old-ass mixtape review

Old-Ass Mixtape Review, Volume 4: Awesome Mix Tape #6 (Volume One)(Side A)

/ Rev. Joel / 1 Comment

Hello! And welcome to another edition of “Old-Ass Mixtape Review”. It’s been three-and-one-half years since I’ve written one of these, but I’ve been thinking about returning to it for a while now, so here we are. If you’re not familiar with my semi-recurring “Old-Ass Mixtape Review” posts, the vague idea is that I take an old (-ass) mixtape I made in the Before Times (mostly the 90’s through early-to-mid 2000’s), I listen to it in the first time in 10 or more years, and I write about it. That’s what we in the business call a “writing prompt”. I’m just kidding, I’m not in the writing business. I’m too busy givin this shit away.

I was gonna include a video here for the Supersuckers song “Givin it Away”, but Google and YouTube are both trying to gaslight me into thinking the song never even existed. I know that it does exist, but you’ll have to hang out and listen to How the Supersuckers Became the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band in the World on CD with me if you wanna hear it. In addition to being a kick-ass song, it also contains the line, “don’t be callin me no whore, cause I’m givin it away”, and I wanted to use those lyrics in the caption of the video, but since I can’t do that, I’m gonna share a different Supersuckers song.

Don’t know if I’ll ever learn.

Just for funsies, here’s the top result from when I searched “Supersuckers givin it away” on YouTube:

This sounds exactly as you’d expect based on the cover. It’s a cool song, but it’s not the same as the Supersuckers song.

Here’s the twist with this ongoing writing exercise: I’m only reviewing tapes that don’t have a track listing, which means I have no way of knowing what is on said tapes until I listen. How exciting!

Oh, Charlie…

Speaking of exciting, I’m off work (paid) until about a week into the new year, and as of right now, I’m planning to be as productive as possible, while still allowing plenty of time to relax as much as I possibly can in spite of the impending doom that is the Final Form of the United States of America: a literal oligarchy made up of racist billionaire shitheads and racist fundamentalist religious dickheads, all of them sex pests.

I’m very much looking forward to forgetting that I even have a job while I spend my leisure time reading, watching Murder, She Wrote, and lookin at birds, and my productive time giving the house a much-needed cleaning/rearranging and writing as much as possible, which is why we’re here right now.

Today’s installment is the first volume in a series of mixtapes I made for myself between probably 2000 and 2005. When I made the original Awesome Mixtape #6, I didn’t plan on it becoming a series, but life comes at you pretty fast, and next thing you know, I’ve made seven of them. I don’t know where Volume 3 is anymore, so I only own six of them today. This one and Volume 7 have no track listing (V7 doesn’t even have a J-card), so, get stoked for even more of this nonsense I guess.

What kind of monster wouldn’t make a track list on that surface? It’s shameful, really.

Oh, a quick credit-where-credit-is-due bit: I stole the title of the tape series from Boogie Nights, which is a fantastic movie that I simply cannot watch anymore, due to the devastating sadness and despair it wroughts upon me. And I suppose I should get the technical mumbo jumbo out of the way before we get started: we’re workin with a standard 90-minute Sony High Fidelity Type I cassette here. I don’t really know what that means, but if you click that link, you can learn a lot about blank audio cassettes. I expect the sound will be adequate. Certainly better than “Old-Ass Mixtape Review, Volume 1: Beloved Songs“.

Here’s Side A after I finished listening to it.

Side A

Danny Elfman – “The Simpsons Main Title Theme (Extended Version)”

This is one of two songs I knew for sure was on this tape (the other one will be coming up later on Side A). Danny Elfman once named this the song that’ll be mentioned in his obituary. I haven’t watched an episode of The Simpsons since the Futurama crossover 10-12 years ago, but The Simpsons from seasons 1-10 is one of my favorite shows of all time.

This version originally appeared in “Cape Feare” (Season 5, Episode 2).

