Mix Tape Masterpiece

Posted on by J. Hubner

I recently acquired my parents old Sanyo dual cassette deck for the purpose of listening to some Debt of Nature cassettes that I happily received in the mail a couple of months ago. Since they hit the mail box I have listened to a couple in the family van as that 2004 relic still has a factory-installed cassette player. For me though, I much prefer the comforts of my own home while enjoying music, so last weekend my mom and dad allowed me to bring their dual cassette player home for an unspecified amount of time and use it as I see fit. They haven’t used the thing in probably over 15 years, so they won’t miss it. Nice thing is that it looks brand new. I cleaned the dust off of it and wiped the heads down with some alcohol and it looks like I just unboxed the thing.

12804014_953046014802645_1055337665_nAfter thoroughly enjoying those Debt of Nature cassettes I started reminiscing about my high school years and of all the mix tapes I’d made back then. The mix tape was the calling card of any music aficionado back in the 80s and early 90s. I couldn’t hold a conversation and talk about feelings and emotions and all that sort of stuff, but give me a couple of hours, a stack of Maxell 90 min blank cassettes, and my Soundesign dual tape deck and I could give you my whole life story. Yes, the mix tape was for me a gateway into my soul. It was a means of getting a point across by way of my favorite tunes. If I was bummed out I’d make a mix of incredibly sad and dour music, title it “empty”, and I would somehow feel instantly better. The Beatles, Adrian Belew, and Jellyfish always made it onto the sad sack mixes. After the last song was dubbed I’d flip the tape over and hit play. It was like a slideshow of my sadness. It was a way to come at my feelings head on and yet somehow pull myself out of the situation and deal with it. Same goes for a good mood. Make a mix titled “take me higher” and pile on the good vibes for 90 minutes. Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and maybe even some Guess Who always made the uplift mofo party mix extra bouncy. The mix “h8 it” was a 90 minute deluge of Death Angel, Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies, and Savatage.

You get the gist.

It wasn’t enough to just dub an entire album by one artist. Making a mix tape was a way to curate a musical conversation with manyIMG_1482 voices, not just one. And making a mix for myself was great, but the true magic of a mix was what it conveyed to someone else. One of my best friends in high school and I were the mix tape masters. There was an unspoken competition between the two of us when it came to our mix tape skills. A mutual respect and just a touch of animosity when one outdid the other. Coming up with just the right mingling of sounds and ideas, especially when you weren’t going for a specific theme. Theme mixes are pretty easy. If you’re going for longing and mildly weepy then you know that Cocteau Twins work, but Metallica won’t. With the random mix, if you know what you’re doing “Wax and Wane” and “Battery” can fit comfortably on the same tape. You’re creating an aural sampler platter for someone. I remember the first mix tape I made for my then girlfriend(now wife) back in 1991. She loved it and played it for three months straight until the tape player in her Mazda 626 ate it(I attempted to replicate the mix, but it just wasn’t the same.) You know you’ve found “the one” when they totally dig that mix tape you made for them, and my lady dug it. If she hadn’t, well I think things would’ve turned out differently for both of us.

If you’ve succeeded in your mix tape skills then that person you made it for will walk away from that first listen wanting to go out and buy three or four albums. If it ends up collecting dust in their bedroom, or worse, forgotten under the front seat of their 1984 Chrysler New Yorker next to some spare change, a pen cap, and a hamburger wrapper you have succeeded in nothing but wasting a good blank tape.

A tape mix from 2011 for the family trip to Brown County, Indiana.
A tape mix from 2011 for the family trip to Brown County, Indiana.

Over the years I never stopped making mixes. They just went from cassettes to CDs. I bought a standalone dual CD player/burner in early 2000. The reason I bought said CD burner was so I could record my own music on it. Having a CD with my own pop songs on it seemed like the coolest thing in the world, so after whining to the wife about it for a couple months she relented and let me buy this Phillips CD burner. It was great. I could burn my songs from Minidisc to good old regular CD. I felt like a real man about town with that burner. Then I started making CD mixes with it, and a whole new obsession began. I was making CD mixes for everyone. Even if they didn’t want one they got one. “Happy Birthday dad! I made you a blues mix!”, or “Hey bro, here’s a mix of Can tunes I think you’ll dig”, to “Happy Valentine’s Day honey. Who needs candy and flowers when you’ve got a triple mix of love songs from John Lennon and Harry Nilsson called ‘The Lost Weekend Chronicles’?” Of course then as time went on everyone had a CD burner on their PC and mixes turned into saved playlists in iTunes. It was still great making those playlists, but there was no real art in it. No time constraints or fear of throwing a song in the middle of that mix that turned out to not really work well. If you did that with an iTunes mix you just pulled that song from the playlist. No big deal. There was no going out on a limb with those mixes, man. The art of the mix was gone. No intricately designed tape case, or carefully written song titles. A monkey can make a mix in iTunes. A monkey can’t cover a blank tape insert with masking tape and then redesign said tape insert with love and care.

