Aversion Therapy (June, 1989)

 

In January of 1989 I started at LSU, living in the Pentagon dorms. It was a good time, and I spent it trying to shake the grime of New Orleans off of me. I was running with Liz’s crowd, making new friends, and not going back home on the weekends.

I matured to some extent, and tried new things, like an acting class (and briefly toyed with going into theater.) I also did a lot of things I hadn’t done before – got a lot more social, went to parties, went and played pool at The Bayou. Michelle and I never panned out, but I did start dating Jill at this time, which didn’t last very long due to unresolved issues for both of us (mine was named Katie, I forgot what hers was named.) But, unlike my other doomed relationships, we were able to stay friends. I at last discovered how much I enjoyed learning, and dove into a wide variety of classes.

I opened my mind a lot at this point — too much, in some ways — and read a lot of philosophy, weird mystic crap, and basically tried to figure out a spiritual angle for myself. Unfortunately, this resulted in me taking in a lot of junk at this point, like Tarot cards, but I eventually figured out the psychology that was really behind them and discarded them. It was a big awakening for me. Fortunately, I balanced a lot of this woo-woo junk with Flim-Flam by James Randi, which started me on a better path.

Just after I made this tape I headed for New Orleans with Ben (from Lafayette) to see Alex Chilton in concert, and with us was a friend from high school named Anita who I had somehow gotten back in touch with, and her friend Kelley. I confess that I kind of had a thing for Anita, but it was Kelley I would end up with.

The Pursuit Of Happiness – Hard To Laugh Guadalcanal Diary – Always Saturday The Jesus and Mary Chain – Everything’s Alright When You’re Down The Mighty Lemon Drops – Take Me Up Indigo Girls – Closer To Fine The Replacements – I’ll Be You R.E.M. – Stand Deacon Blue – Dignity The The – This Is The Day Michelle Shocked – V. F. D. Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Circle Alex Chilton – Let Me Get Close To You Siouxsie and the Banshees – Burn Up

Jonathan Richman – Roadrunner Love and Rockets – 4 Stars (Jungle Law) The House Of Love – Christine 10,000 Maniacs – Like the Weather Everything But The Girl – Heaven Help Me Elvis Costello – Oliver’s Army Wire – Eardrum Buzz Shriekback – Big Fun Christmas – Richard Nixon Voice of the Beehive – What You Have Is Enough Violent Femmes – Lies The Sugarcubes – Delicious Demon The Cure – In Between Days The Smiths – Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before

What’s notable is what isn’t here. This is the first tape without a Depeche Mode song. Boy, I really wasn’t crazy about Music For the Masses, I suppose.

• The Pursuit Of Happiness – Hard To Laugh

Although I may have read about this album (Love Junk) in one of the music mags, I’m fairly sure it was another one picked up on a whim. It is a great album, full of good rocking tunes.

• Guadalcanal Diary – Always Saturday

The follow up to the incredible 2 x 4 was Flip-Flop which…well…do I need to say it? This was the one track worth salvaging off of it.

• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Everything’s Alright When You’re Down
• The Mighty Lemon Drops – Take Me Up
• Deacon Blue – Dignity
• The The – This Is The Day
• Michelle Shocked – V. F. D.
• Siouxsie and the Banshees – Burn Up
• 10,000 Maniacs – Like the Weather
• Shriekback – Big Fun
• Voice of the Beehive – What You Have Is Enough
• The Sugarcubes – Delicious Demon
• The Cure – In Between Days
• The Smiths – Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before

Nothing special about these. “This is the Day” is a little out of place, and that Shriekback song is not overly good.

• Indigo Girls – Closer To Fine

Yes, I too got caught up in the neo-boho crunchiness of pop music in 1989.

• The Replacements – I’ll Be You

The Replacements followed up Pleased to Meet Me with this bizarrely overproduced album. It’s okay, and has some good stuff on it, but it’s so clearly the beginning of the end for them.

• R.E.M. – Stand

R.E.M. hit it huge with Green, and for good reason. It’s a very good album. As overplayed as “Stand” came to be, it’s still a lot of fun to listen to.

• Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Circle

Speaking of neo-boho, here it is incarnate. Jill and I went to see Edie in New Orleans (McAllistar, perhaps?) and it was the weirdest show I ever went to. It was an older (than us, at least) crowd, and there was row seating. Everyone sat down, and the few people who tried to stand up were chastised back into sitting down by the people behind them. When the band played “What I Am”, suddenly it was as though someone had pressed the “dance” button…everyone stood up, shook around a bit, and had a good time, and then immediately returned to their seats when the song ended, remaining there for the rest of the show.

• Alex Chilton – Let Me Get Close To You

As I said, the Replacements’ tribute to Chilton got me to check out the man himself, and there was no better time to jump on board than for High Priest, which is a hell of an album. I’ve seen him perform a number of times and he’s never disappointed.

• Jonathan Richman – Roadrunner

Twelve years later, I discover the Modern Lovers. I don’t remember who pointed me towards Jonathan Richman. It’s possible that I stumbled into him myself or read a review somewhere. This track is credited to Richman only here because it came off a “Best of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers” CD I picked up. Of course, by this point Richman is a solo act (and still is) and is another one you should see if you get a chance. This song is four minutes of pure pop bliss.

• Love and Rockets – 4 Stars (Jungle Law)

This is the jumping-off point for Love and Rockets for me. Their fourth, self-titled album is a sludgy mess with few indications of how good the band could be. Most folks would have put the hit single “So Alive” in here, but this tune is much better than that one, which is something, because this one is not very good.

• The House Of Love – Christine

This band was all over the British music mags (which, at this point, I stop following.) I adore this song, and they did a couple other good ones but boy howdy are they a pretentious, non-fun bunch the rest of the time.

• Everything But The Girl – Heaven Help Me

Jill turned me on to this album (Love Not Money) and while I like the whole thing, this song is just amazing.

• Elvis Costello – Oliver’s Army

Here I am catching up with the rest of the world on Elvis Costello. I grabbed a “Greatest Hits” CD because I felt I should check him out and it was everything I imagined. Why this song instead of just about any other? No idea.

• Wire – Eardrum Buzz

It’s a shame that, given Wire’s incredible catalog, the only representative I have of them is this totally disposable, near-novelty song. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, but nobody (including me, at the time) is going to go, “Wow, I need to hear more of these guys!” upon listening to this.

• Christmas – Richard Nixon

A very odd album that I ended up giving away. These folks later went on to ride the “swing” train as Combustible Edison.

• Violent Femmes – Lies

A new Violent Femmes album, hooray! Oh. It’s full of Gordon Gano’s Jesus songs.

Liz and I had a common problem of individuals whose presence in our heads kept us from making wise romantic decisions. We joked about needing some kind of aversion therapy to get the positive associations away from those people. Something along the line of her saying “Katie!” and then burning me with a cigarette (I was smoking around this time – and no, we didn’t really burn each other.) That’s where the title came from.

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

Bad Karma (January, 1987)

 

And then it all came crashing down. In the space since the last tape it had all fallen apart. I had always suffered somewhat from depression, but once I started college I fell into a crushing depression. UNO turned out to be not at all what I thought college was going to be like. The dorms were dreary and lifeless. It is largely a commuter school, so people there aren’t really looking to make any friends, since they go home each evening to the friends they already have. None of my classes were particularly inspiring, either. It didn’t feel that much different from high school, except nobody yelled at you if you didn’t go. As a result, within a few weeks I had stopped going to classes altogether. Mark and I did not get along as roommates and eventually I moved out and into a different dorm room. So I was still living in the UNO dorms but not attending any classes. I think I was simply not prepared for the amount of responsibility college took, and I ended up failing the semester, of course.

In the meantime, I also broke up with Katie, lost many of my friends, and even — cliche as this may be — had my pet dog die. Merlin turned out to be a sociopathic liar who had deceived a lot of us and caused a lot of pain. He separated me from my friends, lied to me about having a job opportunity for me (though I cannot honestly fault him for me putting so much faith into such a dumb lie) and then abandoned me and moved on to my friend Rob, who he treated even worse. Katie, unable to deal with my depression, broke up with me and dated a guy called “Logan” (a name he chose for himself based on his favorite comic book character, Wolverine. That sound you heard in November of 1986 was my self-esteem plummeting.) who she met at her job at Photon, the laser-tag place. He was a regular there.

