My cassette penmanship was the only time I have ever been legible. And making sure that ink was fully dried before putting the card back in the case was key to avoiding the smears amateurs had!
Nostalgia is a helluva drug. I saw the word “Magnapop” and immediately, in the back of my head: “Everything is good these days/but all of my friends are dying...” But it sounds like you took MUCH better care of your mix tapes. I put all of mine in a cardboard box and left them in the back of my ‘92 Acura because that’s mostly where I listened to music, and most of them melted into an ignominious lump. I do have two crucial mix tapes saved and un-melted: the first mix tape I ever made C, and the best mix tape I ever received (made by a fellow zine kid) that has a snapped tape. I always thought I might be able to fix it (shouldn’t that be easy??), but I still haven’t.
I mentioned it in the post, it was Cupid and Psyche 85, by Scritti Politti. I was eleven. It was the soundtrack to all the Xanth books I devoured that year lol
Mine was Steve Perry's Street Talk, bought in Angel's Camp in the summer of 84 on the way to our cabin in the Sierra where I had only my little knock iff Sanyo "walkman". I learned a lesson about filler pretty quickly after realizing the lead single, "Oh Sherrie" was as good as Steve ever got after Journey.
Mine was Aerosmith's Get a Grip (a pierced cow udder was on the cover). I honestly thought there would be photos of Alicia Silverstone, who was in their videos, inside. There were none. The music was great, though. It was one of those records with no stinkers! No offense, but you probably can't say that about the rest of Aqua's tape.
Age 10, I scraped together all my nickles & dimes to invest in not one, but two oh, so youthfully formative cassettes. "We can't dance," by Genesis, and "Cooleyhighharmony" by Boyz II Men. Some people (Colin, ahem) had brilliant music tastes from early on, in spite of the radio's inundation of family friendly shite. I was not one of those people.
Good quality Maxell XLII tapes (or similar) could be erased and recorded over a couple of times without much sound degradation, normal tapes like TDK D90s cannot.
Cleaning the tape heads and replacing the belts can bring a lot of old taple players (cassette or reel to reel) back up to form.
A regular, ridged #2 pencil is the perfect item to manually wind a tape (like if it gets unspooled in a bad deck).
Small, sharp scissors and thin scotch tape can repair a break!
The thoughts you described while making a mixtape align perfectly with how I felt in the early 2000s as a teen making playlists, I’m a bit younger, in my 30’s, but it’s funny how music can connect generations like this. Not to say we’re in completely generations of course, but the feelings stay the same while the medium changes, I think that’s comforting and connecting.
I loved your comment about not wanting to waste a centimetre of tape. When I was making a mix tape and could tell that I was close to the end of a side, I would play the tape to the end and use a stopwatch to see how much time I actually had left. I would then spend forever finding the right song to finish off the side -- a song that worked with the rest of the mix AND was the perfect length. I still have a lot of them. You have inspired me to pull out the box.
I have a tape from a 9th grade crush that introduced me to Leonard Cohen, Laurie Anderson, Sinwad O'Connor, XTC and more. I have another from an older punk in our DnD group that has one side that is all highlights from a new label called Sub Pop, the other Roky's The Evil One. Both are from 88/89, freshman year. I believe they are in my basement now as I just hauled a big box of cassettes out of storage Saturday.
Mixed tapes are an art form, all but lost to obsolescence, and it pleases me anytime anybody makes an attempt to reinvigorate it. There are still some mixed tapes which, if I had a tape deck, would likely still be my very favorite musical compilations. And just like that, you have inspired me to make a little purchase. Thanks, Colin
This post is fantastic. Thanks Colin. My dad had a Hi-Fi unit stacked in a special cabinet which altogether was the size of a medium sized fridge. He showed me how to adjust the recording levels on the amp when recording from vinyl or tape-to-tape. We spent all our hard earned on the best Aiwa Walkmans (Walkmen?) we could buy and I have still never heard anything which sounded better than that little machine. As a 19 year old British kid I listened to my mix tapes all the way from San Francisco to Chicago then back through Montana, Seattle and back to SF via Amtrak. Paul Weller, Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel et al. I met my Australian wife-to-be in East Glacier and over the next few years we sent each other mix tapes between the UK and Australia. Somewhere I have a picture of her listening to that Aiwa Walkman outside a youth hostel on Vashon Island in 1993.