So after years of computer-based mixes and Spotify playlists I’ve gone native. I’m making old school tape mixes and I love it. I started my first tape mix in over 15 years on Sunday. The first mix is titled “The Horror”(thanks Col. Kurtz), a collection of some choice creepy cuts from my Death Waltz/Mondo horror scores. I just finished it yesterday afternoon. Not too bad, though the recording level seems a tad hot. I’ll lower that level down a bit for the next mix and we should be just fine. Not sure what that next mix will be just yet. Could be another collection of horror cuts. Who knows? I’m just having fun with this. That’s what really matters.

As I’m getting older I’m finding that these little activities I’m finding for myself have become quite therapeutic. Collecting graphic novels, vinyl, Criterion Collection Blu Rays, fine coffee and craft beer,…these are all little distractions that pull me away from everyday life. The wife and I binge watching Nurse Jackie on a Sunday afternoon, or my son and I spinning records downstairs while playing Rally X, Pole Position, and Galaga on the PS2; these are those little distractions in life that help to keep us leveled out. I’ve gone too long in my life where I couldn’t do that. Not that people weren’t letting me do that, but that I wouldn’t let myself unplug and unwind. Well times are a changin’, folks. Our time here is relatively short, so why not make the most of it? If you want to spend five hours on a Saturday afternoon making homemade cards in your basement by God do it. If you’re still in your pajamas at 3pm on a Sunday and you’ve just finished your 7th episode of Supernatural, then you might as well go for episode number 8. And if you feel like making a mix tape for no one in particular, then what are you waiting for? Go snag some blank cassettes at Radio Shack or Amazon. Pick up a secondhand dual cassette deck, grab a pen and a stack of CDs or vinyl and get to it.

So as I jump in the wayback machine and relive my mix tape glory days, who out there still has a cassette player that works? I’d love to curate a mix tape for you. Let me know and I’ll make you your own Jhubner73-created mix tape for your listening pleasure. Limited time offer, though, so get to it.

160 thoughts on “Mix Tape Masterpiece”

  1. I’d love a mixed tape, though sadly, I haven’t had a working tape player in close to a decade. Sounds like you’re having fun with the tape decks. Tell me, are you using high-speed dubbing?

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    1. No high-speed dubbing on this first one. I’m running my TT into the input of the tape deck and monitoring the recording level that way. If I ever want to dub cassette to cassette I could do the high-speed dubbing option, though I see most of my mixes will be vinyl to cassette. It’s funny, because I never recorded vinyl to cassette growing up. I was a mid-1980s kid, so my music source was pretty much cassettes until the early 90s. And I am having fun with this.

      Well if you ever have the means to go old school and play cassettes let me know, I’ll send a mix your way.

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  2. I have a working tape/record/cd player and would love a mix tape from you! I still have and cherish all the tapes my friends made me in the 90’s. I have a few from JS that are very special to me.
    Man, I can’t WAIT!! 🙂

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    1. Excellent! I will get started on it immediately.

      I wish I still had some of my old mixes, if anything just to see where my head was at certain points in my life. They were like a journal entry describing what was going on at that specific time. I’ll message you when I’m done to get your home addy!

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  3. I’ve got a walkman that works! I’d pay you back in coffee, although the US dollar vs Cdn dollar is screwing us Canadians out of making fwends across the border via the post office these days…

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  4. Nice post Mr H, as always. I can’t believe you’ve gone back to the primitive ways of our ancestors. Despite it being the main source of my music for years and years growing up, I have no nostalgia or love for cassettes at all.

    I mean, imagine letting yourself get all sentimental about an outmoded method of delivering music?! Pah!

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    1. I know, right? Who would do something like that?

      It’s more the act of creating the mix and sharing more than any sort of cassette obsession. Still, it’s cheaper than buying a vinyl press and making vinyl to vinyl mixes.

