Doktor Avalanche is the name of evolving electronic drum machines that have fueled the majestic Sisters of Mercy over the years. Dexterous name; distinct sound.

I can’t say with any certainly that Andrew Eldritch would approve of all the bands on this mix (probably not), but it’s a mix of songs with drum machines that I work to when in front of a computer. I know there are drum machines behind everyone from Prince to Wesley Willis, but when working I tend to play songs with a similar, electronic sound.  I tried to include different sounds and approaches here within that theme, and avoided a more dark/heavy electronic mix, though there is some of that on here. I also tried to include different bands so steered away from my all-time favorites as much as possible, purposefully leaving off Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Front 242, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, Depeche Mode, etc., but cheated a bit by adding Revolting Cocks and Download.  I included another all-time favorite, the Sisters, on there because I like the name of the mix.

As always, if you like a band, please download their songs and see their shows and otherwise support their efforts if you can. Enjoy!

1. TKM – Sub Swara
2. Flesh (Original) – A Split-Second
3. The Collapse – Flesh Field
4. Ghostwriter – RJD2
5. Dead End Streets (86 Mixxx) – Revolting Cocks
6. Phantasmata – CunninLynguists
7. Dial8 – Velvet Acid Christ
8. The Acension – Mnolo
9. Final Home (Piano Mix) – DJ Krush featuring Esthero
10. Transient – Glen Porter
11. Death Vest 09 – Enduser
12. The Great Divide – Die Krupps
13. Glory Box – Portishead
14. Human Crossing – Project Pitchfork
15. The Open Hand Avows – Daedelus
16. Firing Line – Noise Unit
17. Glassblower – Download
18. Poison Door – Sisters of Mercy
19. Narcisse – Martin Rev

1. Bob Marley & The Wailers – “Iron Lion Zion” - 06:12
2. Belly – “Feed the Tree” - 03:19
3. Smashing Pumpkins – “Disarm” - 02:56
4. Pearl Jam – “Rearviewmirror” - 04:34
5. The Cranberries – “Dreams” - 04:23
6. Radiohead – “Stop Whispering” - 05:07
7. Pet Shop Boys – “Can You Forgive Her?” - 03:44
8. Prince – “17 Days” - 05:14
9. Big Country – “The One I Love” - 04:55
10. Jellyfish – “The Ghost At Number One” - 03:25
11. The Breeders – “Cannonball” - 03:23
12. Dinosaur Jr. – “Start Choppin” - 05:20
13. Tears for Fears – “Break It Down Again” - 04:11
14. Ub40 – “Higher Ground” - 03:43
15. Stereo MC’s – “Connected” - 04:28
16. A Tribe Called Quest – “Electric Relaxation” - 03:11
17. American Music Club – “Over and Done” - 03:01
18. U2 – “The First Time” - 03:22
19. Crowded House – “Pineapple Head” - 03:27

1. Echo & The Bunnymen – “Seven Seas”  - 03:14
2. The Decemberists – “This Is Why We Fight” – 04:16
3. Brett Dennen – “Sydney (I’ll Come Running)” - 03:54
4. Guster – “Do You Love Me” – 03:30
5. Fleet Foxes – “Helplessness Blues” - 04:46
6. The Go! Team – “Back Like 8 Track” - 03:40
7. Billy Bragg & Wilco – “One By One” - 03:17
8. Gretchen Parlato – “Still” - 03:03
9. The Temper Trap – “Sweet Disposition” - 03:43
10. Mumford & Sons – “The Cave” - 03:26
11. The Avett Brothers – “Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise – 04:38
12. The Joy Formidable – “Whirring” - 06:38
13. Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings” - 04:16
14. Florence + The Machine – “Cosmic Love” - 04:07
15. Fitz & The Tantrums – “MoneyGrabber” - 03:00
16. TV On the Radio – “Caffeinated Consciousness” - 03:09
17. Death Cab for Cutie – “You Are A Tourist” - 04:46

