{"id":47543,"date":"2008-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/mixtape-mondays-mama-mixtape\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:55:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:55:17","slug":"mixtape-mondays-mama-mixtape","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/mixtape-mondays-mama-mixtape\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixtape Mondays: Mama Mixtape"},"content":{"rendered":"

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[Editor’s note: Cover images of albums previously reviewed on the DV have been linked to the review.]<\/i><\/p>\n

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“She Sells Sanctuary” \u2013 The Cult<\/b><\/o:p><\/p>\n

There’s nothing cynical about this one. It’s a straight-up rock \u2018n\u2019 roll love song anchored by a soaring guitar hook and Ian Astbury’s sturdy English yowl. <\/p>\n

When you were a week old, we took a family trip to the diner. You still weren’t nursing, or sleeping, or smiling. You were a scowling, spiky-haired\u00a0bundle of complications. That night, when you started kvetching in your baby seat, I picked you up and paced around the table, bouncing in time to \u201cShe Sells Sanctuary,\u201d which had just started playing. Friends, family, and What To Expect<\/i> hadn’t cracked my postpartum malaise. But a snappy little rock song somehow wormed its way beneath my shell shock and managed to convince me that I might one day sleep or smile again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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“Theme to Twisted Nerve” \u2013 Bernard Herrmann<\/b><\/o:p> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My entertainment choices following your birth were somewhat atypical.\u00a0 Teletubbies?\u00a0 Out.\u00a0 Tarantino?\u00a0 Bring it on!\u00a0\u00a0 Once your bouncy seat was turned away from the TV, it was all gore, all the time.\u00a0 The fictional and fractured were an ideal refuge, considering that the real and sacred had taken over my world (and then puked down my shirt).<\/p>\n

\u201cTheme From Twisted Nerve\u201d was the sinister little ditty whistled by Darryl Hannah’s one-eyed assassin in Kill Bill.<\/i> It was also the first piece of music you really enjoyed. I was humming it mid-diaper change when you began smiling, then laughing. I wasn’t exactly sure why my child preferred a foreboding instrumental to \u201cBa Ba Black Sheep.\u201d Nonetheless, it became a staple of our lullaby repertoire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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“Calabria 2000” \u2013 Enur w\/Mims <\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n

While your musical tastes would become more adventurous (most preschoolers don’t sing along with Ian MacKaye), your first favorite song was a silly novelty single. And rightly so — “fun and infectious” are to audiophiles what mashed bananas are to gourmets… something simple\u00a0and tasty to whet a developing palate.<\/p>\n

“Calabria 2000” is more Twinkie than banana. It’s a butt-bouncing Jamaican dancehall tune, gussied up with a Timbaland-style spit-shine.<\/p>\n

It was a staple of Top 40 radio during the summer of aught-eight. The 17,852nd time its telltale baritone sax line emerged from our radio, your eyes lit up. \u201cMommy, do you remember this song?\u201d you grinned. \u201cIt’s my best song!\u00a0 I… I… I MISSED this song!\u201d <\/p>\n

The closest grown-up equivalent to that innocent auditory rapture is the Replacements’ “Alex Chilton” (“I’m in love \/ What’s that song? \/ I’m in love \/ With\u00a0that song”).\u00a0 And while it’s a wonderful track, it still took infinitely more time and booze to conjure up than “I MISSED this song!”\u00a0 From the mouths of\u00a0babes, indeed.<\/p>\n

