This mixtape is called Vacation Wonderland

Aside from "I like you and I want you to like me" perhaps another common mix theme is road-trip/vacation. This can take shape in quite a few different ways.

• The curated mix for a specific trip.
• The mass "I like this song" dump onto a playlist.
• Or perhaps the "here's the 10 albums that fit into my tape case"..

I never (to memory) created mixes for particular trips but I often recall certain songs when thinking about places I've visited. One such recollection is drifting off to sleep in a tent cabin bunk bed listening to Matthew Sweet's album "100% Fun" on my DiscMan. This was deep "indieboy" phase and I felt a bit ashamed that I was in love with this major label album. However, in the darkness of my top bunk I could hit repeat whenever I wanted.

My family's car was never very musical. Very rarely was the AM/FM radio on in our VW bus. However, we had some very close family friends who would occasionally take me along on their family trips and their stereo opened my mind to the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Huey Lewis, Neil Young and Rod Stewart.

Is this a road trip mix? I don't really think so but it could potentially work as one if you're in a bind. It's not really a "summer jams" mix either. I suppose it's a past/present/future vacation soundtrack. In other words it's a mix to fall asleep to in a bunk bed*.

*full disclosure this mix contains no Matthew Sweet but many of these songs are bunk bed compatible.