The mixtape is something most people don’t give a second thought about. Sure, you can toss all your favorite songs onto a CD and it’ll probably sound every bit as good as a well crafted playlist. But where’s the fun in that? Rob in High Fidelity touched on the subject and I will try to expand on it. Let’s break it down. Here are some tips to get the most aural pleasure from your compilation.

1. Theme or Genre: Go into your mixtape with an idea of what you’re in the mood for. There are lots of tracks out there by different artists that you can interweave together to tell stories. Consider it a concept album made by you, for you. On the other hand, sometimes it’s better to put a variety of different genres on a mix just to expand the range and contrast.

2. Who is it for? Knowing who your mix is for is very important. In some cases, your recipient may not like the same music you’re into. This is where you have to do some thinking and really take their tastes into consideration. Make it for them and not just something you would listen to. If the mix is to expose a friend to the things you like, then by all means put all the things you would like to listen to. Just don’t make your grandma a playlist with a lot of Finnish death metal (if that’s what you’re into).

3. Pick more songs than you need. I have always liked to make my initial track selection pretty long even though I know some of the songs will become casualties of the cut. It’s better to pick songs out of a longer playlist than it is adding. This will also let you account for the length of your CD and you can pick songs based on length.

4. The order. My favorite part of making a mixtape is rearranging the order of the songs. A bad arrangement will make it more likely for track skippage. You do not want this. I like to start off with a song to grab the ears and interest of the listener. Sometimes something faster pace; Generally more upbeat. From there, it’s foreplay. Placing slower songs together as they build up momentum towards your more uptempo songs is best. You generally don’t want to follow a soft acoustic song with loud thrashing guitars. It’s nice for contrast, but it doesn’t flow. If your mix is themed, listen to the songs. Try to make the lyrics of each song tell a story chronologically. It’s not always possible, but worth it if you have the source material.

5. Listen through. Listen through all the songs in order. How does it sound? Does it flow well? This is where you can make adjustments by replacing songs, reordering songs or just removing a few altogether. That’s basically the last step before the burn.

6. Burn your CD. Yep.

Those are some little tips for making a successful mix. They’re not the rules, but they help turn your mixtape into a fun activity rather than just a haphazard selection of songs. I would like to tell you that your efforts will be rewarded, but frankly, most people won’t notice.

Hi. This is not Leang. And I don’t think I can attribute this post to Phoebe Cates, because I don’t know her. But Leang has kindly enough allowed me to contribute to his site, so Phoebe Cates, here’s one to ya:

My teen years were devoted to emo music and cd mixes because I was a decade too late to join the mixtape revolution. And the only people I have to blame are my parents for not being a teen parent statistic and Bill Gates for ushering in the advent of computers.

Luckily, my car in high school did not have a cd player so I resorted to cassettes because radio was shit. So each morning and afternoon during the high school commute, I sang along to onelinedrawing, Jets to Brazil, Ozma, Saves the Day, Yellowcard, and a myriad of other Vagrant, Subpop, and Jade Tree Records bands. At one point, I had convinced myself that to achieve true happiness, I had to move to Delaware and work for Jade Tree. Ten years later, I have not stepped foot anywhere north of Times Square NY.

Cassettes are ancient history now. Fifty hipster points if you’ve said the word this past week. A hundred if you actually use them and not for hipster reasons. I’m not sure where you can buy one nowadays. Bargain bins at Walmart? Or Communist countries still living in Cold War times? Cassettes have been replaced by the all-knowing CD. You can save videos, pictures, AND music on one disk? Genius.

But a cd mix is nowhere as interesting as a cassette mix for the sole reason that you can’t skip ahead. Oh, and every track is a surprise. Insert a cd into a computer and you’ve got instant foresight on what’s to come. Is it the mysterious nature of the mix tape that has me jonesing to write about it?

YES.

Good god, yes. I cleaned out a box of junk the other night and found a cassette labeled “One for the Kids,” which was Yellowcard’s debut album and took complete advantage of using the violin in an emo band. (Innovative!) I had forgotten onelinedrawing was even a band until the track came on and my eyes lit up like I had beaten Nicolas Cage to getting the Declaration of Independence. And there it was, the instant rush of nostalgia and the slight curl of a smile as I recalled screaming my lungs out to “Understanding in a Car Crash” to annoying my sister with Ozma’s “Rocks” to tapping my index fingers on the steering wheel like I was the best drummer in the world. My Jade Tree Records pipe-dream hadn’t register in years until I found that tape.

So if this was 2002, here is/was my playlist:
Jets to Brazil – Starry Configuration
Saves the Day – Cars and Calories
The Juliana Theory – Music Box Superhero
Phantom Planet – California
Bright Eyes – Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh
Pedro the Lion – Of Minor Prophets And Their Prostitute Wives
New End Original – Lukewarm
Yellowcard – Drifting
The Get Up Kids – Ten Minutes
Splendid – Charge
Death Cab for Cutie – Photobooth

I can describe how West Coast makes me feel in exactly nine words: Jump into my pants and dance in my shorts. Maybe I like the song so much because of my west coast bias. This is where I was raised and most likely where I will die. I like to think I would still enjoy the song regardless of where I was from.

Jason Schwartzman crafts a song with little subtleties and carefully chosen words that make it more meaningful. I wish you woulda put yourself in my suitcase. The line sticks out because of of a few words. Instead of saying he wished he could’ve just put his girlfriend in his suitcase and take her with him, he makes it so it should be something she would want to do. It’s pretty minor but speaks volumes.

