It started to snow yesterday, and it made the drive both to work and back home a pain. I was ina 20 minute traffic jam on the way in because there was a car that was being towed on the side of the road that everyone just had to see. It was especially bad when I was going home and it was dark. The road that my work is on was nothing but black ice. Once I got on the highway the roads were clear but very wet. My wipers somehow kept leaving streaks right where I needed to see and the semis were throwing back tons of crap. I must have done something to fix it because about 15 minutes from home they stopped leaving streaks. So much fun. I decided I needed a mix to listen to on those particular snowy drives. So I made one. I picked a lot of songs that made me think of winter. Enjoy.


The Winter Of Our Discontent (A RopBop Winter Mix)
Track List:
01.Neko Case - A Widow's Toast
02. The Notwist - Boneless (Grizzly Bear Remix)
03. Jesse Woods - Mind Drips (Neon Indian Cover)
04. The New Pornographers - Hey Snow White
05. The Rolling Stones - Winter
06. Mother Falcon - Marigold
07. Damien Jurado - Arkansas
08. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
09. Andrew Bird - The Giant Of Illinois
10. Ryan Bingham - The Weary Kind (Theme To Crazy Heart)
11. The Replacements - Skyway
12. Joni Mitchell - A Case Of You
13. Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel No. 2
14. Bon Iver - Wolves (Act 1&2)
15. The Smiths - Asleep
16. Mumford & Sons - Dust Bowl Dance
17. Jason Lytle - Yours Truly, The Commuter
18. Small Brown Bike - This Is My Holiday
19. The Dodos - Winter
20. The Mountain Goats and Kaki King - Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle

Click here to listen on YouTube

Click here to listen on Spoitify (Missing 2 songs)

The Letter A

I am a badass bird!

The first time I heard this song it reminded me of The Smashing Pumpkins. I'm not saying that as a slam against the band. If anything it's a major compliment in my opinion. This song reminded me of why I love the Pumpkins earlier stuff. Sonic walls of crunching guitars, machine gun drum fills, badass guitar solos and flight like lyrics. If I was a bird and I could fly, this would be the song I would constantly listen to.
Apteka - Aragon Sound

This is such a fun song. I have this one on my "Make me happy cause I am having a shitty day" play list. How can you not smile at a song with a kazoo solo? Catchy all the way around. Crank this one up and get your toe tapping on!
April Smith and the Great Picture Show - Colors

I have never been a fan of Anthony And The Johnsons. I have tried and tried to like them but it just doesn't happen. I really think it's the singers voice that annoys me. Recently I was listening to NPR's All Songs Considered (which is a great podcast by the way) and they played this song. It changed me opinion of Antony Hegartys voice completely. I have yet to explore more songs by them but maybe someday I will be converted. Until then I'll stick with this haunted piano driven beauty.
Antony And The Johnsons - Ghost

Waking up is probably one of the hardest things for me to do in life. Let me rephrase that, getting out of bed is one of the hardest things for me. It's such a chore. When I do finally roll my lazy bones out of bed I walk around the house for a good 5 minutes grumbling about how I don't want to do it. I am not exaggerating here folks, this happens pretty much every morning. I found that the right song can kickstart my motor in the morning. The Antlers do a good job of that with this song. the start is slow and easy going and then kicks in to a full blown danceable beat. To top it off it completes itself with vocals I can groan along to.
The Antlers - Bear

I always try to apply music to situations in daily life (see above). This one is definitely one of those songs you throw on when you are feeling like the king of the world. Everyone look out below because I'm blowin' up like a....Vol-ca-no!
Anti-Pop Consortium - Volcano

A Tower Of Music For Your Ears

Daniel Dumile is a hip hop artist who goes by the name MF Doom, or Metal Fingers or Viktor Vaughn or Metal Fingers or in this respect MF Borat. Whatever you want to call him there is no denying his ability to conjure up insanely clever wordplay and well produced beats. He has produced tracks for Ghostface Killah as well as colaberated with some of underground hip hops best such as DJ Dangermouse on the Adult Swim CD Danger Doom: The Mouse And The Mask (which I highly recommend). Fun fact: Doom's 2009 album Born Like This was inspired by the poem "Dinosauria, We" by poet Charles Bukowski. DOOM samples a performance of the poem by Bukowski on the track "Cellz." Very cool! Get out your umbrella because this dude can spit.
MF Borat - Tower of Ears (feat. Diana Ross)

This band no longer exists. Sad, sad, sad.
The Minders - Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

I forgot that I had this song in my iTunes until it randomly came on while I was sidetracked by the black hole that is the internet. I am so glad that I was other wise who knows how long it might have been just sitting there waiting for it's chance to shine. This is catchy indie pop at it's best. Besides how can you go wrong with a band name that came from a ZX Spectrum personal home computer batman game.
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. - Young And Lovestruck

Did you know that Julia Roberts is a hedonist? Seriously look it up! I don't think if I was a hedonist and she came around I would be unhappy at all.
Hyperpotamus - The Unhappy Hedonist

Click here to read about it, click here to find out what not to do, click below to listen.
Washington - How To Tame Lions