Mixtape Mondays Archive - Tales of the Aggronaut

Hey friends! If you have been reading this blog lately you will know that I am doing a thing called Mixtape Mondays. After having done a number of these I decided that I really needed to come up with a static archive page where I bring all of them together in one place. The idea behind this project is pretty simple. I was one of those kids that made mixtapes, and there was a lot of thought that went into the specific placement of songs. I missed doing this and since the mixtape itself doesn’t really translate to an internet audience… I am sharing Mixtapes with you via both Spotify and YouTube. This page will collect them all in chronological order for folks who weren’t around or weren’t paying attention when I started this nonsense.

1 – Contours of Indecision – April 19th, 2021

This is the mixtape that started the process. It has less of a specific theme that some of the later mixtapes but in general has a “Industrial” feel to it blending a number of tracks that are extremely well known, and some that are considerably less well known. The goal is to bring you on a musical journey with a beginning, middle and end.

01 – Burn – The Cure
02 – Everything’s Ruined – Faith No More
03 – All Wrong – God Lives Underwater
04 – Eye – Smashing Pumpkins
05 – I’m Afraid of Americans – David Bowie feat. Trent Reznor
06 – The Witch – The Cult
07 – Ruiner – Nine Inch Nails
08 – Animal – Prick
09 – Down – Gravity Kills
10 – Army of Me -Bjork
11 – Trip Like I Do – Crystal Method feat. Filter

2 – Mellowcore Cantriping – April 26th, 2021

This Mixtape is more created as a reaction to some of the comments I got about the first one being “a little too hard” for some tastes. This one is designed to be pretty mellow and more or less a delivery vehicle for Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley. Again trying to go for a mix of very well known songs and lesser known gems.

01 – What’s Up! – 4 Non Blondes
02 – You Wouldn’t Like Me – Tegan and Sara
03 – Black Gold – Soul Asylum
04 – The Girl Underground – Cloud Cult
05 – All I Want – Toad the Wet Sprocket
06 – First of the Gang to Die – Morrissey
07 – The Old Apartment – Barenaked Ladies
08 – It’s A Shame About Ray – The Lemonheads
09 – Bizarre Love Triangle – Frente
10 – Lemon Eyes – Meg Myers
11 – Breaking the Girl – Red Hot Chili Peppers
12 – High and Dry – Radiohead
13 – Milk – Garbage
14 – Possession – Sarah McLachlan
15 – Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley

3 – Push Me Punch You – May 3rd, 2021

This is technically the second Mixtape that I created in the series, but given that it was a little more punk influenced I spaced it out a bit to try and break things up. Of all of the tapes so far this is the one that is closest to a daily driver for me. A lot of songs are favorites and some of them are not very well known.

01 – Bull in the Heater – Sonic Youth
02 – Mistaken For Strangers – The National
03 – Bulldog Front – Fugazi
04 – Somebody to Shove – Soul Asylum
05 – Head Injury – Soundgarden
06 – Been Caught Stealing – Jane’s Addiction
07 – Backwoods – Red Hot Chili Peppers
08 – Relatin’ Dudes to Jazz – Firehose
09 – Out There – Dinosaur Jr.
10 – Cut – The Cure
11 – Jessie – PAW
12 – Nearly Lost You – Screaming Trees
13 – Ana Ng – They Might Be Giants
14 – Hey Now – The Regrettes
15 – Sunday Morning Coming Down – Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

4 – Flannel and Chain Wallet – May 17th, 2021

I grew up at exactly the right time to be a flannel wearing grunge kid as that music essentially formed my High School years. You could create a very predictable list of the greatest hits, but I instead wanted to go with something slightly different to represent the grunge music that I remember or music that makes me think of that era.

01 – Big Empty – Stone Temple Pilots
02 – Come As You Are – Nirvana
03 – Winter Song – Screaming Trees
04 – Got You – The Flys
05 – Backwater – Meat Puppets
06 – Rearviewmirror – Pearl Jam
07 – Would? – Alice in Chains
08 – Jesus Built My Hotrod – Ministry
09 – Jerry Was A Race Car Driver – Primus
10 – Cherub Rock – Smashing Pumpkins
11 – Work for Food – Dramarama
12 – Low – Cracker
13 – December – Collective Soul
14 – Jane Says – Jane’s Addiction

5 – Thinly Veiled Crisis – May 31st, 2021

I have the eighties in my blood given that I started listening to mixtapes provided to me at a very young age. Recently I have noticed there is an awful lot of music that is fairly modern, that reminds me of those eighties aesthetics. This mix goes deep into that “saudade” feeling.

01 – Hard Times – Paramore
02 – Once In A Lifetime – All Time Low
03 – Blinding Lights – The Weeknd
04 – Such Great Heights – The Postal Service
05 – Where The White Boys Dance – The Killers
06 – Oh My My – Blue October
07 – Comeback Kid – Sleigh Bells
08 – Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked – Cage the Elephant
09 – Kiss This – The Struts
10 – Deadline – Grouplove
11 – Level of Concern – Twenty One Pilots
12 – Serotonin – Girl In Red
13 – Soul Meets Body – Death Cab For Cutie
14 – Are You Bored Yet? – Wallows feat. Clairo

6 – Hack The Gibson – June 7th, 2021

This MixTape is my attempt of creating a love song to the campy movie Hackers without just straight up stealing its soundtrack. As I went the MixTape sorta developed a life of its own, but I still am pretty proud of the feeling of it. There will be some odd choices but I think it works as intended.

01 – From Your Mouth – God Lives Underwater
02 – 6 Underground – Sneaker Pimps
03 – Fools Gold – The Stone Roses
04 – Block Rockin Beats – The Chemical Brothers
05 – Purple Haze – The Cure
06 – Your Woman – White Town
07 – Ava Adore – Smashing Pumpkins
08 – Numb – Linkin Park
09 – Voodoo People – The Prodigy
10 – Human Behavior – Bjork
11 – Sour Times – Portishead
12 – White Flag – Dido

7 – Waiting For Now – June 14th, 2021

This is another case of me setting out to build a playlist around a specific song, this time How Soon Is Now? by the Smiths. This leads me to skim the surface of New Wave and dive into Goth standards a bit, all while trying to create a list that feels like the song feels.

01 – How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths
02 – Whisper to a Scream – The Icicle Works
03 – True Faith – New Order
04 – For Her Light (Two) – Fields Of The Nephilim
05 – Fascination Street – The Cure
06 – Under the Milky Way – The Church
07 – Wasteland – The Mission UK
08 – Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
09 – Under the God – Tin Machine
10 – She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
11 – Never Let Me Down Again – Depeche Mode
12 – How Not To Drown – Chvches feat. Robert Smith

8 – Big Hair Tight Pants – June 21st, 2021

This time we are diving back into the era kept alive by mascara, tight pants and copious amounts of extra hold hairspray. That’s right I am talking about the era of Hair Metal and Glam Rock. I am of a specific age that has allowed me to weather many trends, not the least of which is when the baddest dudes on the planet wore women’s cut tops and spandex pants.

01 – Panama – Van Halen
02 – Hysteria – Def Leppard
03 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Warrant
04 – 10 and Life – Skid Row
05 – Sweet Child O’ Mine – Guns and Roses
06 – Livin’ On A Prayer – Bon Jovi
07 – Poison – Alice Cooper
08 – Dr. Feelgood – Motley Crue
09 – Nothin’ But A Good Time – Poison
10 – Thunderstruck – AC/DC
11 – Cum on Feel the Noize – Quiet Riot
12 – The Final Countdown – Europe
13 – No More Tears – Ozzy Osborne

9 – Semi-Charmed Panic Attack – June 28th, 2021

There is this particular moment in music that feels like it gets overlooked. Between Grunge and the more punk inspired stylings of Blink-182 there was this music scene that I find it hard to really define. It is filled with peppy songs with depressing themes, and I love it.

01 – The Way – Fastball
02 – Everything You Want – Vertical Horizon
03 – Attention Please – Caroline Spine
04 – Promise – Eve 6
05 – Sugar – Molly’s Yes
06 – Load Me Up – Matthew Good Band
07 – Father of Mine – Everclear
08 – Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind
09 – One Man Army – Our Lady Peace
10 – Rain King – Counting Crows
11 – Good Intentions – Toad the Wet Sprocket
12 – Til I Hear It From You – Gin Blossoms
13 – Get Off This – Cracker
14 – Closing Time – Semisonic

10 – Tapedeck Held Alot – July 5th, 2021

Given that I was born in 1976, I consider myself equal parts a child of the 80s and a child of the 90s. I have a deep nostalgia for the movies of that era and the soundtracks associated with them. This MixTape is a love letter to the soundtracks of the John Hughes era of Teen romantic comedies.

01 – Hungry Like the Wolf – Duran Duran
02 – Take On Me – A-Ha
03 – The Promise – When In Rome
04 – Doctor! Doctor! – Thompson Twins
05 – Things Can Only Get Better – Howard Jones
06 – If You Leave – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
07 – I Melt With You – Modern English
08 – Head Over Heels – Tears for Fears
09 – It’s My Life – Talk Talk
10 – The Goonies R Good Enough – Cyndi Lauper
11 – The Ghost in You – The Psychedelic Furs
12 – Voices Carry – Til Tuesday
13 – In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel
14 – Don’t You Forget About Me – Simple Minds

11 – Hot Chicken Cold Stares – July 12th, 2021

There is a very specific sound that I associate with bands like the White Stripes and Kings of Leon. Both record out of studios in Nashville, and as a result I named this album after another Nashville favorite… Hot Chicken. Much like Hot Chicken, this blend is spicy as hell and also a bit of an acquired taste. However it also is among my favorite released so far.

01 – Ruby – Kaiser Chiefs
02 – Fell In Love With a Girl – White Stripes
03 – King of the Rodeo – Kings of Leon
04 – Melatonin – Silversun Pickups
05 – Come a Little Closer – Cage The Elephant
06 – Hate To Say I Told You So – The Hives
07 – Get Free – The Vines
08 – Steady, As She Goes – The Raconteurs
09 – Hang Me Up to Dry – Cold War Kids
10 – Here It Goes Again – OK Go
11 – Hash Pipe – Weezer
12 – Paint It, Black – The Rolling Stones
13 – Lonely Boy – The Black Keys
14 – Reptilia – The Strokes
15 – E-Pro – Beck
16 – Flathead – The Fratellis
17 – House of the Rising Sun – The Animals

12 – Explorations in Syncopation – July 19th, 2021

With this one, I am uncertain if I landed on a proper theme or just came up with an excuse to put Information Society, The Shamen, and Jesus Jones in the same playlist. The concept is a dive into songs that focus on heavy syncopation, but what seemed to happen in practice is I just made a list with a lot of songs I enjoy.

01 – Peace and Love, Inc. – Information Society
02 – Divine Thing – The Soup Dragons
03 – Love Spreads – The Stone Roses
04 – Rush – Big Audio Dynamite II
05 – Hippychick – Soho
06 – Right Here Right Now – Jesus Jones
07 – Your Only Joke – Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
08 – Breathe – The Prodigy
09 – Connection – Elastica
10 – Girls & Boys – Blur
11 – Unbelievable – EMF
12 -Ready to Go – Republica
13 – Ebenezer Goode – Shamen
14 – Groovy Train – The Farm
15 – A Little Respect – Erasure

13 – Tides of War – July 26th, 2021

Every generation has a period where they delve the music from the generation before them. For me it was exploring the music I associate with Vietnam/Post-Vietnam “Classic Rock” and it represents a good chunk of my late middle school and early high school listening. This morning I share with you some of my favorite tracks.

