Category: Playlists

Great tunes to add to your own playlists

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Playlists

Songs to Frolic to: A Playlist

At this point in the semester, I fantasize a lot about what my life could be like in some alternate universe where I wasn’t in college. My escapist fantasies often involve me running through a meadow and befriending all of the creatures outside. To indulge myself in those fantasies, I decided to make a playlist to be the soundtrack to this feeling. As all of my favorite playlists do, this one has folky undertones and is perfect for sitting outside on a warm spring day, going on a walk with an old friend or, like the playlist title notates, frolicking.

Without further ado, here are 15 songs to frolic to:

  • “Serpientes” – Los Valentina
  • “Time Escaping” – Big Thief
  • “Blue Coupe” – Twin Peaks
  • “Amoeba” – The Doozers
  • “Bryter Layter” – Nick Drake
  • “Pára-Raio” – Djavan
  • “Conditions” – Rozi Plain
  • “Sometimes I Forget” – Tex Crick
  • “Cheers” – The Slaps
  • “书夕一” – Keiichi Sokabe
  • “Crazy” – Spiritualized
  • “I’m the Sky” – Norma Tanega
  • “Greycedes” – Jessica Pratt
  • “I’m Down, Whatever” – JW Francis
  • “If I Am Only My Thoughts” – Loving

As always, you can stream this playlist on Spotify.

Here’s to frolicking,

Caitlin

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Playlists

3.141592… A P(i)laylist

Purple background with grey text that features the first couple dozen digits of pi. Then, the symbol for pi in the center of the image in white.

March contains many of my close friends’ and family members’ birthdays, St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras, and spring break. One underrated March holiday is Pi Day, your local math-nerd’s favorite day. I love Pi Day because it’s existence poses the question: “What is the most insignificant thing we can make a holiday out of?” Pi (𝜋), if you’re unfamiliar, is an irrational number that is equivalent to the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It’s a cool math concept for a lot of reasons, one of which is that pi’s decimal form (3.142592…) never ends and it never falls into a repeating pattern. Thus, Pi Day falls on March 14 (3/14) to celebrate this phenomenon.

 As someone who is more English/ History/ Humanities and Social Sciences inclined, this concept is something I still have trouble wrapping my head around. But, I love that we celebrate this number, and in order to contribute to the festivities, I compiled a playlist of 15 songs that (Spotify says) are 3 minutes and 14 seconds in length.

Without further ado, here’s my p(i)laylist.

  • “Guttural Sounds” – Okay Kaya
  • “Radical” – It Looks Sad.
  • “The Perfect Girl” – Mareux
  • “Hot Dad Calendar” – Cayetana
  • “Elementary School Dropout” – Yucky Duster
  • “Sophisticated Space” – Sidney Gish
  • “Take My Head” – Turnover
  • “Someone Tell the Boys” – Samia
  • “Common Denominator” – Nisa
  • “Going Going Gone” – Lucy Dacus
  • “Call off the Dogs” – Marika Hackman
  • “L.A.” – Elliott Smith
  • “Subject To the Ladder” – Broadcast
  • “How to Socialise & Make Friends” – Camp Cope
  • “Dead Boy” – Acne

Like always, you can stream this playlist on Spotify.

𝜋,

Caitlin

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Playlists

Ringing in Spring: March Edition

A black and white blurry background that resembles the thin lines of a fingerprint. Orange and yellow text that reads "ringing in spring" Yellow and orange moths strewn across the image.

It’s March now, and with that comes the second installment of “Ringing in Spring”: a three part playlist composed of 45 songs, 15 released each month of Spring (except I started in February and am ending in April). This was largely inspired by my “It’s Fall Y’all” series I did in the fall of 2021.

I decided March’s vibes were loud, folky and bright, juxtaposing the indie-rock vibes that February’s installment had to offer.  Think of this as prancing through a meadow with no cares, surrounded by wildlife and sipping on your drink of choice.

Without further ado, here are March’s songs for “Ringing in Spring”:

  • “Come On! Feel the Illinoise! Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition, Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream” – Sufjan Stevens
  • “Time Escaping” – Big Thief
  • “I Love You, Honeybear” – Father John Misty
  • “SPORTS MEN” – Haruomi Hosono
  • “Tusk” – Fleetwood Mac
  • “LONELY WEEKEND” – NNAMDÏ
  • “Be Sweet” – Japanese Breakfast
  • “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” – Kate Bush
  • “hypnotized” – Tune-Yards
  • “Watching Strangers Smile” – Parquet Courts
  • “Those to Come” – The Shins
  • “Beautiful Mother” – Dirty Projectors, Björk
  • “Answer Me, My Love” – Swamp Dogg
  • “Topaz” – The B-52’s
  • “Spring” – Angel Olsen

As always you can stream this playlist on Spotify.

