This mix is simply entitled "Yeah," in my iTunes. I think it was given that name to match up with my sort of downtrodden state this weekend. Most of these songs are middle emotion, midtempo; they've hit me in the way I feel certain circumstances in my life have been hitting lately, but certainly they've struck my so-called metaphysical chords quite harmoniously.

Apologies to those of you reading this to find new music as some of the songs appear on old mixes found here. This week, I was definitely going for music to match a mental state. Hopefully, you understand.

1) The Little Willies - No Place to Fall
2) Jeff Tweedy - Be Not So Fearful
3) Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
4) Elton John - Come Down in Time
5) Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Acoustic)
6) Chaka Khan - Love Me Still
7) The Rolling Stones - I Got the Blues
8) Van Morrison - Beside You
9) The Beatles - Cry Baby Cry
10) Corinne Bailey Rae - Like a Star
11) Bill Withers - Can We Pretend
12) Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un Ma Dit
13) The Weepies - Gotta Have You
14) Rosie Thomas - Since You've Been Around
15) Lyle Lovett - If I Needed You
16) Townes Van Zandt - Flyin' Shoes
17) Bill Withers - Stories
18) Luz Casal & Carlos Nunez - Negra Sombra
19) Bill Fay - Be Not So Fearful
20) Townes Van Zandt - High, Low, and In Between

The Weepies, not The Weebles, have stolen much of this weekend from me, and I'd like it back. It's either that, or I am going to have them steal your week. You may resist, but this song's infectious chorus will stick to you like gum to a shoe's sole. That's too nice. I'll say this: it's like walking into a spider's web of harmonies - ok, ok, maybe not a web, but something that clings to everything and makes trying to do anything else futile. It's like the schadenfreude involved in the inexplicable joy of watching someone attempt to parallel park a six foot long car in four feet of space. But it's not malicious. Ok, I'm prefacing this song too much for what it is. Give it a listen and get back to me. It may follow you home like it did me - staring up at me with those eyes, that lost, sorta cute, but definitely mutty dog that it is. It's a dog. I love this song, even though it may pee on my shoes.

The Weepies - Gotta Have You
If that link doesn't work, you can view my plagiarism and get the song here.

Oh, yeah, and Deb Talan and Steve Tannen, the pair who make up said Weepies, have the sweetest story.

The Brooklyn Vegan has posted a New York Summer Concert Preview. It's going to be a good summer!

Oh, and according to Pollstar, Wilco's playing in Prospect Park on July 13th.

So there! I've wanted to see Wilco for about five years now, and I am finally going to be able to see them, I'll be able to afford this show, and I'll be outside in the park drunk with friends. What more could a guy ask for? A double kick drum by The Landing would perhaps be nice. That's right, Chicago - The Landing.

Here are two videos of my favorite comedian, Aziz Ansari. The first one is from a show I saw in February of '05. The second is Aziz's contributions to The Mix Tape for this week. Also, check out Eugene Mirman. And Happy Easter.... totally unrelated, I know.

The Best New Album of 2006 (Thus Far)

I can't believe I haven't posted anything about Josh Ritter's new album. "The Animal Years" is at the same time grown organically and with painstaking care with its raw, sublimely picked strings, warm, full drums, and well thought out, wonderfully crafted, smart, biting lyrics. I've connected to his words more so than I have any other artist in recent years. And with the e-card above, you can listen to the entire album online for free!

The first time I heard Josh Ritter, I had just ended a relatively passionate relationship which managed to waiver on being the most honest and dishonest encounter I have ever been party to. Honest in all the flushes and rushes being in love can do to two people. We'd spend hours together just to be together. We'd spend all our money to be able to do so. It was dishonest in that when we were apart, the relationship delved into a lie so absurd I will spend my life trying to understand it. I suffered a series of whacks to my esteem: backhandedness, cheating, lying, and pure abuse. I'd returned from California where she was living, and for reasons I won't go into now, we'd both been watching HBO's "Six Feet Under" somewhat incessantly over those ten days. The first episode after our break-up ended with "Come and Find Me" by Mr. Ritter accompanying the credits. I immediately went out and found all the Josh Ritter I could, and became somewhat obsessed for the latter part of my senior year of college. His music seemed somehow to mend the pain she'd caused in all her lies. It recreated in me the desire to love, to find it again, if not for a moment.

The summer after college, I moved on from Josh Ritter to Damien Rice, Jeff Black, and Patrick Park, and that fall, I moved to London where as I continued to love Mr. Ritter's increasingly potent songs, I found out that while an Idaho native, thanks to major support from Glen Hansard and his band The Frames, Mr. Ritter'd gained a lot of leg in Ireland - where I would move next. Just prior to my arrival, he announced a Valentine's Day concert. My very close friend and roommate Blake and I leapt with excitement. We went. It was a wonderfully scattered show, and the Irish truly love him, especially, the rotund gentleman who'd heckle, "Keep playin', John."

Why I am telling you all this, I have no idea - just to lay out my coming to find the man who asked that we "come and find" him. So, do so now. It's never been a better opportunity.

I am in the midst of watching Be Here to Love Me for the fourth time since Sunday. This movie, this music, this man have engulfed me, part or whole in a big way. First time director Margaret Brown has crafted the best movie I have seen since The Ballad of Jack & Rose with a plethora of old footage, cool new shots of Texas roadsides, and hundreds of songs worthy of being called "perfect." Among Townes' more popular songs are "If I Needed You" and "Pancho and Lefty."

His songs tell the stories life handed him. They aren't necessarily big, they usually aren't beautiful, and they definitely aren't popular, but man, they become more than the sum of their parts - sorry to use a cliche.

What has stung me is his notion that in order to succeed he needed to abandon everyone and everything in his life - wives, kids, friends, jobs, homes, everything. But what can you expect from a man whose first serious song was "Waiting Around to Die." I'm passing a new milestone on my life's road, and with this one, I'm at a similar crossroad. I could very easily blow everything off, forget about everybody else and just take off and do it for myself, but I think I'm choosing to do it completely differently.

I'm going to pursue this artist's life, I'll be poor, down and out, malnourished, unkempt, as long as it means I get to do what I want. Wish me luck. Check out this movie. Check out "Marie," "Tecumseh Valley," and "Dead Flowers" a cover of The Rolling Stones' song made famous in The Big Lebowski.

Oh, and Margaret Brown's interview on WFMU is worth a listen if you have oodles of time or desire.