THE CHALLENGE: You have 25 songs to create the soundtrack to your New Year’s Eve party, but you may only choose from songs released in 2007.

With the many year-end lists fresh in mind, what you will you choose?
Will you grind it out to beats courtesy of Timbaland? Will you squeeze into your skinniest jeans and rock awkward to bands with names referencing indigenous North American wildlife? Will you put Nickel Back and Daughtry on repeat and fist pump into the new year? Or, will you drink champagne in silence because everything in 2007 sucked?

What will your last party in 2007 sound like? Mine will sound like this....

The Rosebuds - Get Up Get Out
The Go! Team - Grip Like A Vice
DJ Jazzy Jeff - Jeff N Fess (feat. Rhymefest)
Kanye West - Stronger
Rilo Kiley - The Moneymaker
The Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance
M.I.A. - Jimmy
Kate Nash - Foundations
!!! - Must Be The Moon
Chromeo - Tenderoni
Rihanna - Umbrella
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
Mika - Grace Kelly (Avril and Mika haters, time for a bathroom break and drink refill)
Justice - D.A.N.C.E
Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit
Timbaland - The Way I Are
Junior Senior - Can I Get Get Get
Feist - 1234
UGK - Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)
Simian Mobile Disco - It’s The Beat
Amy Winehouse - Rehab
Common - Drivin’ Me Wild
Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks
Bebel Gilberto - Bring Back The Love
Band Of Horses - No One’s Gonna Love You (Finally, a slow dance!)

Happy New Year!
Nate

pictured: New Frontiers

I love Christmas! I’m currently reading a Christmas-themed romance novel called Christmas Wishes, and pretty much every night this month, I’ve stared at my Christmas decorations and watched a holiday movie on Falalala Lifetime. I’ve seen some great ones—including Eve’s Christmas (starring Cher’s enemy from Clueless), Recipe For a Perfect Christmas, A Christmas Wedding, The Christmas Shoes (starring the girl from Father of the Bride that’s married to Brad Paisley), Crazy For Christmas, Holiday Affair (starring Olivia Newton-John), Secret of Giving (starring Reba), Deck the Halls (starring Andrea from 90210) and Holiday in Your Heart (starring LeAnn Rimes). (None, though, as good as 1997 Lifetime Original movie My Stepson, My Lover, but these sorts of cinematic masterpieces don’t happen every day.)

Enjoy this list of Christmas songs, and download a FREE song by one of my favorite new bands, the New Frontiers.

Happy holidays!

Kate

1. New Frontiers “Christmas Time is Here” FREE (Thanks, Militia Group!)
2. Over the Rhine “North Pole Man”
3. The Weepies “All That I Want”
4. Joni Mitchell “River”
5. A.J. Roach “Cold as Christmas”
6. Sally Shapiro “Anorak Christmas”
7. Josh Rouse “Christmas with Jesus”
8. Marah “New York is a Christmas Kind of Town”
9. Ella Fitzgerald “Sleep, My Little Jesus”
10. The Innocence Mission “Snow”
11. The Staple Singers “No Room at the Inn”
12. Over the Rhine “Mary’s Waltz”
13. Sammy Davis, Jr. “”Christmas Time All Over the World”
14. The Moaners “Something Funny in Santa’s Lap”
15. Alison Krauss “Shimmy Down the Chimney”
16. Merle Haggard “Grandma’s Homemade Christmas Card”
17. Dodd Ferrelle “Strung Out Like the Lights (at Christmas Time)

Enjoy this list of things you didn’t know about yourself. Some (“You Look So Young”) are nicer than others (“You Don’t Have a Heart”), but they’re all great songs.