I eventually got some counseling and got my academic record erased, but it would be a long time until I was back to normal, and the scars stayed around for even longer. However, by the time I made this tape, things were starting to look up a bit. I was actually dating Charlyn (Katie’s best friend and Merlin’s ex…no, it didn’t last).

Shriekback – Working on the Ground The Police – Synchronicity II Depeche Mode – A Question Of Time Alphaville – Fallen Angel Suzanne Vega – Straight Lines Art of Noise (f. Max Headroom) – Paranoimia Peter Gabriel – Big Time Love and Rockets – Ball of Confusion Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Bloc Bloc Bloc New Order – Shell-Shock	Touchtones – Don’t Close Your Eyes The Boomtown Rats – Rain Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Love Missile F1-11 R.E.M. – Begin the Begin Depeche Mode – Dressed in Black Violent Femmes – Add It Up Shriekback – Running on the Rocks Timbuk 3 – The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades Pet Shop Boys – Suburbia The Bangles – Walk Like an Egyptian The Jesus and Mary Chain – Just Like Honey

No doubt, this is some darker stuff. It’s also oddly put together, with some really awkward segues and a very strange choice for opening side one. I like it still, it’s just a very weirdly done mix.

• Shriekback – Working on the Ground
• Shriekback – Running on the Rocks

As you can see, I’m still double-dipping. One of the bright spots of this time was getting to see Shriekback in concert for the Big Night Music tour.

You can read about that concert at my main blog. It still remains one of the best shows I ever went to.

• The Police – Synchronicity II

Synchronicity came out in 1983, so why was this song suddenly showing up on my mix CD? Answer: I have no idea. Nothing wrong with it, I just have no clue why it’s here. It might have been a Charlyn thing.

• Depeche Mode – A Question Of Time
• Depeche Mode – Dressed in Black

And then there were two. Depeche Mode gets knocked down to only two tracks on this one. Both of these are from Black Celebration.

• Alphaville – Fallen Angel
• Suzanne Vega – Straight Lines
• Peter Gabriel – Big Time
• Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Bloc Bloc Bloc

Nothing particularly special about these. More album-mining going on here.

• Art of Noise (f. Max Headroom) – Paranoimia

Definitely the most 80s song on this tape.

• Love and Rockets – Ball of Confusion

A weaker track off a good album, but I had just bought it and hadn’t really listened to it yet. In fact, I remember calling up Christine, who already owned it, and asking her which track I should put on the tape. Her advice was “Ball of Confusion”, as it was the single.

• New Order – Shell-Shock

I’m still just circling around New Order here, without actually landing. This is from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, and I love the song, but for some reason I just wasn’t connecting with the band. I have no idea how this could be, since I should have been so primed for them.

• Touchtones – Don’t Close Your Eyes

Never heard of them? No reason you should. I knew Michael (he went by “Misha” at the time) from BBS, where his alias was “The Untouchable”. He was in the local music scene and gave me a tape of a band he was working with (I believe at the time he said they were thinking of going with “Glam” for their name.) This is a song from the tape, and I found it really catchy. I made up the band name for them. They never went anywhere as far as I know, so naturally this song wasn’t to be found on mp3. It’s a dub from the tape, and it sounds it.

• The Boomtown Rats – Rain

On the original (UK) version of In the Long Grass, this song is called “Dave” and has slightly different lyrics. It seems that “Dave” is slang for heroin (really?), which is what the song is about, so the US label had them change it. I had no idea. In 2001, when I was looking for an mp3 version, all I could find was the original, “Dave”. It took some time but eventually I was able to find it.

• Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Love Missile F1-11

The only way I could possibly love this song (and in fact, the entire Flaunt It album) more is if it didn’t remind me so much of UNO. In my mind’s eye, I can still see the album cover clearly in my hands in my original dorm room there. In fact, speaking of UNO, what SHOULD be on this tape is “High Wire Days” or “The Ghost in You” by the Psychedelic Furs, as Mark listened to a lot of them during our brief stint as roommates.

• R.E.M. – Begin the Begin

Again, R.E.M. shoehorns itself awkwardly into the proceedings, but for good reason; they weren’t originally in this spot. Originally it was “No More Words” by Berlin, but at some point I decided to swap it out. Lifes Rich Pageant was another one I purchased during my time at UNO but it would not reveal its greatness to me for a while yet.

