Preferable MixTape 11: Sunset Blvd... 2001 A.D.

Scott was living out in LA. So I made this mix just after we moved to Oakland and worked off what I thought would be the best sound blanket to his waning days in the city of angels. Available HERE

Scott was nice enough to lend the tape so it could be digitized. Thanks Scott!

Preferable Mix Tape 10: No Words? No Problem.

Spring '98. The first apartment. I moved in to the Wilmont with Herb just above Luke and Lisa. One day I was walking out, probably to grab a Jarritos from la grocery especial and passing the second floor I paused by Luke's open door. I nodded and he waved me in. He was in the middle of making an instrumental tape and wanted to go over the track listing. We both spun yarns involving "Green Onions" and reveled in the necessary addition of "Mo' Onions". I mentioned a few Wilmont-centric tracks of choice and brought them down. And while "Frankenstein" was essential to the pre-Wilmont Beach prototype being tested that summer, I do wish I could Doc Brown myself into going hands off the "Chilli Hot" track, even though it was the auditory framework for the type of shenanigans a newly independent choad such as myself was to get into at a place like that. Someone flicked on the radio during its dubbing looking for a game causing a weird blurp of static and dial rolling which got put to tape. After the second side clicked off in that heavy chunk that old decks do, he folded the tape into the track listing and stuffed it into a case, handing it to me saying "Here," and followed it up with something like "Enjoy your summer." And yes, I did. This mix played all summer long through the windows of the living room out onto the 3rd floor deck and over Hillsborough street coming down somewhere across the street in the parking lot of Sub Conscious.

"Here"

Thanks Luke!

Preferable Mix Tape 9: Jody's Country Tape

It had no name, no case, no information, no identity. It was up to the tracks. And that's really what it should be. All that cool-ass packaging splits when they hang about the floorboards or glove compartment or side door pockets. And when they have no identifying marks... Thus the sticker on the tape and the title of this installment.

Before we headed off on a cross country trip in the summer of 2000, Jody passed this tape along for our journey. It's split between late 70's - 80's on Side A and more of the classic 50's - 60's on Side B. Sure there are some A.C. tracks, but that's what spreads this tape out and fills it's scope. Any stretch of outlaw or broken heart soundtrack is up fer grabs. In a way it plays like wounded country lives livin' high and on the razors edge, on from Eisenhower through Regan... kinda like Brokeback.

Available HERE

Thanks Jody!

Preferable Mix Tape 8 : Players Ball

Summer '97 Ollie and Brian Rivas threw a Player's Ball. I'm not going to go into it but with a fridge full o 40s anyone who's watched a certain music video knows the level of god-king that bequeath its maker. Suffice to say a good night was had by all and to all a rad night.

Then somewhere in the next year Jessie and Ollie threw one in Winston Salem. Then another at my place at the Wilmont - summer '98. I think another one happened - not too sure - between then and fall of 2000. We were living in Durham for a few months between NYC and the bay area. We had a big house with Margaret and a lot of empty room, in other words the grounds were predestined for party HQ. Among the many throw or blasted or what have you was the (4th or) 5th Players Ball. We, in accordance with with the standards set by the first player's Ball, removed everything from the fridge and packed it with assorted 40s Andre and Red Dagger. We even filled a three foot wide bowl with "Players Punch." and got snaps with our full accounts withdrawn in unconsecutive small bills yo. Which brings me to this tape. I met Daniel working at a bar-resturant in Durham, he managed and bar-tended and dropped knowledge on the reg and thus was known as "The Head" (though he could have been anointed this at a much earlier date). He cut this tape specifically for the party working from his personal vinyl collection and used the order pads for a makeshift tracklisting. Varying staples & crate cuts split by decade on the dual tape sides [for your preferred ballin' timescape] Use only as directed.

Thanks Daniel!

Available HERE

**Coming Soon - Players Ball '50s and '60s & Players Ball '90s and '00s MixTapes**

Preferable Mixtape 7: The Fastest Kid In Fifth Grade

A bunch of people had left after high school and it was tough, but it also meant I had more time to hang with others. Russ was in his senior year and he made this tape around the time we started putting songs together. I think I told him a story about coming in 1st place for every race in the fifth grade Olympics, but during the last run this one kid ran against me. He was with the popular crowd [the ones that would shave nike and batman symbols on the back of their heads and color in the skin with colored markers]. And he just beats me by a bit in the last race and he became "the fastest kid in fifth grade."

We were toying with that as a band name or song title at one point, and then he made it a mix tape name. I included it in this series because 1. I've blasted the hell out of it over the years and 2. It's a good snapshot of a moment in time and of course its got some awesome tracks on it. The Archer's and Polvo and Jawbreaker songs were soundtrack during that fall and winter after highschool dead-ended in a crappy job, trying to scrape some money together and figure out what the hell I wanted to do. I could pass on the Ben Folds, Velocity Girl, and Promise Ring songs. Not hate'n here. I love this tape, but some of the flow slows down with these. I thought I shouldn't meddle with someone else's mix and it's definitely Russ's style and a moment in time [as per the date] and I know [as he clearly stated] that he sent it with love...

Available HERE.

Buuuut I went ahead and did that I feel bad and feel like I'm opening up pandora's box with this tape series, but you can get the sense of what I do without hearing the weeeaaarrrrwww of the tape fast forwarding. So I clipped those songs and put that version up HERE.

Thanks for the tape Russ!


Choose yer own adventure!

