Don't Stop 'til you Get Enough: Old Cassette Inserts

I read something recently in which a few computer whiz types explained how the internet could have been much more efficiently designed -- if the original architects had only known that meaningless esoterica would end up comprising the bulk of its content.

Case in point: Yet another luridly appealing website that collects scans of old cassette j-card. (Link courtesy of Aaron Dunkel. Thanks Aaron!) No doubt, it'll inspire sentimental gooeyness in anyone who's got a calloused pause-button finger as a result of making so many mixtapes throughout the 80s and 90s. I'm as guilty as any of my current or past broadcasting co-conspirators when it comes to a dirty, mixtape-making past. I've often suspected that my initial desire to produce a radio show was rooted in the zillions of mixtapes I made for friends, teenage crushes, random car rides, or pretty much any other occasion that validated the careful selection of precisely 90 minutes of music. (Sometimes 60 minutes, but only if it was an emergency or if I had to pee really bad.) When I first got on the air at WPRB, (and by extension, gained access to its record library) I was probably spending more money on blank tapes than I was on records. Now that I think of it, I wonder how differently my life might have turned out, if, instead of spending so much time and energy on tape-making, I'd pursued more pedestrian activities (like drinking beer in parking lots, or whatever else my friends did when I was busy working the decks.)

Although most of the tapes I made for myself haven't survived the years (many were lost in The Great Materialist Freakout of my Early 30s), I know that at least a few great ones still reside in the back of my closet. Sadly, I haven't had a working cassette deck in years, so my hope of surveying the bounty and digitizing the best moments must remain relegated to "someday" status for now. However, I shall at least endeavor to start snooping around eBay for a cheap player that might last me long enough to excavate the forgotten segues, between song concert banter, odd aircheck snippets, and other uncategorizable flotsam that make up much of the content therein.

Back in 2005, I wrote up a pretty lengthy love piece on the blank cassettes of my formative years. Rather than re-spiel it all over again here, I'll just link to the article which originally appeared on Beware of the Blog. There you'll also find a handful of great, hissy MP3s that were sourced from a few rapidly decomposing tapes in my possession at the time.

There's a great deal of C-30/C-60/C-90 love elsewhere on the internet, as you are likely aware, but I'll seize any opportunity to link to the great Cassette from my Ex blog (sadly inactive since last summer).

Finally, here's an MP3 rip from one of my most adored cassettes from the loose era that followed high school but preceded my arrival at WPRB. For your normal-bias enjoyment, the band 23 More Minutes performs "The Cowboy Code". [Download]

Comments

[Adunkel]

23 minutes more - coooool- my facebook/highschool buddy is doing this http://www.ilikecooltapes.com/

I just gotta dig it out of the crates for him

[r:m:b]

Nice, that's further motivation for me to dig out a working tape deck somewhere so I can start digitizing the goodies that have (hopefully) survived the years in my closet. I wish to god I still had all my old Chuck Chillout, DJ Red Alert, and Mr. Magic airchecks from the early-mid 80s, but I'm sure those bit the dust eons ago. Live Fugazi tapes or Operation Ivy demos, anyone?