Life is too short...

...to listen to music on computer speakers.

G-Fab's Guide to Good Computer Audio

Any set of speakers that came with your computer are junk. This is especially true of the nasty unit attached to our Gateway monitors at work. Do yourself a favor and use the little thumbscrews on the back to remove that piece of shit and get it off of there. [Well, I take that back--that unit is just fine for listening to voice only or the occasional YouTube clip; but you should have your knuckles rapped if you listen to actual MUSIC on that thing.]

Here's a cheap and fun way to improve your musical life instantly. I've been doing it for a while.

The 1980s was what I call "The Golden Age of Japanese Mid-Fi." Basically what I mean is this: consumer grade audio equipment was of surpisingly high quality. In the 80s and 90s, companies such as JVC, Denon, Harmon/Kardon, Kenwood, Onkyo, etc. were selling millions of units. These were well cared for, and now they are being sold on eBay at fantastically low prices. The gear from this era is as good or better than anything you can get at BestBuy or Circuit City today (unless you need 5.1 or other HT formats, which is a sure-fire way to RUIN music anyway--stick with good old 2-channel stereo).

Consider the gear pictured below.



These Baby Advent II bookshelf speakers sold on eBay for $26 (they went for around $300 back in the day). I have a pair of these Babies in my office, neatly tucked into the bookshelf. Unless I am listening, you don't know they are there.

A JVC integrated amp, similar to the receiver you see here, is being shipped to me right now. I paid $9.



So you see where I am going: for under $80, you can have decent audio quality attached to your computer. I have my computer hooked to an integrated amp just like a tape deck. When the phone rings, or when someone stops by, I simply pause the tune or lower the volume. Between my iTunes music, your Muxtape mixes, and my Rhapsody account, I have more music than I could ever want.

Bike Commute Numbers

• According to MapMyRide, my daily car commute is 12.33 miles, for a round-trip total of 24.66.
• According to www.fueleconomy.gov, my fuel to drive 25 miles is 1.25 gal, or $5.09 based on today's fuel cost of $4.07/gal.
• I take a more direct route on my bike: my bike commute is 8.63 miles.
• The bus costs me $1.25

Commuter Bike

Here are some thoughts for Joshua and anyone else about getting yourself the perfect commuter bike. I am excited that this type of bike is getting popular again. Despite the fact that Schwinn bikes are now made overseas, you gotta give them credit for naming a city bike after Sid & Nancy. This one wouldn't be a good commuter, but I've always loved dorky-looking utility bikes.

I stumbled upon a very well done web article on commuting bikes; it's worth a look if you want to know the state of the art. I've always called this type of bicycle a "utitlity bike," "city bike" or "neighborhood bike." Sometimes it's referred to as a "Dutch bike." But "commuter bike" seems like a fine designation, and it's easy to get one rolling for yourself.

First, let's consider the top-of-the-line. Here is probably the best commuter bike made today, the Breezer. But you don't have $1,900 to drop on a bike that might get stolen or mashed up. Cut that price in half, and you can get this very cool Bianchi commuter. Again, way too much money. You could buy a Specialized Globe, or a Giant TranSend--the big bike companies are making and marketing commuter bikes now. Very cool. You could get into one of these very nice rides for about $500.

UPDATE: The mail order bike shop Performance, a place I've always liked, sells the Schwinn World for a good price--under $500. Schwinn bikes are no longer made in the US.

Steve's Recommendation

Mountain bikes are everywhere, so I would start there. Here's my suggestion starting with a servicable mountain bike.

1. Buy/use used. You're riding the bike to help the environment, so don't add to the problem by simply consuming a new product when you don't need to. Use a bike you already have (if possible), or buy a used one that might end up in a garage corner or landfill. You save money, you save the planet... everybody wins.
2. Add fenders. I think they look cool, but you need them on the road even in the slightest bit of wet. They are cheap, too.
3. Add a rack or panniers. You are going to need to carry something with you to work. The best way to carry is on a rear rack. A messenger bag works fine for short trips, but for more than one mile, you don't want the gear on your body.
4. Add a mirror. You only need one of these on the left.
5. Add city tires. Knobby tires and pavement get old after a few hundred yards. The 26" mountain bike wheels (with 1.5" wide tires) are perfect for choppy pavement, though.