01 – Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin
02 – Paranoid – Black Sabbath
03 – Dream On – Aerosmith
04 – Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones
05 – Behind Blue Eyes – The Who
06 – Limelight – Rush
07 – Radar Love – Golden Earring
08 – People Are Strange – The Doors
09 – White Room – Cream
10 – Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival
11 – You Really Got Me – The Kinks
12 – Revolution – The Beatles
13 – Knockin On Heavens Door – Bob Dylan
14 – All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
15 – Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd

14 – Aether Consumed Prayers Answered – August 2nd, 2021

This is my fourteenth mix and it is entirely unintentionally aligned that it is made up of entirely music from Final Fantasy XIV. If you are not listening to the music in the game you are missing a large part of the experience. This mixtape is largely made up of the music that plays in the background of big fights. Word of warning however on the YouTube version, that playlist includes full fight spoilers given that it was impossible to find the audio that did not show the fight itself.

15 – Major Party Foul Dude – August 9th, 2021

This morning we have a mix that is dedicated to a certain party vibe from the late 90s and early 2000s fueled by a sea of red solo cups and a steady diet of pop-punk. While I set the stage for a very specific time, I feel like the sound itself is very timeless. Hopefully you will feel the same listening to it.

01 – Swing, Swing – The All-American Rejects
02 – Flagpole Sitta – Harvey Danger
03 – Fat Lip – Sum 41
04 – Over My Head – Lit
05 – The Rock Show – Blink-182
06 – The Anthem – Good Charlotte
07 – The Middle – Jimmy Eat World
08 – Basket Case – Green Day
09 – Ocean Avenue – Yellowcard
10 – Nothing Inside – MGK
11 – And I – Box Car Racer
12 – Santa Monica – Everclear
13 – Banditos – The Refreshments
14 – Coolidge – The Descendents
15 – King of Wishful Thinking – New Found Glory

16 – Remember the Eclipse – August 16th, 2021

This mix began with “An Honest Mistake” and ended with me creating my own in this blend of songs that made me remember a coffee house. Ultimately this breaks my rule of not repeating a single artist, but I never could get the flow right without the songs in question so I am releasing it to you in its imperfect state hoping you will love it all the same.

01 – An Honest Mistake – The Bravery
02 – Time to Pretend – MGMT
03 – Believe – The Bravery
04 – Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
05 – Someday – The Strokes
06 – Satellite – Guster
07 – Feel It Still – Portugal, The Man
08 – Crooked Teeth – Death Cab For Cutie
09 – Back in Your Head – Tegan and Sara
10 – 11th Dimension – Julian Casablancas
11 – The Way We Get By – Spoon
12 – Tongue Tied – Grouplove
13 – All These Things That I’ve Done – The Killers

17 – Now That’s Nonsense – August 23rd, 2021

This morning I share with you a blend of top 40 guilty pleasure tracks that I have blended together in the style of an early 2000’s “Now! That’s Music” style album. In truth, I just wanted to put Radioactive, Sail, and Chandelier on the same Mixtape. I hope you enjoy it!

01 – Radioactive – Imagine Dragons
02 – Pompeii – Bastille
03 – Chandelier – Sia
04 – Wake Me Up – Avicii
05 – Can’t Hold Us – Macklemore feat. Ray Lewis
06 – Tightrope – Janelle Monae feat. Big Boi
07 – Sail – AWOLNation
08 – Royals – Lorde
09 – Titanium – David Guetta feat. Sia
10 – We Are Young – Fun feat. Janelle Monae
11 – Pumped Up Kicks – Foster The People
12 – Viva La Vida – Coldplay
13 – Counting Stars – One Republic
14 – The Fox – Ylvis

18 – Faith Funk Fish – August 30th, 2021

This Mixtape exists as an experiment in trying to blend Faith No More, Living Colour, Fishbone, and Bad Brains into the same blend of songs. I think it personally works pretty well and if you are interested in rock with a heavy bassline then I suggest you check it out.

