The The- Mind Bomb

Mind Bomb. Now that's a good title.

Rock and roll is a mind bomb, especially when you're young. Listen carefully and it'll take you to another world. It'll turn you on to new ideas that you probably didn't get from school, parents or friends. It'll inspire you more universally, and sometimes, I dare say, there's even a little salvation in it.

Matt Johnson knows that. Religion is a dominant theme throughout Mind Bomb. The album has a spirituality/religion through sex bent that is second only to Prince, but he also likes to mix politics into it. "If the real Jesus Christ were to stand up today he'd be gunned down cold by the C.I.A." That lyric has always stuck with me, and popped into my head before I pressed play on my deck. Listening to Mind Bomb again I'm shocked how relevant some of the lyrics are, especially on a song like "Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)."

Islam is rising

The Christians mobilizing

The world is on its elbows and knees

It's forgotten the message and worships the creeds

I bought this album at the tail end of my cassette buying days. It very well could have been the last cassette I bought before making the switch to CDs. Listening to it again after all of these years it's pretty apparent to me that if I had actually bought it on CD it would have been in rotation much more frequently.

The tape sounds great. There's a little warbling at the beginning, which is of course repeated on the other side of the tape towards the end, but other than that it plays as beautifully as it did back in 1989. "The Beat(en) Generation" is every bit as great as I remember it, Sinead O'Connor appears on "Kingdom Of Rain" in all her passionate glory, and "August and September" is going to have to go on my next fall mix tape. Although I'll have to find it digitally as "mix tape" is only a phrase we use now. We seldom create the real thing.

Organic sounding and uncompromising, and yes, more than a little challenging, Mind Bomb still lives up to its title.

Genesis- Invisible Touch

This is why punk happened. I'm not talking about the U.K. or the U.S.A. Or the Ramones or Sex Pistols. I'm talking about me listening to one too many records like this and slowly realizing enough was enough and moving on to less mainstream and more interesting music.

I bought Invisible Touch the day it came out. Before 5 of the songs were all over the radio. Before Michelob made "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" into a commercial and started a trend that two decades later is as commonplace as MTV videos were back in 1986.

You couldn't escape Phil Collins if you were a kid in the 80's and it was his solo material that first turned me on to Genesis. While I fear that Hello, I Must Be Going and No Jacket Required are going to emerge from my trunk of cassettes for future postings, I can at least breathe easily knowing that my tastes in music began to shift shortly after buying this record. It was gradual, but there was light at the end of the tunnel.

So what's wrong with Invisible Touch? Nothing really. It's a fine album if you like mid-80's Phil Collins with a dose of experimentation that mostly comes from some unexpected musical breaks and programmed drums. But it's just so damn poppy. And not in a good way. Side one is loaded with hits: "Invisible Touch," "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight," "Land Of Confusion," and "In Too Deep." Side two has "Throwing It All Away." On the second side they try to get back to their prog roots by including a couple extended songs, one of which has multiple parts just like any true prog rock staple. But they still come off sounding as slick as the hits.

In recent years I've gone back and tried to listen to early pre-Phil Collins led Genesis records. In doing so I came to appreciate The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. But after getting into that record it makes it so much harder to understand how an album like Invisible Touch can come about just 10+ years later. Okay, in interest of fairness, the same can be said of Peter Gabriel's So, but Gabriel made art. At this point Genesis was more about product.

It makes me wonder. Did Genesis want Phil Collins to bring his poppy songs in so they could create something similar to his solo albums, although with more synths and less jazz? Or did Phil force this sound on them? There must have been some division within the group. After this one, they only lasted long enough to make one more record together.

But for me and my rapidly changing musical tastes, Invisible Touch was enough.

