The Times They Are a-Endin’

You may have seen it on a billboard, on television, or in an ad in your local paper: the apocalypse is coming this weekend. Harold Camping, a Christian fundamentalist and co-founder of the Family Radio Network, believes the world will end on Saturday (not in 2012 as the Mayans predicted), and is doing his best to make sure you’re aware of your imminent doom.

The hip music magazine L.A. Record is also getting its readers ready for the End by asking them to contribute original songs to their “Judgment Day Mixtape” — a collection of tunes that should be the perfect soundtrack to the rapture. It’s the latest installment in their ongoing series of mixes: typically smaller, local bands dominate the line-up, but larger acts like Crystal Antlers have been known to submit tunes as well.

So what does music made for the apocalypse sound like? “There’s talk of thunder, wind, fire,” executive editor Daiana Feuer told me, “destruction, a little on death.” Feuer has a hunch that the end of the world will “begin with society crumbling, probably starting with the internet shutting down.”

Crystal Antlers, “Parting Song for the Torn Sky”

But the submissions are not all doom and gloom. “We’ve also gotten a lot of dance songs, and a couple of actual pop songs,” Feuer says. She thinks the more upbeat songs come from people who see an opportunity in “starting over,” with the end of this world suggesting the start of a new, better one. Then again, maybe it’s all just good old-fashioned hubris: “Perhaps it speaks to just how vain humans are that they think they can survive even the apocalypse.”

Halloween Swim Team, “Science Fiction (Michael Nhat RMX)”

L.A. Records is accepting submissions until tomorrow. Send yours to fortherecord@larecord.com with the subject line “Judgment Day Mixtape Submission.” The best songs will be compiled and released later this spring — if we survive Saturday.

What songs would you put on an apocalypse-themed mixtape? Tell us below.