I love mixtapes (I say 'mixtapes' but I mean 'mixdiscs' 'mixtapes' just sounds better). I used to make them for myself and my friends all the time. I always loved taking time to get a mix properly sequenced so that there was good flow from song to song. Or if there was an overarching theme I would scour the racks of cd's looking for the perfect song. I enjoyed it. I still do it but not as often. I always make a year-end Best Of, for instance, but the 3-4 other mixes a year I used to do have given way to kids and other grown up stuff.

I also like getting new mixtapes. There are lots of very cool mixes all over the internet if you're willing to look. I download them all the time but I have a problem with them, generally. They're too long. I love looking for new music and these mixtapes are a great way to find it but a 14- or 15-song disc of songs by different artists that I have never heard of is just too much for me to get into in one bite.

That's why I came up with the idea of a 'Nice 6' downloadable mix. It's just a e.p. worth of tunes, a snack of sound. And since it's just 6 songs I can update it more often than an album-length monthly mix.





More music cleanout for your ears. Nice 6 #9 is a guitar-obsessed mix. Electric guitar, specifically, with some special attention paid to pedals and effects. These were great songs to drive around to at the end of the summer, once the brutal heat was gone but before it started getting dark before 8pm. Enjoy it before the hard frost sets in. And enjoy it quick, once I start posting these things the next one is never far away.

Email me if you'd like a copy of the Nice 6 #9 .zip

1) Let's Kill Ourselves -- The Ponys
2) Tattooed Love Boys -- The Pretenders
3) This Is Our Emergency -- Pretty Girls Make Graves
4) Cuts Across the Land -- The Duke Spirit
5) Crush With Eyeliner -- R.E.M.
6) Hearts of Oak -- Ted Leo + Pharmacists



That bobo Nice 6 image is fitting because this mix was supposed to go online 2 (3?) months ago (and even then it was late). I'm actually not even going to bother posting it, but I will tell you about it. I wanted to make a snapshot mix of what I was listening to so if it seems like it's all over the place, that's why. Jeez, I can't even tell you to enjoy it. Sorry, dogz. New Nice 6 coming tonight.

feel free to email me if you want a copy of the Nice 6 #8 mix

1) Harlem -- Bill Withers
2) Click Click Click Click -- Bishop Allen
3) Galaxies -- Laura Veirs
4) Strange Desire -- The Black Keys
5) What's The Altitude Featuring Hymnal -- Cut Chemist
6) Sleep Sandwich -- Elvis Perkins



I run into the same funny looks when I am listening to loud punk music that I get when I am listening to booming hip hop. I'm a white, 30-something suburban father of 2. I am the exact opposite of the images this music conjures up. And that, in my mind, makes me just punk rock enough to get away with it. In my mind.
These are all straight-up punk rock songs. Not poppy or necessarily work-safe (especially the Fear song). Please, enjoy responsibly.

feel free to email me if you want a copy of the Nice 6 #7 mix

1) You Drive Me Ape - The Dickies
2) Wild About You - The Saints
3) I Wanna Be Your Dog (original John Cale Mix) - The Stooges
4) I Love Livin In The City - Fear
5) Hyena - Rancid
6) London Girls - The Vibrators



Baby, it's hot outside. I plan on taking the advice of the immortal EPMD who told the world "You Gots To Chill".

I am here to help by offering a Nice 6 mix of the most-chilllingest songs I could find. I recommend finding a quiet, cool corner of your house (preferrably with a pile of your relaxtion-inducer of choice) where you can just be for a while. Enjoy the gauzy/spacy/fuzzy guitars and remember to think cool thoughts.

feel free to email me if you want a copy of the Nice 6 #6 mix

1) Man Called Sun (live) - Verve
2) Feels So Good - Spacemen 3
3) Gl—s—li - Sigur R—s
4) Then I Just Drifted Away - Spectrum
5) Summertime Rolls - Jane's Addiction
6) One In 7 - Engineers



Sweet Mercy! I do love soul music. Nothing gets my feet moving like it (and if you've seen these feet of mine you know that's no small process). With the advent of the crate-digging DJ and his lust for never-heard breaks we, the soul-starved listeners of America and the world, now get to listen to great singles by long-lost Soul acts that recorded on tiny regional record labels. There are whole labels (Now Again and Numero Group are two good ones) dedicated to distributing and promoting music that was never heard outside of a 50-mile radius from where it was recorded. It's kind of an amazing thing.