The Smiths- Meat is Murder/Eddie Murphy

The Smiths and Eddie Murphy are quite an unlikely pair, and my tape collection is littered with similar matches. There's really no rhyme or reason to it, other than I acquired both records at the same time and put them on tape. Which is kind of bizarre in itself. But that's the great thing about being 15. At that age I listened to everything. Classic rock like the Doors and Led Zeppelin that you couldn't escape if you wanted to, along with metal bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica that were advertised daily on the backs of the headbangers' jean jackets, and "college rock" like The Cure, Echo and The Bunnymen and R.E.M.

Meat Is Murder came from a vinyl source. I checked it out from the local library and made a really good copy of it. So good that all of these years later it plays flawlessly. Of course that might have something to do with the medium to which I recorded it. Maxell XLII 90's folks. That's where it was at for me. I didn't do no TDK. And Sony tapes blew. For me it was the high bias Maxell XLII 90's. I used to buy them by the box. Once in a while I'd spring the extra dollar and get the 100 minute version, but I was always worried about the tape breaking. The extra weight, even ten minutes worth, usually wasn't worth the risk.

I never got into Meat Is Murder the way I did with later Smiths albums. Outside of "How Soon Is Now?" and a couple other songs I found it really hard to get into. Playing it all of these years later it sounds like a lost Smiths album to me, which in a way it is. Most of the songs on Meat Is Murder haven't been endlessly recycled on compilations and received minimal airplay on alternative stations. It's certainly the most un-Morrissey record of their releases. Unlike The Queen Is Dead or Strangeways, Here We Come, there isn't a whole lot of humor on it.

Save that for Side B and Eddie Murphy. I remember getting the vinyl record through the Columbia House Record Club when I was 12 years old. My parents confiscated it soon after hearing it, and 3+ years later I must have found it again and set it to tape. What's strange about listening to that album again is how much Eddie Murphy relies on physical humor and mannerisms, all of which are lost on an audio only recording. It isn't that I've lost an appreciation for Eddie. I certainly don't waste my money on his films, but I still like his classic period. Back before he started doing extended fart jokes for the entire length of a movie. Before he picked up the prostitute or some related thing and sort of derailed his career.

I watched Delirious recently and loved it. That movie came out just over a year after this comedy album. But seeing Eddie is a whole lot different than just hearing him. I just wish we could see him on the stage again. Stand up was clearly his strength. Maybe he'd suck at it now, but I'd sure like to see him try. It could do wonders for his career, which has to be one of the steepest declines in quality of anyone, ever.

As for Morrissey, he seems to be getting in the kind of trouble usually reserved for someone like Eddie Murphy. Recently he called Chinese people a "subspecies" for their lack of animal rights laws. Eddie is no stranger to stereotyping at the extent of the Chinese either. The most memorable centers around the size of a specific part of the male anatomy, which he compares to the size of a grain of rice. It's hard to argue which they would find more offensive.

File under: Artists that pick on the Chinese.

W.A.S.P. - The Last Command

His name was Blackie Lawless. Part red headed stepchild of the LA metal underground and part Freddy Krueger, the stuff of nightmares for Senator's wives, concerned about the evils of rock and roll. Blackie paid his dues for over a decade, but he never surrendered. Finally when hair metal bands were all the rage he got signed by Capital records. Soon all of his rock and roll dreams would come true.

If there's any redeeming quality about Mr. Lawless it's the outrage that he caused Tipper Gore and the other Senator's wives with his bloody codpieces, chunks of meat and bones on stage, as well as his songs, one of which had the memorable title of "Animal (I F*ck Like A Beast)." While Alice Cooper's 1970's theatrics were meant to shock, they were also done with a nod and a wink to his audience. The guy had a sense of humor. Blackie Lawless and company just seem out to shock, and the whole thing comes off as incredibly juvenile. Hell, I even thought this at 13 years old when I was still playing Twisted Sister records.

Okay, so let's press play on this thing:

Here we are again with the Dolby notes. It takes quite a while to get a cassette to start playing. First the leader tape, then the Pentium-like greeting. More blank tape, and we're finally into the music.

