Coast to Coast

A mix tape.

1. Anchorage/Michelle Shocked. She walked across that burning bridge.

2. Come a Long Way/Michelle Shocked. Her 920's gonna take her far today.

3.This Note's For You/Neil Young and the Bluetones. The real thing, baby.

4. Friends of P/The Rentals. If you're down with P, then you're down with me.

5. Miss Therapy/The Billy's. The Billy's were sort of a Gear Daddies-esque Minneapolis band not really alt enough for alt-country or indie enough for indie rock, but earnest and quirky and a band that would've made it in a better universe.

6. -3F/The Billy's. That was the quirky, this is the earnest. Both work.

7.My Maria/Gear Daddies. One of the all-time great Minneapolis bands take on the B.W. Stevenson classic. I'm a lonely dreamer, lonely highway in the skies.

8. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)/Bruce Springsteen. He sang what we felt; the pier lights, our carnival life forever. No matter where we lived, we all lived on that pier.

9. Dodge/Dog's Eye View. An amazing cover of the Vic Chesnutt song, from the second Sweet Relief record, The Gravity of the Situation: The Songs of Vic Chesnutt. With the classic line, "I've done shit everywhere there is to eat." If you don't own any Chesnutt, this record isn't a bad introduction.

10. Ventura Highway/America. Rightfully occupies a place among the great songs that evoke not only living in L.A. and California, but in the yearning to do so.

11. Across the Great Divide/Semisonic. Before annoyingly hitting it big with "Closing Time," Semisonic put out this buoyant and funky record with just enough dark edges to warrant extended play. This is the title track. Lo and behold, bandleader Dan Wilson won a Grammy this year for co-writing the Dixie Chicks song "Not Ready to Make Nice." Semisonic grew out of Trip Shakespeare, whose "Toolmaster of Brainerd" is in the pantheon of great Minnesota songs.

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See the Beachwood Playlist collection.