Thursday, 19 November 2009
Mix CD Mania
One thing you might not know about me is that I don’t listen to a lot of music, by which I mean I tend to focus on a small selection of music and then listen to it over and over and over again.
One of the things I do is I make Mix CDs that I listen to while I’m driving around—to and from work, to and from Fools Play, etc. Thing is, I only make one Mix CD about every three months and that’ll be pretty much all that I’ll listen to until I make another one.
Traditionally I go iTunes and organize my music by most recently added, then start pulling the best songs over to a new playlist as I work my way back in time through my music collection. This way my Mix CDs tend to have a handful of songs that I’ve acquired recently. I also try not to put in too many songs that were in my previous Mix CD. But I don’t add much music to my collection very often, so doing it that way only fills up a portion of the CD. So then I delve into my list of all-time most listenable songs. Y’know, the songs that I don’t really ever get tired of listening to (the playlist that I call “Ultimate Flawless Victory” in iTunes) and toss in a few of those. Then I look at all of the songs in my collection that I’ve given four or five stars and toss in a few of those.
These Mix CDs are both reflective and projective. I try to incorporate how my musical tastes have changed over the past three months while at the same time trying to predict what I’ll want to listen to for the next three months.
Here are the last two CDs I created:
August 2009:
- Always Been There Anyway – Julia Massey
- Around the Bend – The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
- Brain Problem Situation – They Might Be Giants
- Buddy Holly – Weezer
- Cellars by Starlight – Kay Hanley
- Golden Blunders – The Posies
- Good Fish – Julia Massey
- Have a F*****g Baby – Three Ninjas
- Headphones on Your Heart – Leeni
- House of Mayors – John linnell
- The Last Thing On Your Mind – Lights
- Little Fighter X – Fighter X
- Lollipop – Mika
- Lovebite – Order of the Crimson Wizard
- Me + Yr Daughter – Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head
- Over and Over – Leeni
- Red Underwears – Three Ninjas
- Say It Ain’t So – Weezer
- Shut Up and Let Me Go – The Ting Tings
- Soft Rocked By Me – Jonathan Coulton
- Somewhere on This Couch – The Crazy Boy Floyds
- The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson
- You Don’t Know Me – Ben Folds (featuring Regina Spektor)
November 2009 (there is one repeat song from the August CD—see if you can spot it)
- Dance, Dance, Dance – Lykke Li
- Dirt Bike – They Might Be Giants
- Doll Partz – Order of the Crimson Wizard
- Heading Out at Dawn – Terrapin Productions
- Jenny Towner – Julia Massey
- Los Angeles – They Might Be Giants
- Mario’s Café – Saint Etienne
- Powers – Three Ninjas
- Pride & Strawberry Wine – The Wastelanders
- A Quiet Room – Tangentbot
- Secret Skin – Busdriver
- Spin Around – Josie & The Pussycats
- Stairs – Locust Street Taxi
- Starry Eyed Surprise – Oakenfold
- Stop – Spice Girls
- Sun Shower – Busdriver
- Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus
- Theme from “Greatest American Hero” – Joey Scarbury
- True Affection – The Blow
- Ugly Girl – Fleming & John
- Vancouver – They Might Be Giants
- Veronica – Elvis Costello
- The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson
- What’s Golden – Jurassic 5
- Your Love Is a Drug – Puffy AmiYumi
I have no idea what these songs say about me, so feel free to psychoanalyze me to your hearts’ content based solely on the content of these lists. Enjoy!
Categories: Music.