And if you shake her heart enough she will appear. I imagine shaking a polaroid picture so the picture shows up. (Side note: I once shook a polaroid for about 30 minutes waiting for the picture to appear and it never did. I later realized I was holding film that I didn’t take a picture with yet.)The song just makes me happy. I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly that I like so much about it. A lot of people make comparisons to Jason’s old band, Phantom Planet’s, song California. Frankly, that’s bollocks. The songs don’t share any similarities except for geographic location. Might as well compare it to California Love by Tupac too.

I have to say the west coast is a great place and I am drawn to songs about it. Hearing how others feel about where I am from is always interesting. On a related note; I once saw a man dancing butt naked in the middle of a busy San Diego street. And on a completely unrelated note; Dongs.

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If there was one thing I remember from high school science and math classes, it’s that women love to be objectified. Rap music only cemented this fact. As I got older and tried to call a girl,  bitch, I learned painfully that gangsta rap got it all wrong.  Pharcyde’s Passin’ Me By is a song that is not in the same vain as 86.4% of all rap songs out there about women. 86.4% is a staggering number even if it’s nothing more than a made up arbitrary number that I am passing off as a statistic.

I remember when the song first had sexual intercourse with my ear. The first thing that caught me was the beat. Initial listens disregarded the lyrics. I just thought it sounded good and had a catchy hook. The first verse reminds me of Hot For Teacher by Van Halen. Just a typical school boy crush on a teacher. But that changes fairly quickly and the similarities come to a halt.  Some people have said the song is about one particular woman, but I like to think everyone’s verse is about their own experience with someone  who overlooked them up for one reason or another. It happens. But does it have to happen to me so much?

I’m not the biggest fan of most rap. But I do listen to it. Songs like this remind me that there are some people who use rap to tell stories and not just catchy hooks and auto tuned vocals to sell records. It kind of makes me want to be a rapper. I’d be good at it until I actually have to start rapping.

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Oh Yoshimi, they don’t believe me \ But you won’t let those robots eat me \ Yoshimi, they don’t believe me \ But you won’t let those robots defeat me. This is a very unlikely song about one friend believing in another friend no matter how insurmountable the odds. That’s not really an uncommon subject for a song. But let’s set it in the future. And the metaphor for the adversity? Giant pink fucking robots! I want to rate this song with numbers, but we all know they’re the first things to turn on us in the future.

I don’t know anyone named Yoshimi. Sometimes I wish I did. But I do have other friends who are going through things and I am trying to be supportive to the best of my abilities. They may not be enormous tasks like fighting back the forces of giant pink robots hellbent on destroying humanity and all that is good. But they’re still important. Be it weddings, writing, grad school applications or helping someone sort out of the mess that is life. Often times people have a hard time believing in themselves and it’s nice to have that little nudge knowing that someone out there does have faith. I think the song captures that if you don’t take it literally. But even if you did, it’s still a quality song about the robotic uprising that is catchy as hell. It’s basically Terminator except they’re pink.

I named my level 80 priest Yoshimi in World of Warcraft. That actually doesn’t sound as cool when I type it out. I don’t do that for any song though. It’d be a little silly having a character named Fatherandson because I like the Cat Stevens’ song. Give it a listen. If you don’t like it, I will refund your money… Not really.

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You’re Something Special To Me by The Shaggs is a special kind of song. Widely considered to be one of the worst songs ever written, I somehow manage to find it charming. If this song was a movie, it would be American Ninja. Take my hand and let’s recall the horrible acting of Michael Dudikoff in American Ninja. Do you have that memory in your head? Now imagine his acting as Dot Wiggin’s singing. Scary isn’t it? It’s at times grating on the ears but take a moment to actually listen to the lyrics and they’re actually pretty sweet. Even though it sounds like a deaf child making an attempt at singing.

I have always said that if someone were to ever sing this song to me, I would marry them. I stand by it. And if that should never happen, maybe this is a song someone can sing at my funeral. The song has taken on some sort of bizarre cult following over the last couple years. People have accepted the quirks of The Shaggs and realized the fact that it may sound like a moaning baby fetus, but it still has a lot of heart.

The lyrics are simple enough. It seems like the song was written and performed by a group of children banging sticks on coconut shells and plucking rubber bands between their fingers rather real instruments. All the 2 3 4 hut 2 3 4 lines seems horribly out of place, but works well with their style. What’s their style? I would say a cross between The Jonas Brothers, Neil Young and Los Lobos. Well, maybe not. But I don’t know how to even catagorize the song so I won’t try. It is  impossible to quantify how awesome this song is with numbers. For example: 16. But I love it and wanted to share it.

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I have always been fond of Forever Young by Bob Dylan. But I never quite got the appeal of his singing style.  I just thought the lyrics for the song were so positive but his voice just never did it justice. One day the Dylanites will catch wind of what I just said and burn me at the stake. It’s not my fault the man was a better song writer than singer!

Recently, I heard a version of the song by Audra Mae and The Forest Rangers that just sounded perfect. The simple integration of soothing vocals and an acoustic guitar just hits all the right chords with me. Audra Mae brings a certain sincerity and soul to the song that I felt was missing before. This may be due to the fact that I never connected with it when Dylan sang it. I certainly connect now.

The song hits a lot of religious notes. And though I am not religious, it still holds meaning. May you build a ladder to the stars \ And climb on every rung. By itself, the song is about believing in yourself and being brave enough to try to achieve your goals. I think that message supersedes the religious connotations and makes it relatable.

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Hi. I am just testing out this Wordpress junk and the new layout. I will probably put up some sort of real post later. Or maybe I won’t. I have yet to decide. So far so good though. Setting this thing up was annoying as hell. I will post drawings and mostly about music I think. Who knows?

So why a tribute to Phoebe Cates? No reason. She was just one of my first crushes growing up. It’s just in the title. The site isn’t really a tribute. Just something inspired by Felt.

If anyone else wants to write, just let me know and I will set you up with an account. Sound good? Hokay!