• Violent Femmes – Add It Up

Funny story! Charlyn was working at Holmes, a department store, and had this tape going in her department. She was helping a customer and suddenly realized this song had come on, and had to make a dash to turn it off before it got naughty.

• Timbuk 3 – The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

In order to listen to this song in the proper context, turn up the bass and the sarcasm.

• Pet Shop Boys – Suburbia

Those guys in Pet Shop Boys must really hate the original vinyl version of this song, which is what was on the tape, because it was next to impossible to find it among the many versions and mixes out there. I’m still not sure this is the exact same version.

• The Bangles – Walk Like an Egyptian
• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Just Like Honey

For the former, I don’t know. Hey, it’s a fun song and you know you’re singing along to it when it comes on. And originally it ended the tape, which is fine. But then I bought Psychocandy and it blew my little mind and I added the latter, which is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs ever written. The theme of it is “I will keep coming back to you even though it kills me.” and that pretty much said it all.

As stated before, this was simply The Cool New Music Tape IV until I went back and renamed the early ones, so the title isn’t prescient, just apt. As for the cover, it’s a fun and instructional collage. Some of the items are obvious, some less so, but all have meanings. The pills are Percodan. The back cover is styled after a computer BBS.

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

Life in the Big City (July, 1986)

 

This remains one of the best compilation tapes I ever made. It sounds like the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie, and for good (and obvious) reason. The summer of 1986 saw my graduation from high school and my job at Michelle’s Sno-Balls on Transcontinental Drive in Metairie, next door to a hardware store. I spent the summer hanging out with Katie, Charlyn, Liz, Merlin (yes, his real name was Merlin) and others. I was into computer bulletin board systems and met a lot of people through them, like Stephen, Christine, and Pat and an entire new crowd. My Dad’s Toyota Tercel drove all around New Orleans at all hours of the night. My records came from the (late departed) Metronome and another beloved hangout was Borsodi’s coffeehouse.

Not only was the summer great, but the fall was going to be great as well! A friend from junior high, Mark, was coming back to town to attend the University of New Orleans with me, and we’d be rooming together in the dorms. It was going to be great. We planned on finding some bar around UNO that would be our regular hangout, just like we’d seen in the movies! Plus of course I’d be out of my parents house and have a place where Katie and I could get together with some amount of privacy. Life was looking faaaan-tastic.

Pet Shop Boys – Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money) Shriekback – Nemesis Depeche Mode – Something To Do The Dead Milkmen – Bitchin Camaro Boys Don’t Cry – I Wanna Be A Cowboy Alphaville – The Jet Set The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink (movie) Modern English – I Melt With You Depeche Mode – Black Celebration The Boomtown Rats – Drag Me Down Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – So in Love Sly Fox – Let’s Go All The Way Violent Femmes – Kiss Off Shriekback – Hammerheads R.E.M. – Can’t Get There From Here Depeche Mode – Stripped Berlin – The Metro Sting – Shadows in the Rain Suzanne Vega (f. Joe Jackson) – Left Of Center New Order – Love Vigilantes

I always think of this playlist as being light and optimistic but man, there’s some dark stuff on here. I suppose that’s a testament to how upbeat I was feeling at the time. Still, there’s a lot of fun goofiness here and a fair amount of just plain joy. With this one I was starting to really think about the order of the songs, making sure either side could function as “side one” and be strong from start to finish.

• Pet Shop Boys – Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money)

I bought Please at the Metronome and really liked it, but for some reason, it was the end of my Pet Shop Boys purchasing until years later when I bought a greatest hits CD. They have been putting out consistently good music for years, and I’m kind of sorry I didn’t follow them more closely.

• Shriekback – Nemesis
• Shriekback – Hammerheads

Here’s the beginning of a life-long love affair. I first heard “Nemesis” on WTUL, the radio station for Tulane that all the cool kids listened to (what other station regularly played all 22 minutes of Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”?) but it wasn’t until Charlyn introduced me to Oil and Gold that I really got hooked. I fell for them and fell hard, soon owning every bit of Shriekback vinyl I could get my hands on. And to make things even better, they soon released Big Night Music, which was also a great record. They start out with two songs here and will soon get chopped down to a single entry with everyone else, but they’re going to be a mainstay of the tapes for some time to come.

