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
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.
Rob Gordon would be proud of this mix. And spot-on truth about Ohio summers. Being born there in August, it is truly "comforting right now, but give it some time." Summer mixtape for me has to include Houndmouth "Sedona" for its summer sky nostalgia (and the screaming along at the end)... "remember when the neon used to burn so bright and pink (SO BRIGHT AND PINK!) A Saturday night kind of pink."
Why End of the Innocence. Although we did the right thing, there are something’s I want to forget. I pretty much avoid this song now.