2008: The Mix.

Reprinted from the Facebook Archives, with permission from the author.

Stealing good ideas is awesome because then you don't have to, you know, come up with them. I was reading an interview with Cameron Crowe (probably pound-for-pound my favorite filmmaker) around the time Almost Famous came out, and he mentioned that he made mixtapes each year growing up, and that he had gone back to them for inspiration in writing the mostly-autobiographical script.

"Hey," I thought. "I like music. And I'm a giant nerd to boot. This is the best thing I've ever heard." And I immediately co-opted the idea for myself. So since 2001, I've cobbled together with great rumination and not a little pomp and circumstance a mix of what I couldn't stop listening to that particular year. Yes, there are rules, but they tend to be flexible and doesn't that just ruin everything anyway? No one wants to see how the sausages are made.

Here's the 2008 edition.

01 Something Is Not Right with Me - Cold War Kids
02 Consoler of the Lonely - The Raconteurs
03 Living Well Is The Best Revenge - R.E.M.
04 Rhinemaidens - The Envy Corps
05 A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
06 Tessellate - Tokyo Police Club
07 M23 - Starflyer 59
08 White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
09 Strawberry Swing - Coldplay
10 Beautiful Beat - Nada Surf
11 I Don't Know - King's X
12 Cath... - Death Cab For Cutie
13 Hanging Tree - Counting Crows
14 American Gangster Time - Elvis Costello & The Imposters
15 Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
16 Missed The Boat - Modest Mouse
17 If You Want It - Lenny Kravitz
18 Sequestered In Memphis - The Hold Steady
19 That Was Just Your Life - Metallica
20 A Milli - Lil Wayne
21 She Had Me At Takeoff - Triggers



Photo by Nitun Verma // orangefilter.com