Here's what you need:

• city tires $7.99 (x2)
• fenders $24.99
• rack $17.99
• mirror $13.99

GRAND TOTAL: $72.95

Steve's 3 Rules of Bike Commuting

1. Be Visible. As a rule, motorists don't try to hit cyclists. Your best defense is being seen. This is why you should never ride on the sidewalk or against traffic. Ride in the far right lane in the direction of traffic. Wear light colored clothing. Attach reflectors or lights to your bike. Be seen.
2. Be Predictable. Motorists on the road should be able to predict what you are going to do. If you are dodging on and off the road in driveways and sidewalks, you are going to get hit. Stay in the road. It truly is the safest place. Use clear hand signals to let cars know what you are going to do. Check your mirror and make an effort to be extra predictable when cars are behind you.
3. Obey the Rules of the Car. Unless bike travel is prohibited on a road, you have the same rights and responsibilites as a car. That means stop at the red lights and stop signs. That means signal before turning.

5 "Secret" Albums for My MTC Pals

Okay, I said I wouldn't make a mix for an entire week. But one thing we've only done a little bit is make lists for each other. While doing yardwork today, I gave myself the following challenge: top 5 albums that you're pretty sure MTC pals don't have. These are five of my favorite "secret" records; by secret, I don't mean I keep them from people. What I mean by secret is that I am often able to introduce people to them for the first time. All 5 of these are great.


West Side Soul / Magic Sam (1967)

I'm not a Chicago blues conniseur, but I will make a bold statement: this is the best electric blues album ever made. Magic Sam isn't one of the big guys. He's no Howlin' Wolf, BB King, Muddy Waters, or John Lee Hooker. But there is something about this record.





Every Man And Woman Is A Star / Ultramarine (1991)

This early electronica release came late to me, but I instantly recognized how wonderful it is. I still have a cassette copy of it (the other side is Portishead's Dummy). The slick samples, which range from Steve Miller to Laurie Anderson, are woven into thoughtful techno-folk beats.





Future Listening! / Towa Tei (1995)

A few people have put Deee Lite tunes on their mixes. Well, this is the man: Towa Tei. He was their DJ and the heart of their sound in my opinion. This solo effort from 1995 blends beats, samples, Korean traditional music and bossa nova. You've gotta hear it to believe it. Many people have thanked me for turning them on to this record.




Have Moicy! / The Unholy Modal Rounders (1976)

"Country Drug Rock" isn't really a genre, but that kind of sums up this fantastic record from Michael Hurley, Peter Stampfel, and whoever else was hanging around the studio consuming spaghetti, beans, and god knows what else. Stampfel was the fiddler/banjo player in The Holy Modal Rounders, the band that brought me to old-time music. There is no other record like this.




Less Than Human / The Juan McClean (2005)

McClean was the guitarist in Six Finger Satellite. The Juan McClean is his new project on James Murphy's DFA label, and I saw him in Cleavland when he opened for LCD Soundsytem. The show was absolutely breathtaking. I think it might have been the most intense performance I've seen since The Butthole Surfers back in 1985. Live, these guys are a three piece: drums, theremin/keyboard, and McClean on decks (all analog, very cool gear). This record shows you how important Detroit techno was.

Bike To Work

Lately I have been trying to bike to work, or at least ride my bike to the bus stop and take the bus. I used to be fairly into bikes; this is my bike from college. I pulled it out of the shed and modified it slightly. It's a 1990 Schwinn Sidewinder, 21-speed, low-end mountain bike. I added smooth city tires, Zefal commuter fenders, and a custom milk crate rear rack. Pretty cool, eh?


During college, I was actually hit by a car while riding this bike. It was on Grand River near Hagadorn in front of the Quality Dairy. I was riding on the sidewalk and got plowwed by a truck. Two major lessons: never ride on the sidewalk, and always wear a helment. Oh, and don't take a guy's word about fixing your bike in exchange for not filing a police report.