Email me if you'd like a copy of the Nice 6 #5 mix
1) Bui Bui - L Hollis And The Mackadoos
2) Looking For My Baby - The Emperors
3) The Funky Buzzard - James Bell & The Turner Brothers
4) Bra - Cymande
5) Color - L.A. Carnival
6) Itch And Scratch (Part 1) - Rufus Thomas




Email me if you'd like a copy oft he Nice 6 #4 ALL RFTC zip

Rocket From the Crypt is, without hesitation, one of my top 3 all-time favorite bands. It's the band that got me excited about going to concerts and for that I will always be thankful. They played their final concert last Halloween so this Nice 6 is dedicated to them. I didn't make it to the show but I found a decent mp3 of it online and I'm eagerly awaiting the DVD of the show that (I think) comes out this Summer. They also gave me my #2 best concert moment:

I had read (in Spin of all places) about a band, Rocket From the Crypt, from San Diego that was supposed to be hot shit in concert. Almost coincidentally, RFTC was scheduled to play at Twisters (now the Nanci Raygun) like 2 weeks later. So my buddy Chris and I went down to check them out. At the time, Twisters used to play the absolute worst music ever between bands. It was all bad nu-metal before there was nu-metal. Just loud crap. So we're standing there in the club and it's starting to get full but we had staked out pretty good spots in the middle of the floor in front of the stage and we're suffering through whatever the hell was blaring over the PA.

All of a sudden my personal space gets invaded by these guys that look like some kind of greaser car club (matching coats, slicked back hair, excellent sideburns) who rolled into town to see the band. Almost at the same time the music changes from the ususal dreck to James Brown's 'Sex Machine'. The car club dudes start dancing with girls in the crowd like they're at a sock hop. I had no idea what was happening. Then the guy who looked like he was King Greaser started pouring beer on the floor so he could get a good James Brown-style shoe slide going. After another minute the whole crowd was into it, 200 people dancing and moving to classic 60's funk at a punk rock show. It officially crossed over into 'surreal'.


Then the car club boss throws his hands in the air and yells, "You Ready!" and of course we all yelled "yeah!". He asked again, and we got louder, and then louder again. And the he goes, "Okay! Let's Play!" and he and the rest of the car club toss off their jackets and jump on the stage.

And that was how I met Speedo and the rest of Rocket From the Crypt.

1) Middle - from Scream Dracula Scream
2) Don't Darlene - from Circa: Now
3) Straight American Slave - from Group Sounds
4) Boychucker - from All Systems Go
5) Jumper K. Balls- from All Systems Go
6) I'm Not Invisible - from Live From Camp X-Ray



I'm a big fan of electronic music, too. The DJs that create those soundscape albums, especially. DJ Shadow is one of my all-time favorite artists. Homeboy makes cool-sounding music. The NOBODY song on the mix is a cover of an amazing Zombies song that some of you long-time readers might remember me blathering about a while back.
I also slid a couple of up-tempo numbers in there. Kish Kash was a great, great album that slipped under my radar when it first came out. If you like to dance it's worth a iTunes sampling. 'Tribulations' got stuck in my head because it's on the PGR3 soundtrack. I still don't get tired of it. And that Chemical Brothers song has a killer killer killer organ loop that, now that I have played it again, will be stuck in my head for a month. Enjoy

Email me if you'd like the Nice 6 #3 .zip.

1) This Will Be Our Year - NOBODY
2) Little Fluffy Clouds - Orb
3) Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul) - DJ Shadow
4) Cish Cash (Featuring Siouxsie Sioux) - Basement Jaxx
5) Tribulations - LCD Soundsystem
6) Get Up On It Like This - Chemical Brothers



Mmmm, beets. Nice 6 #2 is all about them. It was a lot harder than I thought to put together a tight hip-hop mix because there is so much I have that I want to share with you. All of these guys have sick, sick flow and the beats are frosty cool. If the beats+rhymes ar generally not your bag this mix could be perfect for you. From hometown hero Skillz repping RVA to Brooklyn's Guru, all of these cuts are choice. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Email me if you'd like a copy of the .zip of mix #2.

1) Gang Starr - B.Y.S
2) Aceyalone - All For U
3) De La Soul feat MF Dooom - Rock Co.Kane Flow
4) The Perceptionists - Career Finders
5) Mr. Lif - Status
6) Skillz - Skillz vs. Shaqwan


Nice 6 - #1 is a happy coincidence. I had started an iTunes playlist for songs that turned up during shuffles that I wanted to listen to again. Eventually, these 6 songs made it into that playlist and I thought they sounded great together.

Email me if you'd like a copy of the .zip of the 1st mix.

1) The Comas - Oh God
2) Quarks - I Walk (Superpitcher Schaffel Mix)
3) Feist - Mushaboom
4) Grizzly Bear - Owner Of A Lonely Heart
5) Beth Orton - Heart Of Soul
6) The Stone Roses - Straight To The Man