In the tradition of the past two years (see: Feb. 2024: “Music in the Key of Love” and Feb. 2025: “Love is Not a Gadget”), I made a love-themed February mixtape from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I taped over the artwork.

This mix started when I heard the Teddy Pendergrass cut on a Confucius Jones-helmed episode of KUTX’s “Old School.” (Every Friday at 5PM I turn on 98.9 and fix a cocktail while Meg is putting the pizzas in the oven.) I thought it would be a great title for a mixtape, and then I found this photo of George Foreman knocking out Ken Norton in an old NYTimes and the clipping was the perfect size for cassette artwork.

I’d originally planned to start side B with Rick James’ “Give it to Me Baby,” but decided to take a smoother route. (This is, by the way, some of my favorite music ever made.)

SIDE A

– teddy pendergrass, “love TKO”
– barry white, “I’m gonna love you just a little more, baby”
– bill withers, “use me”
– isley brothers, “don’t say goodnight”

SIDE B

– the spinners, “I’ll be around”
– bobby womack, “woman’s gotta have it”
– al green, “I’m so tired of being alone”
– d’angelo, “another life”
– curtis mayfield, “the makings of you”

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube

Here’s the first mixtape of 2026! Made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I taped over the artwork.

This one gave me a little trouble. Back in December I texted a friend, “I’ve been building a whole December/January mixtape around the [Destroyer] song “kaputt” — real icy shjt like Cocteau twins, Roxy, cate le bon — will send it to you when it’s done.”

I had Cate Le Bon’s song “Love Unrehearsed” as the leadoff track, but then Walter Martin played “About Time” at the end of one of his shows and I decided to switch. Then I got to thinking about winter and how much I wanted to smoke a cigarette out in the snow and decided to put Mac Demarco on there.

One thing leads to another. Every time I try to make these mixes more conceptual or abstract (“icy pop songs with chilly fender guitars through chorus pedals”) I freeze up. But if I just start with a good leadoff track and think to myself, “What do I want to hear after this?” the mix just sort of makes itself.

I’m convinced this is also true of writing: if you start with big, conceptual, abstract ideas about what you want the piece to be, it’s easy to freeze. But if you just start with a good sentence and ask yourself, “What comes next?” the thing builds itself.

SIDE A

– cate le bon, “about time”
– mac demarco, “ode to viceroy”
– peter tosh, “legalize it”
– diana ross & the supremes, “reflections”
– tubeway army, “are friends electric?”
– king tubby, “straight dub”

SIDE B

– cocteau twins, “cherry-coloured funk”
– wye oak, “the tower”
– destroyer, “kaputt”
– the smile, “the smoke”
– rolling stones, “waiting on a friend”

You can listen to the mix on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

This is the 27th mixtape I’ve made in the past few years. The big 2024-2026 playlist list is over 20 hours long!

Filed under: mixtapes

Here’s another new monthly mixtape made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I taped over the artwork.

I actually snapped the tape while playing this mix back, but I managed to fix it (maybe only temporarily) with some transparent tape and an x-acto blade. Old school!

This mix exists because I wanted to build a tape off of the Time Out of Mind outtake version of Bob Dylan’s “Mississippi,” which is sort of what this November feels like to me.

Everybody movin’ if they ain’t already there
Everybody got to move somewhere
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow
Things should start to get interesting right about now

It’s weird when you make a mix in early November, because there are still Halloween vibes floating around. Very autumnal.

There are two Geese songs on there because I love those kids. I won’t gush again like I did a few weeks ago, but Meg and I saw them live last week and they were great. A band that can pull off covering The Stooges and New Radicals? Hell yeah.

side a

– Dylan, “Mississippi” (Time out of Mind outtake)
– Geese, “Cowboy Nudes”
– Donovan, “Get Thy Bearings”
– John Holt, “Ali Baba”
– The Magnetic Fields, “I Think I Need A New Heart”
– Toots & The Maytals, “Let Down”
– Jeremy Steig, “Howlin’ for Judy” (chopped by the end of side one)

side b

– Van Morrison, “Dweller on the Threshold”
– Velvet Underground, “I’ll Be Your Mirror”
– Sonny & The Sunsets, “ Green Blood”
– Geese, “Au Pays Du Cocaine”
– Grateful Dead, “Friend of the Devil”
– Cowboy Junkies, “Sweet Jane”
– Michael Hurley, “O My Stars”

I kind of like how sort of obvious side 2 gets. I think mixes get better sometimes when you stop being clever and just put songs on there you’d listen to a million times over, like when you were fifteen and making a mix.

You can listen to the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

Filed under: mixtapes

Here’s another new monthly mixtape made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I taped over the artwork. (Faith Hill’s Breathe.)

This one is kind of a sequel to “The October Country,” except I wanted it to kind of capture the misery of October in Texas — a dusty, hot October Country of torture, where you watch everyone else enjoy Autumn while Summer continues to rage.

I also wanted it to be just a little bit spooky and in the minor key, since it’s spooky season and all.

SIDE A
— The Stooges, “No Fun”
— The Kinks, “Nothin’ in This World Can Stop Me Worrying About That Girl”
— Althea & Donna, “Uptown Top Ranking”
— Joy Division, “Isolation”
— Suicie, “Ghost Rider”
— Frank Ocean, “Ivy”
— Mazzy Star, “Fade Into You”
— The Castaways, “Liar, Liar”

SIDE B
— The Make-Up, “Grey Motorcycle”
— Desmond Dekker, “Fu Manchu”
— Marty Robbins, “They’re Hanging Me Tonight”
— Outkast, “SpottieOttieDopaliscious”
— The Slits, “I Heard it Through The Grapevine”
— The Pixies, “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)”
— The xx, “Infinity”

Side A of the actual mixtape ends with a line from Ian McKellen reading The Odyssey:

…the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,
the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun
and the Sungod wiped from sight the day of their return.
Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
start from where you will—sing for our time too.

And Side B ends with the first lines of Giamatti’s ode to baseball, “The Green Fields of the Mind”:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.

You can listen to the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

Filed under: mixtapes

Here’s another new monthly mixtape made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents. I tape over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I tape over the music and then I tape over the artwork.

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!

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

Filed under: mixtapes