The original idea of this blog, and the idea that I have not yet (until now) pursued, was to take a look back at the various mixtapes and mix CDs that I have lying about from my years of music fandom. Some would be mixes that I made for myself or other people, while others would be mixes by others that gave them to me. I am not actually insinuating that my mixes are or are not "terrible." Self serving and pointless, sure, but whether or not they are actually "good" isn't really the point of this exercise. With that said, here's the first installment of such a thing:
In 2002 I found myself in art school for most of my time, a welcome change of pace from the myriad of retail jobs I had endured in between my last failed venture to college and then. As excited as I was to be in a design program that I actually cared about, most of my excitement from that time came from my acquisition of a laptop computer (paid for by my student loans of course). Having such a current and cutting edge piece of technology in my possession was ridiculously exciting to me, and I spent countless days worth of hours customizing it and exploring it.
One of the best features of the new computer, I found, was the inclusion of a CD-RW drive, something that I hadn't ever had the pleasure of owning at home - though I had used them in my few month stint working at a college radio station.
Obviously, one of my first goals with this new technology was to create a mix CD of the music I was currently listening to that I could listen to in the car on my way to and from school (an hour and a half drive each way). The result, dubbed the "Orange Mix" because of the obnoxious orange "Cool Burn" brand orange disc I had used, is as follows:
1. "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra - Curiously, and very coincidentally, I've been on a huge ELO kick lately. Admitedly, I love ELO a lot more now than I did in 2002, as I think this was the very beginning of my exposure to them. I think "Mr. Blue Sky" was used in a commercial for the new (at the time) VW Beetle Convertible (if memory serves me right), and I rushed to the internet to find out who sang that awesome song. As you'll see in this mix, I must've been in the midst of some 60s/70s rock obsession.
2. "The Second Line" by Clinic - I think my first exposure to Clinic was in the knowledge that Radiohead had picked Clinic to open for them on tour. I did not see those concerts, but that knowledge was enough to make me want to seek out the band. I have no idea how "The Second Line" became the first song from them that I ever heard, but I did. I'd describe it as completely indecipherable vocals accompanied by some sort of kraut-surf rock, but it's just as easy to use that description to describe most of their songs. I would go on to become a huge fan of Clinic, though I've not listened to them much in the past year or two. I may have to fix that...
3. "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age - I had a little knowledge of QOTSA thanks to my time in college radio while "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" was popular, but "No One Knows" was a big deal to me. Honestly, in hindsight, I'm not even completely sure why. Perhaps because it resonated so well with whatever was compelling me to soak in all the retro-rock I was also soaking in at the time, but for the next year I was completely infatuated with Songs for the Deaf. I do still appreciate this song, band and album, though the insatiable thirst I once had them has subsided a bit.
4. "Bleed American" by Jimmy Eat World - For a few years prior to hearing the album Bleed American, I knew of JEW, though I had never actually heard them. So when they finally broke through to the mainstream with "Bleed American" I was almost afraid to admit how much Im loved this song - fearing the rolling eyes of the people who "knew them back when they were cool." But, really, fuck them - this song was absolutely monstrous, and still is.
5. "The Winter is Coming" by Elf Power - Elf Power resides, for me, in one of those bizarre spaces where I never came them the time I should've, despite knowing how much I'd probably love them. The handful of Elf Power songs I've heard in my life: I've loved them all. Their involvement in the Elephant 6 Collective: I'm usually all over that stuff. And yet: Outside of the said handful of tracks, I've never really delved into them before. Perhaps one day I will. Though, I suspect, that I may just be worried that I could tarnish my love for this particular song if I didn't like the rest of their work.
6. "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen - Another glimpse into my own "retromania" [NOTE: I am currently reading the book Retromania by Simon Reynolds, which may have been what prompted me to finally write this article in the first place.] of 60s/70s rock. I really wanted to make Queen into my favorite band, though it never happened (regardless of how much I still love and respect the band now).
7. "Walking with Thee" by Clinic - Another Clinic song, I think this one was the most recent single at the time when I was trying to find out more about them. I fell in love with this song immediatley and to this day it remains my absolute favorite Clinic song. Maybe one of my favorite songs period. It's just so damn good.