Well, if you can call it that. The tape is playing this time, but it sure sounds like crap. Compared to mp3's I would think that tapes might even be superior in sound, but maybe not when they've been sitting in a trunk for this long.

I can't remember where I got this one. I always thought W.A.S.P. was a joke, so I know I didn't run out and buy it. I'm pretty sure I borrowed it from a friend. It may have been several years after it came out as a guilty pleasure. I did have a friend in college who used to love to crank them up once in a while when he was drinking. I don't know, but if anyone reading this can lay claim to The Last Command, I'll happily give it to you.

In 8th grade I sat down at my desk one day and saw "W.A.S.P." written on the chalkboard. It was a few minutes before class was to start and some kid in a jean jacket with Metallica and Iron Maiden patches on the back went up and wrote "sucks" under it. When class started the American History teacher was quite impressed, thinking that he was teaching a class well educated about White Anglo-Saxon Protestants and their role in our nation's history.

Rock and roll was seductive, but there was nothing remotely cool about W.A.S.P. for me. This wasn't David Lee Roth or even Vince Neil. I could have stood side by side with Tipper Gore and critiqued them for looking like a bunch of idiots. Sure Blackie Lawless seemed to make it his mission to try to out do even the most outrageous rockers with his stage theatrics and provocative song titles. He was repulsive, but more than anything he just looked like a dumb ass.

This music is about as bland as you can get. There's nothing memorable about it. The whole thing sounds like it was recorded with metal by the numbers production. Hundreds of other hair bands of the 80's adopted this same sound, and the bulk of them never learned to write a decent song along the way. While most of these songs don't stand a chance of getting stuck in my head, "Wild Child" is somewhat catchy, as is "Ballcrusher" with it's ridiculous lyrics:

Stole the rent and drank all my J.D.

She went and hijacked my brand new car

I say A.C. she says D.C.

The damned bitch is just too bizarre

Bye bye bye Ballcrusher

then later:

Before I go and leave her in the dust

I'm going to (lyric omitted in liner notes) her till she can't stand up

Nice guy, that Blackie. Around the time of this record I remember reading that he wanted to get into politics and maybe run for office someday. At the very end of the cassette insert's microscopic type he alludes to their song "Blind In Texas" by saying "Don't Drive Drunk...in Texas or anywhere else." So I guess he was already tackling the important issues.

Blackie and band sound like they're about to die. The tape is going to snap. They're dragging as badly as the Wilson sisters now that we're on side 2. I think it's the song "The Last Command." Yikes, and I thought backward masking was supposed to be scary.

And now the tape has stopped. I guess this is as far as I get. I have noticed that Heart and W.A.S.P., as unlikely of a match as it might seem, were in fact label mates. (Can you image the possibilities of a joint tour?) Both of these records were put out by Capital and have the "XDR" label on them: expanded dynamic range. Maybe this has something to do with the tape problems.

So I have to prematurely pull the plug on Blackie. Bye bye bye ballcrusher.

Heart- Bad Animals

And we're off. The counter has been reset and the cassette is playing. But not before I hear that Dolby sound at the beginning.

Wow, instant warping. This is not good. The Wilson sisters sound demonic. I'm unsure what I should do. Take the tape out? I keep checking on it, but it's not breaking. There isn't a run of tape clogging up the machine. But wow, this is some seriously damaged tape.

Now the machine has stopped. I must admit I didn't see this problem coming. Again, I push play and it warbles along and stops.

I remember reading an interview with the guitar wizard from Boston, whose name escapes me, and he said something about sticky tape. How when he went in to listen to all of the demos he had done years before for Boston's third album, the tapes had deteriorated to a point that they had to be reconditioned in order to be listened to, which apparently was quite the tedious process. I fear this kind of damage has happened to the Wilson sisters.

I'm going to try to fast forward a bit and see if it makes a difference. Nope. It goes for a little while and stops. Or maybe this is that built in feature to stop before the next track. I guess not. Still barely playing for more than a second and stopping.

