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So here’s the deal: I’m trying to kick myself in the ass to (A) write more (and better, always better); (B) start working on the next issue of the print ‘zine I do occasionally, called Greatest Hits, which I haven’t even thought about doing work on since I left Seattle in March; and (C) find a goddamned project to work on in the absence of anything better/more meaningful to do.
In order to accomplish this, I am making a series of mix CDs, choosing one song per day, in the order they appear on the discs, for a year. In addition, I will attempt to write something at least semi-substantial about the song(s) selected on this site, though the writing and/or substantive factor may not always happen. Some songs invite lots of commentary, some less, so I’ll play it by ear. The goal is 500 words per song; if I average that, I’ll be happy.
If this sounds somewhat familiar, that’s because it is. The annotated mixtape is at least as old as Anthology of American Folk Music, and although I do something similar in Greatest Hits (and, for awhile there, online for Perfect Sound Forever, my friend Jason Gross’s superb online mag), it’s also a staple of magazines like Dazed & Confused and Black Book to ask famous folks to do ‘em a tape. Since my fame is nil except among the editors I’ve alienated (cough, cough), my efforts on this front are naturally of a somewhat lower profile. But that’s not the only place you’ve heard of this concept, or at least something close to it, because this particular project is an in-the-tradition ripoff of at least three sources. Sarah Vowell’s book Radio On had the writer listening to the radio everyday from 1 January to 31 December and keeping a journal about it. Weblogger Nannette E. Wargo of the Amplified to Rock site is writing a letter every day for a year and sending them to folks who volunteer to receive them. And producer etc. Brian Eno’s A Year with Swollen Appendices, is a published diary w/footnotes galore. The latter was especially close to mind because I had just finished reading an interview with Eno in Kristine McKenna’s terrific recent collection of interviews, Book of Changes (Fantagraphics), when I hashed out this project.
Mixtapes, of course, are often best made in the heat of an inspired moment--like DJing for yourself, or the person you intend to give the end result to, which is how most of my better tapes have come about. But the one I consider my personal best was neither fast nor entirely mine: it was made by passing the C-90 back and forth with my man Rod Smith over the course of four months (and was later written up in Greatest Hits no. 1). The idea of incorporating the new music I hear all the time into the project, diary-like, also has enormous appeal to me, as does the possibility of indulging my perfectionist streak. And of course I’m interested in the possibility of working out ideas that might see print later, probably in different form.
I’m also interested in your feedback. If you think you have the perfect segue out of the day’s selection, by all means let me know. There are infinite shades of possibilities here, and I’m planning to list both my own runner-up choices and yours, so responses I get outside of obvious jokes (e.g. the friend whose response to my request for great obscure albums last winter was to ask if I’d ever heard of the Beatles) will be posted also. Hell, I’ll probably post the jokes, too. I’m that type of guy.
Michaelangelo Matos
3 October, 2001
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