Side A
Artist	Song
Mark Lind & The Unloved	New Year's Day
from The Truth Can Be Brutal (2008) Not really a love song, but it's a new year. And it's almost been a year of us being... us. And it's the beginning of a new year of us being a different kind of... us. My reasons.
Alkaline Trio	Nose Over Tail
from Sundials [single] (1997) "Why are you getting hurt?" "Because I'm falling HEAD OVER HEELS FOR YOOU"
Guttermouth	Pee in the Shower
from Gusto (2002) This is my romantic side.
Neutral Milk Hotel	i love how you love me (phil spector cover)
(2001) Technically just a solo Jeff Magnum, live at the Kings Arms pub in Auckland, New Zealand, where wikipedia tells me that: "The band was billed as the World of Wild Beards Incorporated," and "The show consisted of performances by Mangum, Laura Carter, and Chris Knox. Mangum played 13 songs, about half of them from Aeroplane, and covered Phil Spector's "I Love How You Love Me"... A recording of the show exists, but it has never been officially released."
Whiskey Rebels	The Streets Gave you to me
from Self-titled (2002) Punk love's finest.
Bad Brains	Stay Close to Me
from The Omega Sessions (1997) Pretty much the greatest slow dancing song. (...besides that time back over thanksgiving break or something when we were listening to the violent femmes and we slow danced in your kitchen, but I can't remember what song that was. I have a vague feeling that it was "Please Don't Go" but I could be wrong. Maybe some live/acoustic version. Nevermind. I wish I knew.)
Aquabats	Red Sweater!
from The Fury of the Aquabats I'm pretty confident that this is one you've heard before, but I couldn't help myself. It's too good.
The Queers	From Your Boy
from Move Back Home (1995) ...one of my favorite bands of all time. Like The Descendents, they're another part of the soundtrack for being stuck on the cusp of being a real person and resisting the pull to the other side. Their stuff is almost painfully immature and politically incorrect in places, but the music is essentially that highly inappropriate friend you need to keep around because they make things interesting. This song is actually really sweet, though.
Tiger Army	Cupid's Victim
from Tiger Army II: Power of Moonlite (2001) Of course, some psychobilly. This one of my favorite TA songs.
Jawbreaker	Chesterfield King
from Bivouac (1992) Unlike most Jawbreaker songs, this one isn't clouded up with metaphors. It's to the point but it's still beautiful in its lyrical simplicity, and I like that every once in a while.
The Raincoats	Adventures Close to Home
from Self-titled (1979) Not really a love song, but we share a love for adventures so it equates in that respect. Also, a great band for all those interested in finding more all female/at least female fronted punk bands. The Raincoats were one of the first. Songs of theirs that were also contenders for this spot in the playlist include: "In love," "You're a Million," and "Fairytale in a Supermarket" (all of which are on the 1993 reissue of this same album).
TSOL	Undressed
from Divided We Stand (2003) Thought about putting "code blue" here instead, but uh... I don't want to fuck the dead. So there was that. But that's still a killer song.
NoFX	Falling in Love
from So Long and Thanks for all the Shoes (1997) This is like the perfect merger between the Smiths' "There's a Light," (and that's a classic love song if there ever was one, but it was an obvious choice) and The Postal Services' "We Will Become Silhouettes" ...in lyrical content, not style. At all. But that's a lot of good stuff.
The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die	Gordon Paul
from Formlessness I saw these guys at a DIY show last January, so it's been a year for them and me also. Furthermore, I recommend this entire EP, and I would recommend it to everyone. This is unusual behavior for me, because I'm usually very protective of music I find that isn't very big because I guess I am really that much of an indie douche nozzle. But not so in this instance. Everyone should listen to TWIABP. The world would actually be a beautiful place, then.
X Ray Spex	Oh! Bondage, Up Yours!
from Germ Free Adolescents (1978) Another excellent example of females in punk... definitely not a love song. But I decided to put it in anyway? Because, only for you? I don't know. I liked it in there.
Cap'n Jazz	Little League
from Analphabetapolothology (1998) That's not true, I don't *always* talk about Cap'n jazz. But I probably should, I love them so much. "Hey coffee eyes. You got me coughin' up my cookie heart. Makin' promises to myself. Promises like seeds of everything I could be"
The Promise Ring	Size of Your Life
from Wood/Water This is something I never thought I'd admit, but the album Wood/Water pretty much perfectly tells the story of "us," starting with last February when we first met and ending with last May when we didn't really have any idea what was going to happen. This is the first song on Wood/Water, and it reminds me of you so hard. Maybe someday I'll do some sort of bizarrely sentimental write-up about what each song means, or at least the meanings I ascribed to them last year when I first heard the album.
Sebadoh	I Love to Fight
from Harmacy This is another album that just reeks of "us." "Willing to Wait" is the most popular track off of Harmacy, probably because it's one of the best love songs of all time. But it felt too sappy, so I used this song in its 'stead. Still totally valid.
Texas is the Reason	Back and to the Left
from Do You Know Who You Are? (1996) "I will always worry about you. I will always stick up for you."
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes	I'll be There
Side B
Artist	Song	Buy
The Ground is Lava	You'd Rather Ride Your Bike
from It's Just Vanity//The Ground is Lava split This is the only cassette I regularly play in my car. I also got it about exactly a year ago. It's been a beautiful year. Truly. "You search for my hand Every time I let go We've gotten so comfortable And we've gotten so close"

Comment:

These are some of my favorite love songs, but I've excluded the REALLY sappy ones so that this mix will be closer to tolerable for the purpose of playing all the way through and not being like "get me a puke bucket" less than halfway through. "Love songs" is a loosely used term.
But yeah. This is for someone special.
(Ew, subcategory romantic. I mean, it's true, I just don't like how that sounds.)
(Art: "Cardinal Couple" by Ryan Berkley)

UPDATE: This was a gift for someone else, so all the notes are directed at them. Even though we aren't a "thing" anymore I still like this mix and I think it would be silly to delete all the heartfelt notes just because they no longer apply. It's not really a big deal. It's pretty whatever.

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