Motoring Mix

Sections: MF Feature Jun 24th, 2005 17 Comments

Ah, the mixtape.

To the untrained ear, a seemingly random low-tech recording of various songs from the radio, records, or other tapes, with plenty of false starts, accidental DJ voice-overs, and tape hiss.

mini

But to those who know, the mixtape is a complex compilation of recordings carefully chosen and painstakingly woven together to set moods, convey emotion, or tell a story. Meticulous planning, eclectic musical tastes, and skillful operation of the PAUSE and RECORD buttons – these were the tools of the successful mixtape artist. Often given as a gifts to friends, or used to let someone know you thought they were cute, these items became more than mere song collections – they were physical tokens of affection to be cherished forever. Or burned in fantastic fashion after the recipient is stood up at the prom.

mini

Well, for better or worse, it seems technology has doomed the cassette to go the way of the dodo. Heck, now you have to request a tape player in a new MINI – a CD player is no longer an upgrade, it’s standard! Even so, the mixtape spirit is still alive and well at MINI USA.

Julie Hoffman, Motoring Advisor at Otto’s MINI and founder of PhillyMINI, passed this little tidbit on to me, which she discovered buried in the pages of the Spring/Summer 2005 MINI Motoring Gear catalog:

1.) Open iTunes and select “Music Store” from the “Source” menu.
2.) Click on “iMix” in the “Choose Store” menu.
3.) Search by iMix name for “MINI mix 01″
4.) Select “MINI mix 01″ and preview/purchase songs.
5.) Import songs to your iPod.
6.) Connect your iPod to your MINI with the MINI iPod adaptor.
7.) Motor. Listen. Enjoy.

If you already have iTunes, you can skip steps 1-3 by clicking here. iTunes will launch and bring you to this iMix.

Wow. Massive Attack, The Smiths, John Lee Hooker, and Bowie… these 16 songs cover a lot of ground. Of course, you don’t necessarily have to have an iPod enjoy this music – you can just download these songs to your computer and listen there, or burn them to a CD and play them almost anywhere. Or you can make your own iMix of MINI-inspired music and post for others to check out and rate.

But, if you’re really ambitious, and your fingers still master those PAUSE and RECORD buttons on the boombox, well then, you know what to do…

Written By: Lawrence

johnny

Wow, nice mix. I already own nine of the songs, but will have to buy the rest…always wondered what people’s favorite motoring songs are.
http://bravo5.org/blog blalor

I’m working on a mix of my own, little by little. I usually get too caught up in the music to remember to add a particular song to my Driving playlist. And every time I want to upload an iMix, half of the songs aren’t on iTMS. grumble

If anyone’s got a copy of Lincoln’s self-titled CD they wanna sell, please email me. :-)
Allan

I’m working on a mix of my own too. I have actually been working on it for the past two months. I want it to be perfect for my road trip to The Tail of the Dragon this fourth of july weekend.

My favorite song on my mix so far is Timo Maas – To Get Down from the Italian Job.
http://motoringfile.com Gabe

I’ve been working on the same thing and having the same issues Blalor :) Hopefully I’ll eventually have the official MF iMix out there.
petsounds

I don’t get it. Why is this newsworthy? At first I thought these were free tracks offered by MINI, much as they did with the Mix CD they give with every new MINI (or at least they used to).
Bart

that’s a great mix.. I downloaded it-I didn’t have any of those tracks. I did swap out Johnny Cash though, for Ashes to Ashes (by Bowie) in 14th place… ;)
slh

This is sort of silly. A much better concept and free music, i hate to say, is at the Mercedes (can i type that in a MINI forum) website! Hate the company love the free music! Check out mercedes mixedtape here
slh

I should have added there is a new “mixedtape” every month. They are on #7, you can down load a zip file of all the MP3s for the month or you can play them through the cool interface on the site. Also if you are internetsearch savy you will be able to find all the previous mixedtape (1-6) and down them too. It gives you a bunch of cool new music to listen too. But when you listen to it in your MINI, please don’t tell it that you got it from Mercedes;-)
LorenH

Gabe,

Thanks for the mix AND the easy link!

-Loren
http://motoringfile.com Gabe

slh – MINI actually gave away three mix cds 2-3 years ago to owners. This is more of just a little easter-egg within the accessories catalog.

It’s hard to compare Mercedes and their huge budget with MINI and one of the smallest budgets of any US automaker/importer. I don’t think most people realize what a shoesrting budget MINIUSA is on each year.
http://www.hubertus.net/mymini Philip Hubertus

Here are my favorites, unfortunately, only 3 titles are available in the iTunes store….

[01] “Ever After Love (Love Beats)”, The Lucky Ones [02] “Clive The Runner”, Bobby Hughes Combination [03] “Brom, Gustav Big Band”, Contraband [04] “Cannonball”, Supertramp [05] “Makesome Brakesome”, Krushed & Sorted Featuring Ernie [06] “Witness Dub”, Roots Manuver [07] “Latazz”, The Funky Lowlives [08] “144.000″, Visit Venus [09] “Ginger & Fred”, Voom:Voom [10] “Please Stand By”, BFC [11] “Coffee Talk (Yukihiro Fukutomi Remix)”, Various Artists [12] “Croque Monsieur”, Dino & Tery [13] “Harp Junction”, Bobby Hughes Combination

Philip
Steve

CALL ME STUPID, BUT WHAT ARE ITUNES? AND WHERE DO YOU GO TO FIND IMIX AND WHAT IS IT? IT SEEMS STRANGE,BUT HOW DO YOU CLICK IT OPEN FROM A THE PAGES OF A CATALOG?
http://www.gbmini.net/ Ian

Steve, iTunes is software from Apple designed to make putting music on an iPod easy – it also supports the Apple music store.

Read the article above – you don’t click pages of a catalog, you follow instructions in the pages.

Please avoid typing ALL CAPS – it makes your message hard to read.
RB

Philip,

I gotta say I have never heard of most of your list and generally consider myself pretty up on most bands and styles of musica.

I guess I’m not. Try some Yoshida Brothers.

RB
RB

My iPod helped me pass the time on my latest 3200 mile journey across USA in my daughter’s Cooper…….Thank You, Thank You Dension IceLink!

Someone doesn’t know about iTunes??????????HUH?!
shawndel

I just got a 2002 mini and I didnt get an owners manual, so there are a few buttons that I dont know why and what does it do? large button on center top of dash no words just a picture of what looks to me like the tacometer it is on the left closest to driver, also the rds and pty buttons on the cd player??????? please solve my mini confussion. thanks
http://www.gbmini.net/ Ian

The large button controls dimming for all the dash lighting. Press & hold to brighten, press & release repeatedly to dim.

The RDS and related PTY buttons are for stations that transmit RDS; station name, music style, etc.

At the MINI USA owners lounge you can download copies of the manual.

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