Earlier this year I laid out a ton of money for a marketing company to build my small company a website. In addition to the money, the marketing company wanted other things from me. Like, information on what my company did that's useful – and a bunch of other stuff along those lines. There were dozens of pages I had to write, explaining (a) how it was that I retained clients, and (b) why it was that I wanted to engage the marketing company's vaulted website production services.

After completing all of that, I decided to give the marketers two mix-tapes, so they could get into the proper spirit when building my site.

First tape: Country & Blues
Alejandro Escovedo – California Blues
Canned Heat – Goin' Up The Country
Chet Atkins & Doc Watson – On My Way To Canaan's Land
Del McCoury – Learnin' The Blues
Dwight Yoakam – Little Ways
Steve Earle & Emmylou Harris – Goodbye
Etta James – Whatever Gets You Through The Night
Fabulous Thunderbirds – Tuff Enuff
Gary Allen – Nothing On But The Radio
Guy Clark – Dublin Blues
Hot Tuna – Hesitation Blues
Iguanas – I Moved Too Slow
Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Defying Gravity
Joe Ely – Slow You Down
Joe Stampley – Do You Ever Fool Around
Johnny Duncan – It Couldn't Have Been Any Better
Johnny Lee – Lookin' For Love
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Special Rider Blues
Mike Ness – Dope Fiend Blues
Red Willow Band – Finally Hit Bottom
Steve Earle & Supersuckers – Creepy Jackalope Eye

Second tape: Rock & Jazz
Art Pepper – Blues In
Bad Plus Trio – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Brand New Heavies – Have A Good Time
Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing (OK, there's no way you can stretch your definition of acid jazz to call this track anything but R&B, but it mixes well with Jane's Addiction)
Jane's Addiction – Sympathy
Jazzanova – Bohemian Sunset (electronic Brazilian samba; my favorite track on the disc)
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Killer Wolf
Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos – No Me Llores Mas
Mink Deville – Gunslinger
Morphine – Buena
Nada Surf – Inside Of Love
New Wet Kojak – Love Career
New York Dolls – Looking For A Kiss
Patti Smith Group – Ghost Dance
Pharoah Sanders – Tomoki
Sonic Youth – Hot Wire My Heart

So, I gave the marketing woman the discs, and her reaction was very distinctly, "Ohhhhh..." (can you hear the declining inflection of disinterest?). Still, her company built me a wonderful site – one that does what needs to be done, which is what I wanted.


Cross-posted in a slightly different form at Tales From the Microbial Laboratory.

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