What is a place? There’s the obvious right? The corner of Winslow, Arizona or Sweet Home Alabama — but place can be, and for most of us is, so much more. That corner of 5th and Main where everything felt right as you walked down the street and suddenly it became your place. Or that long road trip from New Mexico to Los Angeles, the Arizona desert in front of you and your favorite song on the stereo, and suddenly the road itself became magic. All of the songs on this mixtape are of a place — one of my places. I hope you enjoy. Tell me in the comments what’s a song that reminds you of your place.

The Rules of the Road

This mixtape is built on a simple but unforgiving ruleset modeled on the gold standard of blank tape — the 90 Minute TDK MA-XG. Two sides, 45 minutes each, no exceptions. No artist appears twice. Every track earns its place not just on its own merits but in relation to what comes before and after it — the music has to flow, one song finding the next the way a good conversation finds its next subject. A loose thematic thread runs through every volume, though loose is the operative word. Think of it less as a concept album and more as a road trip with a general direction and no fixed destination.

That’s it. Those are the rules. Everything else is feels. Let’s get to the music!

The Sound of Somewhere Mixtape

Youtube | Apple Music

SIDE A

1. Lágrimas Negras, Hermanos Gutiérrez – Driving through the Sonoran Desert, top down on your Cadillac with the sunset blazing the path ahead.

2. Anything, Anything, Dramarama — Nothing captures late ‘80s LA quite like this song, hot, driving and loads of fun.

3. Never There, Cake — Camp Pendleton, surreal estate. Home of the Marines and every bad decision that started with “Hey Doc, watch this.”

4. Oakwood – Angus and Julia Stone — top down, Dana Point to Malibu, the sun doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.

5. You Look Like Rain, Morphine — That moment you look across the distance at them and realize they’re the one.

6. Sweet Depression, Deadweight — The raw San Francisco that’s pulsating and alive when you wonder into a music hall and discover your new obsession.

7. Sour Times, Portishead — the Valley Drive-In, Mission Avenue, Oceanside. Four screens. Gone since 1999. Still plays in my head.

8. Outta Me, Onto You, Ani DiFranco — a breakup gone horribly wrong, ‘nuff said.

9. Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Green Day — Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. A desperation move and the beginning of an end.

10. All My Mistakes, The Avett Brothers — Wherever you are, when I’m with you its home and all my mistakes brought me to you.

SIDE B

11. Woodpeckers From Mars, Faith No More — Let this one take you on a journey, a trip beyond this universe into something else entirely.

12. Where the Streets Have No Name, U2 — Growing up in Alaska meant a significant amount of your time was getting ready for winter. Around 1987, U2 dropped “The Joshua Tree” I first heard this song laying in the bed of Dad’s truck and was never the same.

13. I Want You So Hard, Eagles of Death Metal — How you ever been to Arizona? Specifically Phoenix, it’s a place that is trying too hard, trying at what I’m not sure, but whatever it is, it’s trying to hard.

14. Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand — This album dropped around the time I deployed to Iraq and was on constant rotation, it was a connection back to a world that felt millions of miles away.

15. El Picador, Calexico — Six weeks on a field operation in 29 Palms a night out across the border in Tijuana to blow off some steam and this one feels like making that crossing from one world to another.

16. Back to Black – Amy Winehouse — We’ve all been there, somewhere way above our station, not sure how we got there but here we are, designer cocktail in hand the world before you, taking it all in, knowing in won’t last.

17. Marvin and Miles – Gare du Nord — Sexy, smooth, sensuous, a night out dressed to kill, the one you love looking like a million bucks, the glamour in front of you, the promise of more to come yours for the taking.

18. Gentleman – Afghan Whigs — Somewhere around 25 or 27 years of age, we have all had that moment where we felt like we’ve got it figured out striking out from your Hoboken apartment, catching the train to NYC; absolutely bulletproof.

19. The Funeral – Band of Horses — This song drenches you in a blanket of sound reminiscent of the light humidity of early Ohio summer, it’s comforting right now, but give it some time.