So the custom job with the milk crates also has many visibility reflectors built in. Most of this went together great with zip ties. My briefcase fits perfectly. Even without cargo, the crate panniers make me much more visible on the road. I've experimented with a few different routes to work--as it turns out, the main drag through our county (Saginaw St.) is the best bet. It's a 9.5 mile commute, and I can take the bus if I decide to bag it.

Here's my last serious bike: a Cannondate T-700 touring bike. This is me at the end of a cross-state tour with my step-mother in 2000. We started in Detroit, rode up to Port Huron, and crossed the state through Flint, Lansing, and Grand Rapids ending here in Muskegon on the shores of Lake Michigan. That was a great bike. I sold it on eBay for 2x what I paid for it.

The Name Game Mix

http://analog90.muxtape.com/ *

* updated on 6/9/08 to include our newest MTC pal, Aaron.

1. Don't Mess With Bill / The Marvelettes

We start off with Jamerson's killer bassline and one of my favorite early Motown acts, The Marvelettes, doing "Don't Mess With Bill." He might not be the grievance officer anymore, but don't underestimate this guy. This tune, written by Smokey Robinson, could actually have been one of Bill's "sweet sixteen" songs and actually made it to #7 on the Billboard charts.

2. Have You Seen Jackie? / The Dukes of Stratosphear

This is the tune that started it all; remembering this song during finals week gave me the idea to do a mix with all of our names in it. My beloved XTC had everyone fooled for a while back in the 80s when they released records as their psychedelic alter-ego The Dukes of Stratosphear. This song only fits Jackie's name, and in no way suggests that our friend and colleague is a gender confused fish-bird.

3. Laughing Larry / Six Finger Satillite

This tune is new to me, but the band isn't. 6FS never had the impact they should have, but the ex-front man is now performing as The Juan McClean, perhaps the most amazing show I have seen in the past 10 years. His 2005 record "Less Than Human" is the fantastic. This disjointed cyborg punk should give our Larry a chuckle.

4. Michelle / Clan of Xymox

Because Lennon/McCartney would have been a cop out for her, Michele gets a deep track from one of my favorite 4AD artists from back in the day: Clan of Xymox (sorry they don't spell it correctly in the song title, Lady M). I bought the first Xymox record without hearing it because they were on 4AD. I can't listen to that thing without thinking of a particular car trip back in 1986.

5. No Joshua No / Max Romeo

I had only heard a couple of tracks by this reggae pioneer. It seemed impossible to find a "Joshua" song that isn't biblical, which I knew would irk our Joshua. At least this biblical Joshua is a Rastaman. But this is funny: "Since you are my friend, Joshua / I think you should know, Joshua /Rasta is watching and blaming you." Indeed.

6. Big Eyed Kim / Cletus

Never heard of this South Carolina punk band before. Sounds a lot like Green Day's melod-i-punk, only I like these guys better. But I really, really hate Green Day. (Is that bad? Should I like them?) I am going to make myself listen to an entire Green Day record as punishment for being such a dork. Which one should I spin? I just hate being a hater.

7. Oh Christy / The Moaners

I will have to ask my pals in Chapel Hill about this female fuzz guitar/drum duo. This stuff is cool! Hope you like it, Christy! They kind of sound like the NC Triangle's female answer to The White Stripes. The guitarist, Melissa Swingle, used to be in a band called Trailer Bride. I really like her guitar sound on this track. "Oh Christy--What are you doin'? / Skipping along the road to ruin?" This track comes from a 2005 record called Dark Snack, another great name! They're doing a show in Chicago next month--roadtrip?

8. Glenn, Take Care / Spookey Ruben

This Canadian guy is new to me, and I am glad I found him. Pretty neat stuff: this track sounds like a dream pop Ben Folds/Joe Jackson. I find the vibe of this tune to be oddly soothing. I thought this was a pretty cool lyric: "There's no instruction guide / On how to get out what's stuck inside." The rest of the tune sounds like a pep talk for a pal who is having a really bad day. I'll have to check this guy out, and I hope Glenn likes the tune.