Happy March,

Caitlin

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Miscellaneous Playlists

Fight Scene Soundtracks of “The Umbrella Academy”

With a new Instagram post celebrating the 3-year anniversary of season 1’s release, “The Umbrella Academy” fans are getting excited for season 3. Unfortunately, there’s still very little information from the showrunners themselves, but that can’t stop fans—myself included—from speculating on the release date. Recently, I’ve been rewatching the show to ease my anticipation, and the rewatch has reminded me just how incredible the soundtrack is. One of my favorite parts of the soundtrack is the unexpected yet strangely fitting songs in the fight scenes. So, I’m here to share some of my favorite fight scene sounds of “The Umbrella Academy.”

“Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” by They Might Be Giants (S1 E1)

This being the first big fight scene of the show, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went into it. I knew that I was dealing with a 58-year-old-man in a child’s body who had powers of teleportation, and I knew that I was dealing with trained assassins attacking a donut shop. What I didn’t know was that “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” would be playing in the background, and that it would quickly become one of my favorite fight scenes in any piece of media.

“Sinnerman” by Nina Simone (S1 E3)

This is the first time you see the family of superheroes fight together, and it is quite an incredible display. This song adds just the right amount of weirdness, highlighting the dysfunction between the siblings.

“Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows” by Lesley Gore (S1 E9)

When I hear this song, the first thing I think of definitely isn’t two highly trained, time-traveling assassins fighting each other. But that’s exactly what I got. I love it.

“My Way” by Frank Sinatra (S2 E1)

With caution not to spoil anything, I can say that this scene is the most epic display of the siblings’ powers and ability to act as a team. Who other than Frank Sinatra could play in the background of such an important moment?

“Polk Salad Annie” by Tony Joe White (S2 E7)

This song plays in perhaps the most gruesome scene of the entire show; it definitely doesn’t fit the murder spree vibe. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the showrunners included it to ease some of the brutality of the scene, but no matter their reasons for including it, it works.

These songs make up only a few of the incredible song choices in “The Umbrella Academy,” both in fight scenes and in the rest of the show. If you’ve seen “The Umbrella Academy” before, I hope you enjoyed reminiscing over some of these iconic fight scenes, and if you haven’t, I hope this list has convinced you to give it a shot. Either way, happy viewing.

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Playlists

Ringing in Spring: February Edition

A black and white blurry background that resembles the thin lines of a fingerprint. Orange and yellow text that reads "ringing in spring" Yellow and orange moths strewn across the image.

In fall of 2021, I did a series of three blogs in which I made mini 15-song playlists to capture the feelings of fall that eventually compiled into one large playlist. I did one blog in September, one in October and finally finished out the series in November.  If you can’t already tell by the title and the context I just provided, I’m doing the same thing for the spring of 2022.

I know February isn’t technically spring’s genesis, but this playlist installment is more about breaking free of winter and looking forward to spring. With a quintessential indie rock sound, some songs are joyous and some existential.

Without further ado, let me share the February edition of “Ringing in Spring.”

  • “Pale Blue Eyes” — The Velvet Underground
  • “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down” — LCD Soundsystem
  • “All the Umbrellas in London” — The Magnetic Fields
  • “I’ll Believe in Anything” — Wolf Parade
  • “Paris 2004” — Peter Bjorn and John
  • “1,000,000” — R.E.M.
  • “虹” — Quruli
  • “More Yellow Birds” — Sparklehorse
  • “No Way” — Sonic Youth
  • “Lucky” — Supercar
  • “One PM Again”  — Yo La Tengo
  • “Do You Realize??” — The Flaming Lips
  • “The Softest Voice” — Animal Collective
  • “Lions (Linden)” — Pavement
  • “Here Comes Yet Another Day” — The Kinks

You can listen to this playlist on Spotify.

