Cleanin' The Debris: Another Day, Another Mix

Took a brief break from mixing, partially time constraints, partially the absence of Art of the Mix (the excellent mix sharing site which, unfortunately, was hijacked earlier this year and is only intermittently cleared of trojan horses these days -- follow the link at your own peril), partially the fact that, as noted elsewhere, I tend to listen primarily via the iPod these days, so burning an old-fashioned mix seems a little silly when all I'm going to do is rip the mix cdr to my Pod and toss it aside. Still, I'm an old-fashioned (or maybe just plain old) guy, and I like the exercise of burning a mix and designing the artwork and having the ol' piece of aluminum perched on a shelf.

So, hey, got caught up this weekend with a couple new mixes. This one, the third volume of my It Came From The Comp series (see also here and here), like its predecessors, is an attempt to cull the highlights from the large box of compilation cd's I have stashed in a closet. Most the tracks come from free samplers jabbed into music magazines (primarily UK publications like Mojo and Uncut), not to mention dodgy tribute albums I'll occasionally indulge in, as well as the occasional soundtrack. As these comps are typically on the sucky side, with the occasional gem, they're particularly ripe for ripping to mixes and then casting the original into the abyss.

This time around I focused solely on cover versions (and thus relied heavily on those dang tribute albums). Tried to shoot for an assortment of styles (though attempted to avoid slavishly loyal covers in deference to some which tweaked the original somewhat), including both established artists as well as no-name bands which seem to have little existence aside from tribute album appearances.

Came out pretty nicely. For those who don't recognize the covers, the originals are by (in order): Blondie, Kinks, R.E.M., Paul McCartney, Teenage Fanclub, the Clash, Beach Boys, the Who, Wire, David Bowie, Husker Du, Big Star, Dylan, Byrds, John Lennon, Velvet Underground, Television, Roky Erickson, Bowie again, the Carpenters [sorry, great tribute album], Neil Young (the subject of multiple decent tribute albums), Sweet, Grateful Dead, and the Beatles.

Here's Sonic Youth doing "Superstar" off that Carpenters tribute album (not on the mix):