20. Jaan Pehechaan Ho – Mohammad Rafi — People talk about moments where they felt just above themselves, looking down like an observer, this one puts you in that state.

21. End of the Innocence – Don Henley — Not all places are good, like that hot summer day when as a kid you where at the swimming hole down Grange Hall Road and off in the distance someone was screaming and this song was playing.

Sitting here firmly in 2026, it’s almost too easy to forget just how amazing, musically speaking, the 1990s were. Grunge had finally defeated glam metal, alternative was becoming mainstream and metal came out of the darkness having survived the satanic panic of the 1980s. This was the beginning of the large music festival scene with Lollapalooza dominating ticket sales as acts from Nine Inch Nails to Rage against the Machine played on the festival’s stage. Radiohead began their march toward legendary status and Tool was showing us that math rock could also have a following.

Amidst all of that, the slew of one hit wonders from the era are themselves a marvel to behold. Ranging from the truly one and done bands (New Radicals) to those who finally broke through their underground status to land a hit (Butthole Surfers) to the truly tragic leaving behind memories and a sense of grief for what could have been (Blind Melon). And then, in my mind at least, there is the case of Sponge – I still don’t understand why they didn’t become bigger names, Plowed is an absolute banger of a track and the rest of the album, while not as solid as Plowed is still a damn good initial album, the track Molly stands out to me!

As a young adult at the time, I turned 21 in 1995. The music of this era is still absolute magic for me and as I look to create a series decadal one hit wonders collections, it made absolute sense in my mind to start with ‘90s alternative.

Give it a listen and tell me what I missed in the comments – which of your favorite one hit wonders did I miss?

Rules: Structured like an actual 90-minute mix tape – approximately 45 minutes per side, no repeats allowed!

Gimmie the Links!

YouTube | Apple Music

Side A

1. Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand

2. Sponge – Plowed

3. Marcy Playground – Sex and Candy

4. The Breeders – Cannonball

5. Deep Blue Something – Breakfast At Tiffany’s

6. Fastball – The Way

7. Spacehog – In the Meantime

8. Nine Days – Story of A Girl

9. Hum – Stars

10. Seven Mary Three – Cumbersome

11. New Radicals – You Get What You Give

12. Verve Pipe – The Freshman

Sibe B

1. Tal Bachman – She’s So High

2. Blind Mellon – No Rain

3. Local H – Bound for the Floor

4. Nada Surf – Popular

5. Dishwalla – Counting Blue Cars

6. Toadies – Possum Kingdom

7. Spin Doctors – Two Princesses

8. Lit – My Own Worst Enemy

9. Edwyn Collings – A Girl Like You

10. Vertical Horizons – Everything You Want

11. Butthole Surfers – Pepper

12. Semisonic – Closing Time

Tom Waits is a musical god. Full stop. And like most gods when they interact with us mere mortals it is, at times, a bit hard to comprehend. This guy smashes together blues, jazz, industrial, experimental and theatre into a single album like some half-crazed recovering mad-scientist turned carnival barker and then leaves it for us to sort out. This is not a task for the faint of heart! But let us attempt to make sense of Wait’s mad, mad landscape, filled with drunks, bastards, brawlers, and bawlers into something we might be able to hear.

This project started a couple weeks ago. I was talking to my oldest son, Kerouac who knew how much I loved Waits. We share a lot of similar musical interests, and he decided he was finally ready to give Waits a shot.

“So where do I begin, Dad?”

Now that’s a loaded question. To know Tom Waits is to know there are very different periods in a career spanning more than 50 years and 17 studio albums. There’s the San Diego folk scene period of Closing Time, and The Heart of Saturday Night that showcases Tom’s vivid characters and storyteller ability but placed in a softer, jazzy-piano bar setting. There’s the period after 1980 when Waits married Kathleen Brennan who would go on to be Wait’s main songwriting collaborator (move over Lenon-McCartney!). Around the same time, he moved from Asylum Records to the Island Records label where Tom would begin experimenting with pretty much anything he could get his hands on to make sound.

