This fall, I was unemployed. Granted, I had just graduated from college in June. But it didn't help that I spent the summer watching movies and drinking beer, and then went to backpack in Europe for six weeks. Though I got a job shortly after making this mix, I can still listen to it with almost the same amount of uncertainty and dread. Enjoy.

1. The Three O'Clock: "Jet Fighter" (Sixteen Tambourines)
Any song with a countdown is automatically a good kick-off for a mix. Add a sweet synth riff at the end of said countdown and you have gold.

2. Dykehouse: "Signal Crossing" (Midrange)
One of the few recent songs on my mix, this is one of my favorite electronic tracks of all time. And it transitions so well into...

3. M83: "Run Into Flowers" (Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts)
You all know it, but oh my.

4. Nine Inch Nails: "Ringfinger" (Pretty Hate Machine)
I don't know how many of you were legitimate Trent Rez-heads in high school, but I certainly was. Though I maintain that Pretty Hate Machine is not as good as The Downward Spiral or The Fragile, it sure does have some sweet industrial sounds. I love when the guitar crashes in during the middle of this track.

5. Ministry: "Stigmata" (The Land of Rape & Honey)
Speaking of industrial... this song is long and repetitive but oh-so-perfect for mid-day bedroom fits of rage.

6. Ultravox: "Vienna" (Vienna)
Since high school, I've basically stripped my taste of all prog rock (minus Yes). But I just heard this song recently and I'm still a sucker for epic croons.

7. Kate Bush: "Running Up That Hill" (Hounds of Love)
In honor of K. Bush's recent release, here is a most excellent track that epitomozies angst. "Do you wanna feel how it feels?"

8. The Cocteau Twins: "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" (The Spangle Maker)
I'm really feeling these angsty females for some reason.

9. The Go-Betweens: "Cattle & Cane" (Before Hollywood)
God, I'm sad.

10. The Pop Group: "She is Beyond Good & Evil" (Y)
Gang of Four-sounding guitar riff? Check. Robert Smith-meets-Cris Kirkwood vocals? Check. Coolest band name? Very possibly check.

11. My Bloody Valentine: "Cupid Come" (Isn't Anything)
My favorite track from their less popular album, Isn't Anything. Definitely worth getting the whole album though.

12. Big Black: "Passing Complexion" (Atomizer)
I downloaded this just the other day after I saw Big Black's album on Spin's Top 100 Albums.

13. Unwound: "Look a Ghost" (Leaves Turn Inside You)
Props to Mookie Singerman, friend and Genghis Tron frontman, for introducing me to this undervalued band.

14. Siouxsie & the Banshees: "Christine" (Kaleidoscope)
According to I-Tunes, this is the track on my mix that I have listened to the most times... 20.

15. X-Ray Spex: "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" (Germ Free Adolescents)
The original Le Tigre.

16. Nirvana: "Downer" (Bleach)
I had to pick at least one off Bleach, their masterwork.

17. The Pretenders: "Message of Love" (Pretenders II)
This might be the one song on my mix that Dad would like.

18. Iggy Pop: "Tonight" (Lust For Life)
What a genius. As Philip Seymour Hoffman says in Almost Famous, "Jim Morrison was a rockstar posing as a poet, Iggy Pop was a poet posing as a rockstar."

19. Leonard Cohen: "I'm Your Man" (I'm Your Man)
Though I love everything off The Future, I think this is his best album. The most disturbing thing about Leonard Cohen, to me, is that, hard as I try, I will never be able to make my voice go that low.

20. Low: "Violence" (Long View)
I've heard that Low is a Christian band. This could be true, I really don't know. What I do know is that they are the best thing ever. Any of you who haven't gotten into them, must. Yes, they're sad as all hell. But so so so beautiful. The unwavering sincerity and morbidity is compensated for with the minimalism that gives Low their attitude. I don't know if that makes sense, but it does to me. Along with Interpol and Radiohead, my favorite band of the last ten years. (Key albums: Things We Lost in the Fire and Long Division.)