Songs that teach you how to live

“Turn the light out, say goodnight/ No thinking for a little while/ Let’s not try to figure out everything at once”
– The National, “Fake Empire”

01. The Hold Steady - “Positive Jam” (Almost Killed Me)
02. The National - “Fake Empire” (Boxer)
03. Japandroids - “Younger Us” (Celebration Rock)
04. R.E.M. - “Finest Worksong” (Document)
05. Bob Dylan - “My Back Pages” (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
06. Wilco - “Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again)” (Summerteeth)
07. Japandroids - “Adrenaline Nightshift” (Celebration Rock)
08. LCD Soundsystem - “Yeah (Crass Version)” (LCD Soundsystem)

“What have they done to the earth/ What have they done to our fair sister?”
– The Doors, “When the Music’s Over”

01. M83 - “Midnight City” (Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming)
02. Radiohead - “Subterranean Homesick Alien” (OK Computer)
03. TV on the Radio - “Let the Devil In” (Return to Cookie Mountain)
04. Les Savy Fav - “What Would Wolves Do” (Let’s Stay Friends)
05. Arcade Fire - “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” (The Suburbs)

“Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together”
On The Road, Jack Kerouac

01. The Hold Steady - “Stuck Between Stations” (Boys and Girls in America)
02. The National - “Apartment Story” (Boxer)
03. Tom Waits - “House Where Nobody Lives” (Mule Variations)
04. The Dismemberment Plan - “A Life of Possibilities” (Emergency & I)
05. Radiohead - “House of Cards” (In Rainbows)
06. Neil Young - “On the Beach” (On the Beach)

“Isn’t death the boundary we need? Doesn’t it give a precious texture to life, a sense of definition? You have to ask yourself whether anything you do in this life would have beauty and meaning without the knowledge you carry of a final line, a border or limit.”
White Noise, Don Delillo

01. Wilco - “Company in My Back” (A Ghost Is Born)
02. The Wrens - “This Boy is Exhausted” (The Meadowlands)
03. Radiohead - “No Surprises” (OK Computer)
04. The Beta Band - “Dry the Rain” (The Three EP’s)
05. The Flaming Lips - “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate” (The Soft Bulletin)

Mix Tapes

Here’s how The Automatic Mix Tapes Generator works: Send us a thought, phrase, question, quotation, or whatever else, and if one of our mix tape robots fancies your suggestion, the crazy set of circuits might just make a mix tape out of it — well, at least a tracklisting for one. Request a mix tape here, and help us compile mix tapes here.

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