Swordfishtrombones, Wait’s first album on Island Records was a massive departure from anything he’d done prior, his Island years culminated in Bone Machine which won the 1992 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. Jon Pareles wrote that “On Swordfishtrombones, Waits has made a breakthrough–he’s found music as evocative as his words. Waits’s grumble of a voice now bounces off a peculiar assortment of horns and percussion and organ and keyboards, as if he’d led a Salvation Army band into a broken-down Hong Kong disco.”

From this point, Tom moved to Anti Records (an off shoot of Epitaph Records), releasing Mule Variations in 1999. “Epitaph is a label run by and for artists and musicians, where it feels much more like a partnership than a plantation... We shook on the deal over a coffee in a truck stop. I know it’s going to be an adventure,” Waits said of the move. Tom’s, as of right now, final studio album, “Bad As Me,” was released in 2011 and would go on to become his first top 10 album in the U.S., peaking at number 6.

That was a lot and was, in no way, even trying to be exhaustive. So where do you begin with someone has wide-ranging as Tom Waits? I told Kerouac, that while it was probably my absolute favorite Waits’ album to stay away from The Black Rider initially. He of course didn’t listen to me and a few days after our initial conversation sent me the following text.

“I don’t know how I’d even describe this album …its so far outside my comfort zone I almost can’t even judge it!”

I warned you.

I’ve attempted to not only create a solid introduction to the artist, but one that also looks to showcase his different eras. Much like the little biography above, this is not intended to be exhaustive, there’s a couple albums not represented as something from each album was not my goal. Give it a whirl. What did I miss? What’s your favorite Tom Waits album or track? What song do you think I should have included as an introduction? Tell me in the comments below!

Mixtape on Spotify

Side A

1. (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night – The Heart of Saturday Night

2. San Diego Serenade – The Heart of Saturday Night

3. Tom Traubert’s Blues – Small Change

4. The Piano Has Been Drinking – Small Change

5. Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard – Blue Valentine

6. Blue Valentines – Blue Valentine

7. Christmas Card From A Hooker in Minneapolis – Blue Valentine

8. Frank’s Theme – Frank’s Wild Years

9. Way Down in A Hole – Frank’s Wild Years

10. 16 Shells From A 30.6 – Swordfishtrombones

11. Singapore – Rain Dogs

Side B

1. Rain Dogs – Rain Dogs

2. Goin’ Out West – Bone Machine

3. Black Wings – Bone Machine

4. Chocolate Jesus – Mule Variations

5. Filipino Box Spring Hog – Mule Variations

6. Make it Rain – Real Gone

7. Green Grass – Real Gone

8. God’s Away on Business – Blood Money

9. Flowers Grave – Alice

10. Just the Right Bullets – The Black Rider

11. Down There By the Train – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with jazz, country music is one of the few purely American musical art form. Just as the mighty San Joaquin is feed by the Tuolumne, Merced and Stanislaus rivers, country music is enriched by the tributaries of Gospel, Blues and American Folk. Both are made better for the inputs. Often described as the music of the poor, the illiterate and the dumb, I can’t be the only who thinks calling the songwriting ability of Hank Williams, Sr. ignorant is near the same as calling William Faulkner a hack, right? Are you feeling shades of Tom Petty’s “Southern Accents” ‘cause I sure am.

Before we dive too deep into this, drop me a comment below with your favorite country music track and tell me a little bit about it. If you’re not a fan of the genre, tell me why.

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“Country music is full of songs about little old log cabins that people have never lived in; the old country church that people have never attended,” the historian Bill C. Malone says in Ken Burns’ documentary Country Music. “But it spoke for a lot of people who were being forgotten, or felt they were being forgotten.”

