And here it is . . . again . . . 2005 in the Mix, featuring Andrew Bonazelli, Gavin Borchert, Laura Cassidy, Geeta Dayal, Keith Harris, Jess Harvell, Kristal Hawkins, Dylan Hicks, me, Nate Patrin, Rachel Shimp, Rod Smith, and Douglas Wolk condensing their musical years into 80-minutes-or-less. Also, Seattle Ultimate Hits 2005 (it's supposed to be "2005," at least--god knows why it got left out, grrr), in which myself and Laura C, Rachel S, Neal Schindler, and Kate Silver filled two CDs with our favorite local tracks of the year. Enjoy!

Why I rule: So I get back to the office 20 minutes ago from lunch and see a large Fed-Exed package in my mailbox. I pick it up and look at the sender address: Austin, TX. Scan up and see "ZZ TOP." Wha? I open it up and there's a beautiful wooden box w/a slip-top; slide it off and there's a double-shrinkwrapped pecan pie, pecans the size of acorns, just gorgeous looking. A red 8x11 sheet: MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ZZ TOP.

Needless to say, it is FUCKING DELICIOUS. Thanks, ZZ Top!

Another wrinkle on the mash-ups question: For some folks, myself sometimes included, maybe mash-ups forced a reappraisal of modern pop, meaning Top 40 stuff. Let’s say Strawman A heard e.g. “Genie in a Bottle” or “Smells Like Booty” and then wondered if the C. Aguliera or D. Child songs they’d ignored had as much juice on their own as they did paired w/stuff that was more familiar. They went back and discovered that, in fact, some of them did. So they began paying closer attention to Top 40. In this scenario, mash-ups act as a gateway from indie to pop--not the only gateway, but a decisive one.