J.D. Wilkes & The Dirt Daubers (formerly The Dirt Daubers) are quickly becoming the number band on the imaginary soundtrack in my head during dirt road rides. At one time it was the sounds of Hank III that country-fried my brain and filled it with images of the critters, farms, landscapes and undercover back road meth labs of rural Michigan, but Hank is on the back burner now, replaced by J.D. and his Daubers.
I have no cassettes, nor cassette decks in my possession any longer, but seeing the rise of Cassette Store Day has made me wax nostalgic for some of my old tapes. The advent of the .mp3 was and is great, and has made getting music from all over the world easier than ever. BUT as a teen whose formidable music years were spent growing up with cassette tapes there will always be a special place for them in my heart (at least the ones that didn’t get all fucked up from sliding around on the floor of my Dad’s car)…
Yes, I love my iPod for playing music and making myself mixes, but when was the last time you sat down and spent hours making a mix for someone’s iPod? Remember when making a mix tape took thought, sharing it with someone wasn’t a crime (literally), and it actually meant something? I’ve given a million mix tapes, and they all meant something. We act like they don’t, but they do, and that’s what’s so fucking cool about them. There’s a sensuous thing going on where you don’t talk about it, but you know it, they know it.* Nights spent sitting on the floor of the bedroom surrounded by albums trying to find JUST the right song to followup the last and thinking way too much about whether the tape’s recipient will read too much (or not enough) into the selections you’ve made.
So with that I present a small list of my favorite cassette tapes owned or mixed (in no particular order)…