Clutch – “Rats”

“Build a better man trap, and the rats will beat a path to your door.” So shouteth Neil Fallon, and who am I to argue with the frontman of one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time? This is one of my favorite Clutch songs, so it’s not surprising to me that the tape drags a bit throughout, as I likely rewound this one a lot. I got to hear it live for the first time like 18 months ago, which was the last time I saw them, and which was also the 12th time I’ve seen them. I missed out on lucky number 13 back in September, but they pretty much only stop touring in order to record new albums, so I know I’ll get another chance soon.

And God was certainly a genius to expose his human weakness.

Dropkick Murphys – “Noble”

I wrote a bit about Dropkick Murphys in a Louder Than Life-related post recently, so I won’t bother to discuss them here, but I absolutely fuckin love this song.

He was a kid from the neighborhood.

Avail – “Lombardy St.” (acoustic)

I love Avail. I’m fortunate to have seen frontman Tim Barry live three times, but I missed at least that many chances to see Avail live before they broke up, and that’s a bummer, because at this point whenever they do play shows, they end up selling before I even find out about them, plus they’re usually on the east coast anyway. I keep hoping they’ll appear on a Louder Than Life lineup one of these years, but so far, no dice.

Anyway, this version of “Lombardy St.” is originally from The Fall of Richmond, a split single with a band called (Young) Pioneers, about whom I recall nothing. The heavier original version is on their 1998 album Over the James. That version is also fantastic, as is the rest of that album, as is pretty much everything Avail ever released. You should listen to Avail, and Tim Barry.

Tell me why you feel alright, but still I don’t.

The Velvet Underground – “I’m Waiting for the Man”

I’m a sucker for an unconventional vocalist singing over a jangly guitar. See also: The Tragically Hip, R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, et al, so you know this song is right up my proverbial alley.

Here’s a fun story: in my younger, dumber, drunker days, I was hanging out at Owen, Ian, and Mike’s place, as I often did. Some sort of small, impromptu gathering had broken out, as tended to be the case on a Friday evening. I overindulged on Schnapps and/or Miller High Life, as one does when one is me at the age of twenty-two. Thankfully I had the good sense to leave my car parked and stay the night, and I passed out on the couch in the “sitting” room, which connected the living room with the kitchen, and which almost certainly used to be the fancy dining room before the house was divided in two.

While their place made for a fantastic party pad, it was sorely lacking in one particular way: the two-story, three bedroom duplex with semi-finished basement only had one bathroom, and it was at the top of the stairs on the second floor, where it shared a very thin wall with one of the bedrooms.

My eyes shot open. I could tell it was morning, because I could see pretty clearly, and I deduced it was quite early, as the entire first floor was shaded. A sudden urgency took hold of me — an urgency I think I’ve not experienced since.

I shot off the couch and leapt up those stairs in personal record time, unleashing approximately 100 gallons of vomit into a toilet that as many as 20 people had used to go number 1 and number 2 in the past 12 hours. I’m not really a math guy, but that definitely adds up to “86 me”.

I thought the unholy slurry of sadness, regrets, and bad decisions would never stop coming out of me, but eventually it did, whereupon I became aware of the t h r o b b i n g in my skull. In those days, I hadn’t yet developed the good sense to also drink water while drinking alcohol.

“Hey buddy, you gonna make it?” I turned my head as far as I could manage, which ended up being about two inches, which was just enough to make out the image of Owen standing in the doorway in his underwear, his hair like an impressionist Troll doll. I mumbled some kind of reply, and he helped me back down the stairs to the couch, and brought me a glass of water and a trash can. I closed my eyes and made an official proclamation that I was never going to drink again as Owen went back to bed.

My eyes shot open. The sun was coming in the living room windows now, but it still hadn’t reached me. I was glad about that, because I’m very warm-natured, and the last thing I needed was to start sweating on that disgusting couch. I heard voices coming from the kitchen, and I heard music playing, although I can’t remember who was talking, or what the song was. I also can’t remember how I managed to get all of my throwup in the trash can, but I know that I did. A sudden movement caught my attention from across the narrow room. It was Mike, sitting in a chair, throwing up into the book he was reading. I groaned “I’m sorry Mike!” and closed my eyes, wondering if I’d ever feel okay again.