• Depeche Mode – Something To Do
• Depeche Mode – Black Celebration
• Depeche Mode – Stripped

Speaking of which, Depeche Mode is still reigning with three more tracks. The latter two here are from their Black Celebration album, which I adore. With a title like that you might expect it to be pretty dour — and you’re not completely wrong — but there really is an optimistic strain throughout. The theme is not that the world is awful, it’s that despite the awfulness of the world, there are victories for us in it. Now, isn’t that nice?

• The Dead Milkmen – Bitchin Camaro
• Boys Don’t Cry – I Wanna Be A Cowboy
• Sly Fox – Let’s Go All The Way

Three completely disposable “joke” songs, but I loved them all, and the second two were even from mainstream radio at the time (when most people think of eighties music, especially those who didn’t actually grow up in the eighties, this is about the time period they’re thinking of.)

• Alphaville – The Jet Set

I believe Julie or Gene (via Julie) introduced me to Alphaville, and their Forever Young album is still a favorite. The follow-up, Afternoons in Utopia didn’t grab me as much at the time, and I drifted away from them, but having re-listened to that album fairly recently, I find it to not be bad at all.

• The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink (movie)
• Suzanne Vega (f. Joe Jackson) – Left Of Center

Speaking of John Hughes movies, Pretty in Pink is a pretty dire one (and like most of his teen comedies, has a very questionable message), but it has a pretty good soundtrack. Psychedelic Furs purists hate this version of the song, but it was the first version I heard, so it sounds fine to me. And this Suzanne Vega song is fantastic. A reviewer in, I think, Rolling Stone said that this song distilled her entire first album into a single track, and I think that’s a spot-on observation.

• Modern English – I Melt With You

One of the eightiesest songs ever, and still one of the best.

• The Boomtown Rats – Drag Me Down
• Violent Femmes – Kiss Off
• Berlin – The Metro
• Sting – Shadows in the Rain

My musical tastes still weren’t that broad and of course I was limited to only what I bought or borrowed, so it was necessary to really mine the hell out of albums. I was still loving Violent Femmes, though their The Blind Leading the Naked album was something I just couldn’t get into. Berlin is here because man, how could I have not put it on The Cool New Music Tape II, where it so obviously had belonged? And some of you may be happy to hear that this is the end of Sting. “Drag Me Down” is obviously another one of those “upbeat and optimistic” tunes.

• Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World
• New Order – Love Vigilantes

“Everybody Want to Rule the World”, more than any other song, can instantly transport me back to those days. I get a strange feeling all over me when I just hear the opening bits of it. And yet it and the New Order song were not originally on the tape at all. Two other tracks ended the sides, but I have no idea now what they were (except that I think one may have been “Alive and Kicking” by Simple Minds). “Love Vigilantes” is a fine song, but a really odd choice for New Order, considering what else I had to choose from on Low-Life. I suspect it made the cut merely for being able to fit in the time left on that side.

• Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer

Another classic eighties tune, from a great album. There’s enough upbeat in this one to counter a thousand “Drag Me Down”s.

• Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – So in Love

I bought OMD’s Crush album solely because I liked the name of the band and the album cover (I may have read a review as well. At this point in my life I was still dumb enough to subscribe to Rolling Stone). Turns out, I ended up liking the album as well, but not enough to make me go back and get their earlier stuff, so it would be a while until I discovered the joy of “Tesla Girls”.

• R.E.M. – Can’t Get There From Here

This bit of jangle-pop seems quite out of place among all the keyboards, but there’s a story behind it. I mentioned earlier how suddenly my clique at school became cool, though I opted out of it. When my senior prom was coming up, I didn’t fail to notice that a lot of plans were being made — by my good friends, supposedly — that seemed to specifically exclude me. I had assumed from the beginning that I’d show up, take a photo, stay briefly, and then go leave to do amazing things — the kinds of things one does on prom night, whatever they may be. When the big night came, I was wearing my tux, Katie was in her dress, and pictures were taken by her mom (none of which I have). As I started the car, Katie asked, “How long are we staying there?” and I said, “We’re not.” We had each brought a change of clothes and so we went and picked up Christine and Dave, changed clothes, and instead went to the record store, some place to eat, and Borsodi’s coffee-house. I picked up R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction at the record store (based again, I’m sure, on a review I read). So this song is a bit of a prom souvenir. At the time its lack of beep boop didn’t really grab me, so it would be a little later before I really appreciated what I had here.

