The Mixtape Diaries

Mixing it up (ha) with the roster for this one, as special guests Sam and Alli stop in to reminisce about the good old days.  Today's songs are pulled from Billboard 's Top 20 around this time in 1985 . Lots of fun options here, but we boiled it down to Madonna, the Power Station, Tears for Fears, and Sam's beloved Bryan Adams.  We'll have to take a raincheck on Animotion, DeBa...

Does anyone fancy some lasagna? While our bucket hats and tour jerseys may be safely tucked away, we are still yearning for Oasis Summer. From the moment we got our presale codes the excitement continued to build until we found ourselves in Wembley Stadium and the Rose Bowl for the concert event of the summer.  In this episode, we recap everything from purchasing our tickets through watching the G...

Reports of the death of Music Television were greatly exaggerated—or 25 years late, depending on your point of view.  Wherever you stand on that question, we Gen Xers thought we'd set aside an hour to talk about four of our favorites from the good old days. Hush, hush, Rio—and don't come around here full of love no more. Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music .  If you like what you...

Today we put 2025 fully in the rear-view, with Part Two of our Apple Music Replay series. Join us as Mark and Brad serve some choice cuts from their Best of/ Most of playlists. Lots to look for in this one, including a surprise drop from Mark and a trip to São Paulo with Brad, amid simmering tensions in the ongoing '90s v. '20s battle. Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music .  If you...

With nearly every app giving us some history of our activity this year, we decided to share with you three songs each that made their way onto our Apple Music Replay playlists.  This is a super-sized, two-part episode. In today's episode, Bob and Carla share their picks, a few of which come with some controversy and some attitude. Have Bob and Carla formed their own alliance? Will Brad and Ma...

Today we are re-releasing one of our favorite episodes...our Christmas Special! Here we talked about some of our favorite (and not so favorite) Christmas songs and movies. Joining us on The Nice List are the Pogues, Bowie and Bing, Weezer, Ella, Jose Feliciano, She & Him, the Kinks, the Vince Guaraldi Trio, John and Yoko, Darlene Love, the Waitresses, Elvis and more! Dim the lights, stoke the...

Today we pay tribute to one of rock music's most legendary bass players, Gary "Mani" Mounfield of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream. We lost Mani in late November - far too soon. As tributes have poured in from many of our favorite bands including Oasis and Richard Ashcroft, we wanted to pay our own tribute to honor the man whose music and signature bass lines have left a lasting ma...

What'sa happenin' hot stuff? Bob, Brad, Carla and Mark are back to discuss one of our favorite movies, John Hughes' first feature film, Sixteen Candles. This movie did not have an official soundtrack, but the songs featured in it are a killer combination of new wave, post punk and rock 'n' roll. Here are four songs we felt would have made the soundtrack cut.  Find the Play...

That slick hook and spot-on beat playing over the PA in Target, at Cumberland Farms, in the venue before the headliner takes the stage: WHO IS THAT?  WHAT'S THAT SONG? We all have the Shazam app loaded on our phones, and it's wild to think that for more than half our lives (speaking for the Diarists), we did without it.  Here are four songs Bob, Brad, Mark, and Carla dialed up over Shaza...

It's never too late for a 2024 recap, right? In today's super-sized episode, Bob, Mark, Carla and Brad discuss their favorite new songs of 2024 and songs they rediscovered last year. Well...three of the four of us followed this plan. One of us interpreted this theme a bit differently. Will there be controversy over Pearl Jam? Will Mark recover after hearing a Human League album was rated...

We go waaaaaaaaay back (four decades?) with our dear friend Alli.  And whatever we got up to back in the day—tooling around town in her Chevette, rocking out in downtown Youngstown, or just chilling in any of our respective basements—music was involved. No surprise that Alli was firmly at the top of our guest list.  Here's hoping this is the first of many of her appearances on The Mixtape Dia...

Join us on the "Autobahn" as we take a ride to Los Angeles to discuss two nights of Kraftwerk's nine-show residency earlier this summer where Mark and Brad got to see Autobahn and Radio-Activity performed in their entirety.  While this episode may seem more suited for Carla and Brad Talk about Krautrock, find out if Carla and Brad won Mark over with these pioneers of electronic musi...

Today Carla, Mark, and Brad talk about some recent concerts they've seen and offer some choice cuts from the bands. Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music and your Extras on Twitter and Instagram .  And if you like what you hear, please share, rate and review us! Credits: Intro/ Outro — the Februarys, "Does Your Father Know"/ "... In a Letter." 

In which your Fab Four Diarists Bob, Brad, Carla, and Mark reconvene, kinda sorta, to talk about some of their favorite remixed tracks.  This next episode was a long time coming, but as comebacks go, it'll absolutely serve.  Beastie Boys, Happy Mondays, Björk, and Depeche Mode?  Yes, please! Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music and your Extras on Twitter and Instagram .   And if you lik...

.There’s an old Irish benediction that goes, “May you be in Heaven an hour before the Devil knows you’re dead.”   By our best guess, Shane MacGowan arrived three hours late, drank the Devil under the table, and jimmied the lock on the Pearly Gates. Come raise a glass, or six, or seven with us, as we celebrate our dear, departed Shane: the Last of the Great Irish Poets. We’re a bit tardy with this,...

It's been a while, listeners, but we've mustered a quorum.  Bob's back with us today (alas, Mark is not), as we talk about some recent shows we've seen and generally ham it up. First Bob waxes rhapsodic about Nashville band Bully.  Then Brad swaps out a vowel and steers the conversation toward Belly.  And we wrap it all up with Carla's trip to Vegas to see U2 in The Sphere...

Attached hereto is the final episode of the Carla, Brad and Mark Sessions.  We kept it Stateside for this one, with picks from The Hold Steady, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Car Seat Headrest. Carla could've used Bob's alliance for her pick.  (He'll be back soon!)  Brad shared his disdain for new music from old bands.  And Mark delivered our favorite pick of the episode.  Get ready to rock! ...

Here's another bite-sized episode from the Carla, Brad, and Mark Sessions.  Three-quarters capacity means just three songs, but we made 'em count. Brad asked for cover songs by punk and post-punk bands, and the Skeleton Crew responded with Wire, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and the Slits. Turn on, tune in, and rock out with the Mixtape Diaries, as we, um, let it all hang out! Find the Pl...

Last month we lost Sinéad O'Connor.  This one really hurts.   35 years ago, Sinéad's first LP was melting the cassette decks in our cars.   Through the years, we moved with her music, and it never got old. Songs of heartbreak, defiance, freedom, vindication: Sinéad sang her life and her truth.  If her music doesn't move you ... well, unsubscribe.  Sister, we are stretched on your gr...

Mark, Carla, and Brad are back in short order to add three more songs to the Playlist.  (Bob's lazing in his hammock on summer vacay.) Speaking of summer vacation, we logged some mileage on this one.  Our itinerary took us first to Oklahoma City to hang with the Flaming Lips, then to Halifax, Nova Scotia for some time with Plumtree, and finally to Delhi to swing a little with Peter Cat Record...

Your Diarists are back! But it's summer break and we're down a man, so we've opted for a themeless episode. What once was a Grab Bag is now the Wild Card: Carla, Brad and Mark picked three songs that are in their rotation right now, and it seems we're all hanging out in the late 1970s with picks from Suicide, Joy Division and Buzzcocks. Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Musi...

Picking up where we left off with selections from six more Scottish artists, as Carla and Brad take their turns. Things get just a bit feisty as Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, CHVRCHES, One Dove, the Pastels, and Trash Can Sinatras join the playlist, and the question we're all asking is ... WHERE THE HELL IS PRIMAL SCREAM? We wanna get loaded, and we wanna have a good time.  And that...

The MTD gang is * alive and kicking* !  Join us as we * head on* out north of Hadrian's Wall, into the land of Nessie and haggis, Kidnapped and Trainspotting . * Say what you want* , but we love us some Caledonian tunes here at The Mixtape Diaries.   * In a big country * like Scotland, you're gonna find tons of options, and we struggled to keep to our per-person limit of three songs. Als...

The Diarists have recovered from Carla's inclusion of a 18+ minute Can song in Part 1 of this episode, so now we're back with Part 2. Brad and Mark give us their picks for songs featured in rock critic Robert Dimery's list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . We cross genres and decades here with picks from David Bowie, Love, Neu!, Arrested Development, Smashing Pumpkins an...

There's no shortage of terrific songs on rock critic Robert Dimery's list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die .  For this and the next episode, Mark challenges us to choose some of our favorites. Note the new format: six songs from Bob and Carla in this episode — The Clash!  Jamiroquai?  Spiritualized!  The Waterboys!  Sugar!  Can!)— with six more to come from Brad and Mark in ou...