A mellow, repetitive guitar jangle eased my eyes open as weird, warbly, monotone voice filled the room. The sun was higher now, coming in the window directly above me. It cast a soft, bright light on the potted heartleaf philodendron hanging from the ceiling. I instantly knew I had finished puking, at least for the day. I looked across the room to see Mike contentedly eating Taco Bell. I said “I’m sorry Mike,” and he laughed. “That’s okay, man, it happens to the best of us. I got an extra taco if you’re hungry. You feel like eating?”

I did feel like eating, and sat on that couch in the warm sun and ate a taco with my friend and let this beautiful, melancholy song about buying heroin take a heretofore unrecognized empty spot in my soul and fill it with a glow that matched the one that filled that room. That was the first time that “I’m Waiting For the Man” made me realize things were gonna be okay.

First thing you learn is that you always got to wait.

Stubborn All-Stars – “Tin Spam”

I don’t actually know much of anything about this band, but I used to own their debut album Open Season, and I listened to it a lot. This is the first song from that album. I still put it on mixes to this day. I dig plenty of reggae, ska, and ska-punk, but that sweet spot of Jamaican ska/rock steady is my jam.

Take what you’re given, never take the time to discover your own desires.

Descendents – “Everything Sux”/”Coffee Mug”

I likely wouldn’t be sitting here writing these words without the Descendents (and their companion band, ALL). They got me through some shit in my early-twenties. This is an unusual selection, as I don’t normally put two songs in a row by the same band on my mixes (unless the whole mix is twofers, or it’s a streaming mix, which I pretty much always shuffle). Knowing the way I think, I’m guessing I put these two songs in a row because they’re both very short, and they feel like spiritual siblings. The tape slows down/drags just a bit toward the end of “Coffee Mug”, but it corrects itself pretty quickly.

Got up on the wrong side of life this morning, nothing today is gonna go my way.

Liquid proof that I can win this race.

The Bouncing Souls – “Neurotic”

I absolutely 100% would not be here writing these words without The Bouncing Souls. This band was everything to me for about four years in my early-to-mid twenties. I got to meet them once, at the last Warped Tour I ever attended (2000). Pete complimented my shirt (which I left in Austin when I moved back home, because someone washed a mixed load on hot and it turned the shirt pink), and Brian assured me that they, too, were still alive because of their music. It was a good day. I’ll write more about The Bouncing Souls one of these days.

MORE COFFEE! MORE COFFEE! MORE COFFEE I’M GOING NUMB!

The Pavers – “Mr. Sheperd’s Bandage”

Scott Reynolds was the second vocalist for ALL, the band that the Descendents became after Milo went to college the second time. I have a long overdue thing about ALL/Descendents to write one of these days. Anyway, Scott sang on three studio albums and one live album, and a handful of other songs that were included as B-sides on singles, then he left ALL and moved to the Pacific Northwest, where he joined forces with the late, great Trevor Lanigan (My Name, Wretch Like Me) to form a band called Goodbye Harry. They released two excellent albums before breaking up, after which Scott moved back home to Upstate New York, where he and some friends formed another amazing band called The Pavers, which, if you recall from the beginning of this entry, is this band right here.

Scott has gone on to record a bunch other of great stuff under various names, including his own. You should check out his work. This song is about a WW2 veteran who was injured at the Battle of Anzio. It makes me cry any time I pay attention to the lyrics.

Speaking of lyrics, I’m gonna share them, because they are exceptionally good:

Oh, a million miles an hour
A thousand times a night
I watch them burn red
Red rockets cross my sight
1944, Second World War
At Anzio we kicked in Mussolini’s door

That’s when it came
German steel, Italian rain
Sent razors through my legs, and sent me back home

Open up my eyes
Lovely VA nurse
Said “Mr. Shepherd, you’ve made it through the worst.”
But she don’t know what she means
‘Cause she ain’t seen what I’ve seen
The worst gets worse every night in every dream

Hot rockets hiss, hard violence, soft prom night kiss
The first 18 years add up to this
Whispered on the rocket’s hiss
It goes on and on and on and on

