Vixen's Mixens: From the Vault! Bitter Melodies/Birthday Mix

Much like garbage pick-up, this week I am running a day behind due to the Labor Day holiday. First of all, let me say that I had an “epic” weekend filled with my Ponies, their respective Stallions and one fantabulous Wedding joining two fantabulous people! As you can imagine, I am still recovering from the overdose of fab. Therefore this week I am reaching into my Mixen’s vault and hitting you up with a combo playlist: Bitter Melodies/Birthday Mix.

The first half is a Bitter Melodies mix that I made for my good friend Chrissy years ago – guessing from the songs it seems to be circa 2002. Chrissy has always been one of my biggest fans (see pic) – she totally encouraged me to keep making mixes and to get over my shyness and sing in public. I’m so sad she lives in another state – however I am super happy that she just married her soul mate this summer! Chrissy is extremely down to earth, strong, and fun - but she is definitely super empathetic. This mix was totes hand crafted for her – part upbeat, part melancholy but all good! Since Spotty does not have EVERYTHING (but close to) I had to make a couple substitutions from my original. The opening song should be Pee Shy’s Mr. Whisper but alas I had to choose another girlie rock tune from the 90s – thus the Veruca Salt Volcano Girls. The other substitution is a rarity from Weezer called American Girls that is sorely missed. Instead I stuck in another similarly themed Weezer tune Keep Fishin’. The last song of this mix is New Radicals Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough. Still bummed that the band never did anything after that album.

The second mix picks up at the Chemical Brothers Piku – a song that was definitely on numerous mixes of mine from that time period (looks to be from 2000). This Birthday Mix was made for a boy! A real boy! The first mix I ever made for a boy! We met through a mutual friend in Massachusetts but it was long distance and never worked out (besides the fact that I am pretty sure he was gay.) One of our few meetings included a birthday party for him, so what else would any decent girl with a crush, no money and a cd burner do but make him a mix!? So since I did not know him super well, this mix is more about me trying to “impress” him with my diverse (see Elton John, Aterciopelados) super cool hipster (see Portishead, Groove Armada) music taste. Looking back it was probably a bit too butch for him (see Smashing Pumpkins, Toadies). There are two substitutions in this section – Spotty does not have my fave Catherine Wheel album, “Adam & Eve” which has one of their best tunes Delicious so I had to go with their other equally passionate song Heal 2. Eric Hutchinson, who went to college with me (although we were not friends or anything – I was just a quasi-stalky super fan) only has his newer material on Spotty so I could not include the amazing old school track Slow Me Down from his self produced “Songs For Nagoya”. Instead I put on Back To Where I Was, which is equally enjoyable. Just to warn you, Hutch will make an appearance on the majority of my mixes ‘cause he is my boy.

Anyhow I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane. I will be returning to the vault again in the future but next week’s theme is “Just Drive” – great songs to listen to on the road. Send me your suggestions here or on twitter at @thomyorkesbadeye