Mike Mix 2014

It's the last day of 2014, so I decided to compile Mike Mix 2014.  It's an interesting mixture this year.  Hope you enjoy.

1) "Freakquency" by USS
Five years ago, Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker were a dominant presence on Mike Mix 2009, with songs from two albums making an appearance.  Now, with their release of a new EP, the have the honor of kicking off this year's Mike Mix.

2) "Come to Light"  by Arkells


Lethbridge finally has a good radio station, and one of the bands that get good airplay on this station is the Arkells.  I don't like every song of theirs, but "Come to Light" is definitely one of the ones that I like.

3) "Pittsburgh" by The Amity Affliction
Every now and then, you need to indulge the depressed  18-year-old that lives inside of us all.  36-year-old Mike chuckles at music like this, but the angsty teenager who just stumbled into adulthood at the end of high school listens to this  guy screaming out the lyrics and thinks, "Yes.  This music speaks to me.  This music gets me."  Then I hear the track on the album (yes, I bought the entire album) that is a depressed guy leaving a depressed voicemail on his buddies phone with depressing music playing in the background, and even 18-year-old Mike says, "Whoa, that's a bit much."

4) "Now That's What I Call a Polka!" by Weird Al Yankovic
Weird Al was the soundtrack of my childhood.  I stopped listening to him much as the '90s ended, but this latest album (which I already blogged about) was quite good.  I won't say much more about this song, since the previous post on this blog was a review of Mandatory Fun.  I'll just say that it's been a while since I recognize so many songs in a Weird Al polka.

5) "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk (featuring Pharrell Williams)
Astute listeners might have noticed that the last song in the polka medley was this very song.  It's actually Weird Al who convinced me to finally by Random Access Memory.  I'm glad I did.  It's one of my favourite CD purchases of the year.  Very funky '70s  vibe.

6) "Dangerous" by Big Data (featuring Joywave)
That video will disturb young children, so be careful who's around when you watch it.  Noah showed me this video a few months ago, and all I remembered about it was the video.  Later, I heard the song on that new radio station I mentioned, and then Emily helped me realize that the song and the video go together, and now here we are.

7) "Monkey Tree" by Mother Mother
I've been vaguely aware of Mother Mother for a while now, enough that I knew they seemed like a band that I would like, but I never did anything about it until I started listening to The Bridge (that radio station I keep referring to), and I was exposed to this song and to "Get Out The Way".  I bought this album, "Very Good Bad Things", yesterday.

8) "Punching In a Dream" by The Naked and Famous
Noah introduced me to The Naked and Famous.  They have two albums, and I bought them both this year.  "Punching In a Dream" is from the older of the two.

9) "Go Away" by Weezer
2014 was the year that Weezer's first album (my all-time favourite album) turned 20 years old.  They celebrated by releasing an album that was much better than their previous four.  I chose this song because I'm a sucker for male/female duets.  I want to learn how to play this on guitar and then perform it somewhere with Avril.

10) "Lampshades On Fire" by Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse hasn't released a full album since 2007, but we'll be getting one in early 2015.  "Lampshades On Fire" is the first single off of it.

11) "On Top of The World" by Imagine Dragons


I was originally going to use "Radioactive" for the mix, but I decided that it was overplayed, so I went with a lesser known song, which is also a much happier song.  Mind you, "Radioactive" has an awesome video.  It was suggested to me that I go with their current single, but I decided that I'll wait for the album to come out in February and pick my favourite from it for Mike Mix 2015.

12) "Lovely Cup" by Grouplove
Grouplove made their debut on Mike Mix 2013 with "Ways To Go", so I almost didn't include another one of their songs until I realized that "Lovely Cup" and "Ways To Go" were from different albums, so I'm not breaking any of my self-imposed rules.

13) "Take Me to Church" by Hozier
This video features a gay couple kissing, so if you're offended by such things, don't watch it.  This is another song I learned about from The Bridge.

14) "Waltz" by The Naked and Famous
The second Naked and Famous song, this one from their newest album.  Good song, but not much of a waltz.

15) "Weight of Living Pt. I" by Bastille
I found out about Bastille last year when I was looking for filler for Mike Mix 2013.  I went out and bought the deluxe double album of "Bad Blood", and it turned out to be my favourite album of 2014.  Go buy it.  This song is from the bonus content album, which I actually like a little bit more than the actual album.

16) "We Are Giants" by Lindsey Stirling (featuring Dia Frampton)

And that brings us to Avril's favourite album of 2014, Lindsey Stirling's sophomore album "Shatter Me."  There were a lot of good tracks to choose from, but I decided to go with one of the two that had lyrics.

17) "Stolen Dance" by Milky Chance
Another one I heard on The Bridge, and which was also recommended to me when I put out a request for song ideas on Facebook.  A little different than what I usually listen to, but I like it.