So around a week ago I decided to put together a mix CD. In part for myself to play on the CD Walkman I started bringing to school, in part because having a physical time capsule of my obsessive listening habits is near-fascinating to me, and in part because I thought the idea of burning your own discs to share with friends or whoever you cross the street was just dang pure to begin with. When you’ve got the right mindset, 2021 is whatever year you want it to be. Spotify can eat my trout.

I started it off as a kind of odd assortment of music I’ve found myself listening to the past few years, including works of Vansire and c.layne. Unfortunately it was really tough to actually make anything of it so that it had any kind of rhyme or reason. My familiarity with a lot of that music has dried up a little bit, and I decided that a chop suey of what interests me right now would be most effective.

It took a few days listening and thinking of tracks to add, but I believe I got a good result in the end. A few were prior recommendations from friends, as I find most of my music (new stuff! Starflyer 59, Baldwin Brothers, more Beck), a Grant Lee Buffalo track from the Guitars, Guitars, Guitars compilation I acquired a while back, and a couple bops from the Amplitude OST, hot off the presses. And of course, some frequent repeats from the past month—hence all those Wilco songs. All things considered, it flows pretty decently.

Basically, if I could work it onto the disc, and I had to use nothing but that CD to listen to music for a month, that’s what I picked. And it was a tight fit, too: I actually had to add crossfades in Nero for it to burn onto a 700mb disc. That’s just about 80 minutes of music. No meg wasted. (Well, apart from the lossy compression in some of the tracks, but I’m going for authenticity dangit, I didn’t know what a FLAC was in 2005, let alone how to read.)

The final order was pretty much done and got burned on 4/20. Cammy saw the list and wanted to get in on the fun, so I tossed him (and the other people in Outposts) a bin/cue of the burn, and he even thought to put together one of his own as well.

I gave it a burn, and well, I enjoyed it a lot. Cammy’s patrician music taste did not fail.

As mentioned, I got pretty into Am I Inside. Right now, Apollo’s a frequent repeat from it: a pretty, kinda sad song about leaving home for the stars. It’s a good assortment of songs, and I like listening my way through on the Walkman a bunch while on transit and at home.

Mix CDs are great. Though I’ve hardly been much of a playlist person with my music, it’s like this more personal and ultimately rewarding way of doing it. It’s something tangible to remember where you are when it comes to music and mood; I can see myself going back to them five years from now, and later. And heck, when you’re on the receiving end, like with Cammy’s mix? That’s a wealth of artists and music that I can dig further into.

Yep, I’d do it again.