01 – Cult of Personality – Living Colour
02 – Servitude – Fishbone
03 – Tip – Finger Eleven
04 – Falling to Pieces – Faith No More
05 – Lakini’s Juice – Live
06 – Unsung – Helmet
07 – Levitate – I Mother Earth
08 – Clean My Wounds – Corrosion of Conformity
09 – A Shogun Named Marcus – Clutch
10 – Thunder Kiss ’65 – White Zombie
11 – I Against I – Bad Brains
12 – It’s Love – King’s X
13 – 3 Strange Days – School Of Fish

19 – Mason and Librarian – September 13th, 2021

This Mixtape was created while thinking about two wildly different friends from my high school years. One followed in his father’s footsteps and became a Stone Mason, and the other followed their childhood passions and became a Librarian. The songs remind me of them, although indirectly.

01 – True Nature – Jane’s Addiction
02 – Freak Scene – Dinosaur Jr.
03 – Violet – Hole
04 – Misery – Soul Asylum
05 – Welcome to the Fold
06 – Nothing – Stabbing Westward
07 – Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart – Stone Temple Pilots
08 – Sabotage – Beastie Boys
09 – Points of Authority – Linkin Park
10 – When Worlds Collide – Powerman 5000
11 – Space Lord – Monster Magnet
12 – Lay Lady Lay – Ministry
13 – Pets – Pornos For Pyros

20 – Melancholeidoscope – September 20th, 2021

Sometimes you listen to down songs because you are down… but also you are not looking to be cheered up and are fine with staying down. This journey all started when I heard something on the radio that I had not heard in years… and started to piece together an album around that song… and then proceeded to edit it out of the mix in the first place.

01 – Everybody’s Changing – Keane
02 – Iris – The Goo Goo Dolls
03 – A Long December – Counting Crows
04 – Romeo and Juliet – The Killers
05 – Someday? – Concrete Blonde
06 – One – U2
07 – You Don’t Know How It Feels – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
08 – Walking After You – Foo Fighters
09 – Runaway Train – Soul Asylum
10 – Yellow Ledbetter – Pearl Jam
11 – Patience – Guns and Roses
12 – High and Dry – Radiohead
13 – Brass in Pocket – The Pretenders

21 – Zombie Sexfiend – April 25th, 2022

Sometimes a mix begins with a single song, and for this more specifically it was Chemicals Between us… which made me think of the connection between that and Rob Zombie and then we were off to the races. This is a mix of songs that all fit within that ambiguous genre of “Rob Zombie” like. A little on the heavy side so might not be everyone’s jam.

01 – Jurrassitol – Filter
02 – More Human Than Human – White Zombie
03 – The Chemicals Between Us – Bush
04 – Guilty – Gravity Kills
05 – Save Yourself – Stabbing Westward
06 – The Perfect Drug – Nine Inch Nails
07 – Just One Fix – Ministry
08 – After the Flesh – My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
09 – Dragula – Rob Zombie
10 – Sleep Now in the Fire – Rage Against the Machine
11 – Zero – Smashing Pumpkins
12 – Mudshovel – Staind
13 – Stitches – Orgy
14 – Pepper – Butthole Surfers

22 – Immaculately Overwhelmed – May 2nd, 2022

One of the things that I realized in the in-between since the last run of MixTape Mondays is that I never really plumbed the depths of Emo Music. While I was too young to be a “Scene Kid” I absolutely feel a connection to my “Skater Punk” phase. The music that we got as the frat boy rock era faded was phenomenal.

01 – Welcome to the Black Parade – My Chemical Romance
02 – The Kill – Thirty Seconds To Mars
03 – The Diary of Jane – Breaking Benjamin
04 – Misery Business – Paramore
05 – Savior – Rise Against
06 – Until the Day I Die – Story Of The Year
07 – I Write Sins Not Tragedies – Panic! At The Disco
08 – Scars – Papa Roach
09 – Face Down – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
10 – Miss Murder – AFI
11 – Dance, Dance – Fall Out Boy
12 – Make Damn Sure – Taking Back Sunday
13 – Can’t Be Saved – Senses Fail
14 – Move Along – The All-American Rejects

23 – Contextual Rickroll – May 9th, 2022

I had the idea for this morning’s mixtape for a while, but Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley has become this pinnacle of cringe through the memory of the internet. The song is very much an artifact of its time, and this playlist is a musical tapestry that restores that context.

