Black Postcards

You can listen to this mix as you read about it. Try it--you'll like it!

The Story of My First Mix CD

Almost exactly 4 years ago, I found myself at a crossroads. I had just poured my whole entire self into an 8-month campaign for the State Legislature. I knocked on 19,000 doors, raised $140,000, put my family through a whole bunch of crap and lost big. I had put together a campaign staff of five wonderful people, two of whom had relocated from other parts of the country to work on my race. I wasn't the only person who had gone all out... they worked--sometimes harder than I did--to get me elected. And we lost.

As I reflected on my life, I realized that one thing I had left behind me was my zealous passion for discovering new pop music. Jay, our field director, and Jon, our consultant, shared my love of great bands. But they had stayed involved. They played me bands I'd never heard of before. They inspired me to challenge myself to make a mix--something I hadn't done in years. The last time I had made a mix was with my cassette deck. For me, 2004 was pre-iPod, and I didn't even know how to burn a music CD. My challenge rules were simple: make a mix CD for the campaign staff with bands I had never heard before. I tried to keep all tracks newer than the year 2000, but ended up making exceptions for Simply Saucer and Guided By Voices. The result was my Black Postcards mix. Even Kathy likes this mix.

I've uploaded Black Postcards to 8tracks, and it's embedded below. I love every song on this mix. It always takes me back to that very confusing time when I got back up after a resounding defeat.

Jon and Christina had me over to the house after the loss; Luna was playing on the stereo. That's what made me start. The first song I found was "Black Postcards" from Romantica. I love this song for the lyrical ambiguity that so perfectly matched my psyche after the campaign:

If I had to do it all again, I wouldn't / Throw it all away.

This line is exquisite. You can hear it as a statement in the positive or negative. "If I had it all to do again, I wouldn't throw it all away," or "If I had to do it all again, I wouldn't. Throw it all away." This was absolutely perfect for me. More lyrics, such as "I'm tired of having no future / I'm tired of pushing my luck / I'm tired of waiting for the endgame / Watching the stars turn black." Jon, Greg (who also worked on the campaign) and I actually caught their second-to-last show in Detroit in 2005. The end of something.

I also love the two Pinback songs here; I broke my self-imposed rule by putting two songs by them on here. There's something magical about the refrain "Anything I say to you is gonna come out wrong anyway" on "Concrete Seconds." Simply Saucer is another wonderful find.

I learned about most of these bands on epitonic. A month or so later, I found even more bands and made a second mix called Pillow Mix. Maybe I'll upload that one next.

~G-Fab

P.S. I'm actually kind of proud of the cover art I created for the 8tracks mix here. I searched online for a 2004 postmark and found one; I used Photoshop to alter the image, change the background and the angle, and give it that mother of pearl kind of look. There is no significance to the postmark "Santa Clara CA." If anything, I should have found a San Diego postmark in honor of Pinback, the band that ties the mix together (although the CA bit could be an oblique reference to the Luna song "California All The Way").