Category: Mix Tapes

  • 2008 Mix

    2008 Mix

    If the Side A/Side B thing seems pretentious, there’s at least a little method to my (nostalgic) madness. See, ideally, one who listens to this mix will take a short break after Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam.” Frankly, I don’t know how anyone could hear that song and not need to stand up, walk around, pour a stiff drink, smoke a cigarette, something.

  • 2007 Mix CD

    18 songs from 18 albums I enjoyed this year.

  • Mix CD: It’s Beautiful Now

    I made this mix for a group of friends, nearly all of whom are about a half-generation older than I am. We all grew up listening to the same music, though. They bought vinyl in the new releases bin; I saw the reunion tours.

  • Mix: Needle Drops

    Mix: Needle Drops

    This mix began with a single iTunes download. My all-time favorite needle drop accompanies my favorite sequence in what also happens to be my favorite film, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror.

  • A Session of Dance Music

    One of my goals with this latest mix, “A Session of Dance Music,” was to gather some songs that wouldn’t inspire Joanna to take sarcastic jabs at my piss-poor taste. We just got back from a long drive, during which we listened to the entire disc, and her opinion seems to hover somewhere in the “Well, at least it doesn’t suck” range. So mission accomplished, I guess.

  • Silence (and a New Mix)

    Silence (and a New Mix)

    I had two main goals with this mix. First, I decided to divide it evenly between older and newer music. There’s always a jump of at least 15 years from tune to tune. But I also wanted the mix to be coherent, so I was looking for a tone that could maybe be described as “Songs that might actually sound better if they were played on an old, hissing record player.”

  • Everything is Copasetic, Now

    Everything is Copasetic, Now

    At Girish’s request, I’ve pasted together a mix of music that features the Fender Rhodes.

  • Little Feat Mix

    Little Feat Mix

    Let me make this point perfectly clear: Little Feat is the great unsung American rock and roll band. The July mix is a collection of songs from their golden period — roughly 1972 – 1978 — the years when founder Lowell George was at his peak.

  • A Mid-’80s Mix

    A Mid-’80s Mix

    A mix of music I loved between roughly April 1987 (a month before my 15th birthday) and June 1988 (a month after my 16th).

  • February Mix

    February Mix

    Yes, this is actually a mix of music that includes a song by Crash Test Dummies.

  • January Mix

    January Mix

    A mellow, folk mix involving Bjork, Sam Phillips, Beck, and The Story.