The Mixtape Diaries

While Summer 2026 is quickly coming to a close, Brad, Mark and Carla recapped their favorite shows from mid-summer. We collectively agree The Hives are a party, Alison Moyet's voice still sounds incredible (Carla may not agree here) and The Hold Steady are the rock 'n roll bar band we all absolutely need. Welcome to the latest episode of The Mixtape Diaries. Enjoy!

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Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music.  If you like wh...

We have a very special episode of The Mixtape Diaries today. It's our first video episode! If you didn't start out on YouTube, head over there and watch Mark and Carla as they have the pleasure of speaking with musician and singer/songwriter Brian Tighe of The Hang Ups, The Starfolk and the Owls. 

Brian talks about how he got started in music, the Minneapolis music scene in the late 1980's and he shares three songs with us that...

Mixing it up (ha) with the roster for this one, as special guests Sam and Alli stop in to reminisce about the good old days.  Today's songs are pulled from Billboard's Top 20 around this time in 1985.

Lots of fun options here, but we boiled it down to Madonna, the Power Station, Tears for Fears, and Sam's beloved Bryan Adams.  We'll have to take a raincheck on Animotion, DeBarge and Diamond Dave.

Put on your Jams and rubber...

Does anyone fancy some lasagna? While our bucket hats and tour jerseys may be safely tucked away, we are still yearning for Oasis Summer. From the moment we got our presale codes the excitement continued to build until we found ourselves in Wembley Stadium and the Rose Bowl for the concert event of the summer. 

In this episode, we recap everything from purchasing our tickets through watching the Gallagher boys rip through the s...

Reports of the death of Music Television were greatly exaggerated—or 25 years late, depending on your point of view.  Wherever you stand on that question, we Gen Xers thought we'd set aside an hour to talk about four of our favorites from the good old days.

Hush, hush, Rio—and don't come around here full of love no more.

Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music.  If you like what you hear, please share, rate a...

Today we put 2025 fully in the rear-view, with Part Two of our Apple Music Replay series. Join us as Mark and Brad serve some choice cuts from their Best of/ Most of playlists.

Lots to look for in this one, including a surprise drop from Mark and a trip to São Paulo with Brad, amid simmering tensions in the ongoing '90s v. '20s battle.

Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music.  If you like what you hear, please share, rate and...

With nearly every app giving us some history of our activity this year, we decided to share with you three songs each that made their way onto our Apple Music Replay playlists. 

This is a super-sized, two-part episode. In today's episode, Bob and Carla share their picks, a few of which come with some controversy and some attitude. Have Bob and Carla formed their own alliance? Will Brad and Mark ever listen to a band from the cu...

Today we are re-releasing one of our favorite episodes...our Christmas Special! Here we talked about some of our favorite (and not so favorite) Christmas songs and movies.

Joining us on The Nice List are the Pogues, Bowie and Bing, Weezer, Ella, Jose Feliciano, She & Him, the Kinks, the Vince Guaraldi Trio, John and Yoko, Darlene Love, the Waitresses, Elvis and more!

Dim the lights, stoke the fire, egg the nog, and Yule i...

Today we pay tribute to one of rock music's most legendary bass players, Gary "Mani" Mounfield of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream. We lost Mani in late November - far too soon. As tributes have poured in from many of our favorite bands including Oasis and Richard Ashcroft, we wanted to pay our own tribute to honor the man whose music and signature bass lines have left a lasting mark on all of us. 

In this episode, Brad and Ca...

What'sa happenin' hot stuff? Bob, Brad, Carla and Mark are back to discuss one of our favorite movies, John Hughes' first feature film, Sixteen Candles. This movie did not have an official soundtrack, but the songs featured in it are a killer combination of new wave, post punk and rock 'n' roll. Here are four songs we felt would have made the soundtrack cut. 

Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music.  If you like what yo...

That slick hook and spot-on beat playing over the PA in Target, at Cumberland Farms, in the venue before the headliner takes the stage: WHO IS THAT?  WHAT'S THAT SONG?

We all have the Shazam app loaded on our phones, and it's wild to think that for more than half our lives (speaking for the Diarists), we did without it.  Here are four songs Bob, Brad, Mark, and Carla dialed up over Shazam.  Reach out to us with some o...

It's never too late for a 2024 recap, right? In today's super-sized episode, Bob, Mark, Carla and Brad discuss their favorite new songs of 2024 and songs they rediscovered last year. Well...three of the four of us followed this plan. One of us interpreted this theme a bit differently. Will there be controversy over Pearl Jam? Will Mark recover after hearing a Human League album was rated and reviewed higher than the Cure's Disinteg...

We go waaaaaaaaay back (four decades?) with our dear friend Alli.  And whatever we got up to back in the day—tooling around town in her Chevette, rocking out in downtown Youngstown, or just chilling in any of our respective basements—music was involved.

No surprise that Alli was firmly at the top of our guest list.  Here's hoping this is the first of many of her appearances on The Mixtape Diaries!

Credits: Intro...

Join us on the "Autobahn" as we take a ride to Los Angeles to discuss two nights of Kraftwerk's nine-show residency earlier this summer where Mark and Brad got to see Autobahn and Radio-Activity performed in their entirety. 

While this episode may seem more suited for Carla and Brad Talk about Krautrock, find out if Carla and Brad won Mark over with these pioneers of electronic music. 
 

Find the P...

In which your Fab Four Diarists Bob, Brad, Carla, and Mark reconvene, kinda sorta, to talk about some of their favorite remixed tracks.  This next episode was a long time coming, but as comebacks go, it'll absolutely serve.  Beastie Boys, Happy Mondays, Björk, and Depeche Mode?  Yes, please!

Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music and your Extras on Twitter and Instagram.   And if you like what you hea...

.There’s an old Irish benediction that goes, “May you be in Heaven an hour before the Devil knows you’re dead.”   By our best guess, Shane MacGowan arrived three hours late, drank the Devil under the table, and jimmied the lock on the Pearly Gates.

Come raise a glass, or six, or seven with us, as we celebrate our dear, departed Shane: the Last of the Great Irish Poets.

We’re a bit ta...

It's been a while, listeners, but we've mustered a quorum.  Bob's back with us today (alas, Mark is not), as we talk about some recent shows we've seen and generally ham it up.

First Bob waxes rhapsodic about Nashville band Bully.  Then Brad swaps out a vowel and steers the conversation toward Belly.  And we wrap it all up with Carla's trip to Vegas to see U2 in The Sphere.

Credits: Intro/ Outro —...

Attached hereto is the final episode of the Carla, Brad and Mark Sessions.  We kept it Stateside for this one, with picks from The Hold Steady, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Car Seat Headrest.

Carla could've used Bob's alliance for her pick.  (He'll be back soon!)  Brad shared his disdain for new music from old bands.  And Mark delivered our favorite pick of the episode.  Get ready to rock!  These songs ...