Several months ago, my humble vehicle got a new stereo in it. For the first time, my mode of transport is equipped a CD player. Also, I no longer have a cassette deck. This means I have a small brick foundation’s worth of mix tapes that will now dusty and unheard in any number of Converse shoeboxes in our house. In tribute to the many, many hours I’ve devoted to listening to these 90-minute collections (as well as the extensive time spent sitting in front of a stereo surrounding by the CDs and albums that would serve as the raw material for putting various mixes together), I decided to track the individual tapes as they meet their sadly inevitable retirement.

Pulled randomly, this was the first tape dispatched.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d Like to Introduce the High Hat
2001

That date indicates this is probably the last tape I made while residing in America’s Dairyland, maybe to commemorate the new vehicle, which the students I would soon be working with referred to with barbed affection as my “Grandpa Car.”

SIDE ONE
NAKED CITY, “A Shot in the Dark”
from the John Zorn album that gained as much notoriety for its frankly brutal cover art as for its crazily abrasive jazz music. I well remember this release being featured on the front cover of CMJ back when the weekly trade publication showcased the four best new releases with fearless accuracies. Since the album didn’t duplicate the success then enjoyed by similarly sharp-edged Sonic Youth, it’s fair to say this choice puzzled more impressionable music directors than it emboldened. Despite being in as safe of a college station as you could get (a minor claim to fame after I graduated was being ahead of the curve on Hootie and the Blowfish), my alma mater gave the release a place in heavy rotation. It didn’t take off there either, but this cover of the Henry Mancini piece that often accompanies the exploits of a cartoon panther stuck with me.
JOHNNY CASH, “Cocaine Blues”
PJ HARVEY, “Big Exit”
NENEH CHERRY, “Buffalo Stance”
Where the title of the tape comes from. Now tambourine, right now!
TRAVIS, “Driftwood”
BIG DIPPER, “She’s Fetching”
This came off of the surprisingly good compilation Gimme Indie Rock. Surprising not just because of its silly title and low-rent cover art, but because it was produced by K-Tel, the label famous for a series of hopelessly cheesy compilation LPs and accompanying commercials (that apparently couldn’t be bothered to get the spelling of Diana Ross’s name correct).
WILCO, “A Shot in the Arm”
YO LA TENGO, “You Can Have It All”
THE CURE, “Just Like Heaven”
I’m guessing its inclusion here means I had just gotten a used CD copy of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. My copy still has a sticker for $6.98 on it. I think from Frugal Muse. I spent a lot of lunch hours there around that time, distracting myself from the misery of my job through music and book purchases.
SELF, “Meg Ryan”
SARGE, “The First Morning”
R.E.M., “Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)”

SIDE TWO
ROLLING STONES, “Gimme Shelter”
NIRVANA, “Breed”
ANI DIFRANCO, “Cloud Blood”
It was the section on angels that really sold me: “Every other song, someone’s trying to write angels into the world/every grace, every ace, every near miss/every decent kiss by a pretty girl.”
BELLE AND SEBASTIAN, “Women’s Realm”
SUGAR, “Needle Hits E”
WIRE, “Mannequin”
Off of Pink Flag, which I bought from an Austin, Texas CD emporium somewhere between Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and the Astrodome on a long-ago baseball roadtrip.
TOM WAITS, “Cold Cold Ground”
LIZ PHAIR WITH MATERIAL ISSUE, “The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)”
I suspect it was the contrast between the Ton Waits song and the Banana Splits cover that I really liked here. Sometimes it’s easy to amuse yourself while making these.
IMPERIAL TEEN, “Year of the Tan”
NED’S ATOMIC DUSTBIN, “Kill Your Television”
TOO MUCH JOY, “Hey Merlin”
THE KINKS, “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”
This is a live version off the two-disc set To The Bone, which I bought at Radio KAOS Records because I figured it ws about damn time I owned a Kinks album. The best part of this version Is Ray Davies’ introduction where he characterizes The Kinks as a band destined from greatness that always seems to screw it up, at which point an audience member with a thick brogue loudly retorts “Oh no you don’t!” I always “sing along” with that part.

(This was originally posted on “Jelly-Town!”)