A Mixtape on the Spottersfy

I used to absolutely love making mixtapes. I still have a box of them in the garage. Whenever the band had a regional gig and a roadtrip was on the cards, we'd all have a new mixtape to play, and would fight over who got to play the first one. It was a great way to document the music you were listening to at the time, and to try and turn others onto something new, if they shared your carspace (it's a word!) or if you were in theirs.

The mixtape gave way to the burnt CD in 2000 for me, when we got a computer that could do so. I remember, with fondness, those nights when we would head into Planet Video in Mt Lawley to buy a 10 pack of blank discs.  The standard 80min audio CD morphed into the mp3 disc, which could hold around 70-80 songs. I still burn CDs nowadays, but at as much as I used to.

With the domination of music streaming services in this day and age, the mixtape is now a playlist. For me, I have been doing so for setlists of bands I have seen live. It's been nice to create a playlist on the Spottersfy of all the songs that were played on the night I saw them. Great to go back to a few months, or even years later.  

I think it might have been on our trip to Adelaide in January when the idea for this playlist hit me. I was listening to my iPod on the plane and had it on shuffle mode, as is my usual want. Radiohead's Everything In Its Right Place came on, and it's such a great headphone track. I got lost in the music and I think I even stopped reading and just listened. When it finished, Somewhere Down the Barrell by The Dissociatives kicked in, and it sounded great! It felt a natural flow, as if both songs came from the same album. I think that I Was Alive by the The Whitlams followed, and I felt that worked really well too! I took out my phone and noted those three tracks down. Bizarrely, the order the track were played in corresponded to their track number on the album they came from. They were all from the 00s as well!  

Lightning didn't strike again, and I forget what song came on next. I thought I had the beginnings of a fab concept for a playlist. Over the coming weeks, I spent time looking through albums from that decade and tried to find songs from track no.4 onwards. I tried to imagine how songs would feel as they finished, and the next one started. I endeavoured to cover a range of artists and music styles. 

I eventually decided on ending the playlist with O Children by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, which would make the total amount of songs needed to be seventeen. As most albums tend to be around 10-12 tracks, finding nos. 13-16 was a little more challenging, but I got there! Here is the playlist I ended up with:

1. Everything In Its Right Place RADIOHEAD (Kid A - 2000)

2. Somewhere Down the Barrell THE DISSOCIATIVES (The Dissociatives - 2004)

3. I Was Alive THE WHITLAMS (Little Cloud - 2006)

4. Van Occupanther MIDLAKE (The Trials of Van Occupanther - 2006)

5. In the Morning of Magicians THE FLAMING LIPS (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - 2002)

6. Fed and Watered JOSH PYKE (Memories & Dust - 2007)

7. It's All In Your Mind BECK (Sea Change - 2002)

8. Anchorage THE CHURCH (Untitled #23 - 2009)

9. Something About Us DAFT PUNK (Discovery - 2001)

10. Time BEN FOLDS (Songs for Silverman - 2005)

11. Cry a While BOB DYLAN (Love And Theft - 2001)

12. Come September NATALIE IMBRUGLIA (White Lillies Island - 2001)

13. End o' the Line YOU AM I (Dress Me Slowly - 2001)

14. Sgt. Major JET (Get Born - 2003)

15. You Can Broke a Beautiful Thing PAUL KELLY (Ways & Means - 2004)

16. Tell Me Baby RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS (Stadium Arcadium - 2006)

17. O Children NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS (Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus - 2004)

Interestingly, nothing from 2008, and quite a bit of Australian stuff. Only one female artist, which I'll keep in mind for next time. I think this concept might lend itself to more compilations and playlists. I also believe this will work better as CD than a playlist. The 76min running time will mean it will fit perfectly! If you're keen to have a listen, check it out by clicking here.