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  5. We are in Nick Hornby territory and that’s certain.
    I’m sure I have a box of cassettes somewhere and I KNOW Ms Connection has kept the tapes I made for her in the 90s. One of them was so played it distorted like crazy and, at her request, I made a CD version following the same track-listing. That’s lurve, that is.
    CD comps were real fun for a while – I think you nailed their demise accurately. Pity. I did lots of them too.
    Thanks for the nostalgia JH.

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    1. Nick Hornby does indeed haunt this one. I wouldn’t say I was ever as pretentious as the fellas in ‘High Fidelity’, but I might’ve come close.

      I’ve still got a few of my cd mixes lying around as well. Band compilations and a couple road trip mixes. Those always come in handy.

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  7. Nice post. Got me in the mood for making some mixes!

    I actually found a bunch of old mixes I made just over a year ago now. Unfortunately I had nothing to play them on, so they got thrown out. Still have a few CD mixes, though.

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    1. Me too. I had a bunch of old mixes from nearly 20 years ago in a shoebox up until a couple years ago. Tossed them as I thought I’d never have the means to listen to them. Shows what I know.

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  8. Hi, Fab blog! I have just set up mine, but still in the very early stages! Just making efforts to link in with fellow bloggers to improve our followers and get the word out there for us both. I would appreciate you having a peek at my blog, as I have just published my first post. Feel free to like, comment, follow or just take a peek. Thank you 🙂

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  9. There are so many things that have become a lost art unfortunately. I love this entry. While I listen pretty much exclusively to current Contemporary Christian music, I, myself, LOVE 70s and 80s music when it comes to mainstream. I just feel like they don’t make mainstream like that anymore. I really appreciate you sharing this as music is one of the biggest things that this world just couldn’t do without!!! God bless! Nikki

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    1. Thank you Nikki! And you are right, mainstream music today just doesn’t have the variety that it had 30-40 years ago. It all just sounds like the same songs over and over.

      All the best, J

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  10. Nice blog post. I agree that listening to a mix tape is a conversation of personal nostalgia. Only that my nostalgia would be back further to the time of the B52s, Cars and Lynyrd Skynyrd. But for favorite bands such as Black Sabbath and R.E.M., iit’s not a mix tape but a “best of” tape.

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  13. Oh man, so many memories! I also used to decorate the sleeves of my mix tapes!!! 😜 My last working cassette deck has “disappeared” three years ago, so now I just use CDs. Great blog, cheers! HC

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  15. Thank you so much for bringing me back to my 80s High School Days. I loved to DJ back then and I remember the Mixmaster competitions and you couldn’t pull me off of my turntables. I miss those days. You nailed it, a playlist and iTunes is not the same. Thanks for the trip down memory lane and the great perspective to kick off the weekend.

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    1. Our van is a 2004 and it has a working cassette deck(as well as a CD and DVD player), so that’s sort of what sparked this whole mix tape thing for me. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the process. I’ve since gotten two tape decks for the home system. It’s getting ridiculous, but I suppose I’m sort of ridiculous as well.

      I will check out your music selections, as well as your blog. Thanks for stopping by.

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      1. Absolutely – the last few mixes I had involved complex overdubs and drop-ins and such. Crossfades. The whole thing. I miss the method!

        Liked by 5 people

  17. Fond memories, this! I got rid of all my mixed tapes as well as my mixed cds. I’m now an Amazon Prime Music/Pandora/iTunes-MP3 addict… oh what would my high school self say to that?!

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    1. Your high school self would probably love the convenience, as I’m sure mine would have, too.

      I figure this is a cheaper midlife crisis as opposed to a sports car or a speed boat. Cheers!

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  20. Oh the memories,and even feeling nostalgic a little,the ever so personal mixtape was your musical diary that explained your feelings through songs,with our technology same concept but it will never be the “Ode to the mixtape”kind of mixtape just a playlist.

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    1. Exactly. A Spotify or iTunes playlist just aren’t as hands-on as a mixtape was. You had to commit to taking up a couple hours to put them together. At least if you wanted to do them right.

      Thanks for stopping by.

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  25. I used to love mix tapes and burned CDs, especially when friends started learning to drive and anyone who was given a lift would bring one along to say thanks and to make the drive more fun. I guess the closest thing we have now is shared playlists? Somehow it’s not quite the same

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    1. That’s actually a really cool idea, bringing a mix along when getting a ride from a friend. A great way to show your appreciation.

      I guess my friends weren’t as forward thinking as yours.

