Artist	Song
The Pretenders	Middle of the Road
Concrete Blonde	It'll Chew You Up and Spit You Out
The Dresden Dolls	Modern Moonlight
Squirrel Nut Zippers	Suits Are Picking Up the Bill
Luminescent Orchestrii	She's a Brick
The Real Tuesday Weld	(Still) Terminally Ambivalent Over You
Forty Thieves Orkestar	Rabble Rouser
Bertolt Brecht	Lied von der Unzulaenglichkeit menschlichen Strebens
Django Reinhardt	Nuages
Ute Lemper	Denn wie mann sich bettet (As you make your bed, so you must lie in it)
Boban Markovic Orkestar	Sat (Time)
Gary Numan	Are Friends Electric?
Moloko	Pure Pleasure Seeker
Kinky	How Do They Do That?
Balkan Beat Box	BBBeat
Ojos de Brujo	Ventilator R-80
Doctor Rockit	Cafe de Flore

Comment:

This mix comes from two points: (1) my recent discovery of Brecht's "Lied von der Unzulaenglichkeit menschlichen Strebens" (I always wondered what his voice sounded like...), which plays a role in Sting's version of "Mackie Messer" (it also comes from DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER) and wanting to make a mix around it; and (2) hearing "She's a Brick" yesterday while cooking dinner and having a similar thought about it.

So why not both?

The mix opens with a couple of oldies but goodies (please notice resonance between tracks 2 and 10...), then flies toward Reason #2, which fairly quickly moves back to Reason #1 and then bursts out from there.

The title comes from Track #8, "The Song of the Insufficiency of Human Endeavour," which starts, "Mankind lives by its head / Its head won't see it through / Inspect your own. What lives off that? / At most a louse or two. / For this bleak existence / Man is never sharp enough."

The Ute Lemper song is from AUFSTIEG UND FALL DER STADT MAHAGONNY, also by Brecht and Weill. The refrain there is something like "For as you make your bed, so you must lie in it, / no one will tuck you in. / If anyone does the kicking it will be me, / and if anyone gets kicked, it will be you."

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