Since its beginnings in the early 1920s, country music has been about both sides of the coin, the head and the tail. I’m can’t imagine it was his goal, but legendary OKeh Records producer Ralph Peer set this dichotomy in motion in 1927 when over a 24-hour period in a Bristol, Tennessee studio he recorded both Jimmy Rodgers, whose sound was the soundtrack of a Saturday night bender, and the Carter Family, whose hymns were the call that beckoned you to church service on Sunday. The sin and the redemption served up on a platter. Country music has always been a blend of nostalgia and newness, sentiment and sales, redemption and sin. But here’s the thing, country music is both U.S. and us, whether we chose to embrace it or not. Country is songs with stories for everyone, life’s little vignettes played out in 3½ minutes.

Country music played an important role in my life and the life of my family. Dad was a huge fan of both old school country and, what was at the time new, the Outlaw Country movement featuring such musical luminaries as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and others. While it didn’t make this mixtape, I can’t help but think of John Denver’s classic “Country Roads Take Me Home,” as an integral part of both my personal history and the story of my family. Mom was a singer growing up who often sang while she drove, all five of us of kids sat in the back just drifting off listening to Momma’s voice up front as she navigated the dark, snowy, Alaska roads. One of her favorites to sing was that John Denver track.

When my brother, Patrick, (@ChasingVinyl on TikTok) asked me to collaborate on a classic country mixtape, I jumped at the opportunity. Probably the biggest thing we had to hash out was who got to pick which song given our shared history. We did it though, a mix of songs from our past that for different reasons spoke to each of us while each track touching a piece of our family history drenched in classic country. What did we leave out? What’s track do you consider essential in a classic country playlist?

Give the Mixtape a listen!

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Side A - @ChasingVinyl

1. Poncho and Lefty – Willie and Merle: My love of classic country music starts with my father. This song reminds me of driving across the US as a young child as we moved from base to base. When we moved to Alaska, my parents made a massive drive starting in New Jersey, going to Texas, Kansas, California, and finally Washington state before shipping the Jeep Wagoneer to Alaska. On this trip, my dad had a CB radio installed. His handle was The Red-Headed Stranger.

2. Convoy – CW McCall: Another traveling classic for my dad and, frankly, a family favorite. All of us kids would sing this song when it came on.

3. Teddy Bear – Red Sovine: My dad made the playlists, and my mom did the driving. However, Dad always made sure to include songs my mother would like. This is one of those.

4. Give Me 40 Acres – The Willis Brothers: Another family favorite that was guaranteed to keep the kids entertained for a few minutes.

5. Jolene – Dolly Parton: As far as I am concerned, you can’t make a list like this without including Dolly. Another of my mom’s favorites, and dad always included songs for her.

6. Coward of the County – Kenny Rodgers: This one is all for me. I have always loved this song and suspect I always will.

7. Give My Love to Rose – Johnny Cash: I came to this song much later in life. I know my parents liked Johnny Cash, but I don’t remember them playing this one.

8. Me and Paul – Willie Nelson: When it comes to Willie Nelson, On the Road Again seems like the right choice. I think this song does a better job of conveying life on the road.

9. Tennessee Whiskey – Chris Stapleton: So, clearly not classic country. Despite this, the feel of this song fits so well.

10. The Race is On – George Jones: This was another family favorite and another one guaranteed to occupy the kids for a bit.

11. Is Anybody Going to San Antone – Charley Pride: This one fits so well, as we traveled to San Antonio multiple times to visit my grandparents.

12. Tulsa Time – Don Williams: Rounding it out is Tulsa Time. This is a salute to my brother-in-law, who jokingly yelled at a band to play this song for, according to my sister, the whole night. They never played it.

Side B - @TriggerHippie74

1. One Dyin’ And A Buryin’ – Roger Miller: A fox introduced me to Roger Miller, specifically Disney’s Robin Hood. As a youngin’ I couldn’t reconcile the two tracks but as I grew up the depth in simplicity of this song has always stuck with me.

2. Rockin’ Chair Money – Hank Williams, Sr: Coming home from my tour in Iraq this was one of the first songs that helped bring me back. I didn’t fight in every battle from here to the V-J day but Hank’s words helped me realize it was okay to sit down in my rocking chair and just take a break, I’d earned it.