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  27. I completely get what you’re saying about mix tapes. I used to make them as well. I kept all mine (too much time, effort en energy went into it to ever throw it out), and my 18 year old music loving daughter dug out the box of cassette tapes the other day. She was fascinated and wanted to listen to them all but her cassette player unwound two of them straight away. We’ll have to get the player fixed so we can listen to those tapes. And yes, we don’t allow ourselves enough downtime to just enjoy these simple pleasures that are so good for the soul.

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    1. That’s great that your 18 year old was interested in them. It shows we should have hope for the future. Hope you can find a working player for her to use. I’ve got my 11 year old son interested in them as well.

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  29. I miss making them too! Back in ‘the day’ I carried blanks cassettes with me when I traveled. Staying with friends, I’d make mixes from their LP’s. Making mixes on the computer or a tablet is just NOT the same…

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  30. Mixed tapes and recorded songs from the radio were the best things from the 80’s and 90’s. One thing I loved about cassettes that is hard to do with a cd in the car is to rewind it a tad so as to listen to the last line of the song. Great Post.

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  31. I remember stealing my brothers mixtapes and listening to them. Good times and great memories. I think that’s the first time I heard OPP.

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  37. Ah, so many memories. 🙂 I recently scored a Walkman from a second-hand store to listen to audio books on tape. I remember having a huge collection of mixed tapes and made quite a few CD mixes that have sadly been tossed. Vinyl is making a comeback, making me wish I had kept the one vinyl I did get as a gift. Music is such a huge part of my life. Thanks for this. 🙂

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  40. Thanks for sharing all of your time tripping memories! Your story is my story… just change a few of the recording artists’ names you mentioned (I’m a baby boomer). Long story short… when my plans to be an on the air DJ didn’t pan out, I consoled myself by creating mix tapes… eventually using a Radio Shack mixer to segue vinyl / CD tracks in real time… recording this “soundtrack to my life” on reel to reel / cassette decks and (later on) making minidisc masters for my Phillips CD burner to “read”. With most of my tech now broken I’ve now come full circle. It’s back to record / pause editing and line feeding the signal into my recently dusted off, three decade old Onkyo cassette deck. btw… thanks for the heads up on where to buy blank C-90s… at times it’s tough to figure out which cassettes to reuse… I’ve even considered using my VCR’s audio inputs to record six hour mix tapes… have you ever done that?

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    1. I’ve never used VCR tapes for audio editing, but I have thought about it. I know of some artists that recorded direct to VHS tape, which has intrigued me.

      I still have two working Mini Disc players, one a portable and the other a console. I have several mixes on Mini Disc(made them 17 years ago for listening when I traveled for work.)

      You seem pretty well versed in the world of mixtapes.

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      1. Thanks… music is a huge part of my life. You should feel lucky… my Mini Disc recorder plays back in what sounds like audio gibberish… I’m probably hearing the actual, non-converted-to-music digital data. There must be hundreds of thousands of us with tons of cassettes, mini discs and vinyl… and with no way of playing back these treasures… what a waste… what a pity.

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      2. I’m sure you’re right. I know a lot of folks that had some impressive record collections that they pretty much tossed them in the dumpster years ago. Now they’re a little more than devastated. I started collecting vinyl back in 2008 and that’s pretty much the only thing I buy. Enjoying music on my home stereo…that’s a perfect Friday evening for me.

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  43. I really enjoyed the monkey comment. Way back 20 years ago I did a wedding with a computer. Everyone was extremely surprised by this. Now I don’t believe people even use tapes let alone music discs or tapes. Mostly mp3 or various types of files.

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  50. I don’t miss mixtapes much. I enjoy finely crafted and curated mixes online at Mixcloud, Soundcloud and a large number of blogs/podcasts. And no, a monkey can’t do that. They’re not playlists, and the challenges (levels etc.) remain. Mixes for streaming are the 21st century mixtapes for me…

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  51. I never had a dual deck tape player so if I wanted to record a song I had to time it on the radio *just* right! I kind of miss those times. Me and my wife make playlists for each other now but it doesn’t have the same feel of dedication as it did with tapes.

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  53. Having made more than my share of mix tapes, part of that legacy has been to think of music in a linear way. After hearing one particular song, I almost expect to hear another specific song…because that was the order I mixed them on my tape….and I had listened to them so often to expect that playlist order. Thanks for the memory…..

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  55. I never knew how to make tapes. I have a Curtis getto blaster that I can play tapes on. My wife Leigh makes tapes, but she likes wierd bands. I knew this guy that put that song from that school movie on it a hundred times so it just kept playing over and over again. I wish i knew what it was called. They say it in the song.

