The Chill Mix

Being born at the tail end of Generation X was truly a pleasure...I grew up with audio cassettes that you could throw, drop, scratch, accidentally unwind...and they would still play.  The audio world was our playground.  We would tape off of the radio and pass the recordings to one another as personalized representations of what we thought (or at least what we thought was cool).  We'd tape from LPs too, just to show how truly awesome our music collections were.

Music is an escape and recharge from the regular world for me.  It almost always has been.   During the drive this weekend, I relaxed into the buttery bliss of Gretchen Parlato, and got revved about the drive by listening to Everything But the Girl, The Lemonheads, Ravel, and Jurassic 5. You can take the girl away from audio cassettes and into the 21st century...but you can't take the mix tape bliss out of the girl.

As I returned to work this morning, I listened to a favorite mix.  I've created a four-and-change hour long iTunes playlist called "The Chill Mix." It puts my mind in an incredibly happy space and allows for good, calm work.  In case any of you are interested, this is the list:

Sodade Cesaria Evora Sleeping Where I Want Veruca Salt The Trapeze Swinger Iron & Wine Fell In Love Moxy Früvous Post-Modern Sleaze Sneaker Pimps Train Song Phish Wild Horses The Sundays Comes Love Joni Mitchell Rain MIKA Talula (The Tornado Mix) Tori Amos Catch Me I'm Falling Pretty Poison When I'm Alone Lissie Honest Face Liam Finn + Eliza Jane Better Off Let's Go Sailing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing Jars of Clay It's About Time The Lemonheads Pod Party Trevor Jones Money Can't Buy It Annie Lennox Carrier Tone Download Pleasant Valley Sunday The Monkees The Other End (Of the Telescope) 'Til Tuesday Sunday Morning Yellow Sky October Project Nightingale Song Toad The Wet Sprocket Baby Love Child [L.A. English Mix] Pizzicato Five Saturday Sun Nick Drake Gave It Away Kris Delmhorst Sapphire Bullets Of Love They Might Be Giants Blame It On the Tetons Modest Mouse Clint Eastwood (Edited Mix) Gorillaz Recreational Chemistry moe. Lyssa Craig: Untitled Various Grace (Vocal) Yo-Yo Ma;Bobby McFerrin Better Together Jack Johnson Everything In Its Right Place Radiohead The Blackbird [Live] Silly Wizard Holding Back The Years Gretchen Parlato Raindrops + Sunshowers Smashing Pumpkins We Get On Kate Nash Fleurette Africaine Duke Ellington Carry Me Home Murmurs Caramel Suzanne Vega Here With Me Dido Church On Tuesday Stone Temple Pilots My Friends Red Hot Chili Peppers You You You You You The 6ths Skin, Bone & Silicone Susan Enan I Wanna Be Sedated Ramones No Such Thing John Mayer Say Yes (Instrumental) Wax Tailor The Golden Age Beck Great Divide Storyhill Where Is My Mind? Pixies Dead Man's Hill Indigo Girls Andalucia Pink Martini You Are Here That Dog The Stable Song Gregory Alan Isakov Sunflower Low Hall Of Mirrors Siouxsie & The Banshees Vox Sarah McLachlan Take Me Home Lisbeth Scott, Nathan Barr We Do What We Can Sheryl Crow Our Trees Tegan & Sara After Hours The Velvet Underground Mirrorball Everything But The Girl Price Tag (feat. B.o.B) Jessie J Young Folks Peter Bjorn and John Ashes of American Flags Wilco Shriner's Park Melissa Etheridge Tears Rush Take the Money and Run Steve Miller Band