Seems like a thousand years fell down, down on him
A thousand fears ground down all around him
Jagged edge gone soft with time
And Mr. Shepherd’s just fine

At least that’s what we believe,
‘Cause we don’t want to see
He’s still laid bare to the bone below his knee.
Here he comes again
I recognize his walk
Sit right there, Mr. Shepherd, please don’t talk

White cotton gauze still running red without a pause
While everyone forgets what caused
The horror there beneath the gauze
It goes on and on and on and on
For Mr. Shepherd

There’s a very good actual video for this song as well, but YouTube put an age restriction on it because it uses actual footage of World War II, and the people who control what we see and consume seem hell-bent on making sure everyone forgets that fascism is unequivocally bad and should be defeated. “Everyone forgets what caused the horror there beneath the gauze” indeed. Anyway, you can watch it on YouTube.

Public Enemy – “By the Time I Get to Arizona”

This is the other song that I knew for certain was a part of this mix, but I didn’t remember where it fell. Here, apparently. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet are obviously important and groundbreaking releases from the legendary hip-hop group, but their fourth album, Apocalypse ’91…the Enemy Strikes Black is the first one I heard (thanks in part to my homeboy Travis, as well as their collaboration with Anthrax), and it’s still my favorite. This song is amazing.

I urinated on the state while I was kickin this song.

Fishbone – “Sunless Saturday”

I don’t listen to enough Fishbone, but I’ve probably listened to this song 500 times since I first heard it in the early 90’s.

I think the sun will never visit me again.

Here’s a blog-only bonus track – “Sunless Saturday” live on The Arsenio Hall Show.

The energy coming off that stage could power an entire city block.

Rollins Band – “Do It”

I was a bonafide Henry Rollins fanboy in my late teens and very early twenties. I still dig pretty much all of his recorded musical output up to and including Rollins Band’s 1997 album Come in and Burn, but I don’t listen to it much anymore. I wrote once on my old blog about embarrassing myself when I met him on the Come in and Burn tour, and you can read about that here if you’d like. It’s a pretty funny story.

Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it, aw yeah, do it!

The Mothers of Invention – “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama”

I tried to get into Frank Zappa around the same time I was getting into Henry Rollins and The Velvet Underground, and I owned three CDs at one point, but for the most part, I could never really get past the weirdness. I like some pretty fuckin weird stuff, but by and large, Zappa’s music just doesn’t do much for me. As a cultural icon/seemingly pretty fuckin cool guy, however, I’m all in on Frank Zappa. And I do still love this song.

My guitar wants to burn your dad.

Del Shannon – “Runaway”

I’ve loved this song since I was a little kid. I especially dig Del’s raspy vocals in the chorus. I signed up to sing it at karaoke one night, not knowing if I’d be able to pull off the key change in the chorus, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could. I’m pretty confident I would not be able to do that anymore. One last thing: ever since I first heard the band Down By Law, I’ve imagined them covering this. I think Dave Smalley’s voice would sound great on it.

I WA-WA-WA-WA-wonder…why. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY she ran away.

H2O – “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”

H2O is another band that helped me through it when I was a li’l sad boi. I don’t listen to them much anymore, but they’ll always hold a special place in my heart, and I’d see them live again in a heartbeat. They were my gateway to positive hardcore, and, like Henry Rollins/Rollins Band, they helped me understand that I was worth more than I thought. This song first appeared on a compilation that I picked up at Warped Tour ’99 called Stop Racism: Anti-Racist Action, the Benefit CD. Warped Tour ’99 is also one of the times where I missed seeing Avail live. It’s the circle of life, and it moves us all.

YouTube doesn’t want Nazi punks to fuck off, apparently.

Green Day – “The Ballad of Wilhelm Fink”

This song rules, and is one of my favorite Green Day songs. It originally appeared on Short Music for Short People, a Fat Wreck Chords CD compilation of 101 bands performing 30 second songs (Bad Religion‘s song is actually 45 seconds long, but Greg Graffin can’t help himself). I foolishly got rid of my copy of this CD when I moved back from Austin, and that was dumb. It has some certified bangers on it.

