I was listening to a sampler CD from Paste magazine (thanks to Katie who got me a subscription to Paste. It's like Blender, but indie, and I like Blender. I still can't believe the BYU Music Library had a subscription to Blender...) and I got to thinking about how much i like mix CDs and how influential mix CDs can be on a person's musical taste. Why, it was listening to Nat Foster's mix CD of American indie that I really thought I could get into indie. And it was a mix CD that got Nat into indie in the first place. The mix CDs I send to Adrienne in KC keep her sane (and make Derek look hip at Cerner). We still have Matt's "Whiney College Music" and "Sad Songs for a Long Drive" mixes. I love having someone say, "You know what? There's some great music that you're missing and I want you to hear it. I think it's so important that I'll burn a CD for you." Then, you pop in the mix CD and just listen. You don't know anything about the bands, you usually don't even have a track listing. It's just you and new music and that's when you can really discover a great track. (Sometimes you miss a great track when listening to an album because you stop too soon, or the overall newness of the thing obscures your ability to pick up on the great stuff. But the variance in the mix CD negates that problem.)
Here's the deal: I haven't gotten a mix CD since I came out here to MD. Popping in the sample made me realize how much I miss them. So, I'm asking, pleading, begging for mix CDs from you gentle readers. You all have generally good taste. You might be sitting on something stunningly awesome that you don't know I don't know. It doesn't matter if I know a couple of songs on the mix. After all, those jointly known songs are touchstones, showing that I should trust your judgement on the songs I don't know. In return, I promise to send you a mix CD (you can bet it'll include British Sea Power...).
Who's with me??!!
Note: Andrew, if next time we meet, you hand me a mix CD of campy Hawaiian songs, Jack Johnson, and Cubworld, I might have to kill you.
3 comments:
Doug,
you're my DEALER! How am I supposed to get you any of the sweet, sweet stuff from the street?
It's a slow day at work, so I thought I'd browse your blog. It looks like I should visit more often to defend my good name against potshots like this. Anyone who can appreciate a good mix CD should be able to appreciate the fact that everyone has different tastes. Music is subjective. We are all cultural artifacts. Like most everything, our musical tastes are products of our cultural context. Having been born and raised in a tropical countryside, Hawaiian music and Jack Johnson create a mood and feel that is reminiscent of my upbringing and very satisfying for me. (As for Cubworld, the artist is a friend of mine who I support through patronage.) I would surmise that your predilection for indie rock stems from your suburban, Gen-X angst. As a result of my transplantation to the suburbs of Washington and your friendship (and mix CD), I have come to more or less embrace indie rock, although it has not displaced my taste of a variety of other styles. The way I see it, I have expanded my palate and now enjoy a wider range of music, while you remain fixed in a field of music that glorifies looking for new, obscure sounds like Xiu Xiu.
Nice one, Mr. Cultural Studies. Tell me, how does the aloha spirit jibe with suburban angst? And when did you expand your palate? I've heard of a lot of weird orthodontic procedures, but not that.
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