The year was 1997. Pop, as always, was in. Grunge/alt-rock was no longer alternative, and starting to give way to dance music, and Ska was just taking hold in Eastern Canada…

I give you 96 83 minutes of 1997. Although I seriously considered creating an All-CanCon(*) playlist, but that would not be a true reflection of my listening habits that year. Bear in mind, this mix is a reflection of my last term of high school, the following summer and the start of my freshman year of university:

1. The Verve – “Bitter Sweet Symphony” 06:20
2. Chantal Kreviazuk – “God Made Me” 02:54
3. Holly McNarland – “Numb” 03:48
4. The Wallflowers – “One Headlight” 04:48
5. Great Big Sea – “Run Runaway” 02:42
6. Third Eye Blind – “Semi-Charmed Life” 04:19
7. Chumbawamba – “Tubthumping” 04:33
8. Cake – “The Distance” 02:32
9. The Tragically Hip – “Ahead by a Century” 03:34
10. Aqua – “Barbie Girl (Radio)” 00:02
11. Sugar Ray – “Fly” 04:47
12. Natalie Imbruglia – “Torn” 03:46
13. Smash Mouth – “Walkin’ on the Sun” 03:17
14. Wyclef Jean – “We Trying to Stay Alive” 02:26
15. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “The Impression That I Get” 03:05
16. White Town – “Your Woman” 04:10
17. Our Lady Peace – “Clumsy” 03:36
18. U2 – “Gone” 03:43
19. The Cardigans – “Lovefool” 03:04
20. The Verve Pipe – “The Freshmen” 04:20
21. Smashing Pumpkins – “1979″ 04:14
22. The Notorious B.I.G. – “Hypnotize” 03:41
23. Spirit Of The West – “Home for a Rest” 04:27

I am new to this forum and not entirely sure how it works, but I’m going to give it a shot. Every year after SXSW I make mix for my friends focusing on newer music. The regular audience for this cd is not as musically informed as this group. The track list is below. Be kind.

Grouplove – Colours
Robyn – Dancing On My Own
Twin Shadow – At My Heels
The Vaccines – Blow It Up
The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio
Mystery Jets – Dreaming Of Another Wrld
Best Coast – Each and Every Day
The Duke Spirit – Everybodys Under Your Spell
Fences – Girls With Accents
Yuck – Holing Out
Mona – Listen to Your Love
Young the Giant – My Body
Arcade Fire – Reday to Start
Teenage Fanclub – Sometimes I Don’t Need to Believe in Anything
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – Vocal Chords
Smith Westerns – Weekend
Bear Hands – What a Drag
The Naked and Famous – Young Blood
Eternal Summers – Pogo
Cloud Nothings – Didn’t You

This wasn’t easy, but the path of an Iron DJ is never easy. It is merely righteous.

This mix will present connections from the kid I was in my senior year of high school to the manchild I am today.

Tracy Chapman – Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution

I was in American Government class in my senior year. My teacher was in his early 40s and talked a lot about civics as well as the responsibility of citizens to dissent. I liked him because of the message about “sticking it to the man” but only in the last few years have those lessons really struck a chord within me. When Jim first pitched this idea for Iron DJ, this was the first song that popped in my head, because my American Government teacher played it in class.

Tom Petty – I Won’t Back Down

I played this cassette tape a ton in my senior year. I was a big fan of the Traveling Wilburys and that sound was still evident on this track. Over the years, this became an anthem for me that added more steel to my resolve.

The BoDeans – You Don’t Get Much

There’s no high school in Wisconsin in 1990 without the BoDeans. It’s like a law.

Rush – Presto

First off, you don’t grow up a fan of rock music without liking Rush, and no album by Rush spoke to me before or since the way Presto! did. Read yourself some Maslow. Heck, read some Tony Robbins or Stephen Covey if that’s what you’re into. You want magic? Listen to this album. Show me. Don’t Tell me. There are so many intersections between psychology, humanity and magic… Rush is a band of geniuses.

