I make playlists every semester for my classes. These collections of songs are largely built from the ice-breaker/introduction discussion assignment I give to my students on the first day. I want to know what they listen to, what moves them, inspires them, sticks with them. And then I want to serve up songs during focused working time. With studio art classes at Mizzou lasting about 2 hours and 20 minutes, there’s plenty of time to get a vibe going. This way they can be both exposed to the things their peers love but also get the excitement of hearing their own personal deep cuts. I love the feeling of sharing some of my favorites with them, as well as discovering what “the youth” like today.

My interests in music are very eclectic, and that’s down to my exposure to so much variety through my students. But it didn’t start there. Below I am featuring a few of the most iconic Mix CDs I’ve been given over the last 25 years. I’m including Spotify playlists for each one. Go! Listen to them! In situations where the original song is not available on that platform I’m linking to YouTube videos.

I also want to shout out the amazing people who shared these four mixes with me. They are creative people and much cooler than I ever could be. I will link to some of their current projects. I’ll also talk about some of the tracks in each section and give some background on how these united groups of songs have stayed with me for a quarter century.

Ox-Bow 2001: DANCE, DANCE, DANCE – Eric May*

Created in 2001. Spotify link to this playlist.

1. Armand Van Helden – You Don’t Know Me
2. Folk Implosion – Nothing Gonna Stop The Flow
3. Outkast – So Fresh And So Clean
4. Outkast – Ms. Jackson
5. Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You
6. Beck – Beercan
7. Beastie Boys – Sabotage
8. Deee-lite – Groove Is In The Heart
9. Daft Punk – Around The World
10. Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank
11. Madonna – Ray Of Light
12. Groove Armada – I See You, Baby (featuring Gramma Funk) – Fat Boy Slim Edit
13. Daft Punk – One More Time

I had a fellowship at Ox-Bow for three months in the summer of 2001. It was a very important time for me. A lot changed in me. You can read about my experiences here.

Ox-Bow is a lot more institutionalized now. Back then, it was a true bohemian type situation. What happened at Ox-Bow, stayed at Ox-Bow. The vibe there was a hold over from the 60s and 70s in a lot of ways, and this was before the world was really turned on its head by the US response to 911. The internet was still new and slow, there was practically no social media, and almost no one I knew had a cell phone. It was just a different time. There was room to go a little wild as well as room to explore your own thoughts and perspectives.

One of the best things that we did at Ox-Bow was have intense, blow-out parties every weekend. The cohort of fellowship residents did work during the main part of the week (maintenance, housekeeping, kitchen duties, etc), so when we partied, we went hard. A large meeting tent would be raised in the central field, a few turntables would be installed, and speakers deployed. Then our resident DJ, Eric May (with help from others) would spin records and CDs deep into the Michigan night.

I discovered a lot of great music that summer (The Beta Band, AIR, Massive Attack) and fell more in love with acts I’d always liked (Mazzy Star, Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Cat Stevens). Most of that stuff wasn’t being played at the parties, though, as they’re a bit too contemplative and musically less conducive to drunken dancing and themed costumes. Hence, the mix we all left with was something closer to late-90s college party than artsy hipster fare.

We definitely burned some calories to these songs…

*Eric checked in with me about this mix – he mentioned in the comments that Mikey H. and Reid T. had a larger hand in crafting it than he did! Shout out to Mikey and Reid! Reid has gone on to an amazing career as a scenic designer and has an amazing portfolio of exceptional design work. Go check him out!

FHS’s Mix – Fred Sturkey

Created in 2002. Spotify link to this playlist.

1. Archers of Loaf – Scenic Pastures
2. Kitchens of Distinction – Railwayed
3. Drop Nineteens – Winona
4. Gang of Four – Cheeseburger
5. Gang of Four – Paralyzed
6. Talk Talk – Eden
7. Television – Marquee Moon
8. Kitchens of Distinction – Gorgeous Love
9. Kitchens of Distinction – Drive That Fast
10. King Crimson – Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part 1
11. Talk Talk – It’s My Life
12. Butch Walker – Hot Girls in Good Moods
13. HUM – Green to Me
14. HUM – The Inuit Promise
15. Kitchens of Distinction – Polaroids
16. Drop Nineteens – Kick The Tragedy
17. Drop Nineteens – My Aquarium
18. Kitchens of Distinction – Under the Sea, Inside the Sky

Fred Sturkey worked with me at Good’s of Evanston. I started overseeing shipping and receiving for the art and frame store a couple weeks after 911 and about 4 weeks after the end of my Ox-Bow residency. I’ve written about Fred a bit before, and was very sad when he died in 2019. He was a high quality human, and was always happy to hold forth about music or politics, history or philosophy. Just a gentle, sweet guy.