Less Than Jake – “Anchor”

Ooh, here’s another Certified Banger from Short Music. Less Than Jake is a band that I don’t really listen to on purpose, but I’ve always enjoy them when I hear them. I absolutely love the *ding* at the end of the song. At this point, I feel like we’re gonna get at least one more song from SMfSP.

AFI – “Hearts Frozen Solid, Thawed Once More by the Spring of Rage, Despair and Hopelessness”

And I was right. I always liked to cram as many short songs as possible on the end of tape sides, to both maximize the rockin and minimize the blank space. What to say about AFI…Davey Havok is pretty ridiculous, and I think I dislike more of their recorded output than I like, but when AFI makes a great song, AFI makes a great fuckin song. I saw them on that same Warped Tour where I met The Bouncing Souls (H2O was there, too), and they were pretty dope live, even in the middle of the day. I’d catch them live again if I could, but I imagine I’d be a grumpy old piece of shit for most of the show, because I imagine they’d play mostly stuff from after 1997, and because I’m a grumpy old piece of shit.

The clicking and muddiness that follows AFI indicate that I likely tried to add one more song, but nothing would fit. Cue sad trombone sound.

Okay, I’m gonna wrap this up. I’ll get around to Side B ASAP. Maybe even tomorrow (but don’t hold your breath). Thanks for reading!

Old-Ass Mixtape Reviews, Volume 3: Late 90s Mix (Save): Side B

/ Rev. Joel / 2 Comments

Welcome to the second half (Side B, if you will) of my riveting journey through time itself, in the form of a 20-ish year old mixtape. If you missed it, check out “Side A” here, and then check out Volume 1 here. If you’re too lazy/busy to click through those links, the gist is that I’m listening to this old-ass mixtape for the first time in who knows how long (it’s certainly been at least 5 years, but probably closer to 10), I have no idea what’s on it, and I’m sharing the results with you, gentle reader. Together we’ll have a laugh or two, and maybe learn a little bit about what makes ol’ Rev. Joel tick, aside from tacos, coffee, John Carpenter movies, and Tom & Jerry cartoons. Let’s get started, whadda ya say?

“Side B”

1. Bubbling through the mud and muck resulting from my short-sighted failure/possible inability to use Dolby Noise Reduction is “Bored” by Deftones. You may recall that Side A started off with “7 Words”, also by Deftones. Both songs are from their auspicious 1995 (!) debut album Adrenaline, which is not as good as the albums that followed it, but is still a solid album. The foundation for what this band became was definitely in place on their debut.

2. “Bored” is followed by what seems at first be silence, but is in fact part of “Kinky Sex Makes the World Go ‘Round” by Dead Kennedys, dubbed over into near oblivion (as mentioned in Volume 2, I was real into DK at this point in my life). It sounds kinda spooky, and it goes on for a surprisingly long amount of time (not unlike the song itself), but Mitchell, Indiana’s own Circle of Illusions is up now, and holy smokes, this was a good band! I’ll write more about them another time. The song is called “Flow”, by the way.

3. Another track, another Circle of Illusions song, this one “Without Time”. Speaking of time, this band sounds very much of its time, which is to say 1997. I don’t mean that in a bad way at all.

4. Ahmahgawd, it’s “Us vs. Them” by New York Hardcore legends Sick of it All! This song is from their 1997 nutkicker Built to Last. I was a real sucker for any song with a bunch of gang vocals back then (it’s the same era as my discovery of the Misfits, and punk rock in general). Gang Vocals are still one of my primary musical weaknesses, but not as much as jangly guitar, sick riffs, and unconventional vocalists.

5. I suspected “Busted”, from the same album, might be next, and I’m glad my suspicions were correct. This is a superfast moshpit-inducer with lead vocals by bassist/kickboxing champion/NYHC legend Craig Setari. Sick of it All kick an unbelievable amount of ass, and I really hope I get to see them live again someday. “You wanna take, take, take ’til you have it all!/CAN’T TRUST IT!/Your busted ass!” Indeed.

