Love Is a Mix Tape

I love music and I love sharing the music I love. Its to the point I ship them to New Orleans, Dallas, LA. Wherever. You can do so much to a mix tape. Fall in love, break up, cruising music, bang your head/throw horns, introduce new artist and find new artist, come up with album themes, or simply compile tunes you love and want to jam. I use to put as many tracks as possible within the time given. Now days I put a solid 39-42 minutes worth of music on cassette or cd. Its the right amount to make them want more but also enough to make them not forget how amazing track 2 is. When making a mix tape be sure to give it a name- The Last of the Summer or Flat Broke Disease. Maybe add the date to it so when your kids come across it 14 years from now they will know what you were listening to in 2011. Probably way better than the crap they are listening to.


I know not all my friends have their heads buried in music like I do. I feel it is my duty to send them great stuff. Back in 2008, I became friends with Allison. Right off the bat I handed her two mix cds. I can tell you that I am currently putting together copies of Allison XI & XII. Every odd record album has to have a Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis song as track 2. No clue why but it just happened. I cannot tell you all the music I have passed on to her. She is suppose to be sending me them all back so I can re-burn them, they are scratched up and she no longer has the playlists. Send them Lemon.

Recently I posted on my facebook "I have a lot of blank cds, looking to swap mixes with someone." My friend Lizzie answered first. She just moved to LA so its cool finding stuff in the mail every once in awhile instead of dialing the person up and saying "Hey, meet me at Starbucks Thursday and we can swap mixes." The first mixes Lizzie and I exchanged were straight up here is what I am enjoying right now and I think you might dig. I never looked at presentation being a big deal. Lizzie sent me the two records folded up in pages turn out of a magazine. She wrote the track listings on the pages. Though it was hard to read the play list it was still a cool way to ship the cds. I think the first round I just wrote them on the back of the cd case, maybe not even that. Next round we decided to exchange break up mix cds AND mix tapes. For this part I chose to put as many tracks as possible on the cd then convert it to tape. Cd was 80 minutes long while the tape clocked in at 60 minutes. I think for her the cd was shorter than the cassette so she threw a few extra tracks on it. Here is the thing readers, I have a running break up playlist on my itunes so this was easy for me. I collected my tracks and started mixing them around. We text back & forth about how are neighbors and friends probably thought we were depressed emo kids because we would listen to the mixes over and over making corrections before shipping off the final product. My mix ran eighty minutes with 18 tracks. You listen to these songs and you picture the person who was attached to the songs. The mix I put together had a nice flow to it. First few tracks dealt with you wanted to get back with the person, do what ever you can to make it right. How you miss the person. Then you have to face yourself, do what every you can to forget her, but for some reason stuff pops up that remind you of that person. Next step is onto getting over that person, I can do this, need to wash my hands of the problem. You moved on but she still lingers. You bump into her friend, you see a car and you think it might be her. Who knows. Then its finding someone new that might possibly make you forget the ex. Then its full on I'm over you. Most of my long break up playlist is Tom Petty & Ryan Adams. It was very tough not to flood the mix with those two artist. When it was all said and done I packed mine up- naming the cd "I Played Your Song, I Got The Melody All Wrong" and the tape "It's Almost Over & It's Almost Gone." Both of which are Ryan Adams lyrics. On the card I sent I wrote this AMAZING quote from High Fidelity-

What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?
- Rob Gordon

I jotted down the track listings on the back of the card and wrote a small note. I wish I had time/room to write out why I picked each track but for some reason I chose not to. A card and a sheet of stickers along with cassette & album were sent off. I received her mix cassette & cd a few days later. A sheet of tablet paper was folded up with the theme "Barbed Wire Hearts" written on the front. I read the short note first, told me to listen to the cassette first. The tape was wrapped in a long sheet of brown paper bag. I still cannot get it back the right way. There is something about tapes and records that sounds so pure. I listened to it as I drove around one nite. The tracks were killer. I love her mix tape and cd. Each track had a line that I thought "I felt like that."

You can do whatever you want with a mix tape, tell someone how much you care, you can break up with someone using one, you can remember friends, family, places with them. Or you can just have a solid mix of tracks you enjoy and you enjoy sharing. If you want a mix tape/cd, let me know I like putting them together.

My break up mix tape- Artist- Track

"I Played Your Song, I Got The Melody All Wrong"

The Avett Brothers- If It's The Beaches
Rhett Miller- Come Around
Wilco- Say You Miss Me
Whiskeytown- Everything I Do
The Felice Brothers- Marie
Wilco- Hate It Here
Dan Auerbach- My Last Mistake
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals- Sweet Illusions*
Sam Amidon- Fall On My Knees
Rainbow- Since You've Been Gone
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers- Don't Come Around Here No More
Bob Dylan- Most of the Time
Whiskeytown- Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers- Change the Locks
Bob Dylan- I Don't Believe You
Josh T. Pearson- Drive Her Out
Ryan Adams- Hotel Chelsea Nights**
The Black Keys- Next Girl

* = cd title came from this track
** = cassette title came from this track


R.R.