Happy weekend,

Knate

1. “You are the Light” The Innocence Mission
2. “You are the Dark” Joseph Arthur
3. “You’re All I Have” Snow Patrol
4. “You Love to Sing” Copeland
5. “You Will Always Be the Same” Ryan Adams
6. “You Were My Fiji” John Vanderslice
7. “You are the Rake” Sufjan Stevens
8. “You Rise and Meet the Day” Dar Williams
9. “You Will Miss Me When I Burn” Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
10. “You’re a Big Girl Now” Bob Dylan
11. “You’ll Be Coming Down” Bruce Springsteen
12. “You Picked Me” A Fine Frenzy
13. “You Might See Him” David Mead”
14. “You Look So Young” The Jayhawks
15. “You Were Here” Sarah Harmer”
16. “You Still Believe in Me” M. Ward
17. “You Don’t Have a Heart” Shelby Lynne

Although my wardrobe pretty much consists of black, brown, grey, brownish grey and blackish brown, I love color.  Enjoy this list of great songs about wonderful colors.

Sorry Knate has been on hiatus. Nate’s been busy working on his cute new house, and I’ve been busy staring at my Christmas decorations. But we’re BACK, and updating regularly.

Devotedly yours,

Knate

1. Calexico “Bisbee Blue”
2. Miles Davis “Blue in Green”
3. Ours “Red Colored Stars”
4. Damien Rice “Gray Room”
5. Alexi Murdoch “Orange Sky”
6. The Innocence Mission “Bright as Yellow”
7. The National “Green Gloves”
8. Counting Crows “Black & Blue”
9. Denison Witmer “California Brown and Blue”
10. Joseph Arthur “Blue Lips”
11. Yo La Tengo “From Black to Blue”
12. Califone “(Red)”
13. The Decemberists “Red Right Ankle”
14. Sarah Harmer “Uniform Grey”
15. Coldplay “Yellow”

Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead. Everybody’s talking about RADIOHEAD and their new pay-as-you-wish record, In Rainbows. Even my grandma (seriously). I’ve probably heard it somewhere between eight and twelve times, and I swear it gets more interesting and beautiful with every listen. Enjoy this list of my favorite Radiohead songs. I even went out on a limb and picked a few from the new record. What are your favorites?

Sorry for the sporadic updating, but Knate is back in business. We mean it this time!

Devotedly,

Kate

1. Black Star
2. Fake Plastic Trees
3. Everything In Its Right Place
4. Thinking About You (I like it, get over it)
5. Let Down
6. House Of Cards
7. Lucky
8. Knives Out
9. How To Disappear Completely
10. There There (The Boney King Of Nowhere)
11. All I Need
12. Creep
13. The Bends

Sitting in the waiting room at the dentist office is the worst. Every time the door opens to call the next victim you can hear the scraping of metal on enamel, the buzzing drill, and the screams of children. Today’s KNATE post is a double playlist to help you through your next visit to hell.

Here is a pre-dental appointment playlist to listen as you imagine the dentist diagnosing you with meth mouth while the hygenists point and laugh.  But mostly, this is to help get Orin Scrivello out of your head.

1.Modest Mouse - Teeth Like God’s ShoeShine
2. Califone - New Black Tooth
3. Radiohead - Cuttooth
4. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin Off My Yellow Country Teeth
5. Wilco - Summer Teeth
6. David Karsten Daniels - Sharp Teeth I
7. Baby Elephant - Turn My Teeth Up!
8. Death Cab For Cutie - Crooked Teeth
9. Metallica - Amnesia (Pulling Teeth)
10. Electric Soft Parade - A Kick In The Teeth
11. Green Day - Pulling Teeth
12. Iron & Wine - Teeth In The Grass
13. Kyle Andrews - Glass Jar Filled With Teeth
14. Megadeth - Skin O My Teeth
15. NIN - With Teeth
16. Pela - Tenement Teeth
17.Hot Hot Heat - Dirty Mouth
18. Man Man - Teeth
19. Aphex Twin - Corn Mouth
20. Blind Melon - Mouthful Of Cavities

And here is a post-dentist visit playlist to listen to after your root canals have been violated and you sit drooling out of the side of your mouth craving more local anesthetic…

