The DAILY MOTH

To BABY GIRL (whoever you are)

I think it was when I first heard Paul and Linda McCartney’s Ram album, specifically the song “Ram On,” that I became highly interested in sweet love songs with a heavy dose of whimsy and playfulness.

From there, I collected a number of songs with a similar mood and appeal, and eventually made a mix, with the idea to give to a certain sweet someone. I never did, so here it is.

I wanted it to get bigger and louder at the end, and also to keep it short (and sweet). I also wanted to put Biff Rose on a mixtape. And end with a song as good as “Mexican Blue.” I think it’s a good listen.

The songs: Arthur Russell: “Close My Eyes” — Born Ruffians: “Little Garcon” — Paul and Linda: “Ram On” — Biff Rose: “To Baby” — The Concretes: “Foreign Country” — Samamidon: “Head Over Heels” — Hot Chip: “Baby Said” — Dia Joyce: “Sleep A Million Years” — Beirut: “Scenic World” — Jolie Holland: “Mexican Blue”

The SAINT of GETTING-USED-TO-IT

I’ve always used music as a way of thinking about mood, tone, and subject matter in the films that I’ve made. While I haven’t always used the music in the actual soundtrack of the film, there is often a very specific set of songs or artists I’m listening to while I’m writing, working on-set, or editing a work.

Recently I began working on a screenplay (I use that word loosely) for a new film that I want to make, while simultaneously began listening to a lot of old gospel and blues music, and contemporary noise and folk that is directly influenced by that.

Since it was clear to me that both were related, I put together a mixtape that I could give to others as way of introducing, on a sonic level, where my ideas were for the film.

Included here as well: Dean and Britta’s dreamy takes on both a Donovan song, and a Buffy Saint-Marie classic; Andrew Bird’s song version of a Galway Kinnell poem with incredible imagery; and the first three songs to Cat Power’s “Jukebox,” which I spent a lot of time with that summer, and which also hold a unique space in their acoustic detail.

The tracklist:

This is an HISTORICAL DOCUMENT

When I lived in Milwaukee, I decided to start a personal mixtape project.

I had previously thought of mixtapes to be primarily of romantic trapping, something teenagers made to impress girls or boys they were interested in. But around this time, I realized this was a rather limited viewpoint of something I obviously loved doing.

At the same time, two of my closest friends were living in a different city, and making a mixtape was a good way to trade ideas about music we were listening to and discovering. Thus, I began the HISTORICAL DOCUMENT CD series that lasted about five years and 13 editions. The series idea allowed me to also produce a design-oriented object, as well as develop a certain cohesive typographic style to tie it all together.

Although I started the project for just two people, and began with making only one copy, it was around the fifth edition that I become printed up a handful of them, and handing them out to friends and various people I knew. It become more of an artistic project eventually, and with this sixth edition from March 2004 (yes, I dated them all), I think I started to really get the swing of it—in terms of making each mix a personal statement, a sonically adventurous yet focused mix, as well as an art object.