As my previous tweet hinted at, I’m priming Mike Mix 09 for release sometime next week. So check back soon. There’s going to be a lot of good stuff on it!

To hold you over until then, I’ve decided to post a song that I should’ve a long time ago. The track is “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show. It’s a cover of an old Bob Dylan song called “Rock Me Mama” (though I don’t think Dylan ever officially released it). But that last sentence is irrelevant. Old Crow Medicine Show has made the song theirs.

And what a song it is. I don’t even know where to begin. Perhaps I should start with the obvious; the song makes me happy. It’s everything a summer anthem should be: upbeat, catchy, and fun. It also has everything a good country song should have: acoustic guitar, upright bass, banjo, and of course a fiddle.

But don’t let labels scare you. Even if you don’t like “country” music, I think you will like “Wagon Wheel.” It’s one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time.

• Old Crow Medicine Show – Wagon Wheel

I am not a spontaneous writer. When I come up with an idea for an article, I usually spend several days (or even weeks) tweaking and polishing it before posting it on my site. The extra time helps me better organize and focus my thoughts.

I think this approach has worked out pretty well so far. When I look back on older posts, I’m usually pretty happy with what I read. I’m even happier to see that, for the most part, I still like (and listen to) the music I wrote about.

But tonight I am abandoning this approach. I discovered a song and I need to write about it. Now.

As I made the usual rounds on the internet this morning, I caught a feature on eMusic called “2009 Sleepers.” I noticed Hurray For the Riff Raff on the list so I decided to check out some of the other bands. One of them was The Antlers. After reading a few reviews of Hospice and listening to some clips, I jumped over to last.fm to see if I could stream some full tracks.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) there were only two full songs posted: “Bear” and “Two.” I listened to both tracks as I hung up some shirts in the other room. The sound was a little muffled, but through the wall I heard an incredibly beautiful and haunting melody. It was the song “Two.” I had to listen to it again, except this time give it my full attention.

During my second listen, I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know what to focus on: the slow, gorgeous build of the instrumentation or the heartbreaking lyrics. After nearly a dozen listens, I still don’t know what to focus on. It’s one of those songs that causes paralysis: when it comes on, I stop whatever it is I’m doing and just listen. It’s also one of those songs that ends way too soon (despite being almost 6 minutes long).

Ultimately, however, the words I write will fail to convey just how remarkable this song is. Maybe I should spend a few more days tweaking this post. Kidding of course. Just give the song a listen.

• The Antlers – Two

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! And now that it’s the day after, it’s officially acceptable to talk about Christmas. So here it goes…

Apparently, it’s a tradition for musicians in the UK to pump out cheesy Christmas songs right before the holiday. The ridiculously-sappy Christmas movie Love Actually confirms this: part of the story revolves around a burned-out musician competing with a popular boy band for the top Christmas song. You can probably guess who grabs the No. 1 spot.

This tradition was further confirmed by the guys in Frightened Rabbit. Before their show at Bottom of the Hill a few weeks ago, I asked them about their Christmas song (“It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop”) and how it came to be. They joked about how they were just following tradition when they released it last Christmas.

If their song is a joke, it isn’t very funny – in fact, it’s actually a little depressing. On second thought, cynical might a better word to describe it. The song talks about how people are nice to each other only around Christmas time.

Like all good Frightened Rabbit songs, “It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop” uses seemingly disjointed thoughts and images to convey a simple, yet powerful story or idea. When you add in a gorgeous melody that grabs you and refuses to let go, it’s easy to see why this is the greatest Christmas song ever.

• Frightened Rabbit – It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop

For the second greatest Christmas song ever, I highly recommend “Sister Winter” by Sufjan Stevens, which I wrote about last year. The original article can be found here.

I’m a total sucker for epic (7+ minute) album closers. Actually, you might even say I’m a sucker for epic songs in general. Not, however, extended “stoner” jam sessions where every instrument under the sun gets its own two-minute solo. You know what I’m talking about.

There’s definitely a fine line: some songs need more time to evolve and expand while others just sound bloated and self-indulgent. Songs that fall into the former category include “Cortez the Killer” by Neil Young, “The Trapeze Swinger” by Iron & Wine, “Duk Koo Kim” by Sun Kil Moon, “Mogwai Fear Satan” by Mogwai (obviously), “Oh Comely” by Neutral Milk Hotel, “Desolation Row” by Bob Dylan, and, why not, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. Just to name a few.

So how do you make an epic song even better? Put it at the end of an album. For example: My Morning Jacket’s “Strangulation!” and “Dondante,” Built to Spill’s “Broken Chairs,” and Gillian Welch’s “I Dream a Highway.”

You can add “All of My Trains” by Robert Francis to this list. Like Deer Tick, Francis is an insanely-talented young singer-songwriter (albeit with slightly less buzz). Hailing from Los Angeles, he sounds nothing like his surroundings. Actually, he doesn’t even sound like he’s from this century.

His music exudes both innocence and angst, hope and despair. His debut One By One is an earnest, introspective, timeless folk record that will undoubtedly be cherished by those lucky enough to stumble upon it.

