Pretentious Mix Tapes I Made In High School

Formative Years

This mix is by Miss Moss and is about growing up making tapes in the 90s.

Why It’s Pretentious: Sometimes, I think I was born a little late. I only caught the end part of the tape era, but that’s what’s always stuck with me— not CDs or miniDiscs or even iPods. This is the music I grew up on. Story goes, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the first song I ever danced to. I remember listening to No Doubt in Aventura Mall, the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Li’l Caesars, Beck in Michaelangelo’s Pizza. When my mom brought home The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and my dad introduced me to The Cure. This mix would’ve been right at home in my purple and yellow Pokemon walkman. In fact, I’m probably gonna tape it right now.

Download via Miss Moss.

Selections from “Theme Songs”

This mix is about me.

Why It’s Pretentious: In middle school, I had a very long playlist called “Theme Songs” that features songs that were CLEARLY WRITTEN ABOUT ME YOU GUYS. Since it’s from middle school, it a) doesn’t follow the theme of this blog and b) is even more angsty and bad than usual. (Please note how it starts with a song that is slightly sad and then jumps straight to a song about how I’m so much more awesome than you.) Obviously “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” makes an appearance, but strangely, there’s no Jenny Owen Youngs or Taking Back Sunday, which I find to be an incredibly inaccurate representation of middle school me.

Side Note: Moovers and Shakers has their Kickstarter up! If you read this blog and you’re like, wow, her taste is music is spectacular and I’d really love to help her dreams come true and maybe get one of her mixtapes mailed to me, THIS IS FOR YOU.

Tracklisting and 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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BACK2SKOOL

SENIOR YEAR SHRED EDITION

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