9. Philip My Dear (Man in de Bedroom) / The Mighty Sparrow

Not many good songs with the name "Philip" out there, as far as I can tell. I'm fairly certain I saw The Mighty Sparrow on a double bill with Yellowman in London back in 1988. I definitely remember the Yellowman show (have you ever heard a Yellowman song? Every other word is "Yellowman"). This one is fun: you have to imagine the performer on top of a carnival float going down the street. This one would sound better to me if I had a Solo cup of beer in one hand and dozens of plastic beads around my neck. Car-ni-VAAAAL!

10. Aaron & Maria / The American Analog Set

I really like The American Analog Set. First, that is just a fantastic name. After I lost the State Rep race, I did a bunch of soul searching. One thing I realized is that I hadn't learned any new bands in a long time. I had a few 20-something staffers on my campaign, and we always talked music. So I challenged myself to make a mix CD for them: my challenge was to find stuff that was recorded after 2001 and was brand new to me. The result was a mix CD I still give to people called "Black Postcards" (other bands on the mix are Luna, Pinback, AM/FM, and Earlimart, among others. So here's a nice song with "Aaron" in the title. I love the little refrain "No one gives a fuck about us."

11. Aloha Steve and Danno / Radio Birdman

For some reason, you'd think that I'd already be hip to the work of a 70s Australian protopunk band dripping with Stooges and MC5 influences. But these guys are brand new to me. This tune, which is a homage to Hawaii Five-0, is a heck of a lot of fun, with its refrain of "Steve I wanna say thank you, for all you've done for me." These guys got their name by mis-hearing the the line "Radio burnin' up above" from the Stooges song "1970." Is that perfect, or what? Radio Birdman up above!!

How In The Hell Did I Miss These Guys?

An Aussie proto-punk band from the 70s that got their name by mis-hearing a line from a Stooges song? This is brilliant!

Music For Your Tape Recorder [Challenge #3]

Here's the playlist for my Challenge #3 mix.

1. This is Helena / OMD / Dazzle Ships (1983)
2. Are Everything / Buzzcocks / 1-2-3 EP (1980)
3. Do It Clean /Echo and the Bunnymen / Crocodiles (1980)
4. Went Crazy / The Teardrop Explodes / Kilimanjaro (1980)
5. The Love Parade / The Undertones / The Love Parade EP (1983)
6. Aloysius / Cocteau Twins / Treasure (1984)
7. New Era / The Specials / Specials (1979)
8. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now / The Smiths / Hatful of Hollow (1984)
9. Digital / Joy Division / Still (1981)
10. Harborcoat / REM / Reckoning (1984)
11. Another Nail In My Heart / Squeeze / Argybargy 1980
12. Radios In Motion / XTC / White Music (1978)

Muxtape Mixes To Date

1. i approved this mix [challenge #1]
2. cement mixer mix
3. funky president [challenge #2]
4. old-time country 78s mix
5. obama rally songs
6. music for your tape recorder [challenge #3]
7. a mix for you
8. oppression radio [in progress]
9. liberation radio [in progress]
10. sad treacle (Gorky's) [in progress]

Radio Mix Post

This is a working post for the radio mixes I am doing. Just a place to keep it all in one spot.


Turn up your radio and let me hear the song
Switch on your electric light
Then we can get down to what is really wrong
I long to hold you tight so I can feel you
Sweet lady of the night I shall reveal you

What's on the radio? Propaganda, mind control
And turnin it on is like puttin on a blind fold
Cause when you bringin it real you don't get rotation
Unless you take over the station


There will be two radio mixes:

Radio as liberation/connection
http://analog93.muxtape.com/

Radio as oppression/domination
http://analog92.muxtape.com/


Here's This Is Radio Clash.

