Mix-Tape Memories in SF Chronicle

Yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle "pink section" had a great cover story about mix tapes, celebrating their special qualities and lamenting their demise. They shared some touching and funny stories from people who had particularly interesting mix tape tales. According to the article by Peter Hartlaub:

"Music compilations are more popular than ever, in part because of the ease of getting the songs you want to the people you care about. On your own or with sites such as Muxtape.com, you can click a mouse 20 or 30 times and create and share your audio files with whomever you want. But as the process gets easier, the gesture becomes emptier as well."

It's a great point about the amount of labor and care that was required to craft a cassette mix tape in real time using old school audio equipment, like turntables and cassette decks (and even radios!). Peter Hartlaub writes:

"The biggest advantage of making a mix cassette tape was that it almost always forced the creator to hear each song. Using your computer to create mix CDs without listening to the music is like grabbing five random items at the grocery store...

There's a merit to picking a bunch of your favorite songs for a friend to listen to, but if you really want to impress or seduce, those songs need to tell a story. And the best way to do that has always been a mix tape."

To see a bunch of personal mix-tape tales, see this accompanying SF Chronicle article and to contribute your own story, visit their hilarious parenting blog The Poop.

Do you have any interesting tales from the mix tape era? Is the nostalgia justified, or can mp3 mixes be just as personal?

Maximum RocknRoll Punk Show

The latest Dinosaurs and Robots mix tape is a Maximum RocknRoll radio show from 1984 featuring some punk rock gems.

Visit Dinosaurs and Robots for the complete playlist, which includes the Adolescents, Domino Theory, Lemon Kittens, GBH, Frat Girls, Josie Cotton, and so much more!

Maximum RocknRoll Radio (affiliated with the long-time punk 'zine) is still doing weekly shows and is syndicated at a number of college, community, pirate, Internet and indie-minded radio stations, including KZUM 89.3 FM (Lincoln, Nebraska community radio), WHRW 90.5 FM (Binghamton University, New York), Munt FM (Wellington, New Zealand), KSCL 91.3 FM (Centenary College, Shreveport, Louisiana) and WBGU 88.1 FM (Bowling Green State University, Ohio). You can syndicate the shows for free (you just have to ask) and can also download mp3s.

Additionally, the Maximum RocknRoll radio website is a goldmine of punk information and specials that are available for download, including specials on 80s punk, British punk, Latino punk, and a playlist covering the history of lady punk. Couldn't you just spend weeks roaming through their archives?

Dinosaurs and Robots Mixed Tape Radio

Here's a fun radio show concept---playing random mix tapes discovered at thrift stores and the like. Last Friday was the first show of Mixed Tape Radio and the set list certainly takes me back. The tracks were in ABC order just like a mystery mix tape that I have in my collection from the 1980s...hmmm...I didn't even know that was a trend. I'm a bit unclear as to whether or not this is just an online show or if it also aired on a college station, as they referenced Trenton College.

Dinosaurs and Robots Mixed Tape Radio explains the concept:

"Every Friday night, Dinosaurs and Robots will upload a dusty cassette mixed tape! Found at garage sales and junkyard glove boxes, mixed tapes provide all the voyeuristic thrills of reading somebody’s diary without the related ethical quandaries.

Tune in each week for a new exploration into heavy metal thunder road trips, teenage bedroom melancholy meltdowns, college radio clunkers, headbanger barf bag parties, glam rock glitter fests, industrial punch-your-lights-out rockers and the ill-advised tapes created by lovers soon to be spurned. Before collaborative filtering, music was hand selected for us by those who know us best."

Retro Mix Tape Kit

Oh, the beloved mix tape...and by that I mean the actual cassette mix tapes that we used to spend hours curating (using record players and cassette recorders) for friends, family, and crushes. I just spotted (in Star Magazine of all places) a blurb about the Mix Tape USB Kit, which is retro mix-tape packaging for your modern mp3-filled playlist. You just make your playlist on the USB memory stick and pop it into the box and it looks like an old school tape.

Radio Shows as Mix Tapes

5 of 9er posted one of his KPSU (Portland State) college radio show playlists from 1996. I love it! The DJ said that he often used tapes of his radio show like mix tapes, giving them to friends. I remember doing the same thing, and even programming entire radio shows with someone in mind (yeah, usually someone who I had a crush on) and giving them a copy of the tape later, with a nicely decorated cover. I've also done radio shows with secret messages and meanings buried in the song titles for those who pay attention to the playlists. Every week I find that crafting a radio show can be cathartic or joyous, depending upon my emotional state. Creating the right mix has helped me get through the stress of school exams (I played all compilations when I was studying for "comps" aka comprehensive exams in grad school), deal with the grief from losing a friend (I devoted a show to her featuring bands from a music series she curated), and diffuse the anger over job loss (I have had several lay-off themed shows). But I also use radio playlists in happy times, choosing songs to celebrate meeting the right guy, finding a cool job, seeing an amazing show, or just having a great day.