Introducing... The Needle Exchange
Let our amateur musicologists make you a mixtape or three!
For as long as we have been able, we’ve been sharing lists of music. It started with jukebox jockeys staking their claim with a fistful of coins and then morphed into teenagers with their fingers poised over the record button waiting for the radio to play their next song. The mixtape took some time and patience and was often a labor of love, but burning CDs was easy and made us even more profligate in our sharing (to which social media and streaming services said, “hold my beer”).
Now we have playlists, divorced of physical media entirely, but no less potentially meaningful. A playlist is like a little piece of yourself, one view of one pose, that you want to share with others. Similar to what the brilliant Mae Martin described as our snow globes; “Look, I am me.”
Over the last few months, some friends and I have been exchanging weekly Spotify playlists built on a common theme. And, as it turns out, some of my friends are really, really good at this (I’m fine - I like music, but just don’t have their breadth of knowledge or practiced ear).
So, I asked them if we could maybe try to make this a thing. Actually, I believe my exact words were, “No worries, this is fun, and can be only that, but you three are a show. It is stupid how obvious this is. Like, it should not take me to point this out. I will be y’all’s producer. Just say yes.” And thus, The Needle Exchange was born.
Here’s the deal: our three Dilletante DJs (José Amador, Rob MacGregor, and Zach Prewitt) are provided a theme and one week to develop a 10-song Spotify playlist on that theme. We all then have 72 hours to listen to the lists before we come together, discuss the lists, and share them with all of you.
Our first episode - The Needle Exchange: First World Problems - is in the can. We are very much still feeling our way around and trying this idea on for size, and we would love to hear from you, our friends and family and early test listeners, about what you like and what we could do better.
Podcast: The Needle Exchange Ep. 001 - “First World Problems”
You can also find the podcast on Spotify.
Playlists on Spotify:
José Amador
Styx | “Why Me” | Cornerstone | 1979
George Harrison | Got My Mind Set on You | Cloud 9 | 1987
CAN | Vitimin C | Ege Bamyası | 1972
Elvis Costello | Watching the Detectives | My Aim is True | 1977
Don Henley | Dirty Laundry | I Can’t Stand Still | 1982
De La Soul | A Little Bit of Soap | 3 Feet High and Rising | 1989
The Beatles | Nowhere Man | Rubber Soul | 1965
The Beta Band | Round the Bend | The Beta Band | 1999
“Weird Al” Yankovich | Buy Me a Condo | In 3-D | 1984
Mike + The Mechanics | The Living Years | The Living Years | 1988
Rob MacGregor
Dan Bern | Tiger Woods | Fifty Eggs | 1998
DOMi & JD BECK | U DON’T HAVE TO ROB ME | NOT TiGHT | 2022
JPEGMAFIA | Free The Frail | All My Heroes Are Cornballs | 2019
Nina Simone | The Other Woman | The Other Woman (Single) | 1959
CAN | Vitamin C | Ege Bamyası | 1972
Handsome Boy Modelling School | Modeling Sucks | So…How’s Your Girl? | 1999
Cults | Oh My God | Cults | 2011
Björk | Army Of Me | Post | 1995
Primus | Too Many Puppies | Frizzle Fry | 1990
Unknown Mortal Orchestra | American Guilt | Sex & Food | 2018
Van Morrison | Ring Worm | BANG! Contractual Obligation Album | 1968
Zach Prewitt
Huey Lewis & The News | I Want a New Drug | Sports | 1983
The Dandy Warhols | Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth | The Dandy Warhols Come Down | 1997
Nickelback | Rockstar | All the Right Reasons | 2005
Puddle Of Mudd | She Hates Me | Come Clean | 2001
Joe Jackson | Is She Really Going Out With Him? | Look Sharp! | 1979
Pulp | Common People | Different Class | 1995
Descendents | Parents | Milo Goes To College | 1982
Antrax | Milk – Ode to Billy | Attack of the Killer B’s | 1991
Best Coast | Goodbye | Crazy for You | 2010
Taylor Swift | Anti-Hero | Midnights | 2022
Audience Survey - Take a few minutes to tell us what you think!
We hope you enjoy the podcast and lists as much as we enjoyed making them! Plans for the next episode are already underway.