From Houston, TX to Leeds, UK

Recently, I signed up to become a member of the International Mixtape Project, or IMP. It is basically a music exchange program that spans about 30 countries. Each month, you are assigned a member to whom you have until the end of that month to send a mixtape (or CD) of your own design. In turn, you will receive a new mix from a different member each month. I have not yet received my first mix, so I can't speak to the quality yet, BUT I am hopeful. They have a MySpace page; you should check it out.

My first IMP mix was going to be based around a concept I read about on Pitchfork a few months ago. It was an article on Meta-Music, which is basically any piece of music that recognizes itself as such and makes reference to its own nature. Rock, of course, is rife with examples of the meta. I intended to open the mix with Joe Strummer screaming "This is a public service announcement! With Guitar!" A fitting opener, I thought. Sort of establishing a conceit running throught the, now Meta, mix.

Alas, I ran out of time to collect and compile enough meta songs to fill out the mix. This is not, mind you, due to a dearth of meta. I was able to find a ton of majorly meta songs, even a few appropriate instrumentals, such as Public Image, Ltd.'s Lou Reed (parts 1 & 2). The problem was availability. I didn't have most of them on any albums, and was hard-pressed to find enough in mp3 form in time to send out the mix. Perhaps I will save the concept for a later date. FYI, local musician friends, I have plans to use some of your stuff on said Meta-mix. Linus Pauling Quartet will be gracing the ears of some lucky international music listener, providing the soothing sounds of Linus Theme.

Due to an inability to get my shit done, I defaulted to a very lazy method of mix-tape creation. The alphabetical survey:

IMP 001/December 2006
Disc One
Eye Shaking King/Amon Duul II
Tokyo/The Books
Guitar Trio/Rhys Chatham
Freak Scene/Dinosaur Jr.
Creature with the Atom Brain/Roky Erickson
Dark End of the Street/Flying Burrito Brothers
Cet air-la/France Gall
Mississippi/Half Japanese
Abominable Snow/Islands
Fly on the Wall/Jesus Lizard
Kashmere/Kashmere Stage Band
Multiply/Jamie Lidell
Aurora Borealis/Meat Puppets

Disc Two
Holland, 1945/Neutral Milk Hotel
UMA/OOIOO
Opaque/Powers of Light and Darkness
The Rhino/Quasi
Cigarettes and Coffee/Otis Redding
Cold Blooded Old Times/Smog
Catholic Education/Teenage Fanclub
New Madrid/Uncle Tupelo
Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam/Vaselines
Options R/Wire
Los Angeles/X
Sugarcube/Yo La Tengo
Rafiki/Zap Mama

I'll let you know what response I get, and whether or not the mix I receive is as bone-crushingly awesome as this one.