This mix CD is one of the greatest gifts anyone has given me. This introduced me to HUM and Talk Talk and Kitchens of Distinction, three bands that have been in my life ever since. So different from one another, but totally unique and important. KoD is particularly interesting as a group from the late 80s/early 90s that championed the expression of queer relationships and perspectives. They did it in a matter-of-fact way, with a sense of imagery and poetry that draws the listener into shared human experience. I really love the texture of the guitar sound and the soaring vocals.

Structurally, the mix isn’t tracked perfectly, but it stands out for me purely because of the music it introduced me to. I’ll be forever grateful, Fred. RIP, sir.

The Art is Hard Mix – by Nikki Maloof

Created in 2004. Spotify link to this playlist.

1. The Starlight Mints – Submarine #3
2. Wilco – She’s A Jar
3. Appleseed Cast – Fishing The Sky
4. The Shins – They’ll Soon Discover
5. Mike Doughty – The Rising Sign
6. Rilo Kiley – It’s A Hit
7. Nick Drake – Northern Sky
8. Spoon – Anything You Want
9. The Long Winters – Scent Of Lime
10. Phoenix – Run, Run, Run
11. Owen – The Ghost Of What Should Have Been
12. The Smiths – Cemetery Gates
13. Badly Drawn Boy – Once Around The Block
14. Clem Snide – Better
15. Modest Mouse – Paper Thin Walls
16. Paul Simon – Mother and Child Reunion

Nikki is a successful artist who was also in the first drawing class I taught while in graduate school at Indiana University. She was dedicated, confident, and effortlessly cool. Those qualities have stayed with her as she built her career, had kids, and mounted major international shows of her work. She gave me this CD after we compared notes on music in that class, and she really got me hooked on The Shins, Spoon, and Nick Drake. An interesting combination of indie rock and mainstream(-ish) alt-pop, this mix is just a rich, comfortable listen. There are some great gems here, like Soul Coughing’s singer/creative engine Mike Doughty’s solo work in The Rising Sign.

The Close to Totality Mix – Tina Casagrand-Foss

Created in 2008. Spotify link to this playlist.

1. Yeasayer – 2080
2. Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer
3. Spoon – Bring it on Home to Me
4. Donovan – Celia of the Seals
5. Old Crow Medicine Show – Cocaine Habit
6. McLusky – Day of the Deadringers
7. The Pixies – Down to the Well (Peel Session)
8. Queens of the Stone Age – Someone’s in the Wolf
9. Sigur Ros – Fonklogi
10. Serge Franklin – KKK
11. Saul Williams – List of Demands (Reparations)
12. Blur – Out Of Time
13. Ugly Casanova – Spilled Milk Factory
14. Modern Lovers – Pablo Picasso
15. Ima Robot – Paint the Town Red
16. Kings of Leon – Pistol of Fire
17. Johnny Greenwood – Proven Lands
18. Tom Vek – That Can be Arranged
19. The Black Keys – Till I Get My Way
20. Radiohead – Idioteque
21. Miwa Gemini – Traveling Man
22. Foo Fighters – Stacked Actors

Tina has an amazing energy. She’s a true go-getter, someone who is actively working to make the world better. As the founder and managing editor of The New Territory, she’s forging a space for the stories of the people and places that make up the Midwest to shine. She was a stand-out in my classes way back when, and she’s always a treat to collaborate with. I have written for The New Territory and made artworks for the magazine, as well as spoken at the Missouri Scholars Academy, which is one of Tina’s favorite annual summer projects.

This mix is highlighted by driving, raging, bloody tracks like the Peel Session version of Down to the Well by The Pixies, Saul Williams’s – List of Demands (Reparations), Ima Robot’s intensely violent Paint the Town Red, and Pistol of Fire by Kings of Leon. There’s definitely some serial killer vibes going on in this mix, but interesting moments of calm are interspersed throughout (Donovan’s Celia of the Seals or Blur’s Out of Time). There’s a variety of attitude in this mix – some of it is very serious, or even anxiety-producing (Greenwood’s Proven Lands or Williams’s List of Demands) – while other songs are tongue-in-cheek or just hilarious (Modern Lovers – Pablo Picasso or Miwa Gemini’s Traveling Man) I like the range of time across the tracks, as well as the tension between related genres/styles.

It’s loaded with bangers, all-time classics, and deeper cuts that stand the test of time. I’ve kept bringing these songs into my classroom since the day Tina handed the CD to me!

The best part about these mixes is that they are palpable, physical artifacts made for me. Sure, we can listen to the music without the object, but the object is proof of something. It was there with me, and it was there with the people I mentioned. It shared space and time with us, and it travels along with us. The meaning is not only in the music, it’s in the fact of human interaction and sharing deeply human concerns.