Hmmm....I just tried the other deck and it appears to be playing fine. Let's rewind and start over from the beginning. Dolby sound. Check. "Who Will You Run To" in all its keyboard laden glory. A little misstep and we're off.

Not so fast. This tape is seriously messed up. It keep varying in speed. And it's annoying, because I find myself genuinely interested in hearing this whole tape. Plus it makes me fear for the very idea behind this project. Are all of my tapes this screwed up? I guess I better digitize the few that can't be replaced.

In the case of Bad Animals, it's proving to be completely unlistenable. The tape has again shut off. But it's not breaking like those overloaded C-120's or my twice returned copy of the Rolling Stones Steel Wheels. I've never had a problem with a cassette like this. Then again I never tried to play one 23 years after purchase.

What can I remember about Heart's Bad Animals? It was the follow up to their self-titled record when the Wilson girls went all heavy metal and tried to out do Poison with their new image. They had huge hits with "What About Love?" and "Never, " but this one was a mellower album. The big hit was "Alone." Other than that I don't think it did very well.

What does the packaging tell us about it? Not much. We're clearly in the big hair 80's here. The insert folds out giving us a couple shots of the band, segregated by sex, and by extension importance. And the lyrics. A sample picked completely at random:

Leaving you was an endless fight

I was wrong and you were always right

But look what happened when I called your bluff

When the truth comes out you ain't so tough

Oh yeah, I remember that one. This tape occupied quite a bit of time in my Walkman during a trip to Lake Tahoe to visit my Grandma. Summer 1987. After that I don't think I ever played it again. And now, it looks like I never will again.

The Cassette Tapes Project

My great uncle probably moved the trunk fewer times than I have, and he came from Switzerland. His key belongings, maybe even all of his belongings, were once carried across the sea in the same trunk I've used to store my collection of cassette tapes. I started storing them there right around the time I went to college. Pre-recorded cassettes, dubbed tapes, even mixes. But by the time I moved into the dorms they had been replaced by a new medium, the compact disc.

Of course that didn't mean I was going to abandon them. It was my music library. And because I've added very little to the collection since then, other than a stray mix tape and perhaps some home recordings of my own, it remains a vault. One that's been moved at least ten times and has spent a significant amount of time locked up in various storage units. Well, it's time to open it up and have a listen.

I first had this idea a few years back. I was working at an ad agency with a community stereo, and the other copywriter and myself spent the days taking turns playing CDs and iPods. At one point I found an old tape recorder and joked about bringing in my old tapes and playing them one by one and documenting the reaction of the agency. Really, we were probably the only two people who would have cared. I could never get the thing to work right either. Just when I thought I got it hooked up with the right Radio Shack connections a Journey tape got jammed inside. It never worked right after that.

This will be a little different. It'll probably just be me listening to the tapes. Music can be quite a solitary thing anyway. At least I have equipment that works. The dual cassette deck I have was purchased long after the cassette was pretty much dead and I've hardly used it. And because there are two decks I have one to spare if a tape gets stuck.

I have my cassette deck on top of my desk and will be hooking it up to the same speakers I use for my laptop. These are high end and sound pretty good, so it ought to be a fair comparison. I won't be listening on a Sony Walkman or through my first car's tape deck or on a home stereo system. Instead I'll be listening to the tapes in much the same way that most of us consume music now, at our desks through computer speakers.

I have a few other rules for myself. I'm going to try to do this somewhat randomly, which means I'll open the dark cobweb infested storage unit and stick my hand blindly into the trunk and pull out one handful of cassettes at a time. I'll pick a tape and listen to it all the way through. I may write while listening to it, or maybe I'll do it afterwards. But I have to listen to the tape all the way though, regardless of what's on it. Especially for home mix tapes and all the other nonsense you record when you're 12 years old, this should be quite interesting. For dubbed tapes I have to treat the cassette as one unit and write about it accordingly, even if the artists on the A side and B side are drastically different.

I suppose that's my introduction. It's time to start listening.