No Mixtapes??

So, I have been putting pressure on myself lately to get a new mixtape up here on the blog, and I've really been feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of attempting such a thing. I didn't really know why...until I had a breakthrough this evening.

The musical renaissance I've been experiencing the last month or so has been great. The truth is that I am enjoying listening to albums ALL THE WAY THROUGH more than I have in a long time, maybe the better part of a couple of years. Not only would it be counter-intuitive to force myself to listen in a format that I am not currently drawn to, but the truth is that so much of this renaissance is about discovery, and getting to know new music (music that's NEW to me. Lots of catalog stuff that I've never checked out, plus newer stuff). And I've never been any good at putting music on a mixtape if it wasn't something that I had built up some attachment to. I am slowly building up attachments to some of the things that I've been grooving to for a few months, but I've got a long way to go.

This is one reason why I'm so excited about doing the radio show...I can use it to get to know records better, a song at a time. I mean, it's a little bit like making a mixtape every week, but it doesn't have to be quite as cohesive. The compilation tape rules are something that I take fairly seriously (at least, MY version of them), and so I am looking forward to creating some mixtapes later this year that are, shall we say, inspired by my radio show. The show will be as much about discovery for me as it is for you, the listener (I hope).

Meanwhile, it's records, records, records around this house. Vinyl, CD, MP3, whatever. A lot of it is scrobbling to my Last.fm account, so go check out what's been on the box. The vinyl, unfortunately, does not scrobble, but that's okay.

One last thought...mixtapes, for me, can be all about dwelling on the past. If I make a mixtape with a bunch of songs that have meaning for me, but that meaning is mired in things of the past, how can I ever expect to live in the present? The present, finally, is filled with things that I'm excited about, and I think the music, and my level of enjoyment of it, is connected to that. I have lamented on this blog about the idea that music seemed so much more exciting when I was younger, that getting to know new records was easier then, that I was feeling like a curmudgeon in my present state...but the truth is that I can't get excited about the soundtrack to my current life (or making the soundtrack to my life current, as opposed to rehashing that of the past) unless I'm EXCITED about my CURRENT LIFE ITSELF.

Go back and read that sentence again. I'll type it again so you can: ...the truth is that I can't get excited about the soundtrack to my current life (or making the soundtrack to my life current, as opposed to rehashing that of the past) unless I'm EXCITED about my CURRENT LIFE ITSELF. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.