The mix CD is a dying art, if not dead. (Not quite as buried as the classic 90-minute cassette tape mix, I suppose.) I was surprised to discover that it had been over a decade since I compiled Short Sharp Shocks, a collection of 42 songs on a single disc, all of them under two minutes and thirty seconds—but I had been thinking for a while about which tracks would make the cut for a sequel, so after I handed in the manuscript for Kindness and Wonder, I got busy with iTunes and audio-editing software.

The result: Brief Blunt Blows! Which has already been mentioned in Michael Solender’s article about yours truly in South Park magazine, “Beyond the Rules,” so I thought it’d be a good idea to memorialize the track listing here.

1. Hüsker Dü, “Monday Will Never Be the Same” (0:52)

2. Guided by Voices, “Teenage FBI” (1:37)

3. Pavement, “Debris Slide” (1:53)

4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Crosstown Traffic” (2:26)

5. The Ramones, “I Don’t Care” (1:38)

6. EMA, “Coda” (1:00)

7. The Undertones, “Teenage Kicks” (2:24)

8. The Zombies, “She’s Not There” (2:21)

9. Radiohead, “Faust Arp” (2:06)

10. Tomoyasu Hotei, “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” (2:26)

11. Best Coast, “Bratty B” (1:42)

12. David Bowie, “Holy Holy” (2:19)

13. Green Day, “Pulling Teeth” (2:29)

14. Otis Redding, “Pain in My Heart” (2:21)

15. Hank Williams, “When the Fire Comes Down” (2:19)

16. Buddy Holly, “Midnight Shift” (2:09)

17. The Housemartins, “We’re Not Deep” (2:12)

18. Little Willie John, “Leave My Kitten Alone” (2:29)

19. Talking Heads, “Thank You for Sending Me an Angel” (2:11)

20. James Brown, “(Do the) Mashed Potatoes, Pt. 1” (1:39)

21. The Raincoats, “Adventures Close to Home” (1:52)

22. Minutemen, “My Heart and the Real World” (1:06)

23. The White Stripes, “Little Room” (0:50)

24. The Go-Go’s, “We Got the Beat” (2:30)

25. The Clash, “The Leader” (1:39)

26. Elastica, “In the City” (1:28)

27. Sleigh Bells, “Straight A’s” (1:32)

28. Beastie Boys, “Funky Boss” (1:35)

29. Lou Reed, “Underneath the Bottle” (2:25)

30. Willie Nelson, “Denver” (0:53)

31. Bob Dylan, “Hero Blues” (1:32)

32. PJ Harvey, “Snake (Peel Sessions)” (1:50)

33. Led Zeppelin, “Immigrant Song” (2:24)

34. Stevie Wonder, “1-2-3 Sesame Street” (2:12)

35. The Primitives, “I’ll Stick With You” (2:29)

36. Wire, “Start to Move” (1:12)

37. Everclear, “Nehalem” (1:54)

38. Hall & Oates, “Rich Girl” (2:24)

39. Miles Davis, “The Theme (Take 2)” (1:04)

40. George Michael, “Waiting (Reprise)” (2:25)

Any questions about the provenance of any of these forty tracks, just ask in the comments!

posted 4 September 2019 in Tasty Bits and tagged Mix CDs. no comments yet