1. Boards of Canada - Opening The Mouth
2. Colour Revolt - Blood In Your Mouth
3. Shapes & Sizes - The Taste In My Mouth
4. Ghost Stories - The Nettle In Your Mouth
5. Pintop Seven - A Mouthful of Expensive Teeth
6. Wilco - Candy Floss
7. Johnny Irion - Brush Yr Teeth Blues
8. Télépopmusik - Hollywood on My Toothpaste
9. Discover America - Shiny Teeth
10. Comets On Fire - Holy Teeth
11. The Catheters - My Mouth
12. Josh Ritter - One More Mouth
13. Nic Armstrong & The Theives - Broken Mouth Blues
14. Bjork - Sun In My Mouth
15. Garbage - Shut Your Mouth

I have been blessed/cursed with ability to grow a beard in just a few hours. It’s a power I have guarded carefully with semi-regular grooming. I have never unleashed the full fury of my facial hair.  Maybe one day, wife permitting, the world will be ready for Bearded Nate.
Until then, let us celebrate artists that embrace the joy of facial hair with wild abandon. This installment of KNATE is a tribute to beards, moustaches, fu man chus and the artists that wear them or sing about them.


1. ZZ Top - “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”
(This is the anthem for bearded rockers everywhere.)
2. Iron & Wine - “An Angry Blade”
(You’d be angry too if you had to shave Sam Beam’s face.)
3. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - “Lion Hair”
(Will Oldham’s beard is surprisingly lionesque, especially when he mugs for a Kanye West video.)
4. The Long Winters - “Everybody Is Talking”
(What are they talking about? How awesome John Roderick’s beard was.)
5. Jimmy Buffett - “Pencil Thin Mustache”
(This one is a no-brainer.)
6. The Black Lips - “Take Me Home (Back to Boone)”
(Sample lyric: “My old man’s got a gay moustache.")
7. Man Man - “I, Manface”
(Honus Honus, ‘stache ‘stache, awesome awesome.)
8. Danger Doom - ‘Perfect Hair”
(Yes, MF Doom has a real beard under the mask.)
9. Rob Crow - “Up”
(Rob Crow is on fire in 2007: a solo record, a new Pinback record, and 39 EPs...and it’s only August!)
10. Pinback - “Messenger”
(That’s right, back-to-back Crow. Respect his bearded prolificacy.)
11. The Saturday Knights - “Ass Kicker’s Haircut”
(This band may or may not have facial hair, but you can’t fault a song title like that.)
12. Devendra Banhart - “This Beard is For Siobhan”
(Even more self-explanatory than the Buffett track.)
13. Wilco - “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard”
(Remember when Jeff Tweedy had a beard? Yeah, that was cool.)
14. Elton John - “Razor Face”
(He has a razor face, and that’s why it’s so clean)
15. Aesop Rock - “Facemelter”
(Shabbiest. Beard. Ever.)
16. Ani DiFranco - “Untouchable Face”
(For the laaaadies....)
17. Grinderman - “Get It On”
(Nick Cave has the scariest/possibly only half-man-chu ever.)
18. Archie Bronson Outfit - “Cherry Lips”
(These guys are as hirsute as their guitar riffs are catchy.)


This playlist was put together with the help of Paste Web Editor, Austin L. Ray, who, ironically, just shaved his fantastic beard last week.
Who are your favorite hairy-faced artists and what are your favorite songs about facial hair?

I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately, and one thing I’ve noticed is that the soundtrack or score can really make or break a film. Enjoy this list of our favorite songs from movies. Yes, we love Whitney Houston.