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  56. The most interesting read that I have ever read! I still have that certain kind of collection of mixtapes somewhere, although it is not of current music, but of Doo-Wop(since I am a fan and still am), oldies, etc. May I wish you continued success with your blog, and please be sure to check out mine at http://www.j2w7.wordpress.com! Good luck, and a happy and blessed Easter to you!-JW

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  58. I enjoyed your post. I used to edit music and create tapes with dual cassette decks. Initially I recorded music from FM radio overnight, and while listening I would selectively select songs I liked to keep on a new tape. I would also capture the artist, album, and track information and save that playlist with the tape.

    Later I graduated to two reel-to-reel tape recorders which offered much more capacity. Of course, I no longer have either the cassette or reel tape recorders, but I have boxes of cassette and reel tapes (and vinyl records and CDs too). I’ve been wanting to get them converted to DVD to load into my computer, but I was concerned that might cost a lot and might not turn out that good for some of the tapes which are so old. It’s been so long since I’ve listened to them, and thought that would be fun and bring back lots of memories via the music I loved way back when.

    Lately I realized that I could create custom Spotify playlists from my recorded tape list contents, and I’ve started doing that with a few tapes and actually the quality is much better anyway. Although some of the songs are not available on Spotify, most of them I have found. I intend to share them in a series on my blog where I have lots of music that I like.

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    1. That sounds like a great idea, sharing playlists on your blog. I’d be interested in seeing them.

      I imagine it would be pricey to have someone burn the vinyl to cd for you. If you bought a USB turntable you could transfer your vinyl yourself using the free Audacity program.

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      1. My son has a USB turntable, which he has used to transfer music to his PC. Actually now that I think of it, he has many of my vinyl records too since he liked a lot of what I had. I don’t have my turntable any more either.

        Liked by 2 people

      5. I’ve thought of buying an old reel player on eBay but wasn’t sure it would be worth it, but I might look at that again. In the mean time, I plan to start sharing them via blog posts. In fact, this conversation motivates me to begin this afternoon.

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  59. Any chance you might put up a tracklisting of future mixes and their themes? I’d love to see/hear what you come up with! I still have all my cassette mixes, both gifts from friends and lovers as well as the ones I made myself. It’s truly a lost art and it’s great to see someone reviving it with such passion! There was nothing like the feeling of satisfaction one got when you were spot on with your mixes, or the grave disappointment and sadness when a recipient didn’t appreciate your thought and effort. Cheers!

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  60. This great post brings back memories – my first mix tape was a crack up – 70’s and 89’s bands featured in it like Boney M, Bucks Fizz and the village people 🎤

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  65. Savatage!! I don’t find too many that know that band. Your post definitely brought back some good memories of my time as a manager at Sam Goody/Musicland…blocking those damn tapes! Haha! Music sure has changed, but luckily I have passed down my knowledge to my teens and they are avid collectors of vinyl records. Record store day (which is April 16th this year) is like a holiday for them! I need to work on growing the love for tapes and introduce them to the mixtape next 🙂

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    1. You’ve done well as a parent instilling the vinyl love in them. Good job! I haven’t missed a RSD in five years. It’s s holiday for me as well.

      I miss our Sam Goody. They closed here around 8 years ago. Fortunately we still have a Karma Records that has a great selection of vinyl.

      And yes, Savatage. Quite enjoyed ‘Gutter Ballet’ in high school. Thanks for stopping by!

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  68. Yesteryear – I use stay up into the witching hour, with noise cancelling headphones, sitting at wall unit at Onkyo – Integra TA 2800 3 Motor 3 Head Cassette Deck – three head – three Motor Accu -bias plus / minus dial settings, setting and recorded upon Maxell II High Bias Metal tapes – 100s’ – My wife’s cousin and a work colleague of mine, both Men had a Nakamichi Dragon, way out of my budge league at that time, so far out of my price range I never even seen a Nakamichi Dragon Tape Teck- but it was the Dawning laser optic fiber cables and CD’s and my Alpine Stereo/ CD player in my Truck, which was way back mid to late 80’s era back before Alpine systems turned into Binky winking multi Colored displays, of cheap poor quality crap Decks, I was really enjoyed making my own mix tapes. Then one day like grandma, the Rubiks cube pet rocks, the light –bright, and Gumbi, the Tape deck just sat there in the corner collecting dust / dust mites and Tardigrade –

    -I one day powered up, and dropped in a cassette tape, the loading door was still just as sweet and flawless, but unfortunately when I pushed rewind I realized the rubber drive motor belts had long deteriorated, and Deck had ended, and welt off the way of the 8-Track deck, as for grandma she has been moved to the Mausoleum as the sugar ants kept messing with her, and it was hard to keep a plumber for more than three minutes, before they would run boots out the door. (Joke).

