MIXXTAPE

"The MixxTape had an impressive breadth of diversity, like their name
implies. Songs ranged from Reggae (particularly Icarus), Punk, to Jazz. Some of their jams had very chill electronica vibes, and they even had some tribal elements in one of their songs. Far too often, when you've heard a band's first song, you've essentially heard them all. I was very impressed by just how much diversity The MixxTape had in each song and between songs. They always kept me excited and interested through out the night...In a scene where bands are often clamoring to showoff, The MixxTape had a rare virtue, balance. There songs remained catchy, engaging, fun, and fully accessible... For once I find myself happy about receiving a mix tape, as long as it's "The MixxTape" - Fady Khalil, JAMBANDS.COM & inthejam.com

LAST February Tim Nayfield loaded his car with almost 800 canned goods and non-perishable food items. Along with his band, he had just played a concert to benefit the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Mr. Nayfield, unable to drop the food off immediately, was forced to drive around in his packed Honda Accord. “The car was definitely low-riding for a couple days,” he says.

To help carry the weight of food shortages that are plaguing local charities, Mr. Nayfield has once again organized a benefit concert, the Winter Solace Festival 3, which will return to Joe’s Mill Hill Saloon in Trenton Dec. 27.

Beginning at 8:30 p.m., five local acoustic musicians will perform in prelude to Mr. Nayfield’s band, the Mixxtape. To encourage people to clean out their cabinets, the admission price of $10 is cut in half with the donation of a canned good or non-perishable food item.
Winter Solace
A mix of sounds from area musicians helps provide food for families in need

”We’re a real positive band,” Mr. Nayfield says. “We’d rather be positive and make a difference. With my bands and things, I’ve always liked to give back to the community, and it’s a very important thing for me.”

A music teacher for three elementary schools, Mr. Nayfield, 30, is a fixture on the local music scene. For more than five years he sang and played guitar in Sage, a group of longtime friends with a bent for upbeat rhythms and improvisation. They broke up in 2006.

”Since that happened I was trying to find the right guys,” he says, adding that he went through five drummers and three bass players before arriving at the current lineup. “Somewhere along the way the guys just fit and it felt right. I never thought I would have three like-minded musicians with the same goals who like to play the same kind of music.”

What to expect from his new band?

”We’re a mix tape,” Mr. Nayfield says. “It sounds like a tape you’d make for your friend. That’s our complete and total energy. We’re producing a mix of sounds. We have a bluegrass hard-rock funk song. We have a song where, except for the bass player, we all play drums. We’re trying, in a way, to bring all kinds of music to people instead of having one sound and sticking to it.”

Mr. Nayfield, a Lambertville resident, hosts the open-mike night every Monday at John and Peter’s in New Hope, Pa., where he has met many musicians — “hidden talent,” he says.

”There’s an art to a person playing with a guitar at an open mike,” he goes on, “but they need help sometimes. This is almost little-known talent. We’ve always enjoyed the acoustic music between bands (in previous solace festivals). This time weapproached it as a way to give a chance to friends and musicians.”

Also, Mr. Nayfield cause and spreading the word,” as opposed to past performers who “arrived five minutes before their set,” who “played, left and probably brought zero people and zero cans.”

Mr. Nayfield first volunteered for TASK as a 10-year-old Cub Scout. “Seeing that as a child pushed me to want to help as much as I can,” he says.

He’s been playing music longer than that. As a teacher, one of the instruments he brings for his students is the violin he’s owned since second grade. “I loved the teacher I had,” he says. The following year the teacher changed, and Mr. Nayfield quit the instrument, a pattern he repeated with the trumpet. He then abandoned playing music until around eighth grade, when he began singing in the school chorus, eventually discovering the guitar — and playing rock music.

”When Sage was starting we used to play at the Mill Hill,” he says. “There was this great scene and great bar.” Some things have changed, he adds, unwilling to say to what extent. “I’ll say Trenton’s energy and vibe has changed.” Which is why he believes it’s important to host the event in the city whose residents will benefit from it. “If we can come together and hold a positive event for the community, the Mill Hill can be a place of faith, where people can understand that their neighborhood isn’t Baghdad.”

