
The important thing to remember is that I didn’t set out to make this mix as it is.
The initial concept was to pull out the box of CDs I seldom listen to and pull tracks from them. It is not a judgment call as to why the Beasties’ Hello Nasty is down there on the Island of Misfit Toys; I just don’t listen to the album much and, if I have a yen for the Boyz, I go for Ill Communication
or Paul’s Boutique
. If I am in a really regressive state of mind and nostalgia has me by the nosehairs, out comes A Flock Of Seagulls (which is amazing considering how tiny my nostrils are.)
(Who am I kidding? My nostrils are HUGE.)
There are songs here that I never listen to. The dust on Orgy’s Vapor Transmissionand the Pushmonkey
CD are like instant mud – just add water. Some of these tunes are fondly remembered, some barely remembered and still others come from the “what was I thinking” file, but in combination, this constitutes the strangest mix I think I’ve ever achieved and, quite rightly, I’m afraid of it.
Somebody hold me.
A Flock Of Seagulls – Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) from The Best of A Flock of Seagulls (1987)
Beastie Boys – Intergalactic from Hello Nasty (1998)
Eve 6 – Leech from Eve 6 (1998)
Keats – Hollywood Heart from Keats (1984)
Leaves’ Eyes – Elegy from Vinland Saga (2005)
Limblifter – Screwed It Up from Limblifter (1995)
My Little Dog China – Eggshells from Velvis Carnival (1994)
Orgy – Fiction (Dreams In Digital) from Vapor Transmission (2000)
Procol Harum – Bringing Home The Bacon from Grand Hotel (1973)
Pushmonkey – Handslide from Pushmonkey (1998)
Sweet – Burn On The Flame from Strung Up (1975)
T Bone Burnett – The Long Time Now from The Criminal Under My Own Hat (1992)
The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies – Boogie King from Big Wheel (1999)
Thomas Dolby – Airwaves from The Golden Age of Wireless (1982)
Triumph – Headed For Nowhere from Surveillance (1987)


What an absolutely miserable song from the former lead singer and guitarist of Ambrosia. I’m not sure this song has an identity. It starts off with those super-fake sounding keys and drums and seems to want to be some kind of R&B number and then about a minute in it breaks into a riff that could be the little brother of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” and then goes right back where it began. This track was actually the second cut on the White Nights soundtrack as well as featured on Pack’s first solo record, Anywhere You Go. The only thing I like David Pack for are the countless hours of enjoyment he’s given me thanks to the cover of the Ambrosia album One Eighty, which regularly gets referenced in my house as “men hugging each other.”
The Alan Parsons Project is a mess.
Multiple choice time on Popdose, kids. Make sure that pencil is a #2 and don’t forget to fill your circles completely. Your future depends on how you do on this test (snicker, snicker.) Okay, let’s begin!