the_mix_he_made_me raze our friendship was already turning to shit when i watched him sit at his computer and stuff eighteen songs on a silver circle with a hole in its chest, leaving me to sort out the contents on my own. he didn't even write the date on the face of the thing. i had to add that after the fact. i didn't know who some of the bands were until the internet told me. twenty_one years later, it's still the only mix cd anyone has ever made me. it begins with pavement and ends with an elliott_smith outtake. between those bookends are guv'ner flipping john lennon's "jealous guy" on its head, nofx giving awful life advice, solex celebrating the world's most dangerous variety trick, kazu makino screaming and sighing like a beautiful ghost, "schoolhouse rock" by way of blind melon, built to spill covering vince guaraldi and neil young, dinosaur jr., elevator to hell, guided by voices, and a bit of embryonic beck. the eleventh cut is the one i keep coming back to. it's a solo version of "twin falls" that sounds like it was recorded backstage after a sparsely-attended show by someone hiding under a table with a microphone taped to their arm. there are no slide guitar glissandos or anemic brushed drums. just doug martsch and a hunk of wood. it might be the most beautiful and unguarded he's ever been. i've spent years trying and failing to find it online. the moment doesn't exist outside of this one dark, dust-caked place. everything goes away before the final line. a dying battery or a posthumous glitch. that don't bother me. 231122 what's it to you? who go blather from