Stockholm Here I Come

In a couple months, I will be headed to see my very pregnant sister in Stockholm, Sweden. I am looking forward to seeing Renee, Viktor, and the kids, but dig this spread in today's New York Times.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/travel/11next.html?8dpc#

Thoughts On The Mixtape

Ah, the mix tape. Part therapy, part love letter, part obsession... At left you see the center of my adolescence. My Technics SA-212 receiver (purchased dented and way cheap from Ollie Fretter's when I was 13) and my JVC KD-D50 cassette deck. I would harvest tunes from public radio--you see it there: WDET 101.9FM--and make mixes from my vinyl. That receiver is still kicking; I gave it to Jim Drummond for his office. The cassette deck is long since kaput, but you gotta dig those 1980s LCD meters, don't 'cha? A crude spectrum analyzer along with R/L and MONO VU meters. It also had a cool timer that was great for making nice mix tapes--you could program the length of tape at a counter would indicate how much space was left. Perfect when you had the entire floor spread with album jackets and a scratch pad full of tracks and times. Ah.... the mix tape.

Years ago, I laughed out loud when I read the following passage from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, which is just a super fantastic read if you are a music snob/freak/junkie.

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter — there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind", but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs and...oh, there are loads of rules.

For a while I have wanted to pick up a copy of Thurson Moore's book on the mix tape. Here's a quote from the Wiki page on the book.

The mix tape is a form of American folk art: predigested cultural artifacts combined with homespun technology and magic marker turn the mix tape into a message in a bottle. I am no mere consumer of pop culture, it says, but also a producer of it. Mix tapes mark the moment of consumer culture in which listeners attained control over what they heard, in what order and at what cost.

Photos to add to your essay:

Mixtape As Courtship Ritual: A Case Study

(a virtual recreation of this analog mixtape can be heard here: http://analog99.muxtape.com/ )

For certain geeky children of the 80s, the mixtape was not simply a means of sharing music or taking it with you. Cassette tapes were necessary, true, if you wanted to introduce a friend to new music or take it to a party; for the most part, this was true well into the late 1990s. But the cassette mixtape served a more significant purpose for the relationship-obsessed: an important and often scary stage in courtship. The analog audio equivalent of "pinning" or "going steady," the creation of a mixtape meant things were getting serious (for at least one of the people involved, anyway). In this brief essay, I explore the last romantic mixtape I would ever make and explain why it apparently worked, or at least did no harm.

An Anachronism

I made this mixtape in 1999, and in many ways it was an exercise in anachronism. For one thing, the cassette as a music format was mortally wounded. No longer required for musical variety in the home stereo, the cassette had already become redundant at home with the advent of inexpensive multi-CD changers, some of which held anywhere from 5 to 200 CDs in magazines or carosels. Most decent car audio systems still came standard with cassette decks, as the trusty cassette was still the only way non-geeks could make their CD collections portable (widespread CD burning being a couple of years off).

But the cassette was, as the Brits say, definitely "on the back foot" and acknowledged by nearly everyone to be on its way out. Technology aside, the primary reason this mixtape was anachronistic had nothing to do with the fact that it was 1999. It had to do with my age. This was not, it seemed to me, the way a "grown up" 31-year old person expressed himself in a mature relationship. Married in my very early 20s and only recently single after several years of being "out of it" in more ways than one, my ideas about dating and courtship were decidedly "analog."

One last observation before we delve into the music. The fact that I now hold this mixtape in my hands is evidence that our story is a comedy, and not a tragedy. You see, romantic mixtapes are made to be given away. And romances that end--amicably or no--do not customarily conclude with a return of gifts exchanged during courtship, and this is especially true of mixtapes. Oh, a mixtape from an -ex might get angrily destroyed, casually casted off to another person who expressed an interest in it, or secreted away as an idol, trophy, or artifact. But seldom would it be returned to its creator. In fact, this is the only one of my mixtapes I currently have, and this is due to the simple fact that I married the woman I made it for; a comedy, indeed. For reasons that should be obvious, this essay will focus on the music and not intimate or personal secrets of my relationship. After all, it is my intent to stay married, and spilling intensely personal information all over the blogosphere would not be a positive step toward that goal.

