Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette
Everything 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 one 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”