Middle-East Mix Tape

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter—there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind," but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs and...oh, there are loads of rules.
-- High Fidelity

So I'm going to make a mix tape for my Jordanian amigos. This weekend I'm going to try to get cassettes, and then I'll work on getting a boom box or a walkman or something to record it. But, I've got the playlist all made up.

The goal is to give them some American (minus Nick Drake... but get off my back, he's awesome) music that isn't the stuff they are force fed from the radio. I think that its pretty good. The actual mix is pretty fluid, which is important. Unfortunately, the transition from "Elephant - Make Up" to "The Snake The Cross The Crown - Hot Anger, Soon Cold" is a switch of sides, because I thought that was the coolest transition in the mix. Oh well.

I tried to choose a wide diversity of good stuff (hence, ending it with an epic Phish explosion), while still staying within the bounds of what could be acceptable for a mainstream audience (The Unicorns are early on the mix, so hopefully they won't get too freaked out and turn it off). Of course, it is all songs that I personally like (mmm, Bright Eyes). There were a few other songs that I wanted to put on, but couldn't fit. I figured that I'll probably only be able to find 60min cassettes. So, the total mix is 58:15.

Behold, the birth of a new era in Jordanian views of American music...

Side A
01 - Minus the Bear - Monkey!!!Knife!!!Fight!!!
02 - Rx Bandits - Taking Chase as the Serpent Slithers
03 - Weezer - The Good Life
04 - Bright Eyes - Oh, you are the roots that sleep beneath my feet and hold the earth in place
05 - The Unicorns - Sea Ghost
06 - Q And Not U - Wonderful People
07 - Interpol - Evil
08 - Elephant - Make Up

Side B
01 - The Snake The Cross The Crown - Hot Anger, Soon Cold
02 - Modest Mouse - 3rd Planet
03 - The Anniversary - Hart Crane
04 - Nick Drake - Pink Moon
05 - Wilco - Ashes of American Flags
06 - Phish - Slave to the Traffic Light (Live - Nov. 26, 1994)

If you were interested, here's an amazing, almost scientific, discussion about the "essence" of the Mixtape.

Oh, and I figured out how to edit the date and time of posts. This one will be recorded at 11:11. Seems fitting. Dang. Its April 20.