The interviews with The Make-Up, Blonde Redhead, The Spinanes, Jonathan Richman, Versus, The Swirlies, and Butterglory are all from when Dan was living in North Carolina in 1995 and 1996.
The rest are current.
questions
If you were making a mix of disturbing songs, what would you put on it?
If you had to pick one song to start every mix, what would it be?
How do you title your mixes? Favorite title?
Favorite title?
Richard (Versus) - From Richard to whoever it is made for.
Fontaine Toups (Versus) - Yeah, I do that too or Happy birthday or Happy Easter. It wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t really Easter.
Debby (Butterglory) - Be really boring. I try to be creative so I do the opposite. Be completely uncreative- "90 minutes of music".
Adam (Adult) - Titles are based on themes. Favorite Title: "7 Years"
Skippy (March) - I try to pick something from one of the lyrics that completes the mood of the mix. I made a mix once of fairly effete 60's flower pop called "1,000 Golden Daffodils" which was a line in the Bee Gees song I used. I think my favorite title was "Are Friends Electric?" for someone I was great friends with who kept giving me static electricity shocks.
Mark Mallman - Ummm "Life, Damn Life, What’s It Worth?" is the beginning of a John Cale song. I would name my child after that lyric I love it so much.
Calvin (Dub Narcotic) - The titles of mix tapes are usually borrowed from one of the songs on the tape.
Bob (Shellac) - I've never made a mixed-tape.
Jason (The Bronx) - favorite title? Hands down, done by my friend and bandmate Howie, complete with a gold plated cd, cover photos of 7-Eleven and elevator interiors "The Monsters of Easy Listening, Volume 1".
Jamie (Leka) - Funny/ridiculous things that I or other people have said - there's just an endless supply and what else are you supposed to do?
Rishi (Space Mitten) - I title them with phrases of indescribable power and emotion. My favorite title is 'Sexy Magic.'
Jen (All Girl Summer Fun Band) - "Thrift Store Sampler", "Compilation Nation" and also I have just cut out strips of text from old magazine ads too, one being "The Soft Flattery of this Sheerer Foundation" and "Mid-winter Complexions".
Tim (The Sames) - A spur of the moment decision.
Sam (Pacific Stereo) - By the genre, because I am lazy and uncreative. Favorite title: '50s mix.
Jack (The National Trust) - If I don't go for the basic "Rock 'N Roll Part 1", I like to title them as it would be on the by-line for a 70's K-tel comp: "20 Golden Greats From The Era Of Magic", or "Music For A Peaceful Journey Through Time", that sort of thing. Or, you can always go for the Reagan-era obvious title: "Jack's Awesome Beach Mix 2000" was a good one.
Chris M. (The Hecklers) - Never too serious...Favorite Title given to me was Eric Plumley's "Don't Take Any Wooden Pussies"
Jeremy (Arctic Skies) - I used to use inside jokes, then I started using quotes from books or films and now I tend to just make them up, either pseudo-poetic phrases or some sort of vague notion that in my mind encapsulates the impetus of the tape yet probably does nothing more than make me seem pretentious. Favorite titles- "This Recording Is Meant to be Listened to on Vinyl", "Hazy Memories of Suburban Life", and "Underground Classics of Young Adult Literature" with side titles "Naked School Lunch" and "Clockwork Orange Juice"
Dan (Crispus Attucks) - I used to reference inside jokes. Then I would just cut out random headlines from the Village Voice. Since I’ve moved into the photoshop age of cover making, I generally just make up something that goes with the images I’ve found. For awhile in the late 90’s, my friend Bill insisted that all the tapes I made for him were just a come on to get him into bed. So I started playing up on that and my favorite title in this series was a tape that I made for him from an Toys In Babeland print ad "August Is Anal Sex Month". In the summer of 95, Jeremy and I were working as camp counselors and there was a little girl named Mischa who was a troublemaker. We were listening to a lot of Minutemen quite a bit that summer so my title of a tape for him called "What Makes a Mischa Start Fires?" still makes me giggle.
Eric Plumley - I try to capture the theme- "Waterbed Boogaloo", "Breaker Breaker", "Van Rock", etc.
