Maybe picking Mondays for this vinyl mix column was a bad idea. I feel like I spend more time talking about what a rough goddamned Monday morning it is, not enough time getting up about the music. I don’t know what to say, I guess I just liked the sound of “The Monday Mix”. This is a comic site after all, and god knows comics love alliterations. Peter Parker. Matt Murdock. Silver Surfer. Sue Storm. Reed Richards. Monday Mix. It rolled off the tongue in a nice way.

I guess I’m pretty beat today. I was up until about 6:30am recording samples, and trying to put the polish on the mix I’m about to give you, a mix whose file my computer had it’s dirty little way with and corrupted roughly half of. I suppose I could have worked on fixing it earlier in the day, but I’d been out digging for records around Manhattan through most of the afternoon. And I suppose I could have done my digging earlier in the morning, but frankly, I was preoccupied with sleeping until 1pm, and I’m not giving that shit up for nobody on a Sunday.

Let us open the good gospel of the Digable Planets, and turn our pages to Pacifics 2:39, where the First Commandment of crate-diggers is stated in no uncertain terms: “Sunday’s to relax.”

I suppose that would make the Second Commandment “a nickle-bag of funk”, but I’m not sure where we could go from there.

First, let me get this mix out of the way. Really, I don’t know what the hell this one is about. Probably one of the most random, off-the-wall mixes I’ve done in a minute. It was kind of nice not staying in any format, bouncing all over the place like a guy who just wants to play the tunes he likes (part of the reason we started posting mixes on the internet in the first place — to play what we liked, crowds-be-damned). So this set starts one way, then goes a completely different way, and then some parts are mixed and other parts are just timed nice, and it’s got a lot of funk — like, really a whole ton of funk in yo’ trunk — though a lot of it is new ish , then there’s some good hip-hop, and some real funky hip-hop, a little stuff that sounds a lot like afrobeat, maybe some hip-hop with afrobeat-sounding chorus, and a ton of just plain random shit (Luscious Jackson? Check. Amerie? Check. Beastie Boys? Check. A funk cover of Radiohead? Check.). In fact, it’s inspiring me to make a quick GIF to draw attention to the fact. Wait here one second.

So here you have Keeping It Up, a fitting name for a Monday, coming off a long weekend that didn’t actually end until a few short hours ago. There’s actually a long story behind the Keeping It Up name and it actually comes from Singapore, but I think I spend too much time telling stories, not enough time getting to the fucking point, which is:

Dylan_Garret_-_Keeping_It_Up.mp3
(download “Keeping It Up”)

And there it is. I was planning on writing more about a few different things — the records I’d picked up this weekend, some mixes a friend kicked my way, a good article I read yesterday in a nice music magazine, some thoughts on internet radio, my plans to compile these Monday sets into an official PCS podcast — but instead I’m going to leave you with one thing.

Frosty of dublab has a nice regular (I believe) column in the back of RE:UP, a magazine I never really read much of before but one I’m starting to come around to. He’s a crazy dude, writes just the way you’d expect if you’ve ever heard him on dublab. Anyway, I noticed on Particle Pages, the dublab writing blog, a nice piece up by Frosty about procrastination. Seeing as procrastination is kind of the rub behind me being up until nearly 7am when I have to work the next day, it’s only appropriate to link here. Something fun to read while you listen. We’re a full-service blog. I’ll copy the intro if it interests you.

Frosty’s Guide To Procrastination

As I pondered what words to write for this installment of the glorious and riveting RE:UP Magazine my mind exploded with possibilities. Hmmmmm what ambitious, journalistic undertaking shall I tackle this time around? I could dive deep into my local library’s microfiche collection and spend days tracing the arc of illuminated thought in dark rooms. Unfortunately, my copy of Doorknobs for Dummies was desperately overdue so I knew library action was a bust. I could go undercover as a trance dj in Ibiza and unlock the awesome aphrodisiacal secrets of hair gel, mesh shirts, and laser lights. Alas Spain was too far. I could transcribe barnacle love songs, translate them into pigeon coos, and write a whimsical account of romance between boy and bird. Yuck.

Ideas were everywhere but so was television, bustling bars, walks in the park, myspace.com, record shopping, girls, skinny dipping, eating cereal, petting puppies, et cetera. They all reached out to me like lonely widows to a necromancer. Who was I to deny them? The minutes turned into hours, days, weeks, and yes, months. Now as I sit here long after the final deadline my mind hums with anxiety and indecision. What shall I jot down? The here and now is all consuming. My psyche shudders yet nary a word does my pen utter. Wait a minute…EUREKA! I’ve had a revelation that’s mise en scène to the max! I will write about this moment, the act of procrastination coming alive. That’s not all. I shall bestow upon future generations the priceless knowledge that is so ingrained in my veins. (note to RE:UP publisher. Please etch this article onto stone tablets.) Like the Anarchist’s Cookbook before it let this be a guiding light for those disenchanted with the heave and ho of society. Dear reader, put that oar down and pick up a potato chip because your life is about to get a whole lot better.

Jump here for the rest, including a fantastic recipe for hobo stew, lists of the laziest movies and music, history’s greatest procrastinators (top spot: God), and more.

Meanwhile…

The artist list from today’s set:

Five Deez
Luscious Jackson
Nomo
Spank Rock
The Black Keys
Cut Chemist
Quasimoto
Busdriver
Omega Watts
Mark Ronson featuring Alex Greenwald covering Radiohead
Pete Rock & CL Smooth
Amerie
Beastie Boys
Quantic
Lords of the Underground
Nobody

As always, if you have any questions about a song, drop me a line or a comment and I’d be glad to fill you in.