The Annotated Mixtape

Add to Wishlist

The Annotated Mixtape

Paperback

$14.95

View All Available Formats & Editions

Paperback
$14.95

View All Available Formats & Editions

SHIP THIS ITEM

Temporarily Out of Stock Online
PICK UP IN STORE

Your local store may have stock of this item.

Available within 2 business hours

Want it Today?
Check Store Availability

Related collections and offers

Overview

"Most of the time," Theodor Adorno has noted, "records are virtual photographs of their owners." The Annotated Mixtape, a memoir of record collecting, cross-fades music with personal history and American history and culture (the 2008 recession, AM radio, Reaganomics, nuclear war) to show how music has informed the author's life.

Product Details
About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936873241
Publisher:	Dzanc Books
Publication date:	11/18/2014
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Joshua Harmon is the author of the essay collection The Annotated Mixtape, the novel Quinnehtukqut, the short story collection History of Cold Seasons, and the poetry collections Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie and Scape. He lives in western Massachusettes.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Annotated Mixtape:
"The Annotated Mixtape reads like Geoffrey O'Brien's Sonata for Jukebox updated for the generation raised on early MTV. It's the story of an obsession, speaking to collectors who want to track down every alternate mix and rare B-side, but it's also a funny and touching meditation on what music can mean in a life. While exploring a lifetime of listening in often ridiculous detail Harmon keeps returning to the big questions—who we are, what we value, and, most of all, what it means to remember." Mark Richardson, Editor-in-Chief, Pitchfork, and author of Zaireeka
"Can all this -- mapping one's life around LP shopping, the exquisite playback rituals, and above all, the passionately empathic art of mixtape-making -- really be ancient history? Josh Harmon brings it all back home, joining Greil Marcus, Rob Sheffield, Geoff Dyer, and other great alchemists who use songs as magic portals to memory, history, and literary spelunking. Like a great mixtape, it connects music to how we live." — Will Hermes, author of Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York City That Changed Music Forever

From the Publisher

2014-10-05
An obsessive record collector's personal essays categorized by song.Harmon's (Scape, 2009, etc.) opening essay is a paean to the life of a collector, a life he recognizes for its obsessive tendencies that align him with other collectors equally impulsive and pathological about their habit (he owns more than 4,000 vinyl records). Like any serious collector, the author occasionally gives the impression of pretension or snobbery—he openly admits this tendency—but his taste is varied and eclectic enough to spare the label from sticking. The opening serves as an introduction of sorts, but it does little to set up the following essays, as readers are thrust into Harmon's peculiar format and style without any substantial statement about his project. Each essay is dedicated to a song or two that serves as a metaphor or theme for Harmon's musings. For instance, the author uses Section 25's "Trident" as a platform to discuss Reagan-era nuclear proliferation and the Soviet Union. There is never any definitive connection, however, between the band's choice of "Trident" as a song name in 1982 and the creation of the Trident II missile in 1981, other than coincidence. This type of associative connection is common in Harmon's essays, which have more to do with feeling and memory than argument. Harmon is often sentimental as he rhapsodizes about his home state of Massachusetts in several chapters, naturally referencing the Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner," his childhood love of early U2 and his distaste for Bauhaus. He even waxes on the uniquely ephemeral quality of music that makes it more prone to wistfulness than other art forms. Ultimately, the personal nature of these essays often makes them feel more like journal entries and fails to synthesize an overarching narrative or argument. Harmon's dedication as a collector will be appreciated by any audiophile, but his essays lack cohesion and continuity, making the collection feel too insular.

Kirkus Reviews

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews