MIXTAPE

This week our theme, selected by Christine, is “Song You First Heard on a Mixtape and Still Love.”

Whether it was on a carefully curated cassette from a friend, a crush, or a burned CD passed around in high school, mixtapes were a moment, and in this week’s episode we get giddy over the mixtape tracks that struck a chord and never left our rotation.

Christine’s pick this week is Devo’s “Beautiful World”—a track that showed up on a surprise mixtape from a surf-punk coworker at Target. This was pre-boyfriend era, and she was deep in outcast territory. Then, one day he handed her a mixtape filled with Dead Kennedys, MDC, and RUSH, but it was the irony of Devo that sealed the deal.

Christina picked “Typical Girls” by The Slits—a song discovered on a mixed CD from someone who clearly had a crush, and maybe thought the track said something deep about how “different” she was. The thing is, the song isn’t saying “typical girls = bad.” It’s asking: who even invented that category? It’s a critique of the box, not the people in it.

The Slits were bona fide punk, fronted by Ari Up, who started the band at 14.  Their whole vibe was anti-perfection, anti-polish, anti-expectation. And “Typical Girls” skewers every stereotype thrown at women—then flips them inside out. Christina breaks down the brilliance of the song and reminds us: as women we can be sensitive, loud, confused, emotional, and still be strong as hell. 

So, that’s our mixtape moment: Songs that stuck, even if the people didn’t.

And now, thanks to Christina’s recommendation, Christine is already a season into Portlandia! Cheers!