Mr. Nayfield describes the success of the solace festivals as “absolutely insane.” He jokes about spoiling TASK. “Next time they’re going to be mad they’re not getting Healthy Choice.”

After last year’s festival, when Mr. Nayfield finally coordinated a time to drop off those 800 food items and remove them from his low-riding car, a family saw what he had brought. They were picking up food for themselves. The mother acknowledged Mr. Nayfield and sent her young girl to thank him. She gave him a hug.

The Winter Solace Festival 3 will take place at Joe’s Mill Hill Saloon, 300 S. Broad St., Trenton, Dec. 27, 8:30 p.m. until close. Admission is $10, $5 with a canned good or nonperishable food item; www.myspace.com/thewintersolacefestival - Adam Grybowski, Courier Times

The MIXXTAPE spins nostalgia into new sounds
by Ronni Reich/The Star-Ledger
Thursday June 25, 2009, 4:04 PM
Courtest of the artistThe MIXXTAPE performs Friday at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton.

When music went digital, it was probably a good thing for Tim Nayfield. It's easy to imagine that if he'd continued to stockpile his collection of thousands of CDs, to which he's added two terabyte drives of mp3s, it might have begun to burst out of his windows and doors.

The frontman of The MIXXTAPE, which appears tonight at a Grounds for Sculpture Courtyard Concert, aims to channel his lifelong, far-reaching love of music into a live version of the cassettes he started making for friends when he was in high school. But how to re-create the impression of compilations like the holiday CD he sent out this year, which included MGMT, Robert Palmer and a rare '70s soul band that always wore sombreros?

"I have an electric mandolin we play disco songs on," Nayfield says. "I have a sitar that we play a funk rock song on. We sort of blend different styles to put it all together. The songs take pretty dramatic twists to pay respect to the music that came before but still make it originally ours."

Nayfield compares his setlists to his tapes. "What I've learned over the years is that people like a wide variety but also comfort--music that sounds familiar but not common."

While funk and rock form the music's backbone and the group's songs have a catchy, summery feel, The MIXXTAPE flavors them with sounds ranging from punk to folk to jazz. The genesis of the band speaks to its eclectic style--Nayfield found his fellow musicians at a blues club in Teaneck, at a jazz show at the McCarter Theatre, and at an open mic night in New Hope.

Paying tribute to their inspiration, the members of The MIXXTAPE hold open tape swaps at each of their concerts and also provide opportunities for tape recycling. Nayfield insists that the mix tape, as opposed to the iPod playlist, has a particular value. "There's definitely something about the ability to not skip tracks that is a lost art form in a way," he says. "When I mix a CD, I'm not planning on someone finding the three songs they want to hear and listening to them again and again. A good mix tape flows with different styles and emotions--it's about the adventure from start to finish."

When he's not performing, Nayfield is an early-childhood music teacher at the Hamilton Montessori School and he organizes trips to Grounds for Sculpture for his Kindergartners. As he teaches his students, one art informs another for Nayfield. In addition to loving music, he is a visual art enthusiast who spent one of his semesters at Ithaca College practically living in the sculpture room. Consequently, The MIXXTAPE counts not just musicians but artists such as Monet, Kandinsky and Dalì as influences.

Nayfield tries to present each MIXXTAPE performance as an event, a multimedia experience rather than just a concert. Keeping with the interest in art and its nostalgic name, The MIXXTAPE holds a Lite-Brite competition at every performance; the tradition springs from the band using the electric canvas as a miniature marquee at its shows.

"This one is huge," Nayfield says. For the winners at Friday's concert, the band will award Saxabooms, brightly colored push-button toys that can play melodies and backbeats. They're a favorite of Jack Black.

But while there are toys involved and the show is for all ages, the contest isn't kids' stuff. "One time, someone re-created [Edvard Munch's] 'The Scream,'" Nayfield says. "We've seen 'Starry Night' on Lite-Brite." - Ronni Reich/The Star-Ledger