The Mix CD Axiom

There have been many guidelines posted on the internet on the dos and don'ts for making a Mix Tape/CD. Some of these are good tips, but most of these lack a certain touch. This humble post is not exactly the Marquees of Queensbury Rules of making mix CDs, but it can make the difference between a good mix, and a classic playlist (not to brag, but I have put together some awesome CDs in the past). Here is a list of rules that I have come up with over the years.

Article One: The Purpose of the Mix
You need to figure out why you are putting together the mix. Is this something you're putting together to impress a girl? Are you trying to expand somebody's musical horizons? What feeling are you trying to convey? Once you have figured this part out, you need to come up with some appropriate songs.

Article Two: Know Thy Listener
You have to remember, if the mix is for someone else, they must like the music. Period. If not, your intended purpose will not be realized. This is where a lot of people go off the rails. The tendency is to load it up with songs that you like. While it's true that you need to have at least an appreciation for what's included, you have to ask the question, "will the person listening like this". This requires a lot of recon. When talking about music, listen for what that person likes, and go from there. If you're listening to a radio station or another CD, judge the other person's response to a certain song. You don't have to make this a compilation of someone's favorite songs, but use noted favorites to sketch the playlist. If your target likes Talking Heads, then they may like Bell X1.

An 80 minute CD holds anywhere between 17-22 songs, so you are going to have to come up with 25-30 songs as a candidate list. Once you have the list, you must rank the songs for impact. There should be 5 or 6 cornerstone songs that have the highest ranking. These are the best songs in the list, and they should contain the heart of your motive. The others are filler songs (not to say that these are throw away songs, but ones that establish the ebb and flow of the mix). Once you have the nominees…

Article Three: Playlist Structure
To make a great mix, one must apply the Hornby Law of Playlist Structure. In the Nick Hornby novel High Fidelity, the story's protagonist, Rob Gordon states that you have to start of the Mix Tape (it was written in the 90s after all), you must start off with a great song, and then kick it up a notch. After the second or third song, you have to cool it off to prevent burnout. This is the same strategy that a distance runner would employ during the race. You need to get off to a good start, but you need to slow down at some point, or else you'll find the finish line. It sounds silly, but it's true. So your skeleton for an 18 song playlist should look like this…

Opening Track: A Corner Stone Song. This one should be a familiar song for the listener. For example, if one of your goals is to turn somebody on to the Neko Case song "People Got a Lot of Nerve", don't lead off with Neko Case. Put something that the person will know, and most likely enjoy. The purpose of this song is get your listener's attention. If you lead off with a song that your audience won't like, then your weeks of work may end in 7 seconds. Make sure that the song or artist is well known, but not overly popular. You run the risk of boring your listener if your opener isn't unique enough. If you must insist on opening with a U2 song (which I would NEVER recommend), don't make it "Vertigo" or "Even Better than the Real Thing". Use something like "When Love Comes to Town" or their version of "All Along the Watchtower"

Song 2: Another Corner Stone Song. I usually like to reserve the strongest song of the CD for this position. In many cases, it's the song I've designed the mix around, although that song may be moved to another place because of the ebb and flow. This song need not be upbeat, but have some sort of power behind it. Song 2 should not be a ballad, unless it's for someone you're already dating.

Song 3: A Cornerstone. This song should serve as the transition into the Filler Songs.

Song 4-15: Filler Songs (see Article Four for expanded coverage)

Song 16: The Transition Cornerstone Song. This is the lead in to the grand finale.

Song 17: This should be a song much like the opening track. One of the stronger songs, but specifically
geared to set up the last song.

The Closer: The Signature Song. This is the last chance to impress your listener. This is the no holds barred song. Whatever you want to say in a mix CD, this is where you do it. Every track leads up to this song. Example: Years ago, I closed a mix for a girl with the song "Better Be Home Soon" by Crowded House. Not only does this song beg to be at the end of any CD, the underlining theme was "please figure out what you want, because I'm planning to move on soon" (which eventually I did).

Article Four: The Fillers
Remember that the term Filler is used because of a lack of a better term. Think of these as the middle relievers of your playlist. It still needs to be solid in order to make it a great CD. The last thing that you want to do is to lose the listener's attention. Filler songs should maintain the same feeling that the cornerstone songs have.

Article Five: Transitions and Sequence
While it's true that you want your cornerstone songs to flow together, it is especially critical that your fillers transition well. If you are going to put a song that is unfamiliar to the listener, place it next to a song that has a similar sound. For example, D really likes Landon Pigg's "Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop". Knowing this, I decided to add Nick Drake's "Place to Be" right after Landon for the mix CD Chevelure. They both are slower acoustic guitar centric songs, and just flow together. Resist the urge to go directly from a slow song to a hard upbeat song. Bridge that gap.

