bake me a mix cake

oh hi boxing day, i remember you! you're meant to be FREAKING A MILLION DEGREES AND SUNNY - WHAT HAPPENED?

i'm meant to be lying on the sand, under a beach umbrella (with tassles), on my new ginormous beach towel, in my new fandangly cossie, drinking icy cold beer and eating watermelon. that's my boxing day tradition, and you've bloody wrecked it.

whatev's, i'm making a new tradition involving rum soaked cherry cakes and mix tapes. also, did you know you can vote in the triple j hottest 100 right now? go here, do it! i've been listening to my top 10 for 2009 while measuring, sifting and baking all my delicious cake ingredients, and thought you might like to have a listen too.

and anyway, maybe my new boxing day tradition can also involve drinking french champagne, eating fresh out of the oven cherry cake, putting my feet up and getting started on the stack of excellent new books i got for christmas yesterday. okay rainy grey sky - perhaps you're not so bad after all.

ps. this is in no partics order and if you're a regular visitor to make me a mix tape, i'm sure you'll be familiar with a few of these tunes.

pps. you know how people say they remember exactly what they were doing when they heard the news that diana, m.j, heath etc. had died? i'm like that with songs i know are going to be favourites for a very long time. these were ten such songs for me this year. xx

little lion man - mumford & sons

sitting in my kitchen, drinking earl grey tea, running late, wrapped in a towel knowing i need to get dressed, but unable to move away from the radio until i'd heard the whole song.

and the boys - angus & julia stone

sitting at my desk, all alone in the office, and taking advantage of the stereo. sunlight flooding in our beautiful arch window and then julia starts singing about gold falling from the ceiling of the world. marvellous.

how to tame lions - washington

reviewing washington's EP for a music column i do, sitting cross-legged at my desk, in my pj's, on my old, pink wooden chair, drinking red wine. the next day i read an interview she'd done where she explained this particular track as a break-up song, and for some reason it made me love it even more.

heartbreak scorsese - snob scrilla

i'd borrowed mum's car, and was driving home on a sunday night along the wakehurst parkway. an odd choice because this isn't my favourite band or genre of music at all, and i don't even have a thing for scorsese. but i just couldn't get it out of my head.

bruises - chairlift

summer, way back at the beginning of 2009! it was literally this time last year, i was on holidays and stumbled across this gem on last fm. i'll admit i don't really love the album this comes off as a whole, but this has remained a favourite ALL year. and i think it's very romantic.

fader - the temper trap

drinking coffee and perusing the world wide web as i was getting ready for another workday. saw the new clip for fader, loved it, bought tickets to their january 2010 sydney show.

blood - the middle east

it was much earlier this year, i was at work and a friend of a colleague had sent an advance of this spine-tinglingly good EP. was in a skins phase at the time, and the two seemed to go hand in hand.

eet - regina spektor

in my bedroom, laying on my back with my feet up against the wall. it was cold and wintry outside, and i was warm and cosy inside. just listening. this track came on and i repeated it about 27 times.

home - edward sharpe & the magnetic zeros

plugged into the radio at work as i was doing something mega boring and brain-frying on the old dream-weaver and dreaming of impending christmas holidays. immediately started googling the band and also compiling a list of american states that are not said as they are spelled. arkansas, tucson etc.

dog days are over - florence & the machine

when macca still lived at casa de wilson, i heard this wonderful song coming out of her bedroom, which led to a new favourite band for katie dazzle and also one of our fabulous staircase chats.

christmas came early

i love christmas. i mean i really, really love it. i'm a tinsel slinging, carol singing, jingle bell ringing, ball of holiday energy. i love fairy lights and christmas trees. i love wreaths on doorways and mistletoe in hallways. i love setting the christmas pudding on fire and digging around for actual old-school sixpences, threepences and shillings that have been passed through the generations in my dad's fam. i love being on kid patrol with my mum's fam, even though i'm likely to be imbibing just as much as the parents on christmas day. i love that christmas turns me into a corny, sentimental twat. and i love making a mixtape of my favourite holiday inspired tunes. hope everyone has a dazzling festive experience!

ps. am 96% sure santa is real x

no christmas for me - zee avi

oddly, you'll notice that even though i'm mental for christmas, a lot of the songs have quite the melancholy vibe to them. i think this balances out my uber-excitement quite well, and prevents people from wanting to slap me in the face.

