New Jersey... Volume 1, Volume 2

So for New Jersey, a state that Ben Franklin called "a keg tapped at both ends," one mix simply wasn't good enough. This is not to mention of course the fact that every one I've ever known from south Jersey has amended their first mention of being from New Jersey with the fact south Jersey is VERY different. Those people would be very very mad at me if I didn't honor that caveat here. Let's cruise through the Jerz (promise this will be 100% free of Jersey Shore references... the car battery connected to my nipples will send hundreds of volts into my torso if I do make one). The lists are presented track by track for each mix... The south Jersey track comes first, the north Jersey track comes second. To add to the level of difficulty here, each corresponding track comes from the canon of the same artist... yeah I know, it is awesome.

1 South Jersey)Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes
1 North Jersey)Animal Collective - We Tigers

For our trip through south Jersey, we're starting in what I'm sure is LOVELY Cape May and driving up the shore. Summertime Clothes, if it's possible to do so, just SOUNDS humid. The lyrics about the squeaky AC evokes strong images of a shabby beach house used only for sleeping, showering, pre-gaming, and listening to awesome music (NO JACK JOHNSON... FUCK THAT GUY).

We Tigers is maybe the weirdest song from an already weird band. Starting at the NY/NJ border, We Tigers provides the perfect compliment to the traffic, horns, and bustle of the freeway. The song is jarring and borderline unpleasant but still satisfying and ingratiating in its weirdness.



2 South Jersey) Arcade Fire - Haiti
2 North Jersey) Arcade Fire - Neighborhoods #2



Each generation of music listeners has a band that speaks to the zeitgeist of that generation while at the same time maintaining enough artistic integrity and sophistication to criticize when necessary but also praise when necessary. While some would argue that U2 or.. God forbid, Lady GaGa occupy this role for our generation, these people are out of touch. Ours isn't the generation looking for enlightenment and freedom as Bono suggests in his increasingly unlistenable output, nor is it the celebrity and sex obsessed generation to which Lady Gaga's success seems to hint.

The Arcade Fire is that band for us because they acknowledge that our society today is all about fear and the way it manifests itself in our lives. Be it in the relative monotony of our day-to-day lives, in religion, or in the suburban safety zones we create for ourselves, the things we do and say are done and said with an air of hesitancy created by our fears. We are a generation that has been taught to fear... rationally and irrationally. Winn Butler and Co. not only recognize that but are along for the ride.

Haiti is perfect for South Jersey because of the light keyboard melodies that lend a lightness to the song that stands out on an otherwise dreary album. While Neighborhood #2's slow build and mourning for love hints at the kind of isolation that can only come in the suburbs.

3 South Jersey)Beirut - Postcards from Italy
3 North Jersey)Beirut - Brandenburg

I grew up in a place, where for the most part, ethnic diversity meant the white kids that had spurned their fandom of ICP... MAGIC EVERYWHERE IN THIS BITCH!!!



for Eminem. These two Beirut songs speak to the southern and eastern European immigrants that make the mid-Atlantic so cool. The Italian American community in south Jersey goes far beyond film fueled mafia references and also, did you know that 45.5% of the northern New Jersey town of Wallington is of Polish ancestry? Now you do. And yesss, I KNOW that Brandenburg is a state in Germany but it borders Poland and this is hard.... BACK OFF.

4 South Jersey) Beulah - What Will You do When Your Suntan Fades
4 North Jersey) Beulah - Popular Mechanics for Lovers

The bounce and frolic of Beulah works oh so well for south Jersey. This song reminds me not necessarily of the beach, but those days where you've just returned from the beach and the sunBURN you bemoaned while on vacation has become a sweet sunTAN. All of the three greatest trips of my life led to this effect. The past three summers I've gone with some of my best friends on earth to Key West, Belize, and VA Beach respectively and as I tried to shake off the malaise that comes with returning from a great trip, I could look in the mirror and be reminded, at least in small part, of the days I had spent slowly pickling myself through sun and alcohol. Your suntan becomes a literal tan and a figurative glow. That feeling is great. I've been told a time or two that growing up in the kind of place where that suntan (both literal and figurative) never really fades is pretty perfect.