Do not jolt the listener by abutting two vastly different songs back to back. Never play "Black Friday Rule" by Flogging Molly back to back with "Caravan" by Van Morrison. I don't care if they are both Irish, those two songs don't belong together.

Another transition strategy is to group songs written by the same artist. It's no secret that I am a huge Tom Waits fan, and I have on more than one occasion put several songs written by Waits together.

It is also fun to have common bonds link songs together. Again, on several occasions, I have put Diana Krall back to back with Elvis Costello (or as she calls him, her husband).

Article Six: Other Rules and Guidelines
Never use the same artist twice in the same CD. You may also not use a variation of the same artist on the same disc. For example, you may not use "Who Are You" by the Who and "Slit Skirts" by Pete Townshend in the same playlist.

Although it is not a concrete rule, you should not use the same cornerstone song for different mixes.

Titles should be clever, and should have something to do with the theme of the mix. If not, it should at least be an inside joke with the person for whom you have made the disc.

Never repeat the name of a mix.

Never reveal the contents of the playlist to the target person until that have listened to the entire CD. If the intended listener recognizes a song before listening to the whole thing, the temptation will be for that person to skip ahead to that song.

Always write liner notes to the CD. Mark the significance of certain songs, or write why you chose to make the mix.

Never make a mix shorter than 72 minutes. It's just a waste of space.

The Andy Dufresne List of the 00s Part 1: The Top 20-11

As we are in the final hours of the first decade of the 21^st Century, there are tons of lists to give you the "Best Of" of the 00s. Many times, you take a look at these lists and think "What the hell was this guy thinking." Lists like that are completely subjective, and has a heavy basis of the writer's bias. Most of these writers are self important, more interested in looking cool than show their work, and boast that their list (for whatever the subject matter) is "the definitive list". These guys make me nuts.

So why am I doing one? You ask.

I make no bones about it…this is my opinion. I don't claim to be the all knowing expert. I haven't heard every song that has been recorded since January 2000, and there is no hip hop or country music in this top 20. I'm just not well versed in hip hop, and I can't justify the honoring any song that shares a radio playlist with "Chicken Fry" by Zac Brown. This list only notes the 20 songs that knocked on my ass and made me pause. It's kinda like that scene in The Shawshank Redemption, when Andy Dufresne plays "Che Soave Zeffiretto" from Mozart's Le Nozze Di Figaro over the PA system, and the prisoners stand in stunned silence. In one way or the other, I had the same reaction the first time I heard each of these songs. I stopped what I was doing and just listened. Some of these songs may lack the same sense of beauty that is carried in The Marriage of Figaro, but they all reminded me why I love music so much.

But, before we get to the list, I really want to toss this little nugget into the best of stream of consciousness.

The Best Inside Joke of the 00s – "It's My Life" by Paul Anka (2005)
On first listen, there is nothing special to the 2005 CD Rock Swings by Paul Anka. The concept wasn't revolutionary; an entire compilation of taking songs from one genre and rearranging them to fit another. By 2005, not that many people knew/remembered who Paul Anka was, besides that he was the pit boss in the first five minutes of that crap Vegas movie 2000 Miles To Graceland. Plus many thought that if he was going to catch lightning in a bottle, he was eight years too late to cash in on the swing revival (thanks to Jon Favreau).

What endears the song to me is not that it's an improvement to a Bon Jovi song (which as it turns out,
the secret is to have someone besides Jon Bon Jovi singing it), is the chorus of the song.

It's my life
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"

It's a nice little nod from one Jersey guy to another. But if you look at the back story of "My Way", you find that Sinatra didn't write it. "My Way" was composed by (wait for it) Paul Anka. So in essence, Paul Anka is quoting Jon Bon Jovi, who is quoting Frank Sinatra, who is quoting Paul Anka. It goes around in a circle, just like Pop Up Video. Thanks Paul for making me and other music geeks smile at that.

And now, as Casey would say, on with the countdown.

20. If Only She Knew – O.A.R. (2001)
Before they hit the main stream in 2008, this Columbus, Ohio band was the darling of college rock radio stations. Still riding the dying wave of ska, the band released Risen in 2001. The fourth track of that CD opens with an acoustic guitar solo then erupts with horns and a ska/reggae rhythm. The song speculates on what would happen if the object of the storyteller's affection knew his true feelings. While the song may not have the real emotional depth that one would expect with a list such as this, it harkens back to feelings that I'm sure anyone who has a Y-Chromosome can recall. If this song doesn't conjure a specific memory involving quarter beer night, skipping a philosophy class, and really wanting to go to bed with the hot girl d' jour, then you're just not trying.

19. Papercut – Linkin Park (2000)


It's hard not to be impressed with the opening track of Hybrid Theory. The haunting lyrics about an individual's paranoia give you not only an uneasy feeling of angst, but the hope of normalcy. After listening to this, you get the feeling that this is what the Beastie Boys would sound like if they had taken performance enhancing drugs and spent four months in a room with no windows. Truly stunning.

18. Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me – The Pipettes (2007)
Sure, you can say that Brit-pop from late 2005-2008 was pretty much all the same. You have girls with cockney accents trying to relive the early 60s music with modern themes. There's a bit of a repetitive drab you get from Lily Allen, Duffy and Amy Winehouse that seems to make this era across the pond a one trick pony. While The Pipettes do fall into this pattern, their delivery on "Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me" seems flawless. Unlike Winehouse's, the song isn't a darker, almost farcical version of classic music. Of course, Shirley Bassey never sang about going to rehab, and I never really wondered what it would sound like if she did. That's why I like the Pipettes so much. This song is just a throwback, and it's quite refreshing.

17. The Devil Went Down To Georgia – Johnny Socko (2000)
OK. You've got me. There is a Hoosier State bias on this one. I have seen Johnny Socko live countless times, many of there shows were at the Bluebird in Bloomington. In fact, I was at the live show that was recorded for their triple live CD. However, the version of this song that I am talking about isn't the live dance song, but part of a sampler for their Quarto CD (which ironically enough, it's not on Quarto). This era for Johnny Socko served as a transition period, as the band started to move away from the horn heavy sound to a more guitar centric feel. They also get bonus points for riffing "Sweet Child of Mine" in the Devil's solo, proving that Guns and Roses (Axel Rose, by the way is another Indiana guy, but he's from Lafayette) has got to be the soundtrack to Hell.

16. Baby Fratelli – The Fratellis (2006)
This song has a couple of deep meanings for me. Firstly, I heard it for the first time on WOXY.com (while they were still headquartered in Oxford, OH) as an advance single for their CD Costello Music, which was already released in the UK. Secondly, this is how I learned that you can't access iTunes UK from the colonies. So I had to wait for two months until it was officially released in the United States. God, I hate the record industry.

15. Hate It Here – Wilco (2008)
I want to lead off this one by suggesting that Chicago based Wilco is the most underrated band from the last 30 years. They have had arguably two of the best albums of the 2000s (Yankee Foxtrot Hotel and Sky Blue Sky). "Hate it Here" starts with Jeff Tweedy singing about keeping busy after his girlfriend has left him. The song then takes a sharp right turn into "Come Together". It then goes back and forth with Tweedy waiting in vain for his beloved to come back, and telling us that he hates being in their home alone.

14. Stuck Between Stations – The Hold Steady (2006)


Honestly, if I didn't live in Minnesota, I'd still be all about these guys. I was originally turned on to this Minneapolis band by fellow Cub sufferer The Reach right after the CD Boys And Girls in America was released. The opening of the song almost makes you think that this is going to be an 80s pop metal tribute song, then the keyboards come in. The lyrics start off quoting On The Road—

There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right.
Boys and Girls in America have such a sad time together.

—And then it launches into a Springsteen-esque aria about poet John Berryman's suicide in 1972 who leapt from the Washington Street Bridge in Minneapolis. Lead singer Craig Finn, truly a lover of great literature and poetry. Now, if he would just read my book…

13. I and Love and You – The Avett Brothers (2009)
The only reason that this song doesn't rank higher is that it's too new. I just can't justify putting a song in the top 10 of a decade after only being exposed to it for just two months. I fear that my current obsession with this song might cloud my judgment, and proclaim it better than songs that have settled in the musical stream of consciousness. If this song had a couple of more years on it, then it may finish much higher (or a lot lower…who knows). As I had written in my November 20^th post, the song hit me like a ton of bricks on the way home from my wife's school's Fall Ball.

12. Fallen For You – Sheila Nicholls (2000)
If "Funkytown" (1979) can be played on a bunch of 80s stations, then "Fallen For You" qualifies for this list. Yes, I recognize that the source album Brief Stop was released on November 16, 1999, but it wasn't until its appearance in the 2000 film High Fidelity that most people in The States had heard it. This heartbreaking love confession interruptus is only backed up with a piano. Sheila stops short of letting out every detail of her feelings when she realizes that her love is not requited, and that her interpretations of romantic gestures by the man of her dreams (or woman, Sheila is bi after all) were actually intended for another woman.

11. Diablo Rojo – Rodrigo y Gabriela (2006)


So you have a duo from Mexico that plays traditional Spanish Flamenco guitars that earned their notoriety after relocating to Ireland. It sounds less like a story about an up and coming band and more like a World Cup of Soccer schedule. Diablo Rojo takes its name, and feel, from a roller coaster (named Red Devil) in Denmark. The song starts off slowly, and then takes off at breakneck speed. The thing that you have to keep in mind is that there are just two people playing. There are no backup studio musicians, or multi track overlays in the song. They recorded it as if they are performing live. Gabriela's mano-dexterity and unshakeable rhythm is unearthly, and Rodrigo's hypnotic melody line adds to a true musical treat.