History Is Over: Kings of Leavin'

Last Thursday (7/28) nite I drove over to Dallas for the weekend. I hung out with my brother and his girlfriend AJ. We were going to the Kings of Leon concert that Friday nite. I scored two tickets for the show so AJ got a friend of hers to take my extra ticket off my hands. There were six of us going but we were not able to sit together so Lauren (AJs friend) & I grabbed our seats, which were dead center really. Earlier in the week Textican text me "Are you excited about the concert?" At this point I did not have a ticket so I told her I wasn't going. During the set break between Band of Horses (great set by them) & KoL I went off to buy a shirt. Upon my return I find a text message that reads "I see you! You are such a liar!!" Guess who sent that text. KoL took the stage and blasted through 4-5 songs. By song number two I told Lauren "Caleb is shot. He sounds bad." He announced he wasn't bringing his A game with the voice, complained of the heat and went on to drink more beer AND tequila. That helps out with the heat. Joke. Later Caleb curses up a storm and says "I'm going back to vomit, drink a beer, then come out here and play three more songs." He told the Dallas crowd that they were the best crowd he has ever played for, sorry saps probably believed him. That dude doesn't even know the words to his own songs at this point. It was sad to see this happen. Nathan came out to tell the fans that there will be a 10 minute break so Caleb can get it together. About 15 minutes pass then Matthew (Caleb's cousin) & Jared (Caleb's brother) came out and to announce to the crowd "I'm sorry but we have to cancel. Caleb is unfit to go on." A rain of boos and bottles are coming after Jared & Matthew. People were pissed. I think my favorite part of the "Sorry we have to stop the show" speech was Jared's part- "Hate f'ing Caleb, not us. You can burn our f'ing records I don't care." (The next day KoL canceled the Houston show, come Monday the whole tour was put to rest) It would have been easy for the Followill family to send out a roadie or some guitar tech to announce the disappointing news but KoL owned up and faced the crowd. Jared started twitting about "big problems" in the group- a.k.a. Caleb drinks like a fish. OKAY ONWARD. After the concert the six of us (Cody, AJ, Rex, Lauren, Stacy & The Joe) go to The Joe's truck and tail gate I guess. They have their drinks and The Joe is trying to guess everyones zodiac sign. He got every bodies wrong. Strangers would come up to bum cigarettes, lighters, and drinks off our gang. Some just wanted to talk refunds. My take on the refund situatiton-- Band of Horses played a full set followed by Kings playing 11 tracks, most likely half their set total. They do not have to refund us, but they did. I was totally fine with the idea of the short lived concert. I got to see KoL post Only By The Night and did not hear Sex Somebody. Win-Win. I guess I do not really care since it was the 10th time I have seen them. My brother and I did get to hear "No Money" though. Personal favorite of ours. BACK TO THE PARKING LOT. Dude with dreds (Toby) walks up to use to talk refund. Come to find out most of our group knew him & his wife, Bailey. We join them by their car to hang out. It was hippies hula-hooping. One looked like Amy Winehouse. Everyone starts chatting and The Joe starts saying stuff to my brother and I like "Man, you guys some to get along, you could be brothers." Really The Joe? Bailey is a world class hula hooping chick. She got out there and did tricks for us, pretty cool until The Joe got in the mix. Bailey was going at it with tricks then The Joe says to her "History is over, time for the future." PLEASE READ AGAIN- HISTORY IS OVER, TIME FOR THE FUTURE. I hear this and turn to Cody (my brother) and say "Did you just hear that?" I told Cody and we both start laughing. The Joe goes on to swing the hoop around his neck for ten seconds while singing KoL song. Future doesn't look that great. Toby had a solid beard so we talked beards. He told me to not trim the beard for 6 months. The Joe gets in the conversation about facial hair. The Joe says to Toby "I see you got some chest hair, beard, and dreds but do you keep your business clean?" Toby replies "Nope, all natural." The Joe replied with "Yuck." Talks turn to indians. The Joe asks everyone if we are part indian. I tell him yes, Cheerokee. The Joe goes on to say "Any of you Apache? Tell me now, I don't deal with Apache indians." We all decide to start leaving the lot and head for a place to eat. Somehow The Joe and his girl Stacy end up somewhere else. Come morning AJ gets a text from Stacy saying that The Joe and her went bungie jumping around midnite then to a strip club. God bless The Joe. The stay was good, nice to see Cody & AJ. I hope the Kings can get it together.

R.R.