Always,

Knate

1. Aimee Mann “Deathly” (Magnolia)
2. Elliott Smith “Because” (American Beauty)
3. Yann Tiersen “La Valse d’Amelie” (Amelie)
4. Gipsy Kings “Hotel California” (The Big Lebowski)
5. Gary Jules “Mad World” (Donnie Darko)
6. Coolio “Gangsta’s Paradise” (Dangerous Minds)
7. Radiohead “Talk Show Host” (Romeo and Juliet)
8. Peter Gabriel “Your Eyes” (Say Anything)
9. Damien Rice “The Blower’s Daughter” (Closer)
10. Whiskeytown “Wither I’m a Flower” (Hope Floats)
11. Counting Crows “Color Blind” (Cruel Intentions)
12. Nico “These Days” (Royal Tenenbaums)
13. Elton John “Tiny Dancer” (Almost Famous)
14. Chuck Berry “C’est La Vie (You Never Can Tell)” (Pulp Fiction)
15. The Doors “The End” (Apocalypse Now)
16. Britney Spears “Crazy” (Drive Me Crazy)
17. Bruce Springsteen “Streets of Philadelphia” (Philadelphia)
18. The Shins “Caring Is Creepy” (Garden State)
19. Meshell Ndegeocello “Fool of Me” (Love and Basketball)
20. Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Wayne’s World)
21. Berlin “Take My Breath Away” (Top Gun)
22. Geto Boys “Damn It Feels Good to Be A Gangster” (Office Space)
23. Whitney Houston “I Will Always Love You” (The Bodyguard)
24. Simple Minds “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” (The Breakfast Club)
25. The Jesus and Mary Chain “Just Like Honey” (Lost in Translation) 


I have a new hobby, a new goal, a new reason to wake up every morning. I’m a RUNNER now. My good friend Lesley and I are training for the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day half marathon. I spent a hundred dollars on a great new pair of shoes, now the ugliest shoes I own. They’re even Mac-compatible. The shoes have a special compartment for an iPod chip—and get this—if you buy all the right equipment, it picks up your pace and chooses music from your library with the right tempo. Amazing!

Nate and his wife Rhea (now my neighbors) are also training for the half marathon. Except I can’t keep up with them. Yet. Or probably ever.

In the interest of full disclosure, there are things about running that I hate. I hate sweating, I hate losing my breath, and I hate having sore muscles. I hate the bright colors of workout clothes, I hate ankle socks, I hate it when my hair falls in my face, and I hate it when my face turns red. I hate blisters. I hate hills.

Enjoy this playlist of songs about running (and a few about walking, because there’s nothing wrong with stopping to walk).

Faster every day,

Kate

1. The Rosebuds “I Better Run”
2. Jackson Browne “Walking Slow”
3. Queens of the Stone Age “Run Pig Run”
4. Ben Kweller “Run”
5. Hanson “The Walk”
6. Cat Power “Keep on Runnin’”
7. The Staple Singers “Long Walk to D.C.”
8. The Jayhawks “I’d Run Away”
9. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins “Run Devil Run”
10. John Vanderslice “They Won’t Let Me Run”
11. Snow Patrol “Run”
12. Centro-Matic “Take the Maps and Run”
13. Van Morrison “Come Running”
14. Rosie Thomas “I Run”
15. Tom Waits “Walk Away”
16. Air “Run”
17. Smog “Hit the Ground Running”
18. Wolf Parade “You are a Runner and I am My Father’s Son”
19. Sly and the Family Stone “Runnin’ Away”
20. Fugazi “Margin Walker”
21. Johnny Cash “I Walk the Line”

Part of the office is on fire right now. I have been challenged by the interns to make a playlist before we’re allowed to go back in the office. I won!

Nobody was hurt and the fire is small,

Kate

1. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy “You Will Miss Me When I Burn”
2. Alasdair Roberts “Firewater (Library Of Aethers)”
3. Ben Harper “Not Fire, Not Ice”
4. Mindy Smith “Down in Flames”
5. Modest Mouse “Fire it Up”
6. David Berkeley “Fire Sign”
7. Gram Parsons “Hearts on Fire”
8. Hem “Hotel Fire”
9. Patty Loveless “Out of Control Raging Fire”
10. Mugison “I’m on Fire”
11. M. Ward “Fuel for Fire”
12. Ryan Adams “Enemy Fire”
13. Stars “Set Yourself on Fire”
14. Califone “Burned By the Christians”
15. Josh Ritter “Man Burning”
16. Dar Williams “Blue Light of the Flame”
17. Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire”