Radiohead performing at Riverbend in Cincinnati.

I love putting a good mix together, then hopping in the car for a little road trip.

I thought I had this new one finished three times now, but it kept falling apart towards the end.

Originally I burned these songs for the Radiohead concert in Cincinnati on June 5th.

Radiohead Concert Review

I made two CDs for the ride up.

One was a Radiohead mix – just a little something to help replicate the show I was about to see.

These guys never play a typical concert and The King of Limbs tour was even more avant-garde.

So I reviewed all of Radiohead’s setlists from this tour; they prepped 75 songs, and play around 23 of those a night; about 15 are played every night in some random order, leaving eight at-large selections.

I thought these 17 songs seemed like a fair representation of what might get played, and they were in the ball park:

Bloom; 15 Step; Little By Little; Airbag; Jigsaw Falling Into Place; Go To Sleep (Little Man Being Erased); Pyramid Song; Weird Fishes/Arpeggi; Exit Music (For A Film); You and Whose Army?; Morning Mr. Magpie; Idioteque; Reckoner; Lucky; Street Spirit (Fade Out); Paranoid Android; and Creep (Acoustic Version)

Throwing Creep on at the end was a gratuitous selection on my part. I realize Radiohead doesn’t play it much anymore, but it was a sweet way to finish the set.

Here is Radiohead’s Cincinnati setlist:

Radiohead at Riverbend Music Center

Now about the new mix.

I wanted this also to have a diffused atmosphere, so I chose tracks with a house or trance feel, some techno and a few “UP IN UR GRILL” hard rocking alt tracks – real high energy stuff to get the blood and alcohol pumping for the show.

It almost turned out great. The problem was I tried plugging in this Lil’ Wayne track, but it clashed with the tunes around it.

Then I had this song from The Call, but that stark 80’s synthpop wasn’t working.

Finally I found Runaway, by Imperial Teen; fun song, simple, but with flavor. Nice fit.

Thought that was the end of it, but after listening to the mix again the Radiohead song wasn’t flowing. I intended to use Little By Little, but really anything off The King of Limbs is hard to use in a mix format because it is so unstructured.

I fixed that quick enough by plugging in Go To Sleep (Little Man Being Erased), from Hail To The Thief.

This put the finishing touches on my new mix.

It’s entitled, Don’t Be Crazy Underneath, which is an inside joke, and applies to anyone you’ve ever dated that appears fine and normal on the surface, but when you get them home, they turn out to be stone crazy.

Track Listings:

The Features-How It Starts; Gorillaz-Plastic Beach; Nine Inch Nails-Me, I’m Not; Beastie Boys-The New Style; Bloc Party-Banquet; Diplo-Must Be A Devil; My Morning Jacket-First Light; Ratatat-Loud Pipes; Arctic Monkeys-Brick By Brick; Mr. Gnome-Plastic Shadow; Thee Oh Sees-I Was Denied; Radiohead-Go To Sleep; Foo Fighters-Arlandria; The Kills-Future Starts Slow; Imperial Teen-Runaway; Alex Clare-Too Close; Skrillex-Kill Everybody; Miike Snow-Paddling Out

A few highlights are The Features; I had to put the Beastie Boys on here in honor of Adam Yauch (MCA),who died last month; Love this Diplo take on Hey by the Pixies; just recently discovered Thee Oh Sees, a San Francisco surf/punk garage outfit (go to the 2:00 minute mark on this video and check out I Was Denied), Monster!; and the incomparable Skrillex, whose vicious dubstep will snap your head off.

Tasty treats — Enjoy!