Puff's All Star Lizard Revue
My first mix disc (made with Cindy's help) was Puff's All Star Lizard Revue. A friend was depressed
and claiming she had no happy music to listen to.
The Trilogy
And then there was the trilogy. (All great artists start with a trilogy.
Just ask Mo Fuzz.) Done as part of a 'benefit concert' for my friend
Brad, they alas didn't get much air time there. But then I took copies
to work and gave them heavy rotation.
All You Need is Ca$h/Ramon Says Dance, Punk!
100% Prairie Squid
50 Ways to Love Your Liver/This is a Story About...
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
The next project was 2001's Christmas disc, Coal
In Your Stocking, designed initially to keep me from having to listen
to the same Xmas songs over and over until I went mad. I added two new
tracks for 2002 and called it Slouching Toward Bethlehem, finally
getting to include the Bobs' classic Christmas hit, "Santa's Got a Brand
New Bag". And in 2003 I mixed a new version with 30% more Pretenders.
You're Like a Mental Case
One day I was online riffing off Big Pants Dance and my friend Jules
looked at me oddly and said "I have no idea what that is but it sounds
cool." And so I told her I'd include it on a mix disc
for her. I still owe her a follow up.
Dude! // |>00|>1
This was followed by my first double-disc set (a landmark among the
collectors), a Christmas/birthday present for my friend Larry in
Seattle, who I was getting to go and visit. Collectively called D*, it encompasses quirky creativity in Dude!
and a harder, more electronic sound in |>00|>1.
De Profundis Clamo a Te
Initially a Christmas present, but not finished until June, De Profundis Clamo A Te was designed as
a sort of 'goth sampler' for my friend Leslie at the costume shop
I was working at.
Take the D-Train
Another Christmas present (finished even later, in September), Take the D-Train, was crafted as part of a
plot to get somebody to sleep with me. It failed dismally, but we
both really like this album.
It's a Kind of Magic
Once upon a time I was almost involved in a WW 'Noun:the evocative
descriptor' game and wrote a soundtrack for my character. He generated
magical power by doing insanely suicidal things. And so
It's A Kind of Magic.
Drivetime
Once I started driving, the CD player became essential to me. The
only way to keep from going tharn at the realization that a half
second loss of control by anybody on the road around me was lethal
was to keep the stereo on, and keep it on loud.
DriveTime was my initial salvo in this offensive.
Not Broken Into Pieces
Salvo the Second..
Tall for Their Age
The first band-specific collection, Tall for Their
Age, comes with a recommendation from Daria who was apprehensive upon
first hearing about this mix. "You chose all the less annoying ones," she
said with pleasure.
Approaching Normal
A friend of ours was making a road trip from Atlanta to come and see
us, and had heard rumors of my nefarious basement musical laboratory.
She asked if I'd put together a mix disc for her, warning me that
her tastes were rather pedestrian. And I thought, and I thought, in
the most thoughtful way I could think, wondering if I had any music
that might fit the bill. Deciding I could come close, I named the
collection Approaching Normal.
Swing, Daddy!
To date, the most popular mix disc has been Swing,
Daddy! by several lengths. Many people have asked to listen to it,
and I'm pleased by its reception. We're prepared to call it 'timeless'
in order to promote it.
Stealing Home
Anne came to visit me one day, and we poked through my music collection
to try and find things she'd want to actually listen to. For reasons
which to this day escape me, I called the mix Stealing
Home. She has warned me not to publish the playlist.
Bitter/Sweet
Valentine's Day Project 2003: Bitter/Sweet.
A friend of mine has described this disc as 'The Soundtrack of my
Frustration.'
The Show Must Go On
In honor of Chicago winning the first Best Picture Oscar for a musical
in collective memory, I put together The Show Must
Go On.
Git
in
Mah
Belly!
After about six months of construction time (much of it sporadic, interrupted
and vaguely fruitless) I have nearly finished (barring liner notes and art)
Git In Mah Belly which may well become my Magnum
Opus, my Mozart's Requiem, my Finnegan's Wake. If nothing else, it is likely
to become my only four-disc compilation. As cool as it may be, it's also
been a gigantic pain in my ass.
Alternative to What? // Pop Muzik
And another twinned set, Alternative to What?
and Pop Muzik; the latter being close to guilty
pleasures--things I've heard on pop radio in the past year or so that I've
actually liked.
For the moment, _Thank You_ is a place holder for _White Flag_ from the
new Dido album which I do not yet own.
Hell of a Party
Another summer birthday, August 2003, for my *very Scottish* supervisor
at the airport, a drunken birthday party, and another
mix disc. Circumstance and creativity allowed me to create a
properly debauched and rumpled album sleeve for the original, but I don't
think I'll be repeating the full experience for future editions. Which,
surprisingly to me, I have already had a request for.
Love's Gonna Take a Man
More presents--after drawing Jeremy's name in a Seekrit Santa conspiracy
arranged by a friend, I was prodded into completing a
mix that had been floating around in my head for quite some time.
Love's Gonna Take a Man, which was briefly entitled "Whoa Nelly".
Drive/Driven
Housewarming present for a cute DJ. No pressure here. I think that it
helped that I was one of her only guests at the housewarming and so
she was obligated to some extent to like
Drive/Driven.
Road Trip
While I was preparing for my drive across the country with the
charming WindRose and I needed every spare moment to do important
things like pack clothes or look at a map or find hotels that liked
cats, I of course sat down and spent a few hours putting together
a Road Trip Mix. Because I'm clever
like that.