5 South Jersey) Bob Dylan - Desolation Row
5 North Jersey) Bob Dylan - Hurricane

I can't resist adding Bob Dylan to a mix under normal circumstances but when he's actually singing about a town in New Jersey I become a truly shameless Dylan homer. Hurricane fits for obvious reasons, although according to a public service minded street vendor I met at 3 a.m. in Atlantic City who grew up in Patterson, NJ and SWORE UP AND DOWN that he was on the scene the night the crime portrayed in the song happened, Rubin Patterson absolutely did it.

Desolation Row however refers to Camden, NJ. One of the moments when I began to become certain that I wanted to teach was while reading about the Camden, NJ public schools in Jonathan Kozol's book Savage Inequalities. The level of desperation (and desolation) that it seemed the students there were facing was shocking and the portrait it helped to paint of Camden was off an almost post-apocalyptically bleak city. "Desolation Row," because it's a Dylan song, captures that in a subtle and perfect way.



6 South Jersey) Brian Eno - On Some Far Away Beach
6 North Jersey) Brian Eno - Dead Finks Don't Talk

I'm going to use these two Eno songs that provide perfect atmospheric accompaniment to any drive (especially while alone... this album, Here Come the Warm Jets, is one of those that allows you to create your own musical fugue state and become either totally in tune with the world or completely dead to the world) because they need to be here. The best I can do is just say LISTEN (really listen) to these songs and you'll know why they fit so well.



7 South Jersey) Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
7 North Jersey) Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

So... three things that I think would be exceedingly cool: 1. Having a song written about you. Not just by that douche you met in the drum circle in the quad but by a legit musician. 2. Being mentioned in the liner notes of an album. This is something that is becoming increasingly irrelevant as liner notes have almost ceased to be of value or import. 3. Having a song written about your hometown.

I know that NONE of these things will be happening to me which makes the song Atlantic City even more awe-inspiring. I don't really have the words to describe why this song is so amazing and I know everyone reading this knew that it would appear the moment they thought about New Jersey songs, so I'll only share this anecdote: I went to Atlantic City this summer and while I was able to show a degree of restraint and avoid singing this song constantly (those who were there with me MIGHT disagree... I don't think so though) it was in my head the ENTIRE time. I couldn't stop thinking about the D.A., the Chicken Man, and whoever that guy was for whome Bruce's protagonist was doing a favor. Because the story in the song is so incredibly well stated, it provided this totally different perspective for visiting the city... it was almost as if I was visiting a place that I'd read about for years in a work of fiction. Not to over-do it and nerd it up even more than I already have but it was like visiting Middle Earth or Shermer, Illinois. Damn!! What a great song.

And Born to Run? There's really nothing that I can say other than just to mention that the sound Bruce makes after saying "together Wendy we can live with the sadness, I'll love you with all the madness in my soul" is my favorite non-verbal noise in music history (others: Zach De La Rocha's "huhhhhh" in Freedom, that noise that Alan Jackson makes that sounds like, "Heeeeyyyy-eeeeee").



8 South Jersey)Red House Painters - New Jersey (acoustic)
8 North Jersey)Red House Painters - New Jersey (electric)

Two different albums, two different versions, identical lyrics. Maybe Mark Kozelek (aka Sun Kil Moon) had also heard a thousand times how different the two "Jerseys" were and decided to do a version for each.



9 South Jersey) Bruce Springsteen - Jersey Girl
9 North Jersey) Tom Waits - Jersey Girl

First off, I've officially exceeded my Springsteen word limit here... restraining order papers are being filed against me as you read this. Bruce... we will be together eventually... it's inevitable... I know you love me. In all seriousness, the sincerity of Bruce's voice has the listener really hoping to fall in love with this fictional Jersey girl. This version makes the "Jersey Girl" in question feel like one of those summer rental romances that you see in movies but never actually come close to experiencing yourself.