And no, I never once have regretted skipping my senior prom.

This tape was originally just The Cool New Music Tape III. In fact, I didn’t give them individual titles until VI, at which point I went back and re-named from III on. When I renamed this one, I chose “Life in the Big City” because it expressed the sense of excitement and opportunity that I really felt at this point in time. The image on the cover is the sign for the Morning Call, an all-night coffee-and-beignets place that we visited regularly (for me, this was also because Dina worked there, and I was still pining a lot for her.)

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

The Cool New Music Tape II (January, 1986)

 

The dates given for these tapes are not exact, but this one followed closely on the heels of the original. By the time this tape was made, Katie and I were an item, and things were really hopping for me. I was spending pretty much all my free time with her, of course, and the friends we had in common: Michael, Charlyn, Liz, and a couple of others. Since none of these people went to my school, we communicated to each other through a complicated system of notes. I’d write notes to Katie, Charlyn, and Liz (who all went to Ursuline Academy) and bring them over to Michael. Liz lived two blocks over from him, so they’d exchange notes. She’d distribute the notes to the Ursuline crowd and bring back the responses. So each day at school I’d have this pile of notes to read and respond to. I still have most of them.

I felt at this time a little like Clark Kent at my school. At Riverdale I wasn’t much of anyone, but little did they know I had this secret other life filled with excitement. Oh and exciting it was, especially after Michael moved out of his house with no place to go and ended up staying at Katie’s house. The story of what resulted there is far too bizarre, long, and unbelievable to be recounted here.

I say that I wasn’t much of anyone at high school, but there was a weird thing that went on around this time. I was in the “Gifted and Talented” program (because, as is evident, I am fantastically gifted) and thus was one of the geeks. No problem, I’d been a geek for most of my life, so this wasn’t anything I wasn’t used to. When I was at school I hung out with the other GT nerds. We were a little island of misfit toys, brought together largely because no one else would have us. However, at some point during senior year, the cool crowd suddenly wanted to hang with some of us. I was wary of all of this, and didn’t really need it anyway, since as I say, I had this whole other life going on. (Some of my friends, however, jumped at this opportunity.)

However, I should say that some of the people in high school who I sort of overlooked, I eventually came to realize (many years later) were actually the most interesting people I knew at the time. Theirs were friendships I should have nurtured. And I was surrounded by people like Kerry, Glenn, and a couple others, who I now know had far better taste in music than I did and I should have listened to.

Sting – If You Love Somebody Set Them Free Depeche Mode – Shake the Disease Til Tuesday – Voices Carry Icehouse – Sister Ultravox – New Europeans Asia – Don’t Cry Suicidal Tendencies – Institutionalized Talking Heads – Road To Nowhere Depeche Mode – Ice Machine (live) Laura Branigan – Self-Control Wang Chung – Fire In The Twilight	Nena – 99 Red Balloons Sting – Russians Suzanne Vega – Marlene on the Wall Depeche Mode – See You The Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays Violent Femmes – Prove My Love Icehouse – Can’t Help Myself Kraftwerk – Spacelab Kim Wilde – Kids In America Chris DeBurgh – Don’t Pay The Ferryman Elizabeth Daily – Waiting Wendy Carlos – The Wedding March

Where to start? Despite the fact that I’m not much of an outside person, I’ve always been affected by the change in seasons. During winter I often become even more withdrawn than usual. As a result, the music I listen to becomes somewhat more downbeat, as evidenced by a lot of this tape. Since I picked everything on this tape and wasn’t just cobbling something together this time, I put more thought into it. One thing I like about tapes is that, as with records, they have four important spots – the beginning and end of each side. So I tried to pick stuff that opened and closed each side well. I made this one a little after the first and for a long time I didn’t like it much, but I think there’s some good stuff on it. There are also some weirdo picks.

• Sting – If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
• Sting – Russians

Yeah, Sting. But you know what? I still love “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” and I don’t care who knows it. In fact, Sting, touring for this album, was the second concert I went to in my life (the first being Styx, for Kilroy Was Here. Yeah, like YOUR first concert was something amazing.)

• Depeche Mode – Shake the Disease
• Depeche Mode – Ice Machine (live)
• Depeche Mode – See You

Did I mention I liked me some Depeche Mode in the day? They’re still getting three slots here. That live version of “Ice Machine” was a B-side on the “Blasphemous Rumours” 12″ and when I was hunting down this stuff on mp3 in 2001 it was a bitch to find this exact version. Since then, however, it’s popped up much easier.

• Til Tuesday – Voices Carry

True fact: when I first head this song I thought she was singing “boys are scary”.

• Icehouse – Sister
• Icehouse – Can’t Help Myself

Icehouse gets two slots here why? Because they had two slots on the first one, I guess. The latter song is okay, but I absolutely love “Sister”.

• Ultravox – New Europeans
• Suzanne Vega – Marlene on the Wall
• The Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays

Nothing particularly special here, just some continuations from the first tape.

• Asia – Don’t Cry
• Laura Branigan – Self-Control

Okay, I can feel you all raising your eyebrows at these two. Let me explain. “Don’t Cry” I’ve gone round and round with. At first I considered it a guilty pleasure. Then it was a bit of an embarassment. But now that I’m older and uncool and have no one to impress anymore, I’m back to loving it. Here’s the thing: underneath the overblown production there’s a great power-pop gem in there. One of these young turk bands should excavate it and give it a nice jangly guitar treatment. As for Laura Branigan, this honestly was put on as a joke, though I don’t remember what prompted it. I had Self Control on cassette, which I remember someone giving me because I was claiming to absolutely love Laura Branigan, but the rest is hazy. Still, tell me you don’t like this song and I’ll call you a liar.

• Suicidal Tendencies – Institutionalized
• Violent Femmes – Prove My Love

Yes! I was a PUNK ROCKER. Actually, Katie and her friends introduced me to the Violent Femmes and to this day “Prove My Love” is one of my all-time favorite songs. And the other half of my punk collection was the Repo Man soundtrack, on which “Institutionalized” is found. Okay, so maybe I wasn’t quite the punk rocker, but considering that the other musical path I could have taken was paved with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, I think I should get a tiny atom of credit for at least faking my way down this route instead. Incidentally, my copy of this tape has a glitch on it at the end of “Institutionalized” where I guess I hit “record” once by mistake. “Doesn’t matter, I ka-runk-a-chunk (drums roll out).”

• Talking Heads – Road To Nowhere

DOES THIS MAKE UP FOR ASIA, YOU BIG OL SNOB?

• Wang Chung – Fire In The Twilight
• Elizabeth Daily – Waiting

Two more tracks from the Breakfast Club soundtrack. These are pretty good tunes, though. And I would walk over a mile of pristine 1986-era Madonnas to get to one Elizabeth Daily who is three days into a seven-day flu.

• Nena – 99 Red Balloons
• Kim Wilde – Kids In America
• Chris DeBurgh – Don’t Pay The Ferryman

These were the days when MTV not only played music videos, they played songs like this!

• Kraftwerk – Spacelab

As much as I loved Kraftwerk, they posed a problem for me. Their best stuff is, for the most part, instrumental. For some reason I didn’t want to put instrumental stuff on the tapes, so this is the last Kraftwerk song you get. That there’s a damn shame.

• Wendy Carlos – The Wedding March

This was before I used SCIENCE! to plot these tapes down to the second, so after I finished, I found out I had a wee bit of blank tape left. I listened to a fair amount of Walter-slash-Wendy Carlos (naturally), and loved this little bit, so I was delighted to find that it fit perfectly in the spot. The cardboard liner for the Maxell tapes had lines for 11 songs per side and heaven knows I couldn’t have just ONE track be on the obverse of the label, so this twelfth track remained a sort of “hidden track”. Get me, I anticipated the CD! In 2001, this track was impossible to find on mp3. Fortunately, this is no longer the case.

It’s a sequel to the original!

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)