Difficult Listening
During my research for Difficult Listening
I began to suspect that I was encountering what the rest of the world
calls trip-hop, or chill. It's trippy, and chilly.
Swirlygirl
After finishing Difficult Listening, I finally dug up some remains
of a birthday present project called SwirlyGirl
that I'd done for a friend who said it was 'too swirly, too girly'.
I am, at this date, still trying to please her. (:
And then there came an amazingly productive weekend where I wrapped up four discs (which became five).
Good For You! Music inspired by watching UPN's Veronica Mars.
I'm not cool enough to have Rob Thomas' music library or the UPN's
stable of young and unfamiliar musicians, so I went with 'folks I didn't think everybody had already heard of
and who kind of rock.'
Generation X+1
The much poked and mulled and pondered mix of covers of songs
from the eighties. It does not pretend to be inclusive, despite
having expanded to include a Top 40 disc and
an Alternative disc. And for those who I know will want to
debate my definitions of pop and alternative, sod off and get your
own mix disc empire.
REMixed
This is, technically, a third disc outgrowth from the Generation
X+1 project, after seeing a handful of REM tracks on the playlist.
Unlike the Kate Bush tracks, I was able to put together an entire CD full of material, either REM covers,
REM covering somebody else, or variants, new mixes or decidedly
non-album cuts.
Sick And Wrong
This is another project that some people have been eagerly
awaiting. I tried to convince them that I meant it, and that
eagerly awaiting this was like sitting
quietly by the radiator waiting for your bowl of Count Chocula to curdle.
It was started when I sent my friend a mix of NIN's 'Closer' that I thought
would make her squeal and her sister, a fan of Trent Reznor,
collapse in a fit of vapors. That should give you fair warning.
Caliente y Mas Caliente
This collection took some time to finish off--largely due to the fact that many of the tracks I thought should go on it were under the 'P' section of the CD collection and didn't get ripped for a while. Latin, latin influenced, cuban, norteno, mariachi, cumbia, flamenco... it's a very flexible creation, with most of the classical sounds on the first disc and most of the abominations on the second.
The Sins of Onan
When a beautiful woman tells you that she wants you to make her a mix disc of songs about masturbation, you do not cast such a request aside lightly. Even if she moved away to Tucson and you hardly ever see her. So here it is, a concatenation of songs that either are about masturbation, reference masturbation, are rumored to be about masturbation, or should be about masturbation. (The sins of Onan, by the way, are pride and greed.)
Just Another Day at Squirrel Base Alpha
What do you do when a friend's birthday is coming up and you're a cheap bastard but you want her to know that she's in your thoughts? Yes, a mix disk. Less thematically pure than some--there's some Fred Astaire, a Star Trek DS9 cameo, a non-album Scissor Sisters cut, something that I hope is 'happy metal'... all wrapped up in a tribute to the memory of a young rodent who was fond of almonds.
Arcanum
Although I suppose I should change the name to 'Arcanom' now. This was completed long long ago, back when The Paranormals was a secret project with NDAs and everything. Once the webcomic went online I forgot this mix wasn't a secret any longer. Arcanum is the soundtrack for what the Paranormals would sound like if it had taken place when I was in middle school.
Mare Undarum
Inspired by the Sea Witches in my life. Every track references the ocean or fish or salt or sand or ships or mollusks or cephalopods or something oceany.
Driven Mad
This was the second housewarming mix disc for AberrantVirtue. It references the first, Drive/Driven, in a number of ways including cover art, Machines of Loving Grace and TGU. Plus being full of love.
Everybody Comes to Rick's
This is, as advertized on the cover art, an Ar Noir soundtrack. Ar Noir is the 'magic meets Marlowe' game that I ran lo these many years ago, and if making a soundtrack for an rpg doesn't fill my geek CV then wait until Jonathan Wallace, BAA (the soundtrack to an RPG that never happened) drops.
Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before
This is the DVD that I laughingly call the compleat '80s collection which I keep adding tracks to because I can never actually complete anything. I think I need a version on two CDs so that I can play it in the car.
Faded
This year's St. Valentine's Day mix came in a little late, but I finally finished it off. Because everybody needs a self-pitying mopey album to listen to when Love mistreats them.
Yes they do.
Yes, they totally do.
Shut Up.
The next four are continuations on the theme started with REMixed, each with a different band.
A Spy Plane
The title for this is drawn from an interview with The Edge, who was asked how he thought U2 would be remembered. I am no longer able to find a citation for this interview, alas.
Nine Stone Male
Trent Reznor is a great big band geek. Anyone who writes a song in 16/17 time is pretty much throwing away all plausible deniability on that count.
Hard to Tell Poison from the Cure
Once you've come up with a cool name and a catchy idea for the cover art it becomes harder to discard a project. I'm glad I held out on this one.
Prince in a Can
I despaired of finishing this one until Prince performed at the SuperBowl in '07. And again, the cool name and cover art kicked in. This one is possibly my most advanced piece of PhotoShoppery yet. And how could I pass up the chance to close the album with the Foo Fighters covering Prince and then Prince covering the Foo Fighters.
Keeping Up with the Smiths
The Smiths didn't help me out much here--they're serious musicians and don't perform other people's work, except for 'Golden Lights' on Louder than Bombs. Thank Gods for the Ukrainians, doing Smiths songs in Russian.