Sooooooo.... Tom Waits. There aren't any original ways to describe Waits' voice left, but listening to this song makes you feel like you've encountered something mechanical, something inhuman. Like North Jersey, you can ALMOST hear New York in his voice. This "Jersey Girl" is not the perfect specimen that Springsteen hypes her up to be. Waits' "Sha la la las" seem the product of pain not jubilance.



10 South Jersey) Titus Andronicus - Titus Andronicus
10 North Jersey) Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union

I think one of the traits in a song that can elevate it to perfection for me is whether or not it could be classified as anthemic. Both of these songs, along with countless other Titus Andronicus songs fit that bill perfectly. To me, because of its musical history, Jersey is a state that just works for anthems, Moreover, the final 0:45 of Titus Andronicus is the kind of dumb fun that's just MADE to scream out the window of your car on a summer day.

"A More Perfect Union" achieves higher heights though by, in my estimation, making a song that is quintessentially and perfectly North Jersey, from shouting out the Garden State Parkway and the Newark Bears to throwing out Jersey zip codes, this is a must play any time you're there. Not to mention the video is fan-freaking-tastic.



11 South Jersey)Frank Sinatra - Cheek to Cheek
11 North Jersey)Frank Sinatra - Witchcraft

Obviously any New Jersey mix without Sinatra has some serious problems and when he ends up on one, little explanation is needed for his presence. The man originates from Hoboken, NJ and spent a good bit of his time tooling around Atlantic City having what I can only imagine must have been an absolutely incredible time. Cheek to Cheek sounds a little more fun than Witchcraft and frankly for some reason or another just sounds a little more like Atlantic City to me.

By the way... remember THIS FREAK??? My favorite moment of this video is about 10 seconds in when he states his goal for the week as "letting America know that I really can sing"



12 South Jersey) Crosby, Stills, and Nash - Southern Cross
12 North Jersey) Crosby, Stills, and Nash - Teach Your Children

Speaking of teaching your children, did you know that New Jersey spends over $13,000 per pupil per year on education? Not sure how much that is? My employer, the great state of VA spends $8,725... Clearly NJ is all about teaching their children well.



13 South Jersey) Coheed and Cambria - The Running Free
13 North Jersey) Coheed and Cambria - Devil in Jersey City

I defy anyone to hear Devil in Jersey City and not play at least a little bit of air guitar. If you've never heard me drunkenly scream-sing this song at the top of my lungs then you didn't know me in college.



As for the Running Free, it's dedicated to Willingboro, NJ resident Carl Lewis. Ya see he's a runner... and the song has running in the title.

14 South Jersey)Patti Smith - Because the Night
14 North Jersey)Patti Smith - Gloria

She's the female Springsteen and Because the Night is one of those anthems that I mentioned when writing about Titus Andronicus. It's one of those songs that makes the night feel like it has about 1000 different possibilities and should be played loudly as you get ready for a summer night out.

Gloria on the other hand has that classic Smith rawness that makes her music shocking to this day. A woman... a hot woman... sneering and snarling her way through a song like Gloria has to be empowering and unbelievably cool to hear if you're a female listener and is mind bogglingly alluring to a male listener. Patti Smith (grew up in New Jersey) sounds almost like New York and that's totally appropriate in this context.



15 South Jersey)Girl Talk - Play your Part pt. 1
15 North Jersey)Girl Talk - Play your Part pt. 2

Because no matter which direction you're headed.... you just can't leave Jersey without some fist pumping club bangers.




Annnd just like clockwork, next up is the great state of Georgia. Keep in mind that it's likely that I could be writing this post within HOURS of the Braves either winning their NLDS series against the Giants or losing and breaking my heart..... the results could have an ENORMOUS effect on the content of the mix. Stay tuned.