a christmas duel - the hives & cyndi lauper

rock n' roll. the hives and cyndi combine two of my favourite things, christmas and duets, what a fabulous present!

blue christmas - bright eyes

something about the way conor oberst croons away about a so-called blue christmas makes me feel distinctly warm inside. uncanny.

winter wonderland - phantom planet

it's a bit weird listening to all these songs about christmas that reference the snowy, wintry holidays that are happening in the northern hemisphere. and sure, i'd love to hear more songs about santa in thongs, drinking beer and getting dumped by gnarly barrels. but the tinkly bells and visions of snowflakes are just too contagious.

christmas cake - rilo kiley

i used to hate christmas cake, it's one of those holiday treats that i've definitely grown into. i don't know whether it's my increased love of rum and dark spirits or that it just tastes like a little bit of magic, but now christmas isn't christmas without one. see. i told you i was a corny twat.

all i want for christmas - yeah yeah yeahs

not the mariah or love actually version my friends. just karen o and her band being totally fucking awesome. as usual.

it's christmas so we'll stop - frightened rabbit

the only christmas i have not spent in the sunny climes of australia, i spent in a teeny, tiny town just out of glasgow, in scotland. it was ridiculously cold and grey, but i was in the cosiest house, with the loveliest people, at the bottom of a mountain that looked like it was out of a tolkein novel. and this song reminds me of just that.

baby it's cold outside - royal crown revue

what's christmas without a bit of brass and horn action? NOT christmas at all! exactly.

i wish it was christmas today - julian casablancas

the intro to this song is SO happy-making. my favourite one to decorate the christmas tree too this year.

carol of the bells - home alone soundtrack

home alone. essential christmas viewing. that is all.

why can't it be christmastime all year - rosie thomas

why can't it indeed rosie? but, to be perfectly honest, being a ball of holiday energy is pretty tiring. especially on my poor old liver. ho ho ho everyone!

celeb-ration

just because we live in day and age where stalking is now called facebook, i thought perhaps it might be nice to have an appropriate mixtape to listen to whilst polishing the smudge-marks off the binoculars, and developing those snaps in the darkroom. so creepy yet oh so normal. voyeurs say what now? x

i wish i knew natalie portman - k-os

ok, so this new k-os track is actually the catalyst behind the whole playlist. i do love me a kooky theme in a music video, plus the sampling in this track reminds me of the simple days, when i used to have a massive crush on seth cohen.

starlett johansson - the teenagers

i'm surprised there aren't more songs dedicated to ms. megababe johansson. i'm not surprised at how much i love hearing these frenchies pronounce the word 'monogamy'.

bette davis eyes - kim carnes

i don't know what bette davis eyes are, but after seeing this fierce blondie sing about them in a billowing, backlit, shadowy dream of a music video, i think i totally need to have them.

buddy holly - weezer

tee hee, such a cute clip! this song reminds me of melting mars bars in the microwave and skiing at thredbo when i was 15. loves a flashback moment.

clint eastwood - gorillaz

since seeing 'gran torino', i can't really even read clint eastwood's name without getting a bit teary and emotional. such a dude, as if you wouldn't write a song about him.

clark gable - the postal service

hmmm. i have an overwhelming desire to go and hire 'gone with the wind' right about now - will put it on the to-do list.

vincent - don mclean

so most of the famous peeps in this mixtape are of the acting persuasion, but i thought it might be nice to include a few arty/smarty (see below) types too. the vincent here of course being mr van gogh.

galileo - the indigo girls

and the galileo being none other than the italiano super astronomer and physicist. i think i might like to get a kitten and call it galileo. how cute would it look going up into space! kidding.

elvis - these new puritans

apparently these new puritans weren't talking about that king. but by saying they're not talking about him, well, actually they are. so there.

meeting paris hilton - CSS

paris hilton is a beach bitch. CSS are amazing.

glitter and lycra and neon, oh my!

new groove armada song 'i won't kneel' is making me feel dreamy, and perhaps like i could have come up with the best prom theme, had i attended degrassi junior high x

stockwinding

after listening to this approximately 48 times yesterday, i have decided it is probably in my best interests to go blonde, and date a man with heaps and heaps of hair. the chemistry in this is so electric, i can feel it in my eyelashes. loves it x