Sprung From Cages – Songs For The Road (mix)

Every road trip needs a soundtrack. Those are usually created on the fly – CDs pulled out from dusty bins or quickly burned before leaving. This spring trip is no different, it needs one. However, listening to music while riding isn’t the best idea ever.

And that’s where you come in.

Get the mix here, or keep on reading…

Last year I did a road mix for a road trip that could never happen. That was Hot Sun Beating on a Blacktop. And like that mix, this mix is set up like a mix tape.

There are two tracks: side one and side two. Like a mix tape, it’s meant to be listened to front start to finish, like watching a movie or reading a book. If you want to skip a song, you’ll have to fast forward through it. But really, you shouldn’t do that.

Between the songs are bits of found sound, samples from little things here and there. It’s fun to make these and hopefully fun to listen to.

Of course, the real point of this (and any) mix is the music. Finding songs about the road can lead to cliche boredom and predictability that will put you to sleep. I’ve steered clear of such things (hopefully).

Side One, however, does start rather predictably. How could I not include a Springsteen song? And, as the title of the road trip and the mix would indicate, “Born To Run” had to be here. However, this is a live version from a 1975ish bootleg. I can’t remember which one, but you’ll dig it.

Aside from that, this is a pretty eclectic mix. Some songs are about driving, sure – Sparks’s “How Are You Getting Home” and Aerosmith’s “Back In The Saddle,” specifically (ok, that last one could be called predictable too – sorry). But most everything else seems to come from several different left fields.

The Jam, Bauhaus, Anthrax, Bunny Grunt, Tubeway Army, Holy Model Rounders, Rollins, TV Personalities and The Smiths would seemingly have very little to do with each other. But on this mix, the flow into and complement the songs fore and aft. Not bad, eh?

With most of my mixes, I give you samples. It’s not really easy to do that for this one. So let me walk you through some snippets.

This is how we’ll start the mix…
[audio:sfc1.mp3]

How would you slide from Red Monkey to Bauhaus? Here’s how I did it…
[audio:sfc2.mp3]

And from Holy Model Rounds to Rollins?
[audio:sfc3.mp3]

Can you think of a better way to introduce Anthrax’s “Indians”?
[audio:sfc4.mp3]

What can we make of this?
[audio:sfc5.mp3]

Make whatever you like of it, I guess – but I’d suggest getting it here.