I made this mix in fall of 2009, about 1 month after I got my first pair of direct-drive turntables (technics 1200s). Up until that point I had been playing in various local bands (nonetheless, lead us not, no thanks, among others) and I had only been djing random house parties and punk shows as a way to keep the music going. I used this mix strictly for promotional and booking purposes, and by summer of 2010 I had given away over 1,000 hand-made, hand-spraypainted copies, printed DIY style at Hottt Off the Presses print collective in west Philly. There are at least 6 different editions, someday I will show you how to tell them apart.

It might surprise some of you to know that I have only been DJing 'professionally' for just over 15 months now. While I've spun for years, I previously didnt think of it as 'a job.' I've never considered myself to be technically 'the best,' nor was I really all that great back when this mix was made, but I can promise you that you cannot knock my song selection, and at the end of the day I'd rather have fun doing this and promote a few good records than have you leave thinking I was god's gift to disc-jockeying. Most people use computers now to DJ anyway, taking most of the fun out of it in my opinion. Sets stay at the exact same beat per minute, sometimes you have no way of knowing if two songs were premixed on homey's computer and he's just standing there milli-vanilling you. Other times I fear I have traveled to a club to see a man-assisted computer spit out a predetermined mix it has done so more than a few times before, regardless of the makeup of the room. The main reason I'm bothered by the staleness of some of these sets is that none of the music being played is tangible, and even the DJs themselves don't really 'own' anything they played.

That said, this mix is made up of 100% vinyl records that I bought with my own cash money, some back when that was in the form of an 'allowance'. A lot of them aren't in great condition, and my needles were honestly not that good. I took as many stabs at the DJM-800s effects wheel as I could while mixing this live, to add an element of additional production, but really this mix is me worrying about what record comes next, when, and whether or not I am providing you with a breadth of music indicative of where I wanted to go as a DJ. I went back and added the drops thru a microphoned cell phone with a talk feature.
I mixed and mastered this live, myself, in south Philadelphia sometime around 9/20/2009.

Looking back well over a year later, I stand by this mix. While I may have gotten 'better,' booked more gigs and released a few more mixes which included unreleased (intangible) digital music from producers I believe it, I still spend more money than I make spinning these records on buying these records, and I will until I die. I still care about the artists who create them, the labels who produce them and the people that consume them.

Vote with your dollar, and with your presence. Support Actual Records.

Thanks for caring!
Sincerely,
Aaron Ruxbin
@LPCDandCS
http://www.actualrecords.org

Book it! is now hopelessly out of print. If you'd like a physical copy, make one yourself! Otherwise, stay tuned for FOOK IT! which should be out relatively soon and available at my shows and a few choice record shops, for free. It will be much, much weirder.