Good Weather For Airstrikes

M3 Mini: Earth Day Edition

[cover art adapted from The Small Stakes]

Well, 4/20 came and went, and Derek’s M3 Mini ode to the day and the pastime was well-received and I’d like to take this opportunity to recommend you all check it out if you haven’t yet. However, with the 4/20 festivities being less my thing than certain other individuals throughout the blogosphere, I felt a little bit left out when I saw my friends posting all there fabulous mixes for the day. I enjoy making mixes and I enjoy even more when I can distribute them for public consumption, and one way to give my mixes some semblance of flow and direction is to have a specific theme. Well 4/20 was great but when 4/22, also known as Earth Day, rolled around, I knew I couldn’t let the opportunity pass without making my own personal ode to the one day the Green Party has a larger, more active following than, say, the Libertarians (though it could be said that 4/20 was one big “Green Party” in itself). Most of my comments following with regards to Earth Day see me placing my tongue so hard in to my cheek that I’m actually drawing blood, but the reality is that there are a lot of environmental issues that do need discussion and would benefit from raised awareness. If I can get anybody here to care just a little bit more for the world they live in than they did before, I will consider this mix a success. I will also consider this mix a success if I break in to double-digits in the comments section, so all of you go wild and make me feel good about myself!

1. “Third Planet” - Modest Mouse

First found on Modest Mouse’s album The Moon and Antarctica and later featured on M3 Volume 6 right here on Good Weather For Airstrikes, “3rd Planet” is an obvious first track on an Earth Day mix simply because the title implies Earth, which is basically what I’m going for here. Additionally, it’s a good Modest Mouse song, and though most Modest Mouse fans should already have this song, if not than it’s obviously a must-have.

2. “Look Into The Air” - Explosions In The Sky

I jump at any opportunity to include Explosions in the Sky, one of my favorite bands, on any mix. “Look Into The Air”, from their debut How Strange, Innocence, is not only a great instrumental guitar song but also a reference to what Earth Day asks all of us to do: look in to the air, and wonder to ourselves what kind of condition it’s in, and whether that’s a good thing. Which segues quite nicely in to our next song…

3. “Air Conditions” - Q And Not U
…Which addresses the air condition issue right there in it’s title. Q And Not U is an absolutely essential band for anyone in the greater DC-Metropolitan area, easily on par with Fugazi or Dismemberment Plan. This song, from their “break-through” (used rather loosely) album Different Damage, is pure Q And Not U, featuring odd arrangements and signature sing/yelping from the now solo (Ch)Ris Paul Ric(hards).

4. “Price of Gasoline” - Bloc Party
What does this song, from my #2 Album of 2005, Silent Alarm, have to do with Earth Day? Well, if “the price of gas keeps on rising”, as Kele Okereke sings, perhaps environmentalists will make some headway in decreasing the number of Hummers on the road and increasing the number of hybrids. Even better, the Earth Day mission for increased environmental standards could further be aided by rising gas prices as scientists and auto industry research and development teams work to discover new, cheaper, more environmentally sound alternate energy sources. That said, Bloc Party is a sweet band and this is a sweet song, and if you don’t have it you should download it and then buy Silent Alarm immediately.

5. “Air Pollution” - Page France

A quiet, melodic tune about an issue that, to Earth Day activists, is kept too quiet: air pollution. Though various past administrations have attempted to reach some sort of agreement with regards to clean(er) air, the connection Page France makes between sharing breaths and sharing air pollution still rings true: there is too much pollution, and Earth Day seeks to remedy this undervalued and pressing issue.

6. “Recycled Air” - The Postal Service

Everybody’s favorite mellow electro-pop dynamic duo, Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello, indirectly address Earth Day issues in one of the stronger songs from the downright impeccable Give Up. Though Gibbard likely meant something slightly more romantic when he sings about “the stale taste of recycled air”, the reality is that this ‘recycled air’ is all too prevalent in our nations cities, and as mentioned above, pollution is one of the main issues Earth Day aims to raise awareness for.

7. “The Giving Tree” - The Epochs
Possibly the most underrated band currently producing music, The Epochs are based in Seattle via Northern Virginia by way of New York. Their brand of Postal Service-esque electronic pop feature a more diverse array of sounds than the ‘Service’s Tamborello generally utilizes, and this song in particular highlights the unique ability The Epochs have of taking challenging sounds and song structures and making them sound so overwhelmingly familiar that you are forced to wonder why the song isn’t blowing up the radio, until you remember how different it is from anything on the radio. Not to mention, all trees are, in essense, giving trees, if just for the oxygen they produce while recycling used carbon dioxide and furthering the cycle of man and nature’s interconnectivity. Have you hugged a tree today?

8. “Evergreen” - The Fiery Furnaces
The title of this song evokes the inherent belief of humanity that their environment and the resources on which we rely will exist forever. Unfortunately, as Green Party members and Earth Day ‘celebrators’ will no doubt tell you, the Earth has a finite amount of resources to provide, and we need to find alternatives with some degree of urgency if we’d like to continue living with the lifestyle we’ve grown accustomed to. Also, the Fiery Furnaces pull out some mean electric guitar in the middle of this track, which makes it worth a download just to hear that.

9. “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” - The White Stripes
In addition to being one of my favorite White Stripes songs, with an accompanying music video that fits right in the Stripes oeuvre of memorable videos, Jack White’s title has Earth Day written all over it. Leaves die every year, you may say. The ground is made of dirt, and as such is always dirty, you may also say. What I say in response is, just because the bully in middle school beat you up every single day and took your lunch money didn’t make it okay, right? Irrelevant, you may exclaim, and in response I would say, “you might as well just give in to Earth Day and do your part to help the environment regardless of the message Jack White is trying to send on this badass track.”

10. “Big Blue Sea” - Bob Schneider
Bob Schneider is yet another singer-songwriter armed with an acoustic guitar, some pipes, and relatively forgettable lyrics. However, his experimentation with shifting between the left and right channels of sound take his songs, especially this one, to a new level. After forty-five seconds of hard-to-decipher, too-soft vocals, you may be asking yourself what I was thinking in posting this track. But when the vocals explode throughout the channels of sound and you become enveloped by Schneider’s soothing voice and the warmth of the song sinks in, you will understand what I mean.

So there it is, ladies and gentlemen: Good Weather For Airstrike’s Official M3 Mini: Earth Day Edition mix. I hope you all download and enjoy, and I hope this makes you a little more aware of what Earth Day is all about. Earth Day has a website that you should all check out, which can be found by searching “Earth Day” on Google, provided you are “Feeling Lucky”. Enjoy the tunes, and Happy Earth Day!

NOTE: This post is made from 100% recyclable plastic.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 at 3:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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M3 Mini: Earth Day Edition

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