a mix for Coachella 2011

I’ve already mentioned how much I enjoy a good mix tape — both listening to and making one. One of my favorite annual mixes to make is a get-psyched-for-Coachella mix for my friends L and C. While I love the bands that flock to the California desert each year, I am not a big fan of the idea of spending three days in said dusty, hot desert. L and C, on the other hand, are ardent Coachella attendees. So instead of going to the festival I make them a CD to help them prep for their three days of musical nirvana.

This year, however, I’ve hit a bit of a snag. My computer crashed and I am (im)patiently awaiting the arrival of my new MacBook (more on that later). Fortunately for my pals and those of you reading this blog, I’m pretty crafty. I’ve enlisted the help of my trusty iPad and the really cool app SoundCloud to create an online mix, which I hope will serve as an effective, albeit less portable, substitute. I wasn’t able to find all the songs streaming online but I’ve included as many as I could.

on mix tapes

Rob Gordon in High Fidelity said it best:

“The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.”

I love making mixes. The right combination of music is essential to so many situations, from first dates (see: Fast Times at Ridgemont High) to dinner parties. But on no occasion is an awesome mix more important than on a long-distance run.