Happy February,

Caitlin

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Band/Artist Profile Blog Playlists

African American Cultural Center: “HERMonies: Black Sounds, Black Voices, Black Movements”

NIna Simone in a black and White Photo
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Our neighbors in Witherspoon at the African American Cultural Center have debuted a new musical exhibit “HERMonies” that features songs from 10 black woman who have used their music to advance social movements. The full playlist can be found at the above link, but here I’d like to take a more historical look at the two oldest songs on the playlist, “Strange Fruit” and “Mississippi Goddamn.”

Continue reading “African American Cultural Center: “HERMonies: Black Sounds, Black Voices, Black Movements””
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Playlists

Valentine’s Day with DJ Mozzie

Black and white hearts cover a gray background. In the foreground, there are four red and pink exclamation points.

Howdy y’all! I hope you’ve been doing well. This week, I wanted to put together the ultimate Valentine’s Day playlist for you and yours. I love Valentine’s Day – the pink and red color combination, the fun candy, and getting to express just how much you love the people in your life (although I don’t think you need a holiday to do that). Admittedly, I pulled quite a few of these songs from my Twilight playlist on Spotify, but nonetheless, they make me feel mushy and gushy and grossly in love. Here’s to hoping you get to live out your rom-com dreams this weekend!

Valentine’s Day History

For our history enthusiasts reading this week’s blog, here’s a bit about Valentine’s Day. The specifics about Saint Valentine are quite contested. One legend tells the tale of Saint Valentine marrying young lovers after Emperor Claudius II banned marriage for young men in the name of making them better soldiers. While some believe that Valentine’s Day is in the middle of February to commemorate the saint’s death, others believe it was the Christian church trying to rewrite the Pagan celebration Lupercalia. Valentine sentiments date back to the Middle Ages, while written valentines appeared around 1400. Americans started swapping valentines around the early 1700s, and they became more mass-produced around the 1840s. Now, about 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent annually.

  • Stubborn Love by The Lumineers
  • Home by Edith Whiskers
  • Lover Of The Light by Mumford & Sons
  • Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine
  • Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop by Landon Pigg
  • I’m With You by Vance Joy
  • The Night We Met by Lord Huron
  • Sea of Love by Cat Power
  • All I Want by Kodaline
  • Turning Page by Sleeping At Last
  • Even If It’s a Lie by Matt Maltese
  • I’m Happy You Exist by Angus Maude
  • Beach Baby by Bon Iver
  • I Love You Too by Peter McPoland
  • Sweet Creature by Harry Styles
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Playlists

dj mozzie’s January quick picks

Howdy y’all! I hope your semester has been going swimmingly, and hopefully you’ve gotten to see some snow! I wanted to put together a quick playlist of some of my on-repeat songs from January. If you are anything like me, you might already feel a bit overwhelmed with all of the readings you have for the semester. So, I’ve decided to make this blog short and sweet for a quick read. I do want to emphasize how important it is to be taking care of yourself. Whether that looks like taking time to relax or staying hydrated, self-care can look so different depending on you and what you need. Taking care of yourself doesn’t need to involve anything extravagant, but it is so so important. I like to destress and take care of myself by reading a book with my phone turned off or crocheting with some true crime on in the background. Stay tuned for a valentine’s day blog and have a great rest of your week! <3 

  1. Hypochondria by Fenne Lily
  2. Blame by Gabriels
  3. Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan 
  4. So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings by Caroline Polachek
  5. ICU by Phoebe Bridgers
  6. Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat by Del Water Gap
  7. Certainty by Big Thief 
  8. I’m Not My Season – Solstice Version by Fleet Foxes
  9. Cimmerian Shade by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine 
  10. Wait by M83
  11. I Should Live in Salt by The National
  12. Elise by The Greeting Committee 
  13. Be Sweet by Japanese Breakfast
  14. Fool’s Gold by Briston Maroney
  15. Next to You by John Vincent III
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Playlists

A Season of Love, Alone: A Playlist

Glitchy looking pink red and blue hearts across a grey background. White text that reads "a season of love, alone." h

Valentine’s Day can be a challenging time for those who aren’t coupled up. It’s sad to feel like everyone else is in love besides you. When I decided to blog a playlist for Valentine’s Day, I immediately knew I wanted to make one for those who are single too. Don’t worry, it’s not all songs about feeling sad and alone. I made sure to include angsty songs, lonely songs, tunes about self love and songs about loving the things and people around you. 

I truly believe there’s something on this 15 song playlist for everyone. If you’re looking to wallow in those feelings, trying to avoid the annoying couples on social media or just want good music, this one’s for you. Without further ado, let’s get into it. 