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“Sliver” \u2013 Nirvana <\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This Incesticide<\/i>-era single was Nirvana at their best… simultaneously melodic and blistering.\u00a0 It was a staple of mid-\u201890s alt-radio and a staple of my life, too.\u00a0 Cobain\u2019s larynx-shredding shrieks had followed me from cassette to CD to MP3.\u00a0 But it wasn’t until your birth that “Sliver” made me\u00a0burst into tears.\u00a0 It captures a more gut-wrenching side of the parent\/child bond than Hallmark ever has.\u00a0 People like to discuss parental readiness.\u00a0\u00a0 Teenagers aren’t \u201cready.\u201d\u00a0 People with stock options and Stainmaster carpets are \u201cready.\u201d\u00a0 Truth is, you’re never ready… even after the kid arrives.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing prepares you for being a fragile creature’s sole defense against an often-cruel world.\u00a0 You’re in charge.\u00a0 You’re the grown-up.\u00a0 It’s up to you to make things safe, and when you inevitably fail, it’s up to you to make them better.\u00a0 Your connection to your child is beautiful, but it’s also frighteningly visceral, a fact which “Sliver” absolutely nails.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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“Baba O’Riley” \u2013 The Who
<\/b>
When this came on, you chirped, “I LIKE this song!,” then informed me that \u201cBaba O’ Riley\u201d is, \u201c… purple.\u00a0 An’ yellow, too.\u201d While I’d prefer you keep your distance from Pete Townsend, I’m happy to see you enjoy the classics (in all their purple-and-yellow glory).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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“Day Tripper” \u2013 The Beatles<\/o:p><\/b> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You always had an uncanny ability to reproduce sounds (at two, you did a pitch-perfect imitation of the air wrench at Jiffy Lube).\u00a0 \u201cDay Tripper\u201d was your first instance of musical mimicry, however.\u00a0 You were sitting in a shopping cart at IKEA, attempting to dismantle mommy’s recently-selected Swedish housewares.\u00a0 As I was contemplating some ladles, I heard a squeaky little warble behind me.\u00a0 “Dun… dun dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun!”\u00a0 It stands to reason that a toddler would love early Beatles.\u00a0 Before the drugs, sitars, and Yoko Ono-schtupping, the Beatles were pioneers of bright, cheery pop.\u00a0 \u201cDay Tripper\u201d’s gentle harmonizing and imminently-hummable guitar line are just as listenable today as they were four generations ago.\u00a0 If there’s such a thing as “majestically slight,” this is it.<\/p>\n

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“Fame Throwa” \u2013 Pavement<\/o:p><\/b> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s majestically weird.\u00a0 Pavement’s mini-opus slinks from \u201860s psychedelia to proto-hardcore and back again.\u00a0 It’s kinda like what would happen if ?uestion Mark and the Mysterians commemorated the apocalypse by jamming with Minor Threat.\u00a0 You neither knew nor cared about \u201cFame Throwa\u2019\u201ds influences.\u00a0 You only knew that it featured Stephen Malkmus trilling, \u201cSha la la la la la la la,\u201d and that this falsetto was the pinnacle of awesomeness.\u00a0 For weeks, you only had ears for “Sha La La”.\u00a0 Whenever you spied audio equipment, you’d begin chirping, \u201cPlay ‘Sha La La’!\u00a0 I wanna listen to ‘Sha La La!’\u201d\u00a0 It’s comforting to know that obsessive listening begins so early.\u00a0 It wasn’t the trauma of junior high which made me listen to \u201cNevermind\u201d for two years straight… it was in my blood!<\/p>\n

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Don’t Let Us Get Sick \u2013 Warren Zevon<\/o:p><\/b> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zevon was often viewed as the class clown of classic rock.\u00a0 His raspy vocals and rollicking guitars were enlivened by a caustic, often-morbid sense of humor.\u00a0 Surprisingly, though, the man behind \u201cMy Shit’s Fucked Up\u201d and \u201cI’ll Sleep When I’m Dead\u201d had a tender side.\u00a0 His sweetness was every bit as blunt as his sarcasm.\u00a0 Zevon never compared his love to a summer’s day, but his words left no doubt as to the depth and sincerity of his feelings.\u00a0 “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” is gorgeous and hushed, half love song, half prayer. The guitar’s acoustic, the lyrics are simple… but the sentiment is something that’s been felt by anyone who’s ever loved hard… please, please, don’t let the universe hurt us as badly as we both know it can.<\/p>\n

<\/i>I sang it to you when you were as big as a sack of flour.\u00a0 I sang it to you while you gave me delighted, mono-toothed smiles.\u00a0 Lately, you’ve been singing it to me… or at least your own rendition thereof.\u00a0 \u201cDon’t get sick… don’t getolllllld… don’t get STUPID!…HA!… alright?\u00a0 Make us be brave… make us play niiiiiiiiiice… let us be togevver toniiiiiiiiiiiiight!\u201d You don’t really know what it means yet.\u00a0 You’re just beginning to learn the power of music (and still resent having to listen to anything other than \u201cSha La La\u201d).\u00a0 I’ll keep the hits coming though, in the hopes that you’ll always keep Zevon EPs and monumental love on your shelf.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indoctrinating My Son To The Power Of Rock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":50737,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"feature_type":[32],"class_list":["post-47543","feature","type-feature","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","feature_type-feature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}