3. Time of the Preacher – Willie Nelson: The Redheaded Stranger was one of the first records I bought when I started collecting vinyl as an adult – a direct result of my father’s love of this album. To this day I can still listen beginning to end and sing every note of this country masterpiece. Time of the Preacher introduces us to the story, brings us in and lets us know this isn’t going to be your typical story.

4. I’ve Always Been Crazy – Waylon Jennings: I would consider this one of my personal anthems with the title saying everything you need to know. Outlaw country played heavily in my families’ rotation and Waylon was one of Dad’s favorites.

5. Flowers on the Wall - The Statler Brothers: Most likely due to it’s inclusion in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction soundtrack, but I love this song due to its subversive happiness. It totally throws “This is fine” vibes and I love it so.

6. Sing Me Back Home – Merle Haggard; While Dad was a big fan of Merle and he was often played in our house, this one sticks with me due to some pickin’ and grinnin’ sessions in the hot dessert sands of Iraq. I was assigned to the 39^th Brigade Combat Team from Arkansas and about half-way through our deployment a regular cast of characters, including the Brigade Deputy Commander, would break out their guitars around our hooch and sing to anyone who would listen … boy oh boy did that group love them some Merle Haggard.

7. He’ll Have to Go – Jim Reeves: Soothing baritone voice, beautiful orchestrations, heart breaking lyrics, this song absolutely crushed my romantic heart as a little one and can still pull a tear or two from eyes with a bourbon or two in me.

8. The Chair – George Strait: See above about hopeless romantic. My wife always accuses me of being a cheesy romantic and growing up listening to lines like “Baby, do you think there’s a chance, that maybe later on I could drive you home, No I don’t mind at all. Oh, I like you too and to tell you the truth … that wasn’t my chair after all.” How did I have any chance? There’s a reason Tyler Sheridan’s character in “Yellowstone” remarks to Jimmy – “There’s three gods in Texas: the Almighty, Buster Welch and George Strait.”

9. Dixieland Delight – Alabama: During the mid-80’s Alabama was a thing, they were turning out hit after hit and every damn one of their songs was just fun. If Dad didn’t have a mixtape in the car radio, we sure as hell were listening to KIAK country on the A.M. radio dial and hoping this song would come on.

10. Old Hippie – The Bellamy Brothers: This one spans generations. I wouldn’t say it was in heavy rotation when we were growing up, but Dad owned it and occasionally he would play this record. Where it came into its own for me was one random day my oldest son, Kerouac, sent it to me on our Discord chat channel – “Think this one sums you up, Dad!” Been a favorite ever since.

11. Grandpa (Tell Me ’Bout the Good old Days) – The Judds: The very first time I heard this song I loved it, the harmony of mother and daughter, the steel guitar, the simple message. I saved up my one-dollar-a-week allowance and as soon as I could, got Mom and Dad to take me to Fred Meyer to buy the 45. Absolutely drenched in nostalgia, it’s probably easy to dismiss this one as saccharine and while I don’t take every word to heart, things like giving your word and meaning it and sticking around even when things get hard still resonate deeply with me.

12. To Beat the Devil – Kris Kristofferson: I knew I had to pair this one with John Prine’s Sam Stone. I mentioned earlier I’m a combat vet, some of my dearest friends made it home but didn’t make it soon after and a few Beat the Devil.

13. Stand By Your Man – Tammy Wynette: Country music gets an accurate knock for being overly white and overly male (there’s some growth in that area in the newer generation but not nearly enough) so it was important to me to include some of the strongest women voices in the genre. Patrick included Dolly so I thought it important to include Tammy and Loretta with their signature songs in this mix.

14. Sam Stone – John Prine: Deeply personal. There are days where I think John Prine must have known my Uncle Ron and modeled the character of Sam Stone after him. A Marine Crops Vietnam Vet, Ron was my personal hero growing up. Just as I feel like my brother compliments me, my Uncle Ron perfectly complimented my father and between these two men, I learned everything I needed to be a man in this world. Ron lost his battle with PTSD even as he tried his best to self-medicate and I miss him every day.

