The Friday mix: Celebrating the end of a very strange year.

It’s been a weird year for me, particularly the last month or so. I have been dealt some tough blows this year and I’ve had some tremendous breaks. Some things that were begun this year aren’t over yet and the relative merits of their outcomes have not been revealed. I’ve done things this year I never thought I would do. Never contemplated doing, actually.

It's been that kind of year.

So 2010 did not go according to my plans, but as John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Or as Woody Allen said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” So we make plans and hope things go our way, but it’s important to roll with the punches and simply enjoy the time that is given to us. With that in mind, this end-of-year post celebrates the strange and bizarre. Hey, it’s better than a boring life, right?

1. Stranger than Fiction – moe.
   This is from my favorite moe. album, “Tin Cans and Car Tires.” Bass player Rob Derhak is a great songwriter and here’s a gem.
2. Weird – The Sebadoh
   “Paranoia’s contagious. I’m coming down with it too.” It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
3. Stranger – Draven
   These guys do throwback metal. I’d put it in the early 90s, maybe, but they do it really well. This nearly 9-minute epic has brooding verses and ass-kicking instrumental bridges.
4. Strange Groove – World Party
   This is from the little known but brilliant World Party album, “Egyptology.” This one is strange, but it’s funky.
5. Strange Times – The Black Keys
   God bless Carney and Auerbach. OK, the song is great, but this video concept is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week.
6. Stranger Things – Soul Hat
   “Stranger things have happened. Won’t you explain how I can keep from tripping on the acid rain.” This was a pretty obscure album my brother turned me on to. They are/were an Austin-based band that I saw many years ago. They had a rocking single that hit #25 back in the 1990s, but this song was from a prior album that was a little gentler.
7. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi – Radiohead
   Radiohead started to lose me for a bit, there, but “In Rainbows” is a beautiful, rocking album. Here is one of the gorgeous tracks from this album.
8. Strange – R.E.M.
   “There’s something going on that’s not quite right.” I’ve felt this way all year.
9. Strange Condition – Pete Yorn
   I only discovered about a minute ago that Yorn did a collaborative album with Scarlet Johansson in 2009. The single isn’t that bad and the album apparently went platinum in France already. I’ll get back to you on that. This song is from his solo debut “Musicforthemorningafter.”
10. Crazy Dream – Los Lonely Boys
    These guys can sound a lot like Stevie Ray Vaughn, but then they’re also out of central Texas so I suppose they come by it honestly.
11. Very Strange – Gomez
    I’ve recommended Gomez in the past. They are great songwriters and versatile players. Ben Ottewell drops a good hook and some moving lyrics on us here.
12. Strange – Built to Spill
    The muddy guitar, harmony vocals, and tambourine backing Doug Martsch’s whining delivery somehow create a broadly appealing combination.
13. Nobody Told Me – John Lennon
    “Nobody told me there’d be days like these. Strange days indeed. Most peculiar, mama.” Lennon wrote this for Ringo Starr, but died before Starr recorded it. Lennon’s demo take was released 3 years after his death on “Milk and Honey.” It was the last John Lennon song to reach Billboard’s top 10, hitting #5.
14. Strange Apparition – Beck
    Beck gets up to some strange shenanigans musically, but this one is a pretty straightforward piano-based pop tune. The video, on the other hand, is another matter.
15. Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed – David Bowie
    This year has left me feeling somewhat slightly dazed. So here is some seriously vintage Bowie from way back in nineteen hundred and sixty-nine. The intro is pretty spacey, but it soon ramps up into some sweet country rock.

Enjoy this mix with a gin martini garnished with pickled octopus.  Or, if your year has been weird enough already, just some bubbly. Have a safe holiday and a great coming year.