MIXTAPE MONDAYS: The Black Frank White

(Every Monday at Tragically Hipster we'll feature a look at a band, performance, or vague musical concept, with an accompanying virtual mixtape for your listening pleasure. There's no need to thank us; it's just one more service we like to provide for you, our dedicated readers. Most of whom also write for this site.)


Today our entire mix is dedicated to the work of The Notorious B.I.G., A.K.A. Biggie Smalls, A.K.A. Big Poppa, A.K.A. The King of New York, A.K.A. The Black Frank White, under the questionably free-form logic that David Foster Wallace committed suicide this weekend, and "Suicidal Thoughts" is one of the late Christopher Wallace's best songs.

In addition to featuring tracks from his magnum opus Ready to Die and the posthumous release Life After Death, this week we also detour through a pair of guest spots; the first hip-hop track ever produced by Trent Reznor; and a trio of songs that rather brilliantly juxtapose the late King of New York with the equally great Chairman of the Board, a cross-pollination that bears surprisingly tasty fruit (you'll have to excuse the weak metaphors and general paucity of commentary this week; we stayed up well past our bedtime last night).

Listening to this mix is, needless to say, not safe for work, school, or church picnics. Included herein are tales of debauchery, thievery, murder, infidelity, poor grammar, ill-gotten wealth, personal arsenals, suicidal musings, neighborhood deteriorations, frankly unlikely sexual escapades, shocking misogyny, unruly libidos, and late-night club hopping -- which we can personally testify is a more draining activity than most of our hip-hop heroes would have us believe.

All of this is presented here to you, wrapped in the bright pearly sheen of cleverly crass wordplay and soothingly aggressive beats, 100% free of charge. Send your offers of gratitude and promiscuity, if you must, C/O Tragically Hipster, Los Angeles, but just remember: we look cuter on your iPhone screen than we do in real life.

Mixwards, away!

On the Mixtape:

1) "Introduction / Things Done Changed"
2) "Everyday Struggle / A Day in the Life of a Fool"
(The Notorious B.I.G. & Frank Sinatra)
3) "Kick in the Door"
4) "Gimme the Loot"
5) "Crush on You (Remix)"
(Lil' Kim featuring Lil' Cease and The Notorious B.I.G.)
6) "Come On / My Way of Life"
(The Notorious B.I.G. & Frank Sinatra)
7) "Hypnotize"
8) "Warning"
9) "Nasty Boy / For Every Man There's a Woman"
(The Notorious B.I.G. & Frank Sinatra)
10) "Big Poppa"
11) "Victory (Nine Inch Nails Remix)"
(Puff Daddy featuring Busta Rhymes and The Notorious B.I.G.)
12) "Suicidal Thoughts"

LINKS:
The Black Frank White Mixtape
Ready to Die by The Notorious B.I.G.
Life After Death by The Notorious B.I.G.
Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy Mixed by DJ Cappel
Not Tonight (CD Single) by Lil' Kim
Victory (CD Single) by Puff Daddy

MIXTAPE MONDAYS: Things That Go Together Like a Horse and Carriage

(Every Monday at Tragically Hipster we'll feature a look at a band, performance, or vague musical concept, with an accompanying virtual mixtape for your listening pleasure. There's no need to thank us; it's just one more service we like to provide for you, our dedicated readers. Most of whom also write for this site.)

Our theme this week, for those who didn't watch nearly enough Married... With Children when they were growing up, is centered on joyous (or, as some of the songs would have us believe, not-so-joyous) nuptials. Not for any specific reason, mind. Not because congratulations are in order to anyone we know. Because that kind of nepotism clearly just isn't our style.

Here we have contributions from Old Blue Eyes himself; gypsy-punks from that far-distant land called "New York City"; a featured track from The Features; ideological attacks from socialist movements and Australian marsupials; a quiet interlude from a band whose sound mimics perfectly the feeling of spending a weekend in their namesake; perhaps the darkest song ever written for and subsequently used in a real wedding ceremony; a story about that jerk who has to ruin everything he's a part of; and then a nice outro from a band whose name suggests the underworld but whose sound is more reminiscent of a Broadway stage, circa 1938. (If those descriptions don't make much sense to you, perhaps you can take some comfort in the fact that we're not quite certain that we understand them either.)

On the Mixtape:

1) "Love and Marriage" by Frank Sinatra

2) "American Wedding" by Gogol Bordello

3) "The Idea of Growing Old" by The Features

4) "My First Wedding" by The Wombats

5) "The Bachelor and the Bride" by The Decemberists

6) "Wedding Bell" by Beach House

7) "And No More Shall We Part" by Nick Cave

8) "A Punch Up at a Wedding" by Radiohead

9) "Births, Deaths & Marriages" by The Divine Comedy

Quick Notes on Select Songs:

* "The Idea of Growing Old" by The Features isn't directly marriage-related, but we trust that you'll follow our logic in that in so far as it talks at great length about growing old together, it implies marriage -- at least according to what Sinatra croons in "Love and Marriage".

* I love The Wombats. Their first album is the perfect distillation of what guitar-pop should be: catchy hooks, melancholic love-addled lyrics, and great sung-shouted choruses. The desperate repetition of "She's not that beautiful!" in "My First Wedding" manages to be at once humorous and a little sad, with a nice dollop of patheticness on the side. I like to think that Radiohead's "A Punch Up at a Wedding" tells the same story, but from the perspective of the bride and groom. (This is, needless to say, something of a large narrative stretch to make, and is perhaps better left ignored by those more sensible than I.)

* Though at first blush "And No More Shall We Part" sounds like a piss-take on wedding songs, replacing a sense of dread for the more common joy, it was in fact written and recorded by Cave on the occasion of his own wedding. And listened to in its entirety, it reveals itself to be a track of aching beauty, leading the listener through a little mini-tour of a relationship, beginning with cynical lonesomeness and climaxing in a beautiful choral arrangement which suggests a deeper sublimity is indeed in store for those who choose to devote their lives to one another.

LINKS:

Things That Go Together Like a Horse and Carriage Mixtape

Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years by Frank Sinatra

Super Taranta by Gogol Bordello

Exhibit A by The Features

A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation by The Wombats -- seriously, buy this album

Her Majesty by The Decemberists

Devotion by Beach House

No More Shall We Part by Nick Cave

Hail to the Thief by Radiohead

Diva Lady (CD Single) by The Divine Comedy