“This is Chuck Klosterman you are making a mix for, not some random person you want to make out with”

I laughed and laughed at this recent piece from What Would Jesus Blog, which walks you through the process of how one would go about making a mix tape for pop culture essayist/music lover Chuck Klosterman, should you ever find yourself needing to do so.

Since I could literally, literally sit for hours and talk about perfect song placement, the tour de force closing track and that achingly perfect little ballad to slide in the middle of any given mix, I loved this “conversation.” I’ve even used some of these little suggestions he has without even knowing that it was divinely approved (like a Back To The Future soundclip for the opening track on a driving mix. Come on! It’s just too perfect).

For example, under the section about choosing Track 4 (“Hit Chuck Klosterman with a not too cheesy novelty song”) –

“Your best bet here would be to foreign language cover of a song that he already knows. For example, ”We’re Not Going To Take It’ is not a smart move, but ‘Nosotros No Lo Tomaremos’ would be genius.”

I just kind of cackled out loud again cutting and pasting that.

Incidentally, it gets even better in the comments when LargeHearted Boy linked to the actual mix tapes that Chuck Klosterman made for him and his readers:

Mix Tape One
(to go with his book Killing Yourself To Live: 85% Of A True Story)

Mix Tape Two
(to go with his book Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade Of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas)

It’s a soundtrack to your reading-time, and I love it. Every author worth his salt should do this. It would make me read a lot more than I already do, that’s for sure and certain.

Make me a mix tape, and make it good

Tiny Mix Tapes has an Automatic Mixtape Generator where you can submit a theme/event/topic and their “robots” will generate a mix for you. Oh my gosh, so much fun I can’t even begin to explain (remember, we already established that I am geek in this general arena).

SAMPLES
“Songs to listen to after your girlfriend blows you off on valentine’s day for a monster truck rally with your cousin.”
Includes:
Bright Eyes – “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” (Lifted…)
Ben Folds – “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” (Super D [Bootleg] -EP)
The Undertones – “My Perfect Cousin” (Hypnotised)

“Songs I can bump in my car that will make everyone turn their heads and say, ‘Man, that guy is a douche.’”
Includes:
Dan Hill – “Sometimes When We Touch” (Longer Fuse)
Gerardo – “Rico Suave” (Mo’ Ritmo)
Clay Aiken – “Touch” (Measure of a Man)
Natasha Bedingfield – “These Words (I Love You I Love You)” (Unwritten)

Check it out at http://www.tinymixtapes.com/amg/ and make sure to peruse the archive in red along the right side of the page. Archived mixes include topics like, “Two of my best friends are moving to England and need to know what British music is cool so they don’t get laughed at,” and “Songs for when you accidently super glued your ring finger into a half full bottle of scotch during your bachelor party and have to postpone the wedding for a day.” Splendid.

I miss mix tapes

So I have been recently moving my belongings to a non-wet location and I have come across all of my absolutely fabulous mix tapes from my teen years. They are varied. They are marvelous.

I really liked (and miss) the physical process of making mix tapes…pressing play on one deck and record on the other, it felt more like a craft than just dragging, dropping, and burning. I’d pull songs off the radio sometimes so there was like “KSJO…BALL-BUSTING ROCK ‘N’ RO-” at the end before I managed to hit “stop.” It was great. Plus, I liked the artistic license contained in Side 1/Side 2. You could do two totally different things musically and yet have them under the banner of one mix tape.

Am I a geek? I think so.

FOUR MIX-TAPE LINKS:

“Singing In My Sleep,” Semisonic (mp3)
A pop song about a mix tape, and listening to it over and over, even while you sleep. My revelation when I figured out what this song was about was wonderful. I thought to myself, “That is the best item ever to include on a mix for someone.”

“Mix Tape = Love,” The Tah Dahs (mp3)
Another cutesy song about the process of mixing for those you love (slash lust over) containing the hilarious line, “This song doesn’t fit but I want to use it – I’ll show you I am well-rounded.“

Art Of The Mix (website)
For other dorks in search of TPM (the perfect mix), this is a giant catalogue where you can post what you’ve done and why, and see what other songsters are stitching together. Not cassette tape-specific, it is all-inclusive to CDs and iPod playlists and probably even 8-tracks (what?).

Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture (book)
(MLA format is italicize book titles? underline? dangit.)
And finally, Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth has edited a new book about cassettes which looks to be right up my alley. It is on my Froogle wishlist for this year.