Preferable Mix Tape 6: Robocop - The Metal Years

It was June 2000. I was back in Durham just before we went on a trip cross country and like any good last minute efforts your attention turns to music. We need some favorites. We need new stuff. Do we have enough? I cut together all the soundbites I could think of on my dad's tape deck (which was EQed and hooked up to the VCR and gave me all the soundbites I needed from high school on). I took the tape to Chad and Drew's. Since my collection was packed away I needed someone else's and they had this glorious stretch of vinyl - just row after row blocking out a fifth of the living room and ridding high on inch high shag carpeting. I needed suggestions, there were a few I knew I wanted in but it was their collection and so Chad wrote out some stuff (it's included). I marketed off some of the list as I put it on, and forgot on some of the others. You should get the idea - hope it helps you. This really was a last minute thing (even though it had been an idea for a while). We were leaving soon. I stayed up either the night before or the night before that - head weaving in and out of consciousness as metal played low and all the sleeping heads lay in rooms nearby.

I played it a few times on that trip. One time in particular many hours north of New Orleans in the late late afternoon sun bathing orange and red glow drippy sweat swaying moss from wise old trees. Our arrival back in town brought upheaval with my stuff over here and our stuff over there. In all the moving and time this mix bit a premature bullet. It was made. And I never gave it out.

So Finally here is Robocop: The Metal Years.

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Preferable Mix Tape 5: This One's For The Children

The 2nd tape here from Chad - one that he sent me after I moved back to California from North Carolina in late august 1998. I was only in Oceanside for four months before I took a greyhound back to Raleigh just before Christmas. But while I was there I received this tape in the mail and remember rollin' deep in the warm southern California fall. Aimless and not all to into my courses at Palomar college this tape got steady rotation in my Grandma's van in golden sun of late afternoon only to be ejected later when, in the early hours of dark morning, I'd climb back into her van and take excusions to donut shops with the oldies A.M. station. This wasn't the "oldies" radio of FM playing "shama lama ding dong" to "american pie". This was my grandfather's music - the 40's and early 50's - nat king cole on a good night - and the 'stached shlubs of so cal donut shoppes in their infinate quest for fresh-out-of-oven-ness stuffed the lots and booths in ways the occational passerby at 3pm could never fathom.

But I never recorded those drives from house to donuts to moonlight beach and up and down the PCH and 5 freeway in darkness of night when the world seems smaller and more your own to roam. It's the thinning of the masses. And this is about chad's tape - which is the flip of that - a mash of pushing through waking life.

Available HERE.

And thank you Chad for both of these.

*UPDATE*
The track year information is incorrectly labeled 1997 - Change it to 1998 for both tracks if you care to.

*UPDATE*
Chad sent me his tracklisting he found in his archive [i.e.: a pile of shirts]! Thanks Chad!

Preferable Mix Tape 4: Had A Heart, Don't Miss It

These next two selections come from a person who I think cares about music and it's integration into every aspect of life. He's also a dear friend and someone who I can count on to help me romanticize shit - Chad Layton. I suspect his tape deck was busted as you'll no doubt notice the left channel on certain tracks is often lower, but chad made this wonderful mix and you should rock it too because it really really kicks. It was made, I think, in 2006 after he had been in Asheville, NC and I in Berkeley, CA for many years. It was also crazy sped up so I tried to slow it down after digitizing it (which speaks to the 48 minutes per side). Many choice cuts. But I remember the VLE track and Kinski track just blowing my mind and forcing steady rewinds on my walkman. It was also cold when I got it, if I remember correctly, and as the days get colder now so shall you receive it. Let it bring about an autumnal state of mind.

Available HERE

(Stay tuned for a 2nd tape)

Preferable Mix Tape 2: Preferable Blues

Preferable Blues came only a few months after the Mad Max tape. Again, New York, this time 2000. A new beginning. Shelly had a tiny "apartment" with Molly. You see I worked two jobs at the time, both a couple of blocks away and they were kind enough to let me crash there at all times of the day and night. Which I did so fluently. At one point not too long into the new year I noticed some cds and records laying about for a day or so. And later that week Shelly passed on a tape wrapped in a beautiful piece of paper with the title "Praise God I'm Satisfied" scrawled on the spine and "Preferable Blues" on the tape. It introduced me to one of my all time favorite songs and and musicians: "Spoonful" by Howlin' Wolf. And I've always imagined "Praise God I'm Satisfied" by Blind Willie Johnson sung by a bulldog with a little bird on its shoulder as they move on down a dirt road.

So many treks through late winter and spring to and from Brooklyn, the lower east side, and Jersey City at dawn and night on that janky 10-speed with my walkman chuggin along. This here's a good one.

Available HERE.

hi-res image below.

Preferable Mix Tape 1: Mad Max

"What is this? Funny Week?"

-Fifi

December 1999. After being back in Raleigh for a month, I stopped and spent the night at my old digs on Vanderbuilt just before tagging along on a trip up to New York in Shelly's dad's truck to deliver her a chair. Luke and Sean had just made a mix that would color the road and the new year in sonic wreckage. He stuck the tape in my hands that next morning, and at 6AM or so with Clare and Luke and Bojangles in formation we headed out to the highway. Hands down it still is one one my favorite all around TIGHT mix tapes and I thought I'd share a little bit of that with you...

Available HERE

UPDATE:
Forgot to include a hi res scan with the tracks. Just click on this to enlarge and drag it to your Mad Max music folder for archival purposes.