6. Up next is “Long Whip/Big America” by Corrosion of Comformity, from their 1996 album Wiseblood, which I used to think was just okay, but which grows on me as I grow older (seeing COC live a couple of times in the past few years helped me appreciate the Pepper Keenan-fronted version of the band a lot more). This song is fuckin great. Back around the time when this mixtape was made, my buddy Travis would sometimes sing “maybe I’m wrong, but I think my dick is too long” to the tune of this chorus, and it always cracked me up. In fact, it still does. I apologize for nothing!

7. I definitely did not expect “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits to be here, but when I think about it, I do remember a period of time where I was really into this song and “Why Worry Now”, both from their bajillion-selling Brothers in Arms. Travis and I used to spend a lot of time driving around listening to music during this period, and he was a straight up Dire Straits fan. Like to the point where he even bought their other albums! I wil be flabbergasted if “Why Worry Now” isn’t next.

8. Consider me flabbergasted, although I’d be willing to bet that it used to be on here and I just taped “Spiderman”, from Greatest Hits Live by the Ramones, over it. I don’t listen to the Ramones nearly enough anymore. They really were just one of the very best goddamn bands that ever existed.

9. In the ultra-brief time that I wrote the thing about the Ramones, the song ended and there was like 2 seconds of very loud silence (curse you, lack of Dolby Noise Reduction!) followed by approximately 1.5 seconds of a “Distorted and Very Out-of-Tune Guitar Chord” that was certainly played by Yours Truly. I had to pause the tape and collect myself for what might be next, based on said out-of-tune chord. I also had to pee and get more coffee, but you don’t need to hear my entire life story. Not when there are old-ass mixtapes to review.

This song has nothing to do with Late 90’s Mix (save), but Unleashed fucking rules, and we’re moving ONWARD!

10. Following that groundbreaking dissonant blast of musical genius (yeah, that’s the ticket!) is another 1-3 seconds of silence, followed by Yours Truly again, this time playing “The Same Note Over and Over and Over Again” on my old Les Paul copy. Listening to this now reminds me why I must remain vigilant against any thoughts I ever entertain about getting another guitar, or another bass, or a banjo, or whatever other instrument I think I want. I have no interest in learning how to play an instrument, I just wanna skip the learning process and know how to play. My lack of patience would’ve made me easy pickins for the Dark Side of the Force. It likely still would.

“The Same Note Over and Over and Over Again” gave way to what is, as of right now, at least one full minute of silence. Surely that’s not the end of our adventure. That would be even more disappointing than The Neverending Story was when Mrs. Circlepit and I rewatched it last year for the first time since we were kids. Yeah, I said it.

Real talk: y’all’s nostalgia is clouding your view; that movie is a turd. We’re given no reason whatsoever to care about Atreyu (or his horse Artax, for that matter, even though Artax is the only likeable character in the movie aside from the bookshop owner), and then when that damn wiener kid Bastian gets to return home and is asked what he’ll wish for next, he doesn’t wish to have his mom back, even though losing her seems to be the source of most of his troubles. No, he goes straight to using Falkor to chase and terrorize his bullies. “I’ll see you in hell, Mom, I’ve got terror to inflict!” I’ve read that Micheal Ende, who wrote the novel that the movie is kind of based upon, did not like the adaptation, and tried to sue to block its release and/or force a name change. He was unsuccessful, but he was not wrong for trying.

Also, I found this on wikipedia, and it made me laugh: “Gene Siskel said the film’s special effects and art direction were cheap-looking and that Falkor the luckdragon resembled the sort of stuffed toy you’d win at a county fair and throw out when you left. He also referred to Noah Hathaway [Atreyu] as a ‘dullard’ and said the film was ‘much too long,’ even after [Roger] Ebert pointed out the film was only 90 minutes long.” I like to think that Siskel responded to that with something along the lines of “okay, then it’s 90 minutes too long.” And I know it’s a kids movie, dammit, but I also know that kids movies are capable of being good.

For example, we rewatched Honey, I Shrunk the Kids for the first time in 30-odd years (not to be confused with 30 Odd Foot of Grunts) last week. It held up much better, and it was quite good. It was funny and well-paced, and the special effects were really well done, especially for the time. It’s no Goonies or anything, but it’s light years ahead of The Neverending Story. By the way, Roger Ebert was critcal of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids after praising The Neverending Story, proving once again that critics don’t know shit about dick, and at least strongly implying that Roger Ebert may have been something of a dullard himself.

