Mixtape | April 2026
The First Saturday
There's a specific day that happens every April. You don't plan for it, it just shows up. You wake up and the window's already open and the air smells different and somewhere between the first cup of coffee and putting your shoes on you realize okay, it's actually here. Spring isn't coming anymore. Spring is already in the kitchen.
That's the day this one is built around.
It's not a road trip playlist or some spring cleaning soundtrack. It's concepted like a spring day that eventually ends, tracked from the beginning so that there was specific sequencing logic the whole way through. Every section is a different part of the day, a different hour, different light, different mood. The timestamps in the tracklist are the map.
It starts with White Denim because Ruby is exactly the kind of song that sounds like a good decision before you've even made one. Bleachers, Deer Tick, Post Sex Nachos, Miniature Tigers right behind it. That's the morning run, fast and immediate, no warm up required.
Around track six it slows down on purpose. Josiah and the Bonnevilles into Friko into Ben Kweller into Big Harp, that's the mid morning gear shift where you stop moving and just sit in it for a minute. Runs to Blue by Big Harp is one I kept coming back to during sequencing, it just needed a little space around it and by track nine it finally has it.
For Superman by Theo Katzman sits at the center of the afternoon and I couldn't move it. Everything around it takes on a little more weight because of it. The Strokes, Melanie Baker, Fantastic Cat, Fruit Bats all feel more deliberate with that song anchoring the middle. The gravitational pull is real.
The late afternoon rebuilds gradually without forcing a peak. Alex Cameron, Devon Gilfillian, Susto, the day gets its second wind without making a big deal about it. Then Shakey Graves before Beck's Ride Lonesome which is the one real left turn in the whole sequence. It's a texture shift and I think it earns it.
The back nine is just one long exhale. Deslondes, Willow Avalon and Jason Isbell, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Hiss Golden Messenger. Patient music that rewards patience. Punching the Flowers by Death Cab closes it out, restrained and a little searching and slightly unresolved. You sit with it after it ends. That felt like the right kind of closer.
33 tracks. Sequenced like a day. Start at track one.
