The shed is my escape away from worldly worries. Those old tapes are an amazing time tunnel. Today I unearthed this one of John Cale and The Velvet Underground, sent to me from the States by John Held Jnr. a famous mail artist of the day.
Me and my art college friends used to post all kinds of crap to each other. Art and omelettes. Literally. When I heard J.H.Jnr. was coming to England and visiting collage artists A1 Waste Paper (who I'd never met, but sent a ton of arty cards to), I decided it would be appropriatly whacky to mail myself.
My Tai-Chi bendyness (of the day) enabled me to be packed into quite a small wooden crate, and with the help of an assistant, it was nailed shut...BP
(turn the balance into the left speaker for just the narration and the right to trip out on the psychedelic ramble.)
I remember the declaration of permanence when you snapped off the tabs on the top edge of the cassette, thereby stopping any further re-recording (well, until you realised that sellotape stuck over the resulting voids worked just as well as the tape's original plastic in permitting you to record over last month's favourites that you'd never tire of hearing...)
ReplyDeleteNice to see/hear again after all these years! That was a memorable day in mail art history!
ReplyDeleteWow that took me back in time 3 times!
ReplyDelete1) I read the title and remembered my old Lambos, Veps and The Jam
2) tensioning the tape trying to record the beat or specials from the top 40 on Radio 1 with as little blah blah from the dj as possible
3) listening to V U for the first time with student lungs full of 'herbals' thinking WTF Maaaaan!
I try to be nostalgic about cassette tapes, but all that hassle, still good times
Ahhh its grim after years of lugging around and storing I finally sent the worlds biggest crate of cassettes to the recycle man (tip) a sad day trying to open each box and say goodbye to the memories of each and every one, damn why did I do that.....
ReplyDeleteSi
ReplyDeletetechnology gives you permission to send VHS videos to the landfill. But personal party mix tapes with badly scrawled playlists and DIY covers, NO! Priceless anthropological bygone gems, that still have an afterlife down the shed with your secret stash of cigarettes.
BP
I'm with Ben, the mixtape is such fantastic time capsule, all this effort into a tape that's often purpose built for some occasion. It's such a good historical marker in your life.
ReplyDeleteMy band just released a tape. Get it here, if you want, or don't.
ReplyDeletehttp://sncl.collective-zine.co.uk/clean-shirts-demo-2012-tape-p-3436.html
Mate of mine runs a diy record label (although they have released a couple of cult indie bands singles)
ReplyDeleteHe regularly tells me how well the tapes go out of the door. Apparently "the kids" are into them.
You just reminded me that somewhere in a box of cassettes are a couple with recordings of Brian Eno doing a lecture about the upcoming Digital recording revolution...with lots of examples of music from an album he was producing with David Byrne and company...if I can find them, I'll dub you a copy.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Cale and Byre live, Eno would be great - I'd have a Sony Walkman to hand so I could make a dogy bootleg of course.
ReplyDeleteBP
Yes! My favorite Velvet Underground tune. I have it on cassette... stored in the garage somewhere, but nothing to play it on.
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