  • “Spring” – Angel Olsen
  • “Island Music” – Tennis
  • “Charlie Brown” – beabadoobee
  • “Queen” – Perfume Genius
  • “Call Me When You Want Me” – Love Apple
  • “Always See Your Face” – Love
  • “All My Time Is Wasted” – Hannah Jadagu
  • “The World Should Revolve Around Me” – Little Jackie
  • “I’m Not Part Of Me” – Cloud Nothings
  • “Teenage Talk” – St. Vincent
  • “Alaska” – Maggie Rogers
  • “Nobody” – Mitski
  • “feelings are fatal” – mxmtoon 
  • “so sad so sexy” – Lykke Li
  • “I’ll Haunt You” – Tennis

As always, you can find this playlist on Spotify.

Happy Streaming,

Caitlin

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Playlists

North Carolina Museums and the Songs They’d Be 

One of many museums in NC
Credit: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences; Flikr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Howdy y’all! As you know by now, I formerly went by museum maddie here at WKNC. Although there was some revamping on my part, my love and adoration for museums has not faded in the least bit. As a wannabe anthropologist/museum-curator, I spend a large chunk of my free time wandering around museums. So, what better to do than to give you my museum recommendations with corresponding songs?! I hope you are able to check out a new spot!

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh)

The NC Museum of Natural Sciences will always have a soft spot in my heart. Beautifully modern, this museum is currently being renovated with a new dinosaur exhibit that should be done in 2023. Noticeable from the streets with a gigantic metal globe. My partner and I recently visited the Exquisite Creatures Exhibit, which showcases the amazing art of Christopher Marley. If you get the chance to go, I highly recommend it!

  • Masterpiece by Big Thief 
  • Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin
  • Ride or Die by Hippo Campus

North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh)

The NC Museum of History is right across the walkway from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. With rotating exhibits, there’s always something new. The main level exhibit about the history of North Carolina goes deeply in depth with artifacts galore. This museum is an absolute dream, and one of my favorites of all times. 

  • Moon Song by Phoebe Bridgers
  • Cimmerian Shade by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
  • I Think I Like When It Rains by WILLIS

North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh)

The NCMA has two buildings as well as an entire outdoor Museum Park. New work is constantly being showcased, as well as a newer project which puts more modern works next to older works to compare and contrast themes that transcend through time.

  • Mystery of Love by Sufjan Stevens
  • April in Paris by Billie Holiday
  • Blame by Gabriels

Museum of Life and Science (Durham)

The Museum of Life and Science is interactive and features an expansive outdoor area. The butterfly house and weather machines are two of my favorite things there. Be on the lookout for the dinosaurs outside!

  • Not Dead Yet by Lord Huron
  • Where’d All the Time Go? by Dr. Dog
  • Souvenir by boygenius

North Carolina Zoo (Asheboro)

While I have mixed feelings on zoos (and while they aren’t museums), the NC Zoo works on research and conservation and offers 200 species of animals and 40 different plants. You can also hike around the zoo on trails. I really loved The Desert, a glass dome building housing desert plants and animals, and the Honey Bee Garden. Art is featured around the zoo as well.

  • Change by Big Thief 
  • Wasted by Tomberlin
  • Sunblind by Fleet Foxes

Bechtler Museum of Modern Art (Charlotte)

A quaint little museum nestled next to the Mint Museum Uptown, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art has a small and spectacularly curated collection. Notably is what I believe to be a bronze statue on an outside landing that overlooks the city. 

  • I Fall In Love Too Easily by Chet Baker
  • Bookstore Girl by Charlie Burg
  • Once Upon a Dream by Emile Pandolfi

Mint Museum Uptown (Charlotte)

The Mint Museum (Uptown) is a newer visit for me, but it was love at first sight. My partner and I enjoy going to new museums, and The Mint offered an extensive amount of pieces in a beautiful building. We got to see an exhibit there based on borders which was so spectacular and moving. 

  • The Most Beautiful Thing by Bryno Major
  • Painter On His Way To Work On The Road To Tarascon by Clint Mansell
  • Dog Years by Maggie Rogers

Discovery Place Museum (Charlotte)

The Discovery Place Museum was my favorite in high school. Although I have not been back in a few years, the memories of the fun interactives have stuck with me through all this time.

  • The Wave by Bedouine
  • A Mermaid in Lisbon by Patrick Watson and Teresa Salguiero
  • Fall, Fall, Fall by Caamp

<3 dj mozzie