Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette
Everything on here was originally recorded onto some kind of magnetic tape in the studio, then pressed onto vinyl. I recorded that vinyl onto a cassette in 1999; converted the cassette to mp3 a few weeks ago; then uploaded it to the miraculous Mixcloud. You’d think after all that it would sound tired, but it still sounds pretty great to me.
Continue reading “33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute, Side B”Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette
This was my tribute to vinyl and also, I thought, a fond farewell. At the time CDs had been the dominant medium for a decade, and there was no way of knowing vinyl would make the comeback it has. I’m happy for it, though I find the whole phenomenon surprising and a little confusing.
As for the artwork: I honestly can’t remember. I was smoking a lot of weed at the time, that may have had something to do with it.
Continue reading “33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute, Side A”Year: 2017
Original Format: mp3
Today my country celebrates its birthday, and the way things have been going, my inclination is to throw its cake out in the rain and give it a swift kick in the posterior followed by a big two-finger salute. I mean, for fuck’s sake, America — get your head out of your ass.
When I made this mix back around Thanksgiving 2017, I wrote:
American dimness has reached its apotheosis this year. Is it possible that the wave will soon break and roll back?
Hilarious! Since then, things have just kept getting worse, of course. In the last few weeks we’ve tumbled several levels down the slippery slope to theocracy, and there’s not a whole lot of reason for optimism about the future.
But hope doesn’t require reason, so I hold out hope nonetheless, because what choice is there really? Better to make a playlist than to curse the darkness, isn’t that what they say?
This once could just as easily be called “Thanks for Nothing America” or “Fuck You America.” It’s a little cathartic, a little sarcastic, a little bittersweet. For whatever reason it seems to help.
Continue reading “Thank You America”Year: 1997
Original Format: cassette
Continue reading “Revolution #97, Side B: Freedom To”“Freedom is free of the need to be free.” —Funkadelic
Year: 1997
Original Format: cassette
Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about freedom. Everybody wants it but nobody really knows what to do with it. It’s perplexing and troubling and mysterious but, as someone once said, I like the trouble and I like the mystery.
Continue reading “Revolution #97, Side A: Freedom From”Year: 1996
Original Format: cassette
There’s a sort of narrative here: an extraterrestrial lands; is initially welcomed; meets a woman; is pursued by sinister forces; and in the end decides to return whence he came. It bears some resemblance to the plot of the John Carpenter/Jeff Bridges movie Starman, which I haven’t seen for many, many years. Apparently the Starman comes in response to the Voyager Golden Record, but at no point is he heard to say “Send more Chuck Berry.”
Continue reading “It’s Happening, Side B”Year: 1996
Original Format: cassette
What’s “happening” here is that the aliens are landing, or revealing themselves, or whatever. 26 years later, it hasn’t happened yet. I remain hopeful that I’ll live to see it, but I’m not holding my breath.
Continue reading “It’s Happening, Side A”
The well is finally dry, and this will be the last one of these. But six parts seemed like bad luck, so I decided to say this one is both 6 and 7, and who’s going to stop me? Bwahahaha!
Continue reading “Blow Away the Wicked, Parts 6 & 7: Knowledge with Magic”Year: 2022
Original Format: mp3
Yesterday I picked up David Katz’s People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee “Scratch” Perry to look something up, and found an old post-it with this LSP quote written on it:
I am sure Jesus Christ is black, because Jesus Christ is my sweet cock.
The man certainly had a way with words. Sound too. As for power, well, he had some. Remember:
It was four tracks written on the machine, but I was picking up twenty from the extra terrestrial squad.
Hmmm, “Extra Terrestrial Squad” would be a hell of a band name… though hard to live up to.
Anyway, let’s listen to some music.
Continue reading “Blow Away the Wicked, Part 5: Sound, Words & Power”Year: 2022
Original Format: mp3
I didn’t really mean for this series to go on and on. It’s slipped a bit out of my control, but not necessarily in a bad way. The next one will be the last one; I’m 99% sure of that. Maybe 95%. Well, we’ll see.
Continue reading “Blow Away the Wicked, Part 4: Music Like Shower”