Every month, I take a pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents or less from the record store and I tape over it: first I tape over the recording protection tabs, then I tape over the music, then I tape over the tape covers.
Here are playlists for all the mixtapes I’ve made so far this year:
Nurturing your inner child
January 2025
Spotify | Apple Music | Youtube
This one I wanted to have a wintry, childlike feel to it, because that’s the way I wanted to feel while finishing the first draft of the book I’m working on, Don’t Call It Art, which is all about what I learned about being creative from my kids.
SIDE ONE
– Paul McCartney, “Every Night”
– Grizzly Bear, “Ready, Able”
– The Beach Boys, “All I Wanna Do”
– Robert Wyatt, “Heaps Of Sheeps”
– Here We Go Magic, “Collector”
– William Onyeabor, “Atomic Bomb”
– Chino Yoshio, “193193 (For Marimba)”
SIDE TWO
– Francis Bebey, “Pygmy Love Song”
– Herman’s Hermits, Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter
– Harry Nilsson, Listen, The Snow Is Falling
– Timmy Thomas, Why Can’t We Live Together
– Broadcast, Echo’s Answer
– Radiohead, “Kid A”
– Norma Fraser, “First Cut Is The Deepest”
– Buddy Emmons, “Singing Strings Of Steel”
Love is not a gadget
February 2025
Spotify | Apple Music | Youtube
This is the first mixtape I’ve made with my brand-new Tascam deck, which was not cheap, but is pretty wonderful after a year’s worth of mixtapes on a somewhat shoddy deck whose record function was quickly deteriorating. (I made the January mix on my old Sony boombox.)
I’ve started really playing with Side 1/Side 2 constraint of tapes. Some of my favorite records sort of front load all the pop stuff on the first side and the second side is all the weird stuff that I really love and never get tired of. (See: Pixies’ Doolittle, for example.) Other records split a sound in two, like Dylan’s Bringin’ It All Back Home, whose first side is more electric, and the second side is all acoustic. (And side two was recorded in a single day?!? And the whole record was recorded in 3?!?)
Anyways, you’ll get the picture here:
SIDE ONE (LONELY)
Lou Reed & John Cale, “Nobody But You”
Purple Mountains, “Darkness and Cold”
Brooks & Dunn, “Neon Moon”
Little Anthony & The Imperials, “Tears on my Pillow”
Bobby Womack, “If You Think You’re Lonely Now”
Serge Gainsbourg, “Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais”
(Bill Murray reciting French nonsense poetry from Groundhog Day)
SIDE B (LOVERS)
Sade, “The Sweetest Taboo”
Prince & The Revolution, “New Position”
Ginuwine, “Pony”
Michael McDonald, “I Keep Forgettin (Every Time You’re Near)”
East of Underground, “I Love You”
Frank Ocean, “Pilot Jones”
Georgettes, ”Would You Rather”
Zadie Smith reading Frank O’Hara’s “Animals” to an answering machine
A Satisfied Mind
April 2025
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
I wrote about the mix’s origins and shared some of my custom “dub” tracks in a previous newsletter:
It began when I read novelist Elizabeth McCracken’s latest dispatch from Barton Springs pool here in Austin. She titled it “One Rich Man in Ten,” which is a line from the country song, “A Satisfied Mind”:
How many times have you heard someone say
‘If I had his money I’d do things my way’
But little they know
It’s so hard to find
One rich man in ten
with a satisfied mind…
Side A
– Porter Wagoner, “A Satisfied Mind” (dub)
– Hiroshi Yoshimura, “Over The Clover” (dub)
– Mac DeMarco, “Chamber of Reflection”
– Augustus Pablo, “King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown”
– Unknown Mortal Orchestra, “That Life”
– The Congos, “Congoman”
– Sly and the Family Stone, “If You Want Me To Stay”
– Frankie Knuckles, “The Whistle Song”
– Chet Atkins and Dolly Parton, “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?”
Side B
– Arthur Russell, “That’s Us / Wild Combination”
– Yellow Magic Orchestra, “Gradated Grey”
– Mekons, “Last Night on Earth”
– Upsetters, “Three in One”
– Branko Mataja, “Tesko Mi Je Zaboravit Tebe”
– Little Joy, “No One’s Better Sake”
– Radiohead, “Weird Fishes”
– Kim Deal, “Are You Mine?”
– Carlton Haney monologue about Pythagoras and bluegrass
April Showers
April 2025
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube
This is another “sad dad bad had” mix for spring with a bunch of country weepers and other stuff I like. It was originally going to be more tropical, starting with Michael Hurley’s “Polynesia.” (I listened to a bunch of his stuff after he died because so many people I know posted playlists and radio tributes to him.)
