense live record.
9. Eagles of Death Metal: Miss Alissa. Don’t let the name fool you. They’re pure glam, somewhere between Prince and the Sweet. Every tube-topped girlfriend on her boyfriend’s shoulder at the show will love it, and so do I.
10. Tomahawk: God Hates a Coward. Mike Patton is an evil, evil man. He’s done annoyance rock, circus music, experimental noise, and here we have some heavy-ass metal.
11. Turbonegro: Wipe It Till It Bleeds. Someone called them the Village People of Punk. Someone is right. Also, they’re Norwegian, which may excuse or at least explain their attitude problem.
12. 3 Mustaphas 3: Soba Song. These guys are Englishmen who play East European and Middle Eastern dance music. So, of course, they wrote a country song about Japanese noodles. What is your problem with that?
13. Khaled: Arabian Song. I don’t pretend to know anything about North African pop music, but this guy rules. Melodic, lilting, and poised between pop music and trad folk. So pretty!
14. Death Cab for Cutie: Death of an Interior Decorator. All the little girls like them, but don’t hate them for it. Sophisticated songwriting and very pleasant guitar work. They’re less limp-wristed live, too.
15. Brian Eno: Backwater. Before and After Science is one of Eno’s real rock albums, you know, with songs that you remember on it. You’ll be humming “Backwater” for a while. Plus everyone likes a shipwreck song.
16. Avengers: Paint it, Black. Classic San Francisco Punk. Like Exene to the south, Penelope went back and forth between fat and thin. Unlike Exene, Penelope couldn’t write songs. So I chose the Stones cover for this comp. Now she’s a folksinger, or something.
17. Big Boys: What’s the Word. Like all Texas bands, the Big Boys were larger than life. Like most good punk bands, they were very political. And like just about every good party band, they played funk. And there you have it.

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