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"Mark of the Blue Man" mix tape
Last week I was having a conversation with a friend about the music I was listening to twenty years ago. As I recall, my favorite artists at the time were still Heart, the Police, Steely Dan, and Joe Jackson, with They Might Be Giants a relatively new favorite. I now feel compelled to dig into my box of audio cassettes to see if I can figure out what else I had back then… The Sundays' first album Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic was definitely still a favorite; oh, Pink Floyd of course!; Supertramp; Yes; I have a mixtape I made of some B-52s stuff on one side and TMBG on the other; and I think I'd gotten into the Sugarcubes by that point… I know I was listening to WFNX, WBCN, and Rock-101 (WGIR-FM), which is to say a mix of alternative, modern mainstream, and classic rock. The key bands for me at that point were probably Joe Jackson and They Might Be Giants, with the Police, Pink Floyd, and to some extent Heart still really important as well.
In any case, thinking about that older music reminded me of a mixtape I made for another friend in 1997. I believe it was the first mixtape I made for which all of the music came from CDs I owned, rather than copying from tape to tape. As a result, not only do I still have a copy of the mix on cassette—I always liked to keep a copy of the mixes I made—but also I was able to recreate the mix in a playlist in iTunes. I've only listened to the playlist once or twice since I recreated it a couple years ago, as I have so much new stuff to listen to. But that means when I do listen to it, I'm overwhelmed by the thrill of hearing that particular music again in that particular sequence, the memory of that time. As a result of that conversation last week, I played that mix again, and as I posted on Facebook, it's glorious.
The mix is called "Mark of the Blue Man", and it was made after taking a friend from work to see Blue Man Group in Boston. It was my third time attending the show, and as luck had it, I was chosen for one of the audience participation sequences, which involved one of the Blue Men rubbing some of his blue bodypaint on my cheek—hence the name of the mix. The opening track, "B'Boom" by King Crimson, was meant to evoke the drumming done throughout the show—Blue Man Group's album Audio didn't come out until 1999—and the final track, "Last Train to Trancentral" by the KLF, was also used as the climax of their show. In between, I included lots of songs I loved at the time by many of my then-current favorite artists. Notably, although I did include a song each by Joe Jackson and TMBG, I otherwise used nothing that I'd been listening to back in 1991, and most of the music (including the TMBG song I used) hadn't even been released then.
The first side is mostly on the goth-shoegaze-dreampop continuum, while the second side is basically pop-rock. I'll include the source album name in parentheses.
Side A
In any case, thinking about that older music reminded me of a mixtape I made for another friend in 1997. I believe it was the first mixtape I made for which all of the music came from CDs I owned, rather than copying from tape to tape. As a result, not only do I still have a copy of the mix on cassette—I always liked to keep a copy of the mixes I made—but also I was able to recreate the mix in a playlist in iTunes. I've only listened to the playlist once or twice since I recreated it a couple years ago, as I have so much new stuff to listen to. But that means when I do listen to it, I'm overwhelmed by the thrill of hearing that particular music again in that particular sequence, the memory of that time. As a result of that conversation last week, I played that mix again, and as I posted on Facebook, it's glorious.
The mix is called "Mark of the Blue Man", and it was made after taking a friend from work to see Blue Man Group in Boston. It was my third time attending the show, and as luck had it, I was chosen for one of the audience participation sequences, which involved one of the Blue Men rubbing some of his blue bodypaint on my cheek—hence the name of the mix. The opening track, "B'Boom" by King Crimson, was meant to evoke the drumming done throughout the show—Blue Man Group's album Audio didn't come out until 1999—and the final track, "Last Train to Trancentral" by the KLF, was also used as the climax of their show. In between, I included lots of songs I loved at the time by many of my then-current favorite artists. Notably, although I did include a song each by Joe Jackson and TMBG, I otherwise used nothing that I'd been listening to back in 1991, and most of the music (including the TMBG song I used) hadn't even been released then.
The first side is mostly on the goth-shoegaze-dreampop continuum, while the second side is basically pop-rock. I'll include the source album name in parentheses.
Side A
- "B'Boom", King Crimson (THRAK)
- "Stupid Song", Mistle Thrush (Super Refraction)
- "Iceblink Luck", Cocteau Twins (Heaven or Las Vegas)
- "Hundreds & Thousands", An April March (Lessons in Vengeance)
- "Graffiti", Throwing Muses (The Real Ramona)
- "It's All Like Today", Mistle Thrush (Super Refraction)
- "Goldmund", The Sonora Pine (The Sonora Pine)
- "Tomorrow's Tears", Cranes (Wings of Joy)
- "Jack in the Box", Elysian Fields (Bleed Your Cedar)
- "Discopolis", The Dambuilders (Against the Stars)
- "Flowereyed", Mistle Thrush (Silt)
- "Mission Drive", The Wonderstuff (Never Loved Elvis)
- "King of Spain", Moxy Früvous (Bargainville)
- "Battle of Who Could Care Less", Ben Folds Five (Whatever and Ever Amen)
- "Colin's Heroes", The Dambuilders (Encendedor)
- "Super-connected", Belly (King)
- "Carnival", The Cardigans (Life)
- "Sleeping in the Flowers", They Might Be Giants (John Henry)
- "Hello City", Barenaked Ladies (Gordon)
- "I'm Your No. 1 Fan", The Beautiful South (0898)
- "Steppin' Out", Joe Jackson (Night & Day)
- "Vertigogo", Combustible Edison (Four Rooms soundtrack)
- "Last Train to Trancentral", The KLF (The White Room)