Pretentious Mix Tapes I Made In High School

Under the Covers

This mix is about covers and also, refusing to get out of bed.

Why It’s Pretentious: This is my entry for last week’s Summer Mix Exchange Club Open To All No Girls Allowed!!!!. It’s designed for those Saturday mornings when you wake up refreshed up but just can’t convince yourself to get out of bed cause it’s comfy and where do you have to be anyway and how about let’s just relax and maybe sleep for a couple more hours and wait what, it’s noon now? Since it’s summer, this is pretty much every morning for me now.

JOKE. I work all the time.

Tracklisting and mix download after the jump.

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33. I’m Only Pretending, You Know

This mix is about when someone destroys your Horcrux and you have to figure out what to do with the remaining parts of your soul and you’re lost but also kind of hopeful.

Why It’s Pretentious: You guys! It’s The Little Bear’s birthday! You should pretty excited about this because a) she’s a lovely lady, b) she’s a fantastic artists, c) she’s playing my house show on Saturday. In her honor, here’s a mix that features “Be Happy,” off her Sexxtape split cassette with PUJOL. It’s my favorite numbered mix, but instead of describing it, here are quotes from my roommate to me to you:

“I listened to your mix. I liked it a lot. But then I listened to it again. And I’m sorry that you were sad.”

“Oh! That mix. There was this transition in there that was so good. I was like, did the song just change? I had no idea.”

PROTIP: THESE ARE THE KINDEST WORDS YOU CAN SAY TO A MIXTAPER.

Download: Right-click, save as.

Tracklisting and more downloads after the jump.

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dirty needles dirty knees (the fuzzed out love mix)

This mix is about what I assume it’s like to be a heroin addict in love but DON’T WORRY MOM it’s just an assumption okay? jeez.

Why It’s Pretentious: Every time I go on a trip, I have to make a mix first. (This could also be generalized as “every time I do anything or have any sort of feeling, I have to make a mix first.”) Especially when there’s a flight involved because when else are you allowed to just listen to music without any interruptions or anyone judging you for not “doing something important”? So when I found myself trapped in the basement during a tornado and faced with the impending need to pack for the next day’s flight, I knew there was only one thing to do: make a drug mix.

“This is not the first time I’ve made a mix about heroin,” I told our new roommate Morgan. And indeed it is not; the first one, which is pretty hard to live up to if I do say so myself, is an epic about a recovering heroin addict and his prostitute girlfriend told backwards. It’s just an assumption, mom. This one is a little less convoluted. It’s not even particularly about heroin or love. It’s more about the feeling of getting lost in fuzzy music— you know, the kind that Kurt Cobain would probably be into if he were still alive. (Although, what do I know? I was three at the time.) Yes, Kurt is featured, as well as a few of your other favorite 90s alternative bands. (Remember when “alternative” meant something? Me neither; I was three at the time.) Also making the cut: The Big Pink and Jeremy Buller doing half-remembered-nightmare covers of Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams” and Best Coast’s “I Want To,” respectively; Best Coast playing their own songs; and Jeff The B-Hood, who will be playing The End tonight for Freakin’ Weekend. The boys rarely do their thing here in Nashville anymore, so if you’re in town, you better get there and get there early. What’s that, you ask? Will I be there?

You bet your strung-out ass I will be.

Download: right click, save-as.

Tracklisting etc after the jump.

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