"Cement Mixer Mix"

For me, the title of a mixtape was always important. In 1999, I had not made a mixtape in nearly 10 years. But my modus operandi had been etched into my cerebral cortex from countless hours of making tapes during sleepless all-nighters. A common practice of mine was to borrow a song title (or a key lyric) from deep within the mix. In many ways the centerpiece of this mix, the track "Cement Mixer" by Slim Gailliard and Slam Stewart gave the mix its title. Track number eight on the mix, this song put forth the kind of image of myself that I desperately wanted to project: funny, irreverent, witty, old fashioned, whimsical, and rare. Here lie the adolescent roots of the mixtape: its message is simultaneously “you are special” and “I am hip and interesting.” There was also the play on the word Mix, which I thought was pretty cute. Like most of my mixtapes, this was to be a real genre-buster, spanning techno, R&B, neo-classical, jazz, pop, and rock. The metaphor of a cement mixer was a good one, I thought.

The mix begins with "Girl," a touching piano & vocal from the short-lived Australian band "Frente!" While it may have seemed risky to begin a mixtape with a song of this title when the intended recipient is a gorgeous 32-year old HR professional with a masters degree in labor relations, it seemed to fit. The touching, plaintive melody is festooned with figurative language: "A girl is a verb / A whirl of color." This track had to be first.

I continue with "Three Is A Magic Number," a mid-90s remake by Blind Melon of the Schoolhouse Rock song. This song established our common generation: no child of the late 1960s could have possibly escaped Schoolhouse Rock during Saturday morning cartoons. The track also implied an interest in starting a family in the future: "A man and a woman had a little baby / There were three in the family." These were uncharted waters for a mixtape: I had certainly never hinted at a desire to settle down and have kids using music before!

Next we have "I Had A Dream I Was Falling Thru A Hole In The Ozone Layer" by Deee-Lite, mostly because it has such cool beats. I also remember selecting songs mostly by the atmosphere they created, and this track really captures that disorienting feeling of "falling for" someone. That mood continues in a more contemplative manner with Björk's "Immature," which is actually a song about maturity: "How could I be so immature ? / To think he could replace, / The missing elements in me, / How extremely lazy of me." Primarily for my own benefit, I believe, Bjork's message demonstrates that this new relationship was developing from a sense of being comfortable with myself.

The best received song on the mix was “Gymnopédie #1” by Erik Satie, performed here by Peter Blanchette on a funky 11-string instrument called the archguitar. This didn’t surprise me. In many ways, this song conjured the essence of the recipient’s personality: complex, lyrical, not easily classified as major or minor. It was melancholy without being depressing, joyful without being exuberant. It was perfect. Following Satie was some Sade. While it seems like a stereotype, I think that most women my age like Sade. The punchy bassline from "Nothing Can Come Between Us" propels the mix forward, and the rhythmic refrain sets an important tone: “It’s about faith / It’s about trust.” Again, there’s some uncharted territory: permanence, everlasting. I think this one fits here.

After Sade, things start to get a little silly. “Cha-Chaborro” is one of few instrumentals on the fantastic debut album from Los Amigos Invisibles, a great Venezuelan party-funk band I had recently discovered. The guitar lead on this cha-cha is schmaltzy enough to be severely hip. This creates the right atmosphere to lead into the eponymous “Cement Mixer” by Slim Gailliard, also a guitar player. The scatting, mock Spanish, along with Slam Stewart’s distinctive bass, make this late 40s track irresistible. Any song with the word “Kraft cheese-o-rootie” has got to be good! After all this silliness, we need Stephan Grapelli to restore some degree of civility with “Alabamy Bound.” Playing over the same instruments (guitar and bass), Grapelli’s jazz violin gives a Hot Club de Paris sophistication to the mix.

In a transition that seems incompressible now, Grapelli is followed by “Stone Free” by Jimi Hendrix. I recall buying the Hendrix disc in a burst of nostalgia. I recall wanting to use “Crosstown Traffic,” but the lyrics were very suggestive in a “free love” sort of way—not the tone I was going for. So I am left with this anthem to bachelorhood: “You can’t hold me down / I don’t wanna be down / I gotta move on.” Likewise, the David Lindley track “Ain’t No Way” creates similar suggestions with its refrain “Ain’t no way you gonna get to me.” In retrospect, I can only imagine that the tone and atmosphere set by the music was the intended message. Certainly the “mixed messages” in this mix were unconscious or unintentional.

