Mix making, along with list making, is one of my obsessive quirks. Back before MP3s and massive digital collections I used to labor over copies of CMJ and Revolution attempting to boil their respective bonus CDs down to the best cuts that would fit in 90 minutes. Piles of back issues would be strewn about the floor as I wrote and re-wrote list after list, listening intently for the best flow before I would commit it to tape. I loved the process but since I now carry some 3000 songs around in my pocket and listen to more albums than singles those long afternoons and nights are gone. The closest I come today is making mixes for friends and family members where I will think long and hard about what I have heard them talk about and what corollaries and parallels can be found outside their listening spectrum.

So here’s my mix for my brother-in-law who will be clocking in at 36 this month. He is a freak for garage rock, loving that raw slightly jangly guitar sound where the downbeat is always an approximation depending on how much the drummer or bassist has had to drink. I’ve gathered up some tracks from the albums I’ve reviewed her so far as well as some cuts from albums that I’ve enjoyed in the recent past. Also important to note that I made a mix that is less than 50 minutes in length as he doesn’t have the same love for the mega-mix as I do.

1. Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue - Hungry Ghost
2. The Black Keys - Hard Now
3. Friends Of Dean Martinez - Heart Of Darkness
4. Nervous Cabaret - Mel Gibson
5. Isobel Campbell And Mark Lanegan - Ramblin’ Man
6. Ocotoe Soul Sounds - Divinorum
7. Pinetop Seven - Heavens
8. Calexico - Lucky Dime
9. Sufjan Stevens - They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhhh!
10. Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
11. Doves - Sky Starts Falling
12. Don Caballero - Fire Back About Your New Baby’s Sex

Big nod has to go out to my man in Belgium for turning me onto Nervous Cabaret, tight stuff that I think the old man will enjoy.