It’s been a wild week for SPEEDY ORTIZ, sharing the stage on Saturday with Ringo Deathstarr in Brooklyn and then acquiring the scorn of Somerville Rocks, a show on Somerville Community Access Television which refused to air the Northampton band’s taped studio performance (“It seemed unpracticed and the Groucho Marx glasses were inappropriate for a show we take very seriously,” a show producer wrote on Speedy’s Facebook wall; click the link for the shitshow fallout).
Possibly lost in all that zaniness was Drivin’ on Nine, a Massachusetts-based mixtape Speedy Ortiz whipped up a few weeks ago and unveiled earlier in the week via Impose Magazine (there’s a great Q&A on the site as well). It’s a 20-track compilation that spans 46 years, and features homegrown tunes from the Swirlies, Come, Cave In, Jonathan Richman, Grass Is Green, all sorts of rad shit. It’s posted on the Carpak Records soundcloud — the label releasing the band’s debut LP Major Arcana on July 9 — so fire it up on this rainy Friday and dream of clearer skies and better relations with your cable access station.
“When asked to name our favorite scene for music out of everywhere in this great big world, Massachusetts is always our first choice. Aside from our state-of-origin bias, its prolificacy and densely rich levels of creativity typically leave us not only fascinated, but somewhat indebted. Our tribute mixtape includes a handful of our favorite bands, songs and writers who originated here, ranging from the ubiquitous to the obscure. The earliest song is from 1966, and the most recent is from 2012.” — Speedy Ortiz
1. Deluxx Folk Implosion “Daddy Never Understood”
2. Swirlies “Pancake”
3. Big Bear “Song 16”
4. Come “Secret Number”
5. Heatmiser “Busted Lip”
6. Drop Nineteens “Winona”
7. Sneeze “Dark Elf”
8. Grass Is Green “Somebody’s Something”
9. Sebadoh “Punching Myself in the Face Repeatedly, Publicly”
10. The Gutters “Lobotomy”
11. Blake Babies “Girl in a Box”
12. Bell Biv Devoe “Gangsta”
13. Helium “Pat’s Trick”
14. The Cars “My Best Friend’s Girl”
15. Morphine “I’m Free Now”
16. The Barbarians “Moulty”
17. Wicked Farleys “Fitchburg, MA”
18. Cave In “Moral Eclipse”
19. Spore “Number One”
20. Jonathan Richman “Twilight in Boston”