Colin! I'm so glad you included a picture of a "music to sleep by" mix! Every time you do an AMA on here, I think about asking you what you'd put on a lullaby list. I have a one-year-old, and we made a lullaby list for her that includes Decemberists, James Taylor, Eddie Vedder, REM, Tom Petty, Brandi Carlile, and more, and I thought I'd ask you what I should add. Now I have more ideas...
I’m going to see the Breeders and Belly perform in October—the current wave of bands from my youth getting together to tour again has been really lovely!
I was a huge mixtape guy and made them for all my friends and crushes. I ran into one such crush at our 20 year reunion and she still had my tapes in an old shoe box! We went over to her house and they played and sounded good. Crazy to hear the pops and cracks from the wax that I taped from. Talk about a time warp!
No wonder I like your work. My tape collection looked a LOT...like VERY MUCH like that. Eerie. I remember constantly being on the search for card stock because I’d inevitably goober up the first attempt at card layout/art/tracklist. Mix tape perfection was the minimum. Those were the days!
Your perfect labored over handwriting ✨
My cassette penmanship was the only time I have ever been legible. And making sure that ink was fully dried before putting the card back in the case was key to avoiding the smears amateurs had!
appreciated that too ;)
Nostalgia is a helluva drug. I saw the word “Magnapop” and immediately, in the back of my head: “Everything is good these days/but all of my friends are dying...” But it sounds like you took MUCH better care of your mix tapes. I put all of mine in a cardboard box and left them in the back of my ‘92 Acura because that’s mostly where I listened to music, and most of them melted into an ignominious lump. I do have two crucial mix tapes saved and un-melted: the first mix tape I ever made C, and the best mix tape I ever received (made by a fellow zine kid) that has a snapped tape. I always thought I might be able to fix it (shouldn’t that be easy??), but I still haven’t.
What was the first tape you ever purchased? I hate to admit mine was Aqua... though Barbie is relevant again so here we are.
I mentioned it in the post, it was Cupid and Psyche 85, by Scritti Politti. I was eleven. It was the soundtrack to all the Xanth books I devoured that year lol
Mine was Steve Perry's Street Talk, bought in Angel's Camp in the summer of 84 on the way to our cabin in the Sierra where I had only my little knock iff Sanyo "walkman". I learned a lesson about filler pretty quickly after realizing the lead single, "Oh Sherrie" was as good as Steve ever got after Journey.
Mine was Aerosmith's Get a Grip (a pierced cow udder was on the cover). I honestly thought there would be photos of Alicia Silverstone, who was in their videos, inside. There were none. The music was great, though. It was one of those records with no stinkers! No offense, but you probably can't say that about the rest of Aqua's tape.
Age 10, I scraped together all my nickles & dimes to invest in not one, but two oh, so youthfully formative cassettes. "We can't dance," by Genesis, and "Cooleyhighharmony" by Boyz II Men. Some people (Colin, ahem) had brilliant music tastes from early on, in spite of the radio's inundation of family friendly shite. I was not one of those people.
Some tips I still remember:
Good quality Maxell XLII tapes (or similar) could be erased and recorded over a couple of times without much sound degradation, normal tapes like TDK D90s cannot.
Cleaning the tape heads and replacing the belts can bring a lot of old taple players (cassette or reel to reel) back up to form.
A regular, ridged #2 pencil is the perfect item to manually wind a tape (like if it gets unspooled in a bad deck).
Small, sharp scissors and thin scotch tape can repair a break!