    -I miss Sam Goody as well as Licorice Pizza Vinyl Album shops. I remember the Ghost Parents were getting into my bedroom searching for ‘stuff’ Halo smiley insert here, and they started playing my Bruce Springsteen and Van Helen Jump LPs, to see just how far goon into the ‘Wild non conformed non controlled hippie culture they deemed it, which was a contrast from their Ozzie and Harriet façade society. So I went out and bought Led Zeppelin Presence and Deep Purple’ Made in Japan for them to freak out over. in hind Sight I should have brought home a Iron Butterfly LP with In -Da -Ga -da -Da -Vida on it – lol, Ghost Father was an odd cookie, he hated the hippy culture, (CSNY) yet he loved to play his Credence Clearwater Revival’ Green River LP. -His long time High School buddy built for my Ghost Father huge five foot tall Cabinet Speakers with 20 inch Woofers. And I never did figure out where my tiny little potted starter plant up and walked off to? Lol. If you get a chance take a listen to John Trudell’s song ‘ Baby – Boom Che’ I think you’ll really like that one, it says a lot.

    If I made tapes today they would be 1. And 2. Back then they would be of 3. And 4. Type mixes.
    1. Modest Mouse – The Wallflowers –Billy Idol – Cake – Jon Jett and the blackhearts –
    2. Tracy Chapman – Tom Waits – Lenard Cohen – Neil Young – Eric Clapton – Bonnie Raitt –
    3. Bad Company – AC/DC – Def Leopard – Scorpions
    4. BTO – Foghat – April Wine – Bad Company –
    5. Everything Led Zeppelin – Steeler wheels – Little Green Bag – Steely Dan – Eagles – Jackson Browne -( Late for the Sky ) which is one of the top ten best ever made albums.

    Thanks for the Post it was great fun and brought back for me the good times.

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  70. I totally agree with you stating that sharing and making music seems to have lost it’s art now that it’s all digitally done on itunes, spotify and pandora…there is just not much personalization and less connection to music. Also really funny you mentioned Nurse Jackie I have also been binge watching that!

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  73. I come from a generation where I made playlists rather than mix tapes which is depressing. I totally agree that something tangible seems to have more meaning than something intangible and meaningless as a Spotify playlist

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  74. Aw man, you brought back some memories right there. The dual tape deck was an early stereo component for me, too. Pretty sure I chose Pioneer for their aesthetic, not any particular features.
    The sequencing and song placement were so crucial, and you had to try to fill up the side of the tape as fully as possible-those tapes weren’t cheap! I remember combing through the liner notes searching for that 1:40 second song with just the right vibe to finish the side.
    Keep on keepin’ on.

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  77. Thanks for a great article. I followed a similar path, making mixtapes in 80s and 90s then moving to mixCDs in the 2000s. They were a calling card as much as anything. I feel I’ve come full circle by bring the mixtape ethos to podcasting. My episodes are 60 minutes of Gen-X meets modern music. They feature a minimal amount of voiceover, as I’m hoping to always channel the mixtape experience through this new medium. If you’re interested, check out http://www.markingtime.ca and give a listen.

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  79. I was at the ass end of the tape era, coming into my own as a CD burning DJ. You make a good point when you mention that making iTunes Playlists has “no real art in it. No time constraints or fear of throwing a song in the middle of that mix that turned out to not really work well.” I can remember finishing a mix CD and regretting Clapton’s “Let it Rain” after NIN’s “Perfect Drug” and before “Where is my Mind?” by the Pixies. It’s a good song to be sure, but it just doesn’t fit – I’ve since come to disdain that song. I still have mix CDs I burned 15 years ago that i find inspiring and make me think, what was i thinking? Good times! Excellent post, dude!

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    1. Thank you, and I love that example of Clapton’s “Let It Rain” following NIN’s “The Perfect Drug” as a regret because I completely get and understand that. All good tunes(I just heard “The Perfect Drug” on satellite radio today, too), but the combination can be brutal.

      Thanks for sharing!

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Published by J. Hubner

Complex Distractions is a little corner of the universe where music and conversation reign supreme. Intellectual discussions and essays written about heady records, both big and small, that despite what you might think can truly change your life. Spinning the records for the good of mankind.