I tried to write a couple dozen times today but my words got jammed up in my arms somewhere. They were all hot and excited, jostling around and sprinting to get on the train but couldn’t fit out the tiny doors at the end of my fingers.

So I’m posting this mix disc instead. Some of you have heard these songs from me before - it’s got a bunch of favorites on there. But there’s new stuff, too — so click, download, enjoy. You should be able to grab a PDF of the artwork and print it out, too.

Here’s the mix…

… and here’s the cover art.

This is up via Yousendit — good for one week or 100 downloads. Let me know in the comments if there’s any trouble and I’ll figure something out.

The Ramones were rock like lava: they burst from the earth in hot ear-shattering blasts, permanently changing the landscape. Their shows were surging, sweat-soaked onslaughts, loud, terrifying and utterly unbelievable.Live, the Ramones were a sonic weapon trained to a frequency only the weird could hear, a roaring NASCAR race with flawless rhythm.

My best friend’s mom took the two of us and a date to see the Ramones when I was fifteen. My glasses got knocked off and ground back into sand during the first 30 seconds of “Blitzkrieg Bop,” my hand trampled and kidneys kicked as I crawled blindly through the pit to find them.

When I came out of the show I was blind, bruised and nearly deaf and totally transformed. My Dad said “I don’t think these ‘punk’ concerts are a good idea for you, Jeffrey,” and I shouted “you just don’t get it, maaaan!”

That Truncheon Thing is hosting an awesome Ramones bootleg that pretty much perfectly captures their live sound:

THE RAMONES - 1-2-3-4 DIE (Live at The Palladium, New York - December 31, 1979)

It’s a soundboard recording from a 1979 New Year’s show at the Palladium in New York and it’s just completely perfect. Get it while you can.