• Robert Francis – All of My Trains

Ryan Adams has always taken a beating from the press: he releases too many albums, he always changes his style, he is wildly inconsistent, etc. And while this may be irritating from the standpoint that it takes more effort to wade through his catalog, it makes finding those hidden gems much more special.

The song posted below is a prime example. Perhaps the best track on Gold, “When the Stars Go Blue” was unfortunately heard by most people in the wrong context: a disgustingly-inadequate live cover by The Corrs and Bono.

Now everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but Ryan Adams’ vocals on the original are mind-blowing. No one can do them justice, especially not Bono. And while “When the Stars Go Blue” may cast a giant shadow over the rest of Gold, I’m okay with that. The song is just that damn good.

• Ryan Adams – When the Stars Go Blue

As the semester winds down and the majority of my friends graduate to bigger and better things, it’s easy to get sentimental. And what better way to sum up those sentiments than through a cheesy graduation song?

Yeah, I’m not gonna do that. I am, however, going to post a song by LCD Soundsystem called “All My Friends.” It is a little sentimental, but definitely not in a cheesy way. It kinda reminds me of all the good times had with friends over the last year.

While I don’t enjoy the rest of the album as much as “All My Friends,” it’s slowly growing on me. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

• LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends

There’s nothing better than discovering the brilliance of a particular song on an album you’ve been in love with for a long time.

Such is the case with Damien Rice’s “Grey Room,” a song that tends to get neglected on account of the album’s incredibly strong start (“9 Crimes” and “Rootless Tree” to name a few).

True, 9 was sort of a departure for Damien, but let’s face it, indie rock critics have never really liked him. They almost made me hate O, even after I happily listened to it nonstop for three months. Luckily, I decided to disregard the negative reviews and give 9 a try.

Unlike O, 9 is bitter, angry and overly-dramatic. But I really like it. It’s gotten way more plays my library than I ever imagined. “Grey Room” is one of those mid-tempo acoustic ballads that drives me crazy. If you like what you hear, definitely check out the rest of the album.

• Damien Rice – Grey Room

I normally don’t stray too far outside the realm of music on my blog, but I’m gonna make an exception. A few weeks ago, I watched the movie V For Vendetta. Several of my friends had recommended it to me, and even though I had no idea what it was about, I rented it.

I don’t want to give anything away, but the movie is set in the future in England, where the threat of terrorism has scared the populace into supporting a conformist, Nazi-like government. A masked man named V is the only one brave enough to oppose the ‘High Chancellor’ and his fascist regime. It’s an incredibly scary movie in that I feel it could really happen in today’s society.

But that’s a whole other issue, and I should stick to what I know best: music. So anyways, I’m sitting there captivated by the film when a song starts playing during a scene with V and Evey (Natalie Portman). The artist was immediately familiar, but it took me a few minutes to realize it was Cat Power.

When the movie ended, I went online to see if I was right. Sure enough, there was a song on the soundtrack by Cat Power called “I Found a Reason”. A few minutes later, I had downloaded it with a little help from The Hype Machine.

It’s a cover of the Velvet Underground song from 1970′s Loaded. Make sure to listen to the lyrics. Anyone who’s seen the film will realize how perfectly it fits not only that scene, but also the entire movie. And Chan Marshall’s vocals don’t get much better.

• Cat Power – I Found a Reason

PS – Don’t you just hate when such an incredible song is only 2 minutes long?

I’ve recently found myself listening to tons of instrumental post-rock (in hindsight, those two words are kinda redundant). Bands like Mogwai, Mono, Explosions In the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Tortoise write songs that work great as background music for reading or studying.

If I can find the time, I’ll post an Artist Spotlight on Mono later this week. But for now, I’ll post an excellent track by Mogwai. It’s called “New Paths to Helicon Pt I” from their “live” album Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003.

The track starts and ends quietly with a beautiful, shimmering guitar piece floating around in the background. Then about 1:50 into the song, guitars drenched in reverb (correct me if I’m wrong) enter and play a gorgeous series of descending notes. At the 4 minute mark, all hell breaks loose as the amps get turned up to 11. After 2 minutes of fury, the song settles back down and leaves as it entered.

I’d have to say “New Paths to Helicon Pt I” is one of Mogwai’s best tracks. If you enjoy it, check out their site for more mp3′s, or give their debut album Young Team a try! I highly recommend the track “Mogwai Fear Satan.” Their complete discography is available on eMusic. Check out the comments on this post for other recommended Mogwai tracks.

• Mogwai – New Paths to Helicon Pt I

I hate to admit this, but I found myself uninspired and unmotivated when it came to writing this week’s post. I just couldn’t find anything to blog about.

The 10 or so people who regularly read my blog might remember that I recently said I was experiencing music overload. Unfortunately, none of this new music has really grabbed my full attention. Instead I will attempt to uncover an old song that is hopefully new to most of you.

So without further ado, I present one of Interpol’s first tracks, “Specialist.” The song runs nearly 7 minutes long, though you may not initially notice it. I especially love the song’s numerous twists and turns, each one eclipsing that which came before.

Despite being one of the band’s earliest tracks, “Specialist” perfectly encompasses Interpol’s sound. Definitely check out their two LP’s Turn On the Bright Lights and Antics if you enjoy this song.

• Interpol – Specialist