8. "Everywhere with Helicopter" by Guided by Voices - Strangely, despite all the hundreds of albums and songs out there by Guided by Voices, this song is the one that I know the best, possibly because of this very mix. I think this song in particular was a free mp3 on Pitchfork or some similar website. I fell in love with this song, despite never taking the time to listen to much else by them. It wouldn't be until years later that I'd explore GbV's back catalog.
9. "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" by the Hollies - Even in regards to my retro-rock fetish of the early 00s, my obsession with this song strikes me as kind of weird. True, it always brings back memories of small-town FM radio in the early 90s, which probably accounts for most of my love for this song. Listening to it now makes me realize that its been a few years since I've heard this song; strange when I consider how I once thought of it as one of the most inescapable songs in my life.
10. "Watching Xanadu" by Mull Historical Society - A strange (cute, you could say) little song that I heard in passing and later searched for online. Years later, I still love this song and can't believe that it never seemed to get much attention. Finding this CD in a thrift store last year was an absolute thrill, by the way.
11. "Get Over It" by OK Go - Seeing the trajectory of OK Go's career path, and how it seems to still be careening along in a very positive arch, it's kind of cool to think that at one time OK Go was just a little band with very little attention being given to it. I didn't think I'd be listening to this band 10 years later, I know that as fact.
12. "Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes - I don't even know what to say about this. I loved this song and this band and having this song on my the first mix CD I made from home just seemed like a really cool move. It was.
13. "Killer Queen" by Queen - I was wondering why this song sounded almost boring to me now while listening to it, but then I realized that I had listened to it so much on this (and other) mix CDs that my ears were still worn out to hearing it. Oops!
14. "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones - I go through phases in life where I either have no interest in the Stones or I want to try and get into them again. For the most part, I respect the Stones, but I've never actually been able to say that I "love" them. Heresy, maybe, but the truth. This song, however, has always been a fave of mine. It's just so biting. There are very few songs that channel such raw emotion in the way that this one does.
15. "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads - A few years later, in the mid-00s, I went through a very heavy Talking Heads obsession. This predates that by a little bit. The version on this mix was a live version, I think, though it's not the same version that is on the The Name of This Band is the Talking Heads. I have no idea, honestly, where it's from, but I tend to like it more than the studio version.
16. "Substitute" by The Who - Of all the bands in my retro-bender, The Who (and not, surprisingly, Queen) was the band I was most infatuated with. This song and "A Quick One (While He's Away)" were my favorites, especially this one. It was one of those songs that I'd obnoxiously play for friends and force them to listen to. "Listen to this song, man! It's so amazing, isn't it?"
17. "Voodoo Woman" by Ween - This song fits in quite well amongst the other songs on this mix, if only because Ween nail the 70s rock and funk influences so perfectly. I honestly am not sure why this song is on this mix, because while I was a big Ween fan I remember not liking this song as much until years later. Perhaps this was an attempt to warm up to it...or maybe it was just the only Ween song that was on my computer at the time.
18. "Take a Walk" by Spoon - This was the only Spoon song I knew until a few years later when I discovered "I Turn My Camera On" and became a Spoon obsessive. Still, this is a damn good song. I think I downloaded this at the recommendation of a friend who knew of them only because his friend worked at Merge Records (or maybe it was Matador at that time) and was handling some of the street team duties.
19. "Good News for the Pus Pickers" by Danielson Famile - I have no idea why this song is here, honestly. I did go through a phase where I loved the Danielson album Fetch the Compass Kids, but in hindsight I find that album a little more obnoxious than when I was 18.
20. "Up Above the Daily Hum" by The Flaming Lips - I wasn't a huge Flaming Lips fan yet at this time. I remember looking for random Lips songs to download to get a feel for them, and this was the one I liked the most. Kind of funny, this mp3 was incorrectly labeled as "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell," and so for a year or two, I believed that this was that song until I actually bought Yoshimi Battle the Pink Robots and discovered that "Ego Tripping" was a very different (and better) song. Though, I do still quite like this.
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