01 – Heaven Is A Place on Earth – Belinda Carlisle
02 – You Keep Me Hangin On – Kim Wilde
03 – Tonight, Tonight, Tonight – Genesis
04 – Higher Love – Steve Winwood
05 – I Heard a Rumor – Bananarama
06 – So Emotional – Whitney Houston
07 – Heart and Soul – T’pau
08 – Breakout – Swing Out Sister
09 – Glory of Love – Peter Cetera
10 – Someday – Glass Tiger
11 – Broken Wings – Mr. Mister
12 – Holding Back the Years – Simply Red
13 – Tell It To My Heart – Taylor Dayne
14 – Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley

24 – Erasure Shaped Box – February 2nd, 2026

One of the people who is very important to me really loves Erasure. As a result I started with one of my favorite Erasure songs and then built out from there. It’s been four years since I last made a mixtape so I might be a little rusty, but I think it turned out pretty great.

01 – Lips Like Sugar – Echo and the Bunnymen
02 – Space Age Love Song – A Flock of Seagulls
03 – Why Can’t I Be You? – The Cure
04 – World In My Eyes – Depeche Mode
05 – International Bright Young Thing – Jesus Jones
06 – Chains of Love – Erasure
07 – It’s A Sin – Pet Shop Boys
08 – Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order
09 – What’s On Your Mind – Information Society
10 – What is Love? – Howard Jones
11 – Roam – The B-52s
12 – Head Over Heels – The Go-Go’s
13 – Cruel Summer – Bananarama
14 – Here Comes the Rain Again – Eurythmics
15 – Beautiful Girl – INXS

25 – Some Jokes Kill – February 9th, 2026

This mixtape started its life when I happened to be driving around town and listened to Heathens by Twenty One Pilots over the radio. It’s such an interesting song that does not really fit into any predetermined niche. As such I thought it might be interesting to try and build a mixtape off it… and over time it also sort of developed a Joker sub-theme since that song is from the Suicide Squad soundtrack.

01 – All the Things She Said – t.A.t.U.
02 – Elastic Heart – Sia
03 – Supermassive Black Hole – Muse
04 – Can You Feel My Heart – Bring Me The Horizon
05 – Red Stars – The Birthday Massacre
06 – Call Me Little Sunshine – Ghost
07 – Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine – The Killers
08 – High Enough – K.Flay
09 – Heathens – twenty one pilots
10 – Ex’s & Oh’s – Elle King
11 – Strangers – Halsey
12 – Centuries – Fall Out Boy
13 – Pity Party – Melanie Martinez
14 – bad guy – Billie Eilish
15 – Crazy – Gnarls Barkley

26 – Willowy Weary Wise – February 16th, 2026

This mixtape started its life when a friend of mine posted a YouTube playlist, and I marveled at just how good a specific pairing of three songs worked together. So I swiped that three-song block and then expanded it out into my own thing, sharing it with them. As a form of credit, I am naming the Mixtape based on how I think of them, and effectively declaring this a Mixtape inspired by them.

01 – Dead Souls – Nine Inch Nails
02 – Cirice – Ghost
03 – This Corrosion – The Sisters of Mercy
04 – People Are People – Depeche Mode
05 – Bela Lugosi’s Dead (The Hunger Mix) – Bauhaus
06 – The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnymen
07 – A Girl Like You – Edwyn Collins
08 – What’s A Girl To Do? – Bat For Lashes
09 – Death Don’t Have No Mercy – Delaney Davidson
10 – Red Right Hand – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
11 – Down By The Water – PJ Harvey
12 – Tear You Apart – She Wants Revenge
13 – Black Wings – Tom Waits
14 – Glory Box – Portishead
15 – Stay – Shakespears Sister

27 – Fear Loathing Flesh – March 2nd, 2026

The irony of this mixtape is that it started with one song as its anchor… that I ultimately abandoned because it no longer fit once I started slotting together the puzzle pieces. I am going through a pretty dark headspace right now, dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and this mixtape reflects that a bit. It features a lot of music I listened to in early college… which was also a time of a lot of emotional turmoil. That said… I still find it a really enjoyable blend of songs.