Latest &/or Greatest Mix: The Rules

Hipster's love mix tapes, um mix cds, um playlists...

While I love putting on a great album and listening to music in the controlled environment that an artist put out as a total package, there is really is something great about putting those songs into your own controlled package. The parameters have changed over time that controlled said mixes - first there was tape (2 sides limited length), next CDs (limited time) and now the age of I Tunes and the I Pod(unlimited). This evolution has created a strange freedom and, at the same time, a complex problem. To this hipster, the point of a mix is to hear certain songs, in an order, and at some regularity. A few months ago, however, I figured out I had fallen into the digital trap, found a new song, dumped it on my latest and greatest mix without editing it. One day though I realized, there was no order and even more disturbing, the mix had reached an insane length of 200+ songs, meaning I was either selecting particular songs off the playlist, or just putting it on random (which I admit, has its value). This was the moment that I decided to create some rules for my mix.

Now I have many mixes, just as any other hipster does, but I will focus on the "Latest &/or Greatest" mix. Here are the rules:
1. Must fit on a CD - since I hate radio where I live, and my car is not mp3 compatible it just makes since. Plus it is good to impose limits on yourself.
2. Must contain no more 7 "greatest" tracks. - Let's be honest, I want to listen to what is new and hip, but sometimes you need an old favorite to keep things familiar. These tracks consist of any songs from an album I own that is older than a year old.
3. The remainder must be made of the "latest" - The latest include tracks off cds I have yet to get or off an album I own that is less than a year old.
4. No more than 2 tracks from one artist

I update this mix at most once a week, at the least once a month (very, very rare).

My basic goal is share what the "Latest &/or Greatest" mix consists of at any time and do a write up of why I am adding a track to the mix.

Fine, I will give it to you. You've got the rules, so here's the current mix:

1. Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
2. How I Became the Bomb - Killing Machines
3. Vampire Weekend - Walcott (Insane Mix #2)
4. MGMT - Kids
5. Handsome Furs - Cannot Get Started
6. Wolf Parade - Call It A Ritual (+)
7. The Control - Black Madonna (+)
8. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #2 (Laika) (*)
9. Antenna Inn - Ernest Brognine
10. Hallelujah the Hills - Wave Backwards to Massachusetts (*)
11. These United States - First Sight
12. Rogue Wave - Lake Michigan
13. John Michael - Every Night of the Year
14. Lightspeed Champion - Dry Lips
15. Bishop Allen - Like Castanets
16. Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have To Leave It
17. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away (*)
18. The Strokes - New York City Cops (*)
19. The Meligrove Band - Everyone's A Winner (*)
20. John Michael - Not Much to Say
21. Antenna Inn - Stockholm Syndrome

So obviously, or maybe not so obviously, the * above stands for "Greatest." The + is the most recently added tracks (which there are two) which I will start off the addition blogs with this weekend.

Hopefully you kids like this, if not, oh well they're my mixes anyway.