Get your mix

Back in the mists of pre-history, I used to make mix tapes. And when I say tapes, I mean “tapes”: as in compilations of songs on audio cassettes, lovingly and painstakingly recorded from CD sources or other cassettes (yeah, I didn’t have a turntable), complete with covers designed by yours truly. I made them for friends, for girlfriends, for near-strangers.

I also made them to play on long taxi rides — once, I ended up giving a mix to an appreciative cab driver, who had commented favorably on the songs, comparing them to artists from his youth. (I remember that particular mix had The Blue Nile and Nick Cave, among other artists, on it). I made an MRT mix for a friend who commuted a lot, all warm electronica and synth-pop and other machine-dreamy music. Sometimes the mixes were really straightforward: I made a mix for a girl I liked which was, on her request, all Smiths songs on one side and Cure songs on the other (she is happier these days).

There was a certain sense of godlike freedom that came with making mixes. Not limited by radio playlists or commercially-compiled best-ofs or now-that’s-what-I-call-music style offerings, one could select and arrange to one’s heart’s content—cutting out all filler, making songs fit a purpose, building a narrative, even.

Of course I was limited by my own music collection (which was not as vast as I would have liked, naturally, even though it sometimes seemed most of my money went to music—well, music and comics and pizza). Not to mention the physical format, the 60- or 90-minute limit on cassettes (120-minuters seemed unwieldy, and were more likely to snarl up or malfunction). I remember my rule of thumb: eight pop songs, more or less, per side of a 60-minute tape, and 12 for the 90-minute ones. One learned to hold some unusually short songs in reserve in case of gaps: like Teenage Fanclub’s What You Do To Me or the Lemonheads’ Bit Part or Career Opportunities by The Clash, all two minutes or less.

Of course these days one has no such limits, thanks to the Internet. And mixes are everywhere online, and each one is an opportunity to find some new songs you might love (or, more often than not, hate, but hey, it’s free). Here are a few of my favorite sources:

Tiny Mix Tapes is a site that features “news, reviews, and features on every single style of music in existence.” The fun part is that they let readers request mixes and then others will assemble these mixes for them (they’re not downloadable, but you can read the tracklists and get ideas). Some recent favorites include “Songs With Literary References to Play in the Independent Book Store Where I Work,” Songs to Drunkenly Ride My Bike to While the Cops Are Chasing Me,” and my leading candidate for compilation title of the year, “A Clown’s Existential Breakdown.” (www.tinymixtapes.com)

Popdose is a pop culture site that has a weekly themed mix, with themes ranging from the familiar “getting ready to go out for a night of fun” to “a cappela music” to “underrated Queen songs.” Great stuff. You can listen to all the tracks online. Most of the individual tracks are downloadable (right-click on the title, “save as”) while others just link to Amazon. But hey, what are torrents for? (http://popdose.com/category/music/the-weekly-mixtape)

Kitsune Noir, an L.A.-based art and design blog, offers a more-or-less-weekly mixcast, selected by Bobby Solomon (complete with album cover art, no less — front and back). As far as I know it’s just one guy putting it together, but the music ranges pretty far and wide, from the loud (“...this week I’ve put together a rock & roll Mixcast with nothing but jangling guitars, loud feedback and people screaming their lyrics. Just like the old days!”) to the gentle (a lovely recent mix has songs that all have plant names in them). And — yes! — you can download the mixes. (http://kitsunenoir.com/category/kitsune-noir-mixcast)

Motel de Moka offers excellent eclectic (and downloadable) mixes from an international team of music lovers, with members hailing from Barcelona, Guadalajara, the Netherlands, Baltimore, Melbourne... you get the idea. The geographical diversity has resulted in sonic diversity as well; their mixes mix up genres from indie-rock to Tropicalia to instrumental hip-hop to Peruvian Psych/Pop. And that’s just in the last month.(http://www.moteldemoka.com)

Needless to say, there’s a whole lot more out there. Go forth and get your fix of mixes.

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The photo for last week’s feature on Mikey Amistoso (a.k.a. Hannah & Gabi) was taken by Marian Joy Hernandez. Thanks, Marian!