#SplitLip2000: The Playlist

We recently hit 2000 followers (and then some!) on Twitter, and to celebrate, we ran a #SplitLip2000 promotion: share with us your favorite Split Lip pieces, and we would curate a playlist just for you. We loved reading your responses! The winner, chosen at random, was none other than August's featured poet, Hannah Craig, who shared her love for Terrell Terry's poems. 

In order to get a sense of Hannah's tastes for the perfect playlist, we asked her a few questions:

1) What was your first favorite song?

I probably went through a hundred favorite pop songs when I first started independently listening to popular music. But I don't remember any stand-out first.

The first song where I was like, o, I get it?  Where I felt myself connect and instantly went out and bought it and played the tape (yes, the tape!) like 10,000 times? R.E.M.'s "Country Feedback." That was an important year of music for me. R.E.M. became my favorite band pretty much overnight and then, a few months later, Nirvana's Nevermind was released, which had a big impact on what I was listening to, what the kids around me were listening to. A lot of stuff floated onto my radar that year...I think, Pearl Jam, Morrissey, Soundgarden, the Pixies...my musical landscape sorta exploded.

Where I lived at the time, in the middle of some Indiana soybean fields, there were like 2 pop/rock stations and they were mostly playing Wilson Philips or some Marky Mark. But there was a college radio station about 30 minutes away and if you pointed the radio antennae just right on a Wednesday night from 10-midnight, there was a radio show that played a lot of bands out of Seattle, post-punk, British rock, things I'd never heard before. I think a lot of people in my generation had that kind of experience, with music as a kind of gateway into realizing the world was a lot bigger and more interesting than where we were, who we were.

2) What's your perfect summertime jam?

Right now, late August...maybe Fela Kuti's "Water No Get Enemy" or Joseph's "White Flag."

3) How do you feel about seasonal decorations appearing months ahead of time in stores?

Meh. I'm not that fond of shopping monoliths to begin with, so I guess I don't get particularly worried when they sell Peeps in June or hang a blow-up Santa Claus in the spring planting section. I grew up without holidays, to be honest, so I never really learned to use them as a marker of time or seasonal transition. 

4) What would your ideal writing room look like?

I will write anywhere. I guess my ideal writing room would have lots of sunlight and lots of plants. And room for my dog.

5) What do you sing when you're alone?

EVERYTHING. Everywhere. Shower, car, kitchen, garden. If I think nobody can hear me, I sing in my office at work, really quietly. 

6) Have you ever daydreamed about giving an award acceptance speech? What was the award?

Sometimes, on super long road trips, I imagine I'm getting interviewed by Terry Gross. Is that close enough?

7) Would you go to a concert for a band you've never heard of if a friend asked you to?

Absolutely! I go to a music festival every year where I buy the tickets months before they announce any of the acts. It's an amazing gift, honestly, because you have to come to the music from a point of a kind of humility, of not knowing, and you have to learn, get there with the songs, all the songs, appreciate the bands you've never heard of. 

8) What makes you change the radio station faster than anything?

Dumb end rhymes.

9) What song title do you associate the following words with:

Love --  "When I Get My Hands on You" by Bob Dylan, sung by Marcus Mumford

Hello -- The Avalanches' "Because I'm Me"

Queen -- "Hungry Ghost" by Hurray for the Riff Raff

Low -- Beck's "Heart is a Drum"

Animal -- "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood" by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

In response to Hannah's answers, music editor Christopher Wolford curated a playlist:

"I wanted the playlist to reflect the answers to their truest sense and sometimes that didn't mean adding the song mentioned," he says. "That last one, 'True Blue' by Bright Eyes, is a play on the end rhyme answer. It's predictable but it works. 'The Greatest' by Cat Power and 'Guided by Wire' by Neko Case are not only two of my favorite songs ever, they also just seemed to fit so perfectly with the answers about winning awards and blindly going to a music festival every year, respectively. I also listen to a lot of Neko Case so I tend to slip one of her songs in any chance I get."

We are hugely grateful to everyone who responded to #SplitLip2000 and our entire Twitter Fam. Thanks for following along us on our literary adventure. Fire up Spotify and enjoy #SLM2000!

PS: If this playlist gets you inspired, may we suggest checking out our Summer Mixtape Flash Fiction Contest?