A few years ago my parents’ storage shed flooded and a few tapes were lost. With the help of friends I’ve been able to piece together most of them. If I ever gave you a tape and you happen to know any of the missing or incorrect songs please let me know.
The first Neat Tape was created in an attempt to keep old friends and make new ones.
In 1993 my parents had recently moved the family from Bellevue, WA to Polson, MT. I started creating mixed tapes to send back to my friends to help keep in touch. I also made a copy to give to the few new friends I was making in Montana.
Most of the Neat Tapes were recoded on TDK 90 min tapes. Some of them have themes, but most are just good listening.
Although I didn’t adhere to them in the first tapes, I started to create rules for making a good mix.
- Use only one song by an artist per song.
- Try to create a reasonable contrast between adjacent songs.
- Listen to the tape a few times before calling it good.
- Try to get music from others.
- Listen to a song at least 2-3 times before making a final decision on it.
- Don’t be a perfectionist. A good mix has problems.
This site is dedicated to promote previous Neat Tape songs, and candidates for future mixes.