Rachel and I have been discussing doing our own mix tapes and then sending them out to whoever wants them for quite a while. The rule for our mix tape (don’t worry, they will actually be on CD) is that all the songs had to be from about the last year. Rachel was afraid (with good reason) that I would dig deep from my library of songs and make the ultimate masterpiece, putting her mix tape to shame. I think I have achieved the same result, while still sticking to the ‘from the last year’ rule. Some songs are older than a year, but not too me. All these recording were legally purchased by me within the last year. At first I had songs on my mix tape that were obscure enough to make the listener think I was a true music connoisseurs, but ended with the mix I would take with me if I could only listen to one CD.

It is good and ready to be sent out. Want one? Just send me your mailing address and Rachel and I will send you (or if we will see you soon, hand deliver) both our mixes.

Track listing (subject to change):

1. Do You Remember – Jack Johnson
2. Sweet Illusions – Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
3. We’re All In This Together – Ben Lee
4. The Late Greats – Wilco
5. American Baby – Dave Matthews Band
6. New Madrid – Uncle Tupelo
7. Nineteen (Live) – Old 97’s
8. Wreck Of The Old ‘97 – Johnny Cash
9. Theologians – Wilco
10. Another Travelin’ Song – Bright Eyes
11. Qué Onda Guero – Beck
12. So Alive – Ryan Adams
13. Ocean Breathes Salty – Modest Mouse
14. Let It Ride – Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
15. New Slang The – Shins
16. Days Of Wonder – The Wallflowers
17. That Was A Crazy Game of Poker – O.A.R.

The Wallflowers will be on Letterman on Tuesday and Ryan Adams will appear on Wednesday. And a few more this week.

Ryan Adams just updated his site. Good luck navigating it, though. You have to find the rosebuds and roll over them to navigate to different pages.

I ran out for an early morning oil change, since we are about to spend 10 hours in the car this weekend, and picked up the new DMB CD. There was a big warning about how it is copy protected and requires certain software on your machine to listen to it. With the decision that if I couldn’t copy the entire CD I would fire off an angry letter to BMG, I purchased the disc and ran home to see if I could ‘rip it’. As it turns out, I can. No angry letter. I imagine that the copy protection might actually work on Windows, but not for me on my Mac.

Update: I investigated this matter further and they do provide copy protected WMAs on the disc as well. In oder to get to them you have to first open some stupid flash project in IE and then click on ‘copy songs to computer.’ This doesn’t actually copy the songs, but brings up a message telling you how to get to the songs. I think only the most experienced Mac OS X users would actually be able to get to them, because they are within the ‘Start’ folder on the disc, that when double-clicked launches the stupid flash project. To open the ‘Start’ folder, you have to control-click and then select ’show package contents.’ None of this matters, however, since they weren’t actually successful in stopping me from adding the CD to my digital music library. The day someone does, is the day I stop buying music from them and stop going to their concerts and stop buying their merchandise and stop supporting them financially in any way. I think it is ridiculous that the music is able to treat us, their customers, as criminals. I hate DRM and don’t buy music from iTunes very often because of it (that and the low quality audio wp-content they try to push on us). All I want to do is listen to the music I legally purchase the ways I want to, such as on my computer and on my iPod (note that if I could only get those copy-protected WMAs off the disc I couldn’t listen to them on my iPod). Now, off to Wichita!

I just email Rachel (from work) to let her know about my exciting news. I just got the new Ryan Adams CD (yep, that’s right, you won’t have to hear about it coming out soon anymore) and she just replied with ‘feel free to keep it at work ’.

UPDATE: I have further talked over this issue with Rachel and she now says, ‘Feel free to bring it home.’

I went out guitar shopping with my dad this afternoon and we decided on the Taylor 100e. I don’t currently play guitar, but with my upcoming graduation, I will have more time to learn how. Can’t wait until it gets here. Thanks Mom and Dad.

I just found that Ryan Adams has put his whole album up for a listen on his site. Just click on ‘Listen to Cold Roses’ in the upper left and then click on the song of your choice. Can’t wait for May 3.

Some Depression has a Whiskeytown (featuring a young David Ryan Adams) podcast this week from a radio show.

The countdown to May 3rd (Chelsea’s birthday and Ryan Adams’ new album) has begun.

If you read my linkblog (and I doubt you do), you would have probably seen the Rolling Stone interview with Jack Johnson from yesterday. In it he mentions that while on this tour they have been doing a cover of Holiday by Madonna. I thought I wanted to hear that, and today I got to thanks to Some Depression’s April 22nd podcast.

Ryan’s new single to Cold Roses is now available through iTunes. You can listen to the entire song right now (for free) on his site (can’t download it though). It has been on his site for a few weeks and I can’t get it out of my head. I am so excited for his double album to come out May 3. I am hoping that Target will have it so I can pick it up in the morning on my way to work, otherwise I won’t get it until night (and that’s too long to wait).