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe – Brother of Mine

This song came out and it was awesome. It was epic like Yes of old with synth and riffs of Yes of new (thanks to Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman). They couldn’t record as “Yes” because of the lawsuits at the time that were thankfully resolved for Yes’ greatest album, Union, to come in the 90s. Damn, I love this song. It’s beautiful.

Faith No More – From Out of Nowhere

Before nuMetal was a thing, there was Faith No More. They were (ahem) The Real Thing. Respect it, or it will crush you.

Tesla – Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)

Even now, when I think about a theme song for kicking ass, this is the song that pops in my head. I saw Tesla at the Vic in Chicago in 2001, long after their expiration date and they still were on a slip trip and ready to kick ass. You should hope when you’re older than you think you are that you kick as much ass.

Pantera – Cowboys From Hell

Never got into Pantera in high school. My friends did. This was a terrible mistake that I’ve since worked to amend.

Queensrÿche – Last Time in Paris

No one knows this song off of Empire. Everyone knows Silent Lucidity or Jet City Woman or even the song “Empire.” Heck, I forgot this song was on Empire — I remember it from the soundtrack to “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.” Go ahead, tell me how much Andrew “Dice” Clay sucks. I will retort with Vince Neil, Wayne Newton, Morris Day AND Sheila E. all in the same movie. “Dice” was so awesome when I was 17, and I’d be lying if there isn’t a devious undercurrent within me that was in part inspired by him. All that is an aside though to the song: it just kicks ass.

Tears for Fears – Sowing The Seeds of Love

I became a much bigger fan of Tears for Fears as an adult (as I became of the Smiths, Crowded House and other more introspective bands of the New Wave and post-modern era). I largely skipped this album as a kid, but I definitely reap what came of the seeds planted years ago.

The Stone Roses – She Bangs the Drums

I didn’t even know of The Stone Roses until right after college. Totally missed my radar. Friends of mine as a first-year teacher were into The Stone Roses, and I thought it was okay — the dreaminess of that Manchester sound only made sense to me as I became a bit more of an independent spirit. I love this song so much because it’s the music I imagine was in my head when I met my wife. It wasn’t — I didn’t even know the song then… but loving the song now, I figure it captures it as well as any song could.

INXS – The Stairs

I saw INXS on tour with Soup Dragons for “X” and damn were they awesome. This song always stuck out on that album as my favorite.

Sundays -Here’s Where the Story Ends

The weird thing about how I first got into the Sundays was that this song would play at dance clubs, which were open to 16+ year-olds in Milwaukee usually on Sunday nights. Normally, I hit Club Marilyn or Bermuda’s (both no longer around) and they played mostly alternative, post-modern and industrial… and then, maybe to signal a break for the DJ or to encourage the teenagers to go buy some sodas at the bar, they’d throw on The Sundays. Usually after some Front-242 and Nitzer-Ebb.

Jude Cole – House Full of Reasons

Jude Cole was this piano/guitar blues/rock guy. I think I ended up with his cassette in one of my Columbia House music mail order deals where I got a bunch of albums free and then if I didn’t turn anything in, I got whatever cassette was featured that month. He scored some minor hits with “Baby, It’s Tonight” and “Time for Letting Go” but I ended up really liking the whole album, and this song in particular I thought was a good combination of happy sounding music, upbeat with a decent tempo, but heartbreaking lyrics. This was the kind of song I would write in high school and in college. My favorite Del Amitri and Crowded House songs reflect this kind of thing.

Fine Young Cannibals – I’m Not the Man I Used to Be

In high school, everyone was listening to “Good Thing” or “She Drives Me Crazy.” Later in life, I actually started listening to the rest of the album and wow is it good stuff.

Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mine

Listen to this song. Tell me you’re not putting your fists to the sky a little bit, and/or bobbing your head. This is exactly where it’s at in terms of popular, but activist, music.