SIDE A
- Michael Hurley, “Polynesia”
- Bob Dylan, “if not for you”
- silver jews, “honk if you’re lonely”
- bill callahan, “honeymoon child”
- durutti column, “belgian friends”
- al green, “I’m so lonesome I could cry”
- cass mccombs, “that’s that”
- the byrds, “you don’t miss your water”
- magnetic fields, “born on a train”
- hank williams, “cold, cold, heart”
- buffalo Springfield, “a child’s claim to fame”
- Roger miller, “Whistle Stop”
SIDE B
- Arthur Russell, “come to life”
- panda bear, “50mg”
- yo la tengo, “can’t forget”
- buddy holly, “take your time”
- the kinks, “everybodys gonna be happy”
- them, “it’s all over now, baby blue”
- the stranglers, “golden brown”
- beach boys, “the night was so young”
- palace brothers, “new partner”
- Donovan, “Lay of the last tinker”
Maybe The Future’s Void But That Hasn’t Stopped Us
May 2025
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube
Here is a mopey, gloomy, gothy, synthy mixtape for a heating earth. A cousin to Dancing in the Ruins.
SIDE ONE
- future islands, “the great fire”
- new order, “the perfect kiss”
- the knife, “silent shout”
- Eurythmics, “sweet dreams”
- grimes, “oblivion”
- david byrne, “light bath”
SIDE TWO
- kavinsky, “nightcall”
- bronski beat, “smalltown boy”
- the cure, “lullaby”
- the smiths, “there is a light and it never goes
out”
- billy idol, “eyes without a face”
Solar Return
June 2025
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
I celebrated my 42nd trip around the sun by working on my book, but I took a tiny break to make a new monthly mixtape to play by the pool. (Similar vibes to last June’s mixtape.)
SIDE ONE
- fela kuti, “water get no enemy”
- james brown, “I got the feelin’”
- little Anthony & the imperials, “shimmy, shimmy, ko-ko-bop”
- the silhouettes, “get a job”
- tenor saw, “ring the alarm”
SIDE TWO
- billy stewart, “strange feeling”
- war, “all day music”
- cocteau twins, “my truth”
- sister Nancy, “bam bam”
- leonard Cohen, “tower of song”
- blond redhead, “girl boy”
Chlorine
July 2025
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube
A mix to play by the pool. I made several changes as I went. I swapped the sides (originally side A started with Barbara Mason and B started with Tommy James) and I changed the ending, swapping Mac Demarco’s “Salad Days” and Chuck Berry’s “Havana Moon” with a reggae cover of “Summer Breeze” and Doris Troy’s brilliant demo released as a single, “Just One Look.”
SIDE ONE
- Tommy James & The Shondells, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”
- Four Tops, ”It’s the Same Old Song”
- Bobby Darin, “Dream Lover”
- ? and The Mysterians, “Do Something to Me”
- The Shirelles, “Baby It’s You”
- The Champs, “Tequila”
SIDE TWO
- Barbara Mason, “Yes, I’m Ready”
- Brenton Wood, “Gimme Little Sign”
- The Young Rascals, “Groovin’”
- The Beach Boys, “Help Me, Rhonda”
- Jackie Mittoo, “Summer Breeze”
- Doris Troy, “Just One Look”
This one is a sequel to my Oahu mixtape from last summer. (Like many sequels, it’s probably not as good as the original.)
SIDE A: SUNRISE
- Granville Williams and His Orchestra, “Hi Life”
- UB40, “Red Red Wine”
- Jeff Majors, “Chant”
- Senor Coconut, “Neon Lights”
- Molly Lewis, “Island Spell”
- Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps, “Peg O’ My Heart”
- Webley Edwards, “Alika”
SIDE B: SUNSET
- King Tubby, “Roots of Dub”
- Yasuaki Shimizu, “Umi No Ue Kara Kakashi”
- Art Wilson, “Rebecca’s Theme (Water)Overworld”
- Masahiro Takahashi, “Silky Lake”
- Duke Kamoku & His Islanders, “Harbor Lights”
- Suicide, “Dreams”
Shooting Pool in Dad’s Basement
September 2025
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube
This one gave me some technical difficulties. I actually destroyed two cassettes trying to record it, so I wound up with a cassette that was longer than I thought it’d be, so I had a little Side A / Side B fun and made Side A (mostly) songs that my dad likes and Side B songs from my dad’s era that I like.
Dad was born in 1954, so his peak nostalgia zone — the music he heard as a tween/teen in the mid to late 60s — just happens to be some of the best music ever recorded. (A few of his favorites didn’t make it here: The Byrds’ “Tambourine Man,” Creedence’s “Suzie Q,” Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale,” etc.)
I’d had the idea for the tape for a while, but Walter Martin’s organ episode gave me the final push to make it. Putting it together made me realize how much I really genuinely love Boomer music — I can’t help it!
SIDE ONE
- Tommy James & The Shondells, “Hanky Panky”
- The Animals, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Hey Joe”
- Paul Revere & The Raiders, “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”
- THEM, “Gloria”
- Steppenwolf, “The Pusher”
- The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Daydream”
SIDE TWO
- The Doors, “Break On Through (To the Other Side)”
- The Troggs, “With A Girl Like You”
- Donovan, “Sunshine Superman”
- ? and The Mysterians, “96 Tears”
- The Rolling Stones, “Under My Thumb”
- The Knickerbockers, “Lies”
- The Everly Brothers, “When Will I Be Loved”
- Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs, “Wooly Bully”
No fun!
October 2025
You can read about this mixtape here.
Thanks for expanding my playlist that I listen to while I’m playing in clay!
I am once again asking for your cassette art making process.