8track: Johnny Foreigner

Let us take you on a magical trip back to the 90s. MC Hammer pants were all the rage and Walkmen were the height of new technology. Keeping this in mind, over the past few months we've been getting in touch with bands around the country and asking them to create a metaphorical mixtape containing, you guessed it, eight tracks!

Johnny Foreigner play music that is fun. Their debut album was stunning. To be honest, I'd write more, but Alexei has even given us a lovely little intro to his mixtape. And his favourite lyrics from each song. And he even gave it a theme! Cool, eh? Over to you Alexei...

Hello. Since we’ve just finished recording an album on which most of the songs are about us being in a band, I thought the theme of this tape should be awesome songs by bands about themselves, to prove we're in good company.

Title: This Boy is Exhausted
Artist: The Wrens
Why it's here: Namechecks members of bands in a heart wrenching song about how playing gigs makes all the shit jobs you put up with just about worth it.

Lyric: "and every win on this record is hard won"

Title: Dismemberment Plan Get Rich
Artist: The Dismemberment Plan
Why it's here: Namechecks members of band in an epic dance song about the various arms and drugs deals and corporate negociations behind the scenes of their group. Possibly ficticious.

Lyric: "Joe got caught upon a boat in the singapore harbour with 7 tons of opium, colour us embarrassed"

Title: Chicago Ceemed Tired Last Night
Artist: The Hold Steady
Why it's here: Though he's the absolute master of power to the party kids righteousness, it's pretty rare that Craig Finn includes bands in his supercool world of bar life and faded religious parallels. Though he makes out like it's just some random bar band he's singing about, there's no mistaking the fire behind the lines.

Lyric: "we salvage our sermons from message boards and scene reports. we come on to the youth.. even if you don't get converted tonite you must admit that the band's pretty tight."

Title: Memories of a Festival
Artist: Deus
Why it's here: Most bands do a terrible festival show and go back to their bus and go boohooooooo about it and blame the soundguy. Deus go write a super amazing pop song.

Lyric: "don't run into the crowd, ba ba ba bababa"

Title: Art is Hard
Artist: Cursive
Why it's here: Someone told me this is a dig at Bright Eyes. Can someone else please tell me this isn't true, theres more than 9000 more valid targets I'm sure. Tim Kasher in full on awesome vindictive bitter mode.

Lyric: "first you don't succeed, you gotta recreate your misery"

Title: His Saxophone is My Guitar
Artist: The Van Pelt
Why it's here: Chris Leo is the king of eloquent half spoken damning rants, but he's quite relaxed in this song. Apart from claiming that he is more deserving of medical attention than a cancer victim.

Lyric: "I was born the day after soul and forty years late for the sound of my amplifier"

Title: Thank You
Artist: Urusei Yatsura
Why it's here: Where Graeme Kemp says goodbye to us and we all burst into tears cos there'll never be a band that meant so much to so few and summed up what it was to be an obsessive indie geek teenager in the late 90s with a bunch of Sonic Youth chords and toy rayguns.

Lyric: "this is the last song I will ever sing you"

Title: What If We Are Not, After All, All Destined For Greatness?
Artist: Joan of Arc

Why it's here: Once me and Dan from Gentle Friendly spent a whole summer singing the chorus of this song to each other. In friends' kitchens. Looking back, it's not really about being in a band at all aside from some wry touches like the title... but it's my mix so nyehhhh.

Lyric: "we keep beginning again and again"

For more info, check out www.myspace.com/johnnyforeigner