New Order – Vanishing Point

Two movies have been made about Factory records: “24 Hour Party People” and “Closer” and there should be a lot more movies to come, because they were so influential and none of the bands have had the talent and the survival skills that New Order had, post-Joy Division. Nothing on “Technique” was as good as “True Faith,” but this song is pretty damn righteous, “I’ve seen what a man can do; I’ve seen the hate of a woman, too.”

Happy Mondays – Step On

I’ve never tried Ecstasy, but I bet it sounds like this.

Prince – Electric Chair

I had the Batman soundtrack the day it came out. I wore through that tape in the first six months I had it. I bought it again. I wore through that, too. A year later, I had a CD Player for the first time, and the Batman soundtrack was the 10th CD I ever purchased. I love Prince. We all know that, but he was never so commercially viable as he was with this album. Everyone forgave him for Graffiti Bridge because the Batman soundtrack was so awesome.

Nine Inch Nails – Head Like a Hole

This song changed everything for me. I was into pop music before I heard this song. Once I heard “Head Like a Hole” at a party towards the end of my senior year, I stopped playing “No Jacket Required” and turned onto alternative music, which opened me up to alternative ideas.

Public Enemy – Welcome to the Terrordome

Public Enemy was dangerous music in 1990. Almost as dangerous as (and mistakenly lumped in with) NWA. Chuck D. hits you with so many lyrical lefts, you have no choice but to admit he’s right.

Kool Moe Dee – Knowledge is King

“I Go To Work” is such a favorite song, but my second-favorite might well be credited with where I went in terms of pursuing education as my life’s work.

At first I was trying to cram the songs I wanted into an hour long package. But then I thought about old cassette mix tapes. The ones that really sucked were the tapes that were 30 minutes on each side, or one hour mixes. 90 minute mix tapes were okay, but I really  liked 100 minute cassette mix tapes, which is the length that I ended up settling into over time. And so that’s what I made here. The longer format works for some mixes, and I think it works for this one too.

Hope you like it.

1. *Repo Man Theme (Instrumental) – Iggy Pop
2.  Death Ship – Hoodoo Gurus
3.   Wonderin’ – Neil Young**
4.  Wait – Wang Chung
5.  A Friend I Call Desire – Ultravox
6.  Got Me Under Pressure – ZZ Top ***
7.  Priestess – Wendy O. Williams
8.  Master and Servant – Depeche Mode
9.  Handsome Devil – The Smiths
10. Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell
11. Pink Turns to Blue – Husker Du
12. Jam On It – Newcleus
13. Ivo – Cocteau Twins ****
14. Mama’s Boy – Ramones
15. It’s My Life – Talk Talk
16. Realization – The Art of Noise
17. Nobody’s Home – Deep Purple
18. I Would Die 4 U – Prince
19.  Stay the Night – Chicago
20. Snaggletooth – Motorhead
21. 88 Lines About 44 Women – The Nails*****
22. Maybe Partying Will Help – Minutemen
23. 99 Red Balloons – Nena
24.  Show Me – The Pretenders
25. Slippery People – Talking Heads******
26. Fight Fire With Fire – Metallica

*          Repo Man
**        Ghostbusters
***      Spinal Tap
****    Making the Grade
*****  The Man with Two Brains
****** Red Dawn

It’s IRON DJ time again! Which means that a bunch of people are going to upload themed mixes and try to compete with me! Unfortunately for them, not only do I have unbeatable taste in music, but this time around I even have the IRON DJ theme going for me: GRADUATION YEAR.

The idea is to put together a mix where the theme is the year you graduated high school.  I graduated in 1988, and there was so much good music made that year that I could have made 3 mixes that would blow your mind.

But instead I made this one.  It’s semi-autobiographical, in that for the most part, the songs are played in the order in which I discovered them.  Not all of this is music I’d have listened to back in 1988, but it’s all great.  I hope you dig the mix, and whether you do or not, leave me some feedback in the comments please!

1. Danzig – Mother
2. INXS – Devil Inside
3. Living Colour – Desperate People
4. The Church – Reptile
5. Dead Milkmen – Stuart
6. They Might Be Giants – Ana Ng
7. The Pursuit Of Happiness – I’m An Adult Now
8. Bad Religion – What Can You Do?
9. Fishbone – Bonin’ In The Boneyard
10. Jane’s Addiction – Mountain Song
11. Pixies – Gigantic
12. Fugazi – Give Me The Cure
13. Cowboy Junkies – Sweet Jane
14. The Pogues – Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six
15. The Waterboys – World Party
16. Dinosaur Jr. – Freak Scene
17. Sonic Youth – Teen Age Riot
18. Galaxie 500 – Temperature’s Rising

Hooray! Let’s get right to it!

20. Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues Song: Move Over Mama  This guy puts out an album every year, and you’ve heard me talk about him before since it seems like they always end up on my year-end lists. This album represents a further maturation of his sound, marrying disparate elements–country but urban, sad but upbeat.  Move Over Mama is a rollicking honky-tonking good time of a song about a woman who takes up too damn much of the bed.

19. Lair of the Minotaur – Evil Power Song: Riders of Skullhammer, We Ride the Night  A crushing sludgy Chicago thrash band and a perennial favorite of mine, Lair of the Minotaur has tightened up their sound from the epic bloody thrashfests of their album The Ultimate Destroyer, which I loved, through the (to me) less-focused and inferior War Metal Battle Master, and now here, they’ve distilled their brand of brutal Greek Mythology influenced fantasy metal into sharp chugging 2 minute bursts that say everything they have to say and are done.

18. Gil Scott Heron – I’m New Here Song: I’ll Take Care of You  Soul poetry? Immediate, revealing, intimate even, the man who told us the revolution would not be televised lays himself bare, with bleak songs and poems about growing up in a broken home, about disease and self-destruction, all very minimalistic but made raw by the power of Scott-Heron’s voice and words.  This song is a cover of an old soul song, originally recorded by Roy Hamilton but covered by everyone from Elvis Costello to Mark Lanegan of the Screaming Trees.  After this, I’ll never think of it as anything but a Gil Scott-Heron song.

17. Flaming Tusk – Old, Blackened Century Song: Ichor  First full-length from NYC metal quintet is a grab-bag of extreme metal influences. I expect even better things from this band in the future but this album hits almost every note I want to hear out of my metal.  Ichor is a song about the Vietnam war, which isn’t a terribly common subject for metal but why shouldn’t it be?

16. Jesuslesfilles – Une Belle Table Song: Mercredi  Just some joyful, upbeat, jangly and noisy pop that brings to mind early Pixies.  As their lyrics and most of the information about the band are all in French I can’t really tell you much about them, but it’s all terribly catchy stuff.

15. Dear Astronaut – Escape from Rainbow Mountain Song: That Thing Which Could Not Be Put Back  Jeb, the singer/guitarist/driving force of Dear Astronaut is a friend of mine. This, their final album, was years in the making due to production issues, and by the time they had the album release party they had to relearn the songs since they hadn’t been playing them in so long. But this album marks their full transition into the heavy-hitting sludge sound that takes better advantage of their talents than the earlier mad circus folk had. So while it’s sad to see them go, at least they went out on top.

14. Black Breath – Heavy Breathing Song: Escape From Death  Black Breath is a Seattle band playing heavy and loud as hell sludgy crossover thrash/death metal with plenty of hardcore influence as well.  Escape from Death is a death metal song, appropriately enough, about the undead, craving human flesh, from their own point of view.

13. The Lights – Failed Graves Song: Gingerella  This is a compelling piece of garagey punk/post-punk from a band that’s been kicking around Seattle for a while.

12. Arsis – Starve for the Devil Song: Beyond Forlorn  A thrashier sound than their previous strict technical death metal, with speed metal and cock rock leanings.  The album is a group of songs revolving around the guitarist/singer James Malone’s battles with an eating disorder, and “Beyond Forlorn” is about the depression and loneliness that come with it.

11. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor Song: Richard II  This is a sprawling civil-war-themed concept album featuring exotic instrumentation, repeated themes, and some extended jams. It’s also a punk rock record. Somehow it manages both.

10. Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini Song: Ethica Odini  This newest release from the longterm Norwegian Viking/Black metal greats features driving thrashy black metal punctuated by melodic clean-vocalled segments.  Less meandering and progressive than previous efforts, the songwriting is perhaps simplified, but also more focused.  This song, Ethica Odini, which leads off the album, is a prime example.  It opens with a wintry but razor sharp riff that drives through the harsh-vocaled verse until the clean vocals of the chorus hit and tumble it apart into something beautiful but forbidding.

09. Leatherface – The Stormy Petrel Song: Another Dance  Arty punk that at times brings to mind Husker Du, with melodic guitars and raspy vocals that still manage to belt out singalongy choruses.  If I were to make one complaint about the album it’s that there are a few songs in which the singalongy choruses take on a kind of sameness, but this song avoids that, and all are well worth hearing.

08. Les Savy Fav – Root for Ruin Song: Excess Energies  A new album from this fiery NYC indie band, which I consider to be every bit as good as their previous efforts.  The main criticism people seem to be levelling against it is that it’s very much like those previous albums, but when “more of the same” from these guys involves more of their edgy, angular rock, aggressive and antic, well I can live with it.

07. Trampled by Turtles – Palomino Song: Wait So Long  Trampled by Turtles are a “progressive” bluegrass band from Minnesota and, put simply, they shred. The high points of this album feature musical instruments that seem on the verge of spontaneously combusting.  This song leads off the album with a great fiddle melody exploding into a bloody-fingered ripper of breakneck… is bluegrass punk a genre? It is now I guess.

06. Woods – At Echo Lake Song: Death Rattles  Murky low-fi falsetto pop that is really well done, its sound at once barebones and lush, owing as much to fuzzy psychedelia as it does to country and folk music . The songwriting is what shines though it also hints at depths that the band doesn’t fully plumb here, perhaps teasing us with the potential, but that is also part of the appeal.  Death Rattles is a atmospheric mood piece full of eery sound effects and high-pitched minor key crooning, with an unsettling result.

05. Glossary – Feral Fire Song: Save Your Money for the Weekend  Soulful workingman’s southern rock, just the kind of thing for a beer and a shot and maybe even some troublemaking, ’cause as they say in this song (which brings to mind Billy Joel’s Only The Good Die Young but in a good way I swear), “Honey there’s gotta be some hell somewhere waiting to be raised”

04. Superchunk – Majesty Shredding Song: Learned to Surf  Superchunk are indie giants who’ve been around for decades but hadn’t released an album since 2001. Then this album dropped and reminded everyone why this band was the best thing anyone had ever heard 20 years ago. Non-stop infectious power pop perfection.

03. High On Fire – Snakes for the Divine Song: How Dark We Pray  I know some people had some issues with the production of this album–it’s less murky and bottom heavy than previous albums, but the high end comes out cleaner and you can hear the lead guitar better so I think it shreds regardless.  The songwriting continues to be excellent, with urgent pummeling drums driving a blistering guitar assault and Matt Pike’s throat-destroying roar coming through more clearly than before.  With a few songs though, including this one, they slow their usual gallop down a bit and if anything are even heavier and more menacing as a result.

02. The Besnard Lakes – Are the Roaring Night Song: Like The Ocean, Like the Innocent Pt II: Like the Innocent  This album of dreamy shoegazy irresistable space rock came out early in the year, and was one of my most-listened albums all year long.  Expect falsetto vocals with Beach Boys style harmonies, elements of 70s era prog and power pop, all blended into a package so smooth you could slide on it in your stockinged feet.

01. J Roddy Walston and the Business – J Roddy Walston and the Business Song: Used to Did  JRW&tB plays anthemic fist-pumping piano-driven rock and F@&%ING roll, born in the south but schooled in Baltimore.  With choruses that won’t leave  your head for weeks and an energetic delivery in the best tradition of Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, it will make you want to jump on top of something, anything, and start stomping.