Mix Mania & Some Reminiscing

Earlier today at work I was looking for pictures of cassettes to put up on the blog and came across this nostalgic post reminiscing about tapes, which brought back a lot of my own memories...I remember picking up my first tape (Beastie Boys License to Ill) when I was in 4th grade at Sam Goody back in Canada and popping it into my boombox as soon as I got home, freaking out my mom. You have to remember, this was back in '88 and my mom had never even heard of hip hop. In fact, I only heard of hip hop a few months before I got License to Ill from my friend Greg. Greg was the kid on the block who, in 4th grade, already had posters of sweaty bikini-clad models on his wall and knew all about sex. In fact, I had my first real peek at a sex book at Greg's house. Not quite a real look at sex, I mean, it wasn't a copy of Hustler stolen off the high-up racks at the liquor store, but it was one of those "Where Did I Come From?" books that FULLY illustrated the baby-making process (I still remember the pasty, chubby, slightly-too-anatomically-correct prospective mommy and daddy, hand-drawn curly pubes and all).

Needless to say, it was fun and enlightening hanging out at Greg's place.

Anyways, I'm digressing, but it made sense that this little perv was also the first to introduce me to the world of debauchery from which License to Ill was born. What can I say, I always learned something new at Greg's place...the first time he played Run DMC's Tougher Than Leather, my first exposure to hip hop, my 9-year old mind was blown, then he bumped the Beasties' "Brass Monkey" and I was hooked. The next time I went to Richmond Center Mall, I went straight to Sam Goody to pick up the Beastie Boys and Run DMC album, but my mom didn't let me buy both. I took one look at Tougher Than Leather and another at License to Ill and, liking the jet plane tail picture from License, picked the Beastie Boys.

Nearly 20 years later, I still have License to Ill, and looking at my tape collection brings nothing but good memories of mix tapes, audio letters our family sent to our dad in Japan, and some of my favorite cassette singles from back in the day - ABC's "Iesha," Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison," Biz Markie's "Just a Friend," and Young MC's "Bust a Move." The great thing about tapes was that it was so easy to record anything and everything you wanted...I remember sitting by my radio to record my favorite songs from the "Top 10 at 10" show on KSFM, my fingers poised on the play and record buttons to get Paperboy's "The Ditty" or Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit." Not only that, but tapes were so compact and rugged that you could easily throw them in your back pocket or on the car seat, and they won't scratch and end up skipping like CDs. Of course, sound quality was an issue, but when reminiscing, I only focus on the positive.

Getting back to what I really meant to talk about, here's some songs off a recent mix...and although I rarely put up music from new or upcoming albums, this one is chock full. I actually really liked this mix, and I've been having too much fun bangin' the hell out of my beat-up computer speakers with this one, so I knew I had to share this one with you all.

[MP3] Clap Your Hands Say Yeah :: The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
[MP3] Arcade Fire :: Antichrist Television Blues
[MP3] Lali Puna :: 40 Days
[MP3] Junior Boys :: First Time
[MP3] Amandine :: For All the Marbles
[MP3] Bloc Party :: I Still Remember

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