Welcome Bryan and his Mix CD

First and foremost is an exciting announcement. My nearest and dearest friend Bryan will soon be joining Half Of A Wing as a contributor. I look forward to Bryan's views on music, movies, tv, fashion, pop culture, and anything else he wants to express.

I am a huge fan of the personalized mix tape/cd. They are like the perfect greeting card or thank you note or love letter. I have been making and receiving mixes from friends for as long as I can remember. Out of the ones I have received, some have been okay, some really good. Yesterday, Bryan gave me probably the best mix cd I have ever received complete with custom artwork and twenty one tracks of pure ecstasy (all except two I had never heard). I'd like to comment on a few of the highlights here.

Pants - Lemuria - Wow, what an incredible band, and a great song. Today is the first day I checked out this mix cd, but I can comfortably predict a longtime obsession with this band. A three-piece from Buffalo with those great female vocals that I love and great pop sensibility without being bubble-gum. Thumbs up.

Coin Operated Boy - Dresden Dolls - This is one of those bands where I've heard their name a million times but had no idea what they sounded like, and shame on me for that because they are great. Again, female vocals, but with a toungue-in-cheek delivery and lyrics similar to Folk Implosion's "Mechanical Man."

Here I Go - Syd Barrett - I have been a Pink Floyd fan since I was about nine years old. Though I have never touched a hallucinogenic drug I would argue that such is not necessary to appreciate the band's music. However, I only grew up with the Roger Waters/David Gilmour version of the band. I haven't heard a Syd Barrett song until now. Truth be told, I have been missing out.

I'd like to continue, but I am getting tired. I'll wrap it up with David Bowie, who enjoys two tracks on this mix, one of which is an awesome Pixies cover. I like things in threes, and David Bowie and Prince are two out of three in the trifecta of the most incredible musicians of all time who also broke into the mainstream. Who was the third? Shit, I can't remember. It was somebody good. Anyway...

A mix cd is like a gift. We can always ask eachother "hey, have you heard of xxxxxxx?" but the conversation may die at that moment. A mix cd (provided one makes the effort to put it into his/her cd player) ensures a true reccomendation will reach full fruition and I'll be damned if it isn't one of the most amazing forms of word-of-mouth procreation of musical culture that we have ever been part of.