The secret to the mixed CD, or even the mixed cassette tape, exists. The art of creating the perfect song compilation that touches people's tastes but pushes their musical boundaries - that "grabs them by the throat" - exists.
And Travis Harvey of Village Green Records has the skill. He knows he has to start a mix with strong songs familiar to someone's tastes, but nothing daring. But as his mixes progress, one song leads to another, and yet another, growing in obscurity. Then, he reels the listener back in with something familiar.
"You got to let them go and bring them back," he said.
A 2005 Ball State University graphic design graduate, Harvey knew the founder of VGR, Jared Check. Check started the business three years ago but has since left. About a year ago, Harvey took over the operations because of his affection for music.
Harvey even assembled a concert Saturday resembling a mix of local music, exposing people to the area's sounds. About 13 bands, ranging from acoustic to blues to hip-hop and more put the local music scene's sound on display at the music store on the corner of Martin Street and Ashland Avenue.
Harvey and his friends, who work at VGR, passed out thousands of handmade fliers before the event, even handing out 1,300 in 15 minutes, they said.
"We pretty much blitzkrieg the freshman convocation," Harvey said.
But the attendance in the afternoon started small. About 16 people sat outside listening while Harvey ran frantically inside the store, balancing helping bands, helping customers and other odd jobs.
Harvey said he felt a need to connect with the people in the store passing through, even as crowds outside continued to grow. He wanted to create a dialogue about music with possible customers to connect with their musical interests, even if it seemed he had no time.
Possible customers walked between the different stacks of CDs amid the band posters of artists from Snoop Dogg to Belle and Sebastian, searching until Harvey chimed in. Before long, he whipped out his iPod and played something by Herbert Scales for them.
"Hear this, and it won't sound weird at all. ... This is straight neo-soul ... a great headphone album," he said to them.
Ian Duvall, a Muncie resident who helps out at VGR, pointed out Harvey's ability to engage customers.
"You just got a taste of how much he enjoys music," he said. "He loves creating mixed CDs that flow and exposing people to music."
Harvey and his friends helped build the store into what it is today. The store's music selection is growing, and the building isn't "nasty looking" anymore with "chippy paint," he said.
"It hardly looked like people lived here," Duvall said.
Bands continued to play outside while Duvall and Dustin Condon, another friend of VGR, remembered pulling brush away from the building painting it with a fresh coat of green.
"It looked like it was being condemned," Condon added.
As dusk approached, the crowd outside the store grew to more than 50. One of the acts that afternoon was Small Wonders, a Muncie hip-hop group.
The singer stood on the street, jamming to "The Imperial March" and chanted, "Hip-hop's not dead; it's in a coma."
"Support local hip-hop," he said. "You support me, I'll support you."
More acts filed through, and as many as 200 people came to the event. Outside the store where Harvey said people can come in and expand their musical tastes, people ran out of space to sit on the store lawn.
People crouched down on lawns on the opposing side of the street and even sat on the top of McKinley parking structure, silhouetted by the setting sun.
"I'm trying to instigate people into the local scene," Harvey said about the event.
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