15. Coal Miner’s Daughter – Loretta Lynn: Champion of the common man, Loretta Lynn has been singing the songs of the everyday struggle for as long as her lungs could take air. While I chose this track to end this mix on a familiar note, perhaps “The Pill” would have been more appropriate. There was a time when country music was a protest genre filled with outlaws, activists, and misfits – Loretta was one of those wonderfully beautiful people.

Not to get to all crystal-hanging, hippie-dippie, but have you ever had a moment when it was just you, probably on the edge of sleep and from out of nowhere this feeling of everything is going to be ok came over you? Like you’d just channeled the Beta Band or something?

No? It happened to me – once.

Don’t ask me the date. You’d think I’d be able to recall the exact moment of such a profound happening, but I don’t. I vaguely remember it was the early to mid-90’s, somewhere in my early twenties. Just on the edge of slumber in my Oceanside, California apartment I suddenly had this overwhelmingly feeling – honestly based on nothing and out of nowhere – that everything was going to be ok.

The mid-90’s were a vibe (there’s a big reason those of us who lived it miss it so). Something was truly in the air – despite what some on the right would have you believe, Bill Clinton was bringing the economy out of its Bush-the-first induced doldrums, new homes were being built everywhere, Silicon Valley was still in its hyper-geek, no money phase, the internet was dial-up, and the radio was absolute fire. It didn’t seem to matter where you turned the radio dial, something good was coming through the speakers. This was the era of Nirvana, Sublime, Green Day, Alanis Morrisette, and the Smashing Pumpkins. In this era, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers didn’t suck. Alongside all of that was this tiny little scene coming from the U.K. making some of the most interesting music of the era.

Centered around the Southwest England town of Bristol, artists of the time were mixing hip-hop, dub, soul, jazz and electronic sounds to form a style that would later be branded trip hop. Like all good artists, the collection of musicians in the musical throes hated the label and yet it stuck. Just as no one in Alice in Chains or Nirvana used the word grunge to describe what they were doing, the artists of Bristol never uttered the words trip hop, that came from writer Andy Pemberton while describing DJ Shadow’s 1994 release “In/Flux” in Mixmag.

Trip hop captured the essence of mid-90s night life. Late-night excursions to coffee shops that stayed open until one or two in the morning as you came down from whatever Friday night chaos you got up to. Trip hop was driven by atmospheric downtempos, a hypnotic soundscape that got you home for the drive from San Diego to Oceanside. Its psychedelic feel inspired long-into-the-night conversations about the meaning of man, the state of the world or whatever philosophical musing you chose to meander.

So, whether you’re new to this beautiful genre or you’ve listened to it since its birth, we’ve created a mixtape that captures that vibe. If you are new, consider this an introduction and I highly encourage you to dig deeper. And for those of you fondly reminiscing about Portishead at the Roseland Ballroom, this will be a deep, warm hug. And don’t worry, it’ll all be ok. Did we leave something out? What’s your favorite trip hop track? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.

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Mixtape Madness, Vol. 2 – Trippin

Side A

• Trigger Hippie – Morcheba

• Le Voyage de Penelop – Air

• Hayling – FC Kahuna

• The Sensual Women – The Herbaliser

• Silicone – Mono

• Four Three – All India Radio

• Black Milk – Massive Attack

Side B

• Intro – The XX

• When I’m Small – Phantogram

• Hard Time Killing Floor – R.L. Burnside

• A Tribute to Monk and Canatella – Portishead

• Angel Eyes – WorldWide Groove Corporation

• Hell is Round the Corner – Tricky

• Marvin and Miles – Gare Du Nord

• Mirror Lover – Jam and Spoon featuring Dolores O’Riordan

• At the River Groove Armada

• Passion – Nightmares on Wax

• Lebanese Blonde – Thievery Corporation

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