I need to know more about that last one. I’ve held onto a beloved mix tape for decades because of a break! (goes to google)
I'm sure there's many videos on how to on Youtube, just don't bother with any special kits if you have access to good, small scissors. Good luck!
Thanks so much for this. Immediately takes me back, like it was yesterday....a late night, some good headphones, and a perfectly timed mixed tape
"But don't forget the songs that made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you're older now and you're a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you"
The thoughts you described while making a mixtape align perfectly with how I felt in the early 2000s as a teen making playlists, I’m a bit younger, in my 30’s, but it’s funny how music can connect generations like this. Not to say we’re in completely generations of course, but the feelings stay the same while the medium changes, I think that’s comforting and connecting.
I loved your comment about not wanting to waste a centimetre of tape. When I was making a mix tape and could tell that I was close to the end of a side, I would play the tape to the end and use a stopwatch to see how much time I actually had left. I would then spend forever finding the right song to finish off the side -- a song that worked with the rest of the mix AND was the perfect length. I still have a lot of them. You have inspired me to pull out the box.
I have a tape from a 9th grade crush that introduced me to Leonard Cohen, Laurie Anderson, Sinwad O'Connor, XTC and more. I have another from an older punk in our DnD group that has one side that is all highlights from a new label called Sub Pop, the other Roky's The Evil One. Both are from 88/89, freshman year. I believe they are in my basement now as I just hauled a big box of cassettes out of storage Saturday.
Mixed tapes are an art form, all but lost to obsolescence, and it pleases me anytime anybody makes an attempt to reinvigorate it. There are still some mixed tapes which, if I had a tape deck, would likely still be my very favorite musical compilations. And just like that, you have inspired me to make a little purchase. Thanks, Colin
This post is fantastic. Thanks Colin. My dad had a Hi-Fi unit stacked in a special cabinet which altogether was the size of a medium sized fridge. He showed me how to adjust the recording levels on the amp when recording from vinyl or tape-to-tape. We spent all our hard earned on the best Aiwa Walkmans (Walkmen?) we could buy and I have still never heard anything which sounded better than that little machine. As a 19 year old British kid I listened to my mix tapes all the way from San Francisco to Chicago then back through Montana, Seattle and back to SF via Amtrak. Paul Weller, Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel et al. I met my Australian wife-to-be in East Glacier and over the next few years we sent each other mix tapes between the UK and Australia. Somewhere I have a picture of her listening to that Aiwa Walkman outside a youth hostel on Vashon Island in 1993.
Colin! I'm so glad you included a picture of a "music to sleep by" mix! Every time you do an AMA on here, I think about asking you what you'd put on a lullaby list. I have a one-year-old, and we made a lullaby list for her that includes Decemberists, James Taylor, Eddie Vedder, REM, Tom Petty, Brandi Carlile, and more, and I thought I'd ask you what I should add. Now I have more ideas...
I see Belly -Dusted on there. Love them, her, it.
I’m going to see the Breeders and Belly perform in October—the current wave of bands from my youth getting together to tour again has been really lovely!
So jealous! I moved from California to North Carolina and went from a show a week to a show a quarter. I may have to fly back for that one.
I didn’t know they were touring! Was excited until I found they’re skipping Portland this time around. :(
I was a huge mixtape guy and made them for all my friends and crushes. I ran into one such crush at our 20 year reunion and she still had my tapes in an old shoe box! We went over to her house and they played and sounded good. Crazy to hear the pops and cracks from the wax that I taped from. Talk about a time warp!
Yeah, good thing you’re not procrastinating 🤣
"Music to ski by, mostly Replacements by the looks of it"
Right off the bat I see 2 tracks by Pixies.... "Vamos" and "Isla De Encanta", from Come on Pilgrim.
No wonder I like your work. My tape collection looked a LOT...like VERY MUCH like that. Eerie. I remember constantly being on the search for card stock because I’d inevitably goober up the first attempt at card layout/art/tracklist. Mix tape perfection was the minimum. Those were the days!