What is a Mux, you ask? A Mux or Muxtape is a mix I host on this fine pirate blog. And what's with the weird name? Well, it's cribbed from a now-defunct site called muxtape.com from mid-2008 that used a simple interface to upload and share mixes. Obviously it was DMCA'd quite fast, but I kept up the practice and, ripped off inspired by a friend at also-defunct OFG Radio, I decided to mix down all the tracks into one MP3 file. It mostly grew out of an OCD-like desire to sand down the edges of songs with disparate volumes and awkward transitions. It's also my one-man crusade against the tyranny of shuffle by imposing my own tyranny, in which you must listen to the whole thing in my order.
So what started on a short-lived site now encompasses 4500+ songs in 400+ Muxes that, if listened back to back, would take over 13 days. I've been doing this for 17 years, and since it's completely hijacked the way I listen to music (I've started and deleted dozens of attempts at describing my exacting Mux-creation process, which is boring at best and terrifying at worst), I can't see it going away anytime soon.
Though it's somewhat apparent to those who have listened to Muxes for a while, I've finally decided to list the rules for the Muxtapes. That is, current and future Muxes, since old ones have broken plenty of these.
The ironclad rules
- 2 Muxes per month, on the 1st and 15th. (Muxmania temporarily overrode this!)
- 12 tracks
- No repeated songs - There are thousands of songs across the Muxtapes. I basically use iTunes as a giant spreadsheet to keep track, since there have been a few songs that have errantly repeated. But not anymore!
- No bands repeated on the same Mux
- Track 1 / Track 12 - A bit esoteric. A song that's either track 1 or the last track on its album can't slot in as either the first or last track on a Mux. For example, "Everything In Its Right Place," which is track 1 off Radiohead's Kid A, can't be the first or last song on a Mux. Similarly, that album's final track, "Motion Picture Soundtrack," can be neither the first or twelfth on a Mux.
- Checkerboarding - A newer rule. A band can't appear on two consecutive Muxes. So if there's a Radiohead song on Mux 1, a second can't be on Mux 2, but it can feature on Mux 3. I basically made this rule after getting sick of Los Campesinos tracks on seemingly every older Mux.
- Muxes should aim for a length betweeen 35 and 50 minutes - A lot of the older Muxes climb above 50 and seem too shaggy. The median length is about 45 minutes, which just feels right.
- Songs should be under 7 minutes - Yeah, there are plenty of great superlong songs out there, but usually I can only manage one longer track and hit the 35-50-minute target. So don't expect any 10-minute-plus Godspeed You Black Emperor or Sigur Ros songs. I'll bend this rule from time to time, since a look at my library shows there 100+ songs over 7 minutes on Muxes.
- Different bands with the same vocalist - This is a case-by-case basis. Depending on the vibe of the song, I might put a Broken Social Scene track sung by Emily Haines and, say, a Metric track on the same Mux. Much harder for something like Radiohead and The Smile, which are much more similar in both tone and Thom Yorke-iness.
- Different studio versions of the same track - Again, it depends on how it sounds. I've used three different versions of Radiohead's "Fog," each of which sound totally different.
- Live tracks, session tracks, and re-recorded tracks - Has to sound different enough to warrant inclusion. Nothing that sounds identical, like tracks off Taylor Swift's 1989 (Taylor's Version) compared to the original 1989.
- Avoid too many "ending" songs - Since most albums have some of their best songs as closers, I'd have like 4-5 "ending" songs on older Muxes. It becomes a Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King situation, in which you think a Mux is over but - nope! - here are three more songs.
- No Beatles - Nope. Not gonna happen. It's like that scene in Wayne's World when Wayne tries to play "Stairway To Heaven" in the guitar shop. ("No Stairway? Denied!")
The Mux Hall of Fame
Whenever every single track of an album features on a Mux, that album enters the storied Mux Hall of Fame. It's not a very long list, and it's down on the lefthand sidebar (in the web view).
Mux All-Stars
Bands who have over twenty-five (25) songs on Muxes get the distinction of being listed very far down the sidebar.
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