Sorry, I got a bit off track there. The tape stopped like 20 minutes ago, by the way. “The Same Note Over and Over and Over Again” was indeed the last “song” on “Side B” of Late 90s Mix (Save), and that is indeed disappointing, but as it turns out, still not as disappointing as The Neverending Story.

I’m pretty sure there used to be a couple of Sepultura songs on there at some point. Probably “Territory”, and either “Refuse/Resist” or “The Hunt” (maybe both). I was into Chaos A.D. real hard back then.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me. There’ll be more installments of Old-Ass Mixtape Reviews at some point. I got a lot of old-ass mixapes. Thanks for reading, and if you like what you read, why not leave a comment and/or tell a friend?

Old-Ass Mixtape Reviews, Volume 2: Late 90s Mix (Save): Side A

/ Rev. Joel / 2 Comments

Welcome! Today I’m gonna I listen to an old mixtape for the first time in a long time, and I’m gonna write while I do it, just to make myself write. We’ll see what happens. I did this once before, and I don’t know if anyone else really saw it, but it was a fun exercise, so I decided to do it again, because I have a lot of shit rattling around in my think hole.

For Volume 1, I pressed play and wrote while the tape was playing, ostensibly to write a real-time “first listen”-type review, but also to just force myself to write for a set period of time. I kinda did that this time, but I also kinda didn’t. More “overdubs” this time, you might say.

Late 90s Mix (Save) is a 90-minute cassette, and frankly, I don’t have time to cover the whole thing right now. Instead you’ll get Side A, and you’ll like it. You should consider yourself lucky to get 45 minute’s-worth of recorded content. When I was your age we had to put tape over the holes on old Foreigner tapes or whatever and record over them, and we were happy to have 45 minutes of recording space for an entire tape.

Here’s a link to Volume 1, if you missed it, or just wanna re-live the magic.

Late 90s Mix (Save) hasn’t been around nearly as long as Beloved Songs, and as such, I believe most of the source material was recorded from compact disc. Plus it entered my life as an actual blank tape made for recording from compact discs. This is the real deal: Memorex CD2 90. We’re talking Type II High Bias, High Output, Wide Dynamic Range, baby! This is the kind of tape that has a spot on the label to indicate whether or not you turned on the Dolby Noise Reduction before you hit “REC” (it would seem I did not), whereas Beloved Songs was recorded onto a 10-year-old Bob Seger tape or something.

What I’m saying is that I suspect it’ll be much easier to listen to than the first one, but who knows? Anything can happen in this thrilling world of zero-stakes, esoteric personal blogging. You’ll just have to strap yourself in for the ride and find out along with me.

Actual footage of us finding out together.

Without further ado…

Side A

  1. Kickin things off with “7 Words” by Deftones. I’m into this, but so far, the sound is real in-n-out. Better than Beloved Songs, but let’s see how good you sound after you’re recorded over an old Bon Jovi tape or some shit. This song spoke directly to my angst in the mid-to-late 90s, and I still dig it, but where early Deftones is concerned, “Bored” is more my style these days. Lots of background noise afterward. If only I’d used that Dolby Noise Reduction.

2. Oh, shit, it’s “Collapse” by Brutal Truth! This song will surely have a place on the Official Soundtrack to the End Times. If you need convincing, listen to the song while ruminating on the fact that we are, in fact, living in the End Times. Not like in the Bible and shit, but for real. I’ve written about Brutal Truth some before. Some of it can be found on my other, even less-frequently-updated blog, but the rest is in notebooks that you’ll likely never see.

3. I suspected there might be another BT song, and then I got smacked upside the head by “Media Blitz”. This was my introduction to the caustic vocals of Mike IX Williams of Eyehategod (his is the voice you can kind of understand), and although I didn’t think much about it at the time, it was also my introduction to The Germs.

