The Collection Vol. 22 (Fall 1999)

Side A
Ricky Martin-Shake Your Bon Bon
Fiona Apple-Fast As You Can
Eve-Gotta Man
Beastie Boys-Alive
Smash Mouth-Then The Morning Comes
Limp Bizkit-Rearranged
Jimmie's Chicken Shack-Do Right
Q-Tip-Vivrant Thing
Santana feat. Everlast-Put Your Lights On
Marvin Gaye-What's Going On?
Radiohead-Paranoid Android
Sublime-Seed

Side B
The Beatles-Good Morning, Good Morning
Limp Bizkit-N2gether Now
Santana feat. Lauryn Hill and Cee-Lo-Do You Like The Way
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Californication
Smashing Pumpkins-Jellybelly
Fiona Apple-Slow Like Honey
Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg-Still D.R.E.
Static-X-Push It
Foo Fighters-Learn To Fly
Blink 182-All The Small Things
Korn-Falling Away From Me

When it comes to The Collection, I've always counted Vol. 6, Vol. 9 and Vol. 19 among some of my best. When I went back to those tapes, there was a warm sense of familiarity, as if I had just checked back in with an old friend. All my tapes are friends in one or another, but some you just remember more fondly.

I knew going into this project to expect good things from the mixtapes I just mentioned, but it had completely slipped my mind just how much I had enjoyed Vol. 22. Over these past few volumes, I had increasingly more control over the sound and direction of my mixes and now it had gotten to the point where more than one-half of a side was dictated by my CD collection instead of the radio (That run on Side B from The Beatles to Fiona? All me). All in all, I have to say there weren't any embarrassing moments on this one.

The Collection Vol. 21 (Summer 1999)

Side A

Juvenile-Back That Thang Up
Alanis Morrisette-So Pure
Chris Gaines-Right Now
Missy Elliott feat. Big Boi-All N My Grill
Red Hot Chili Peppers-All Around The World
Jamiroquai-Canned Heat
Metallica-Nothing Else Matters
Long Beach Dub All-Stars-Trailer Ras
LFO-Summer Girls
Mariah Carey feat. Jay-Z-Heartbreaker
Britney Spears-(You Drive Me) Crazy
Beck-Sing It Again

Side B

Radiohead-Airbag
Sublime-Garden Grove
The Beatles-Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
DMX-No Love 4 Me
The Roots-Table of Contents 1 & 2
Nine Inch Nails-We're In This Together
Lou Bega-Mambo No. 5
311-Come Original
Traffic-Dear Mr. Fantasy
Chemical Brothers-Music: Response
Limp Bizkit-Rearranged

I can easily tell this tape was made some time in August. With my birthday money, I went to North Riverside Mall and bought three CDs: Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication, Sublime's self-titled album and Radiohead's OK Computer. Along with Beck's Mutations, Jamiroquai's Synkronized, The Chemical Brothers' Surrender, Limp Bizkit's Significant Other (which I didn't purchase, mind you) and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, my CD collection was starting to grow. This became apparent in a big way, starting with Vol. 21 of The Collection.

The Collection Vol. 20 (Spring 1999)

Side A
The Beatles-Getting Better
Fastball-Out Of My Head
Redman-Let Da Monkey Out
Smashing Pumpkins-Muzzle
Sly & The Family Stone-Everyday People
The Jackson Five-ABC
Shawn Colvin-Sunny Came Home
Kid Rock-Bawitdaba
Live-The Dolphins Cry
Buckcherry-For The Movies
snippet of Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing"
Santana feat. Rob Thomas-Smooth
Smashing Pumpkins-Lily (My One & Only)

Side B
Mary J. Blige-All That I Can Say
The Cranberries-Linger
Sheryl Crow-My Favorite Mistake
Nine Inch Nails-Starfuckers Inc.
Blink 182-What's My Age Again?
Garbage-#1 Crush
Foo Fighters-Big Me
Christina Aguilera-Genie In A Bottle
Chris Isaak-Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing
Len-Steal My Sunshine
U2-Mysterious Ways
Kid Rock-Cowboy
The Beatles-A Day In The Life


I remember being in physics class and letting my lab partner look at one of the tracklists for my tapes (Vol. 9, to be exact) and her playfully giving her approval and disapproval one song at a time. To give you an idea of how our relationship worked, we sometimes flipped each other the bird in the hallways with straight faces initially and laughed about it right after. Her critique went something like this: "That's a cool one. That's cool. You put that on here? Hate that. They're cool. They're cool."

The one criticism she gave me that stood out was how random it was. "You can't follow up Cake with Barry White." Of course I can, I thought to myself! Only a passionate, open-minded, music-loving fanatic with taste as diverse as mine could stomach having genres crash into each other with very little care and gather enjoyment from it. My lab partner didn't know what she was talking about. I was being a typical defiant adolescent and just brushed it off.

Her words came back to me when I revisited this volume in the present day,

The Collection Vol. 19 (Summer 1999)

Side A
Jordan Knight-Give It To You
Crystal Method-Busy Child
Paul McCartney & Wings-Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
The Chemical Brothers feat. Noel Gallagher-Let Forever Be
The Guess Who-No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature
Puya-Oasis
Whitney Houston-It's Not Right (But It's Okay)
Trick Daddy feat. Trina-Nann
Moby-Bodyrock
Rammstein-Du Hast
Busta Rhymes-Gimme Some More
Busta Rhymes-Party Is Goin' On In Here

Side B
Outkast-Rosa Parks
Outkast-SpottieOttieDopalicious
Dave Matthews Band-Crash Into Me
Chamber Brothers-Time
The Beatles-Within You Without You
Rob Zombie-Dragula
Beastie Boys-Hey Ladies
Robbie Williams-Millennium
Limp Bizkit-Nookie
Sugar Ray-Someday
Bree Sharp-David Duchovny

I get a warm feeling whenever I look at the tracklist for The Collection Vol. 19, and not because of the season it was created in. It feels and sounds like home. My mind is so in sync with these tapes that whenever I hear one of these songs today outside of this context, I'm expecting the next tune on a certain mixtape to follow. Having said that, there were few surprised as I listened to this one because it was that big a part of me. The previous summer was defined for me by Vol. 6 and just by going off memory alone, I think this volume might have reigned over the summer of 1999 for me.

An update on the blog

Greetings to everyone. It has been a while since I've made a post on Mixed Reaction, mainly because I was busy with my other blog Hectic But Eclectic working on year end stuff for 2012, which I usually start preparing for in the fall. Along with life happenings in general, it was unfortunate that I had to keep putting off this blog. With things starting to slow down a bit, I should be able to update here at least once a month from here on out. There are way too many tapes in my possession to stop now and I look forward to sharing them all with you. Look for the first new post soon.