Okay, as the theme for this month’s CD, I’ve chosen “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. I wll, in other words, try to make a CD on which all of the songs remind me of this awesomest of all awesome shows. Be it that they remind me of the show in general, a specific episode or scene or character, or just Buffy, in all possible ways. Because the CD only had room for some 70 odd minutes of music, I had to axe such awesome stuff as Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” (which would have been for Faith), Meijko Kaijo’s “The Flower of Carnage” (which would obviously have been for Buffy, but I found so many other songs that fitted this particular theme, and I had to prioritise), as well as some other stuff. Which might have fitted the theme better, but I just forgot all about it. And some stuff, like The Beatles’ “Hard Day’s Night”, which just didn’t fit the mood I was trying to create here. So, let’s get started:

1. Wolfmother - Dimension
A nice song to start things off with, seeing as some of its first words are “into another dimension” (which is followed by one of the most awesome bass solos I’ve heard in a while, but that’s besides the point). And even though it’s much more dimension travelling on “Angel” than on “Buffy”, I threw it in here. Because “Buffy” is kinda in another dimension, you know?
(Wolfmother had a lot of other songs that also would have fitted this CD, like “Woman” and “Witchcraft”, but I landed on “Dimension” because I got those other two covered by other songs.)

2. The Urge Overkill - Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon
A Vampire Slayer has to grow up fast, I suppose. And if not, there’s always “Innocence”.

3. Nirvana - School
There are few things as scary to me as Kurt Cobain chanting “you’re in high school again” over and over, backed by sinister guitar, bas and drums. I bet Buffy’d agree to that, if she could.

4. Staind - Outside
I’ve always interpreted this nu metal song to be about the life of an outsider. And if there’s one thing practically every character on “Buffy” has in common, it’s that they’re outside of normal society, looking in at people with mundane problems, and often being mocked by the more normal ones. And so I searched for this song for a couple of hours today, and download some 800 megs of whiny nu metal just for this song. And it’s an awesome one. I’ll give them that. One of the few nu metal songs I actually like.

5. Ane Brun - Temporary Dive
I love this song. It seems so dark and sad, until you really discover what the lyrics’re about, and then it’s suddenly transformed into this sad yet hopeful little thing. Just check this out: “I fell down in that hole, again, I am a lump of jelly, I am a dead fish [...] I build a ladder from broken wishbones and square shapestones that my friends threw down in the hole [...] Sometimes we tip-toe, some times we run, sometimes we wander while looking at the sun.” Basically, it’s about being in a really dark place, but having friends that can help you out of that place. Fits “Buffy”, yes?

6. Kyuss - Demon Cleaner
This one was chosen exclusively for its title, and for tha fact that it’s a dark, violent and übercool stoner rock song. The “demon cleaner” is of course Buffy. Duh. :P

7. The Richochets - The Ghost of Our Love
The second Norwegian contribution to the “soundtrack” so far, is the track I devoted to Buffy’s lovelife. As someone once remarked, almost all of the relationships on “Buffy” end in tragedy and/or despair, and this is an attempt to reflect that. I had several other options here, too, but fell down on Richochets because it’s so dark and sinister and depressed and desperate. And because I chose another Radiohead song to go on the CD, so I couldn’t use “Exit Music”. But this one gets the job done perfectly.

8. Rem - Daysleeper
Yet another track that got chosen for its title. “Daysleepers” are naturally vampires, at least in my mind. I dunno what Mike Stipe intended them to be.

9. AC/DC - Hell’s Bells
Not only is this the title of an episode of season 6, it’s also a song I think fit the theme. In my mind, Brian Johnson’s a vampire, warning Buffy that he’s coming to get her. Which is a neat little picture, I think.

10. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
If it weren’t for the shuffle function of my discman, it would have bothered me that I threw in the two heavy metal tracks after one another. Anyway, this one’s here to give a kind of a occult, diabolical feel to it all. Plu,s whenever I read the word “sabbath”, I think “witch sabbath”, and then I think “Willow! :D “, with exclamation points, smileys, and all. And that’s not un-neat.

11. Green Day - She
I still remember the first time I watched “Chosen”, and logged onto my blog to write a short review of it. I always listen to music when I’m online, and when I started up my eternally shuffling WinAmp this night, which song is the first I hear? Green Day’s “She”. So now, it’s one of my standard “Buffy” songs.

12. Queens of the Stone Age - Little Sister
QotSA have so many songs that could have fitted this thing, like “Burn The Witch”, “The Blood Is The Love”, “In The Fade”, and so many others, and I originally planned on chosing one of those. But then I saw this one, and I just thought: “Dawn! :D ” Again, with the exclamation mark and the psychotically happy smiley and the works.

13. Suzuka - Die For You
An obvious track to follow “Little Sister” is this one, “Die For You”, which you can actually get for free, jut over here. I’m not sure if this would be categorised as “hard core” or “emo”, but it’s a nice mix of the two bastard brothers. Heavy, fuzzed guitars and a semi-pleasant text, with just moderate amounts of screaming. And if you really neeeded me to tell you that this one’s primarily meant for “The Gift” (although it does of course fit the shole show in general as well), you have no business reading this. :P

14. The Offspring - Gone Away
The mainstream punk rockers of The Offspring’s lament over a dead friend. A really sad song, with a lot of stuff about the world being so cold, now that you’ve gone away, and that if they could change, they would, and stuff like that. Post-”The Gift”, of course.

15. Radiohead - Wolf At The Door
Vampires snarling down the doors of the Summers residence. Angelus and Spike lurking around in the shadows. You get the picture. The song even has a fittingly eerie sound to it. Oh, and I just realised there’s some bits of lyrics here that can remind the listener of “The Pack”. Looksie, I managed to squeaze in some Xander Harris after all! :D

16. Queen - Killer Queen
More stuff along the lines of “Demon Cleaner”. This song is Buffy personified.

17. Madrugada - Majesty
Another song I listened a lot to after “Chosen”. To me, this song will always be about Buffy; the perfect mix of feminine and feminist.

18. Weezer - The World Has Turned And Left Me Here
One of my favourite Weezer songs, this one is here purely for me. Because this is kinda like I feel, after having finished all seven episodes. And when I remember that I will never watch the show for the first time again. A nice place to round things off, I think.

And while writing this post, I am of course wearing one of my “Joss Whedon Is My Master Now” t-shirts. And if you ever wonder from whence that came, here’s your answer.