Here’s a blog-exclusive bonus track (!) – the original version of “Media Blitz”:

4. “Sunless Saturday” by Fishbone! I like Fishbone a lot, but not as much as I feel like I should like them. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it makes sense to me. I think I maybe saw them perform this on Saturday Night Live, but that might be some crazed fever dream. Or maybe it was on Letterman or something. At any rate, “Sunless Saturday” fuckin rips. This one brings back memories of a mostly-miserable summer in my late teens that had a few real bright spots. This song was one of those bright spots.

5. “Police Truck” by the Dead Kennedys. Holy smokes, that guitar! I don’t really know what else to say, other than that I’ll be surprised if “Too Drunk to Fuck” isn’t next. I used to always play those two back-to-back.

6. There it is. Do I know Late 90s Joel or what? “Too Drunk to Fuck”. I once sat (slumped, really) drunk behind a futon at a guy’s house and sang this chorus over and over again. It was sad, but it was also almost certainly true, and now I find it pretty funny. I also woke up the next morning while everyone else was still asleep and ate some Hamburger Helper that had been sitting out on the stove (at least) overnight, then threw up approximately 85% my soul about 30 minutes later. I haven’t drank peach schnapps since, and I tend to have better judgement in general.

7. One thing I absolutely did not expect to hear on this excursion was “Raise Hell” by Anthrax. This song is from their Armed and Dangerous EP, which was their first release with then-new vocalist Joey Belladonna. It seems odd that I included it here. While I love Anthrax, it’s never been a favorite of mine. It’s not bad, and I surely dig the gang vocals in the chorus, but the chorus is also goofy as shit, and rhymes “fire” with “desire”, which is not automatically a bad thing, but which is certainly not a desirable feature of an Anthrax song.

8. What a strange and wodnerful age we’re living in, when a man can play an old-ass mixtape that goes from Anthrax circa 1985 straight into “Someday I Suppose” by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I definitely first became aware of this band from Clueless, which I saw three times in the theater. I still like Clueless a lot, but I most definitely had a thing for Alicia Silverstone back then. I even paid to watch Batman and Robin in the theater (more than once) just to see her on the big screen. Okay, I also saw it three times. You did dumb shit when you were a teenager, too. At least I can admit my mistake.

9. More Bosstones. I’m not surprised, but I have to admit I wasn’t sure who this was until the vocals kicked in. “A Man Without” (I’ll also admit I had google some of the lyrics to arrive at this conclusion). I probably haven’t heard this song since the last time I listened to this mixtape. I used to be real into the Bosstones, but especially the album Don’t Know How to Party.

10. Holy mother of fuckballs, it’s “Killing Time” by Obituary! This tape may be the actual nexus point for my divergent musical tastes. It took me a while to really get into/appreciate death metal, but for whatever reason, 1992’s The End Complete by Obituary was one of the albums that grabbed me back then.

11. Motherfucking “Silo” by Only Living Witness! This band was just utterly phenomenal, and I wish theyd’ released more than two albums.

12. And now here’s “Slug”, also by Only Living Witness. Yegods, what an incredible album Prone Mortal Form is. The Decibel Hall of Fame entry on it is one of my favorites in that series.

13. Well sumbitch, it’s “When the Shit Hits the Fan” by Souls at Zero! I completely forgot about this, but it fuckin jams. These guys were solid, both as Souls at Zero and as Wrathchild America. Their drummer/vocalist Shannon Larkin went on to join Godsmack, and while they’re not my bag, he’s still a great drummer. This is a cover of the Circle Jerks, and the original is also pretty dope, and quite relevant to today’s turbulent times. They made an acoustic version for (and appeard briefly in) the movie Repo Man, starring the late, great Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez.

Note: “When the Shit Hits the Fan” by Souls at Zero appears to be no longer available on YouTube, and that’s fucking dumb. You’ll just have to take my word(s) for it: it’s cool.

https://youtu.be/md356LoX3M8

Here are the Circle Jerks’ versions (original version first, and acoustic version second, duh)…

That’s all I got for now, pals. I’ll be back someday (I suppose)(ha!) with the exciting follow-up. Until then, be excellent to each other.