The Challenge!

This weekend I was out at a bar in Brooklyn, and as sometimes happens on a Saturday night in a hip town, there was a hip DJ playing semi-ironic music. As the night progressed, she put on a song by the incomparable group The Specials, a song called, "A Message to You Rudy". As a former ska kid with a "checkered past" (I swear I coined that term first), I immediately perked up. I flashed back to high school and the old "AZ Ska" crew the ranged from your a-typical "third-wave" kid (who loved Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, The Hippos), to a handful of two-tone rude girls and boys, who listened almost exclusively to vinyl and artists like Desmond Dekker and Prince Buster.


It occurred to me that I first heard the song because of my friend Jacob who made me a "Ska Mix" around senior year. There were only a handful of us "music kids" at my high school, and we all immediately gravitated towards each other. Back then I was legitimately walking around with a walkman and a lot of these friends and I would exchange actual cassette tapes, including this one (although I can't remember what I gave him) He organized the songs chronologically, documenting the highlights of the history of ska.


I'm sure there's a whole breakdown of the history somewhere on the internet, but I feel like I learned more from that recorded music lesson than any words can try to explain. Not only do you learn a lot about music, but you learn a lot about the people who make these kinds of mixes. A lyric that kept ringing through my head as I was working through this idea is from Jimmy Eat World's "Night Drive", where he sings:


"Now's the right time for a good song. Get something to say what I can't." 


So here's the challenge! Inspired by this memory and in need of a breath of fresh air in my currently stale music world - I want to find a group of about 20 - 30 people, in NYC or otherwise, to exchange mixes each month and document them. I want the mix maker to write about why they chose the music, and the mix receiver to write what they think. This can be a random collection of songs, or maybe something with a theme (ie - "Fall Mix") I chose this blog title because of the ever so poignant Wikipedia description of "multitrack recording", which is:


"Multitrack recording (also known as multitracking) is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole."
It's sort of emo, it's sort of literal and sort of a metaphor. Perfect!

So now that all that is out of the way, here are the rules: 

• Each participant will need to create ONE mix consisting of TWELVE songs each month starting in October 2010, arriving the first week of the month.
• Although ideally a cassette is more fun, realistically no one has cassette players anymore. For that reason, despite all the "tape" references, it will need to be burned on a regular ol' CD-R.
• You MUST put in the regular mail - NO digital exchanges. Remember how fun it is to get something in the mail? And hold a mix CD in your hand? Exactly. 
• Each member must post something between the 1st and the 15th about what the mix is about or why the tracks were chosen. 
• Each member then needs to write a post between the 15th - 30th (or 31st) about the mix they received. 
• An e-mail with the recipient's address will be sent by the 25th of each month. 
• You must be okay with a possible stranger having your mailing address. I will be keeping a data base and sending out to the exchangees as needed when it's your turn to send. Think of it as a pen pal! 
• You have to be serious about this  and  be able to commit to the time/resources to do this. This will only be fun if everyone participates and no one is left out. If you make a mix for someone that doesn't send you something back, that's a super bummer. 

So there's that. Obviously as things go along, a few rules might be changed or added based on how things play out. 

Alright! If you're interested, please send me an e-mail to ashleyeharris@yahoo.com with the following info:

Name:
City:

Mailing Address:

Favorite Band:

All Time Favorite Album:

All Time Favorite Concert:

Make sure you're sending from an e-mail you use often, because I'll use wherever you send from as the main contact. I'm going to try and turn this all around for October, so I will contact all participants by the last week of September. Start compiling the songs! 

Anyway, this could be a Diet Coke induced dose of crazy, but I think it might work. I'm excited to see what people send out and why and discover some great new music in the process. That's what it's all about , right?

Exactly.