The mix closes with Towa Tei’s “Technova,” which is just a techno/house masterpiece in my opinion. I will forever associate this tune with the video that alerted me to Towa Tei shortly after he released his first solo record Future Listening! The image of him in his “Thinking Suit” (which came complete with a third arm for thoughtful chin scratching), along with the computer-generated animation of him walking his little dog, stuck with me in a strange and powerful way. Perhaps I was thinking: if the recipient of this mixtape will just fall in love with this music-loving geek (me) and his little dog (Murphy), the world will be a much nicer place.

As you can tell, that’s exactly what happened. These 12 tracks took Side A of a 90-Minute Fuji DR-II High Bias cassette. Side B wasn’t a thoughtful mix of carefully selected tunes, but a compilation of my favorite tracks by The Meters. Over the years, I probably made more compilation tapes than mix tapes, and “Cement Mixer Mix” was definitely the last. Below are links to some related reading on this same subject, as well this YouTube link to Towa Tei’s masterful video. Ah, to be 31 again!

---

Other Thoughts on the Mixtape

Willow's essay "Sad Fate of the Mix Tape"

PC killed the mixtape star
by Joe Keller (Salon.com)

Mixtape As Primer: A Case Study

(this mix was made expressly for your edification; you may listen to it here: http://analog97.muxtape.com/)

In this brief article, I'll discuss a sub category of mixtape: the compilation mix. In truth, most of the mixes I made during my mixtape salad days were compilations. A true "mix" took a great deal of time and effort, and was almost always associated with an attempt to woo, attract, or otherwise impress someone. The compilation tape was different. It was an attempt to introduce someone to a particular body of tunes. In my mind, this sub category can be broken into two types of "primer." The first is an Artist Primer, and the second is a Genre Primer.

Artist Primer

I can recall several Artist Primers I would make for pals; I would mostly do this when I became "evangalistic" about a particular artist. I would often see it as my sworn duty to spread the good news. In my mind, the best way to do this was to assemble a great compilation to get folks hooked and spread the gospel. Oten the Artist Primers were made on behalf of artists that were an aquired taste; and remember, this was during the 1980s when FM radio was a real wasteland (isn't it still?). I recall forcefully pressing Artist Primers into the hands of my friends. Memorable examples extolled the virtues of Joy Divison, XTC, Gang of Four, The Minutemen, The Velvet Underground, Johnathan Richman, and later Bill Evans, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. Some of you were recently subjected to my Artist Primer for the Welsh pop band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci; I love this band so much that this Artist Primer is two volumes: Best of Gorky's and Second Best of Gorky's (if you want 'em, just ask). Below is one of the surviving "Bill Evans Trio" Artist Primers I made in the late 1980s; I still love the Evans/LaFaro/Motain trio and tried to get lots of people interested in them.

Genre Primer

Next we have the Genre Primer. The purpose of this type is to introduce the listener to a particular genre of music. These were among the first mixes I ever made. In the late 70s and early 80s, kids in suburban Detroit classified their musical tastes by radio station. There was WABX (classic rock, formerly free-form), WRIF (classic rock), and W4 (classic rock). With the brief exception of WDET from Wayne State on the weekends, anybody who was interested in sharing music even slightly out of the mainstream needed a cassette deck.


















My early mixes were of what we called "New Music" (now properly classified as post-punk). I would make several genre mixes, especially when I became fascinated with African pop in the late 80s and early 90s (I recall doing several mixes with Zairean Soukous on one side and Camerounian Makossa on the other).

Case Study: 1930s Old-Time 78s

To illustrate the Genre Primer, I have put together a mix of tunes that I especially love. Here's an introduction to pre-WWII country music, what we now call "Old Time Music." All of these mono tracks are from 78 rpm records recorded in the 1920s and 1930s.



At the dawn in commercial recording in this country, a number of "genres" popped out as good sellers, and some of these had a huge impact on our current popular music. One genre was so-called "race records," which produced much of the blues that influenced rock and roll, including Robert Johnson, etc. Another were so-called "hillbilly records," which pre-dated Bluegrass and document what was left of some of the white, rural music tradition between the Civil War and WWI.

These scratchy old recordings from the late 1920s and early 1930s found their way into Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music on Folkways Records; this collection of songs was hugely influential on the folk revival of the 1960s. The records cut before the advent of Bluegrass serve as a snapshot of what homemade music was like in the rural American south.



While I loved recordings from the 1930s at a teenager, Old-Time Country music would change my life in my early 20s after quitting a rock and roll band just prior to coming to MCC. Playing old-time string band music was much more compatible with being a college professor. I love old-time because it connects me to a time when people had to make their own music. I hope you enjoy these historic tracks as much as I do.

I love this music more than I can possibly say. The sad fact is that it drives nearly everyone I know crazy; I can only listen to it alone. In fact, as I was making this mix, Kathy asked me to turn it off (and she is very tolerant of my music). There's something about old-time fiddle that some people just can't stand. If you like it, please give a shout.

Local History Note: Track #4 on this mix is by Wade Mainer, a 101 year old resident of Flint, MI. He was an early pionner of country music in the 1930s and 1940s; he moved up here to work in the shop and retired in 1974. He still comes and plays at camps and festivals. I heard him play last summer shortly after his 100th birthday.

Playlist:

1. Wade Ward - Lost Indian
   
2. Dock Boggs - Country Blues
   
3. Uncle Dave Macon - Johnny Grey
   
4. Wade Mainer - Mitchell Blues
   
5. Woodie Brothers - Chased Old Satan
   
6. Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers - White House Blues
   
7. The Skillet Lickers - Rocky Pallet
   
8. The Carter Family - Keep On The Sunny Side Of Life
   
9. Clayton McMichen & Riley Puckett - Paddy Won't You Drink Some Good Old Cider?
   
10. Stripling Brothers - Lost Child
    
11. Earl Johnson and the Clodhoppers - Ain't Nobody's Business

Music For Your Tape Recorder

http://analog95.muxtape.com/

I started to spin Kim's Challenge #2 mix and Morissey's voice just transported me. It's been so long since I've really listened to him, really connected with his voice, and it took me straight back to 1984.

Some of you might be looking at all this posting I am doing and thinking "Jesus, what's got into this guy?" Well, this is exactly what I did with my head for a whole bunch of years as a young person: fetish over music, write about it, and make mixtapes.

Michele floated the idea of a "What I was listening to when I was 16" theme for a mix challenge. Well, I cannot wait. Morrisey took me straight back there; the 12 songs on this mix just came into my head. Most of them were on various "driving tapes" I had with me in the car.

Joshua wondered if we were ready for Challenge #3. What about Michele's idea? I think we could be flexible with the actual age (but it should be YOUNG, don't you think?). Because I do so much stuff with the blog, I don't want to make the decision. Just tell me what to do: I am your humble servant.

Still, here's my mix. So here's a mixtape from the era when the term meant something... a real mixTAPE for a cassette deck. I thought it was rather dramatic to add the artists and titles little by little last time, so I'll do that again. One other note about the music: this is all stuff I was listening to regularly in 1984; much of it came out that year, though some a few years prior. You'll recognize most of it. My lifeline for music in 1984 was a WDET radio show called Dimension. This show replaced the program that got me hooked on "new music," which was called Radios in Motion.

There's only one major stumper here: Track #3. You're going to need something bigger than Google to figure that one out. One hint: it's the only non-UK track on the mix, and it's from the US ca. 1983.

By the end of 1984, my ears were taking me away from tightly constructed pop tunes like this; still, I wanted this mix to be unified. Brian Eno and Laurie Anderson pulled me away into other things as I got closer to 17, but I came back.

ABOUT THE PICTURE: That's the cover of a painful-to-read teenage journal. It's a self portrait in the mirror. The first place I drove alone as a 16 year old was the bookstore; I bought a book of Diane Arbus photographs. I have loved her large format, square photographs ever since. I think my self portrait captures teenage narcissism and self aggrandizement fairly well. Actually, it's not a bad photograph (without the silly hat, it would be really boring).

I'm Moving G-Fab's Blogs To Here

I have been a ball hog over at our mixtape community, MTC @ MCC I meant no harm in this. I haven't been posting on my banjo blog, so I've been clogging the airwaves over there. So I have created this place to be G-Fab's Mix Blog.