Side 1
Weezer - Buddy Holly
snippet of Everclear's "I Will Buy You A New Life"
snippet of Soundgarden's "Burden In My Hand"
Beck - Loser
snippet of Alice In Chains' "The Rooster"
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
snippet of Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet In The Head"
Side 2
Gary Glitter - Rock N Roll Part 2
snippet of Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet In The Head"
snippet of 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?"
Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket
Stone Temple Pilots - Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart
Foo Fighters - My Hero
Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
snippet of 311's "Down"
I remember this tape being in my cousin's possession, but part of me feels like it could have been his mother's instead. My cousin, who was the same age as me, was not that big of a gospel fan, so my memory wants to deny that it was ever his, but I remembered seeing it among his collection all the time. I used to go over my cousin and aunt's place a lot since we lived in the same neighborhood and I probably asked one of them for permission to take this tape. I had a knack for pointing out the ones that were useless to people and that no one had much interest in hearing. It was about 40 minutes long, which made it shorter than the last few mixtapes, but I still managed and I couldn't have been happier to have more space to record with.
Although I recorded over other songs for this mixtape, I distinctly remember recording the bulk of it late one night while listening to Q101.
I was happy with my good fortune at the time of being able to capture so many songs from just a few years past that I had only heard on TV before. This is a weird mix in a way because the only type of music on here is alternative and nothing I made till this point had been exclusive towards one genre. The fact that it doesn't include anything else certainly doesn't make it weak in my eyes, but serves as a captured moment in time of that night instead.
I don't think I was looking for anything in particular on that night, but I think this might have been the first instance I ever recorded a song without ever hearing it first. As soon I has heard the DJ say that they were playing Rage Against The Machine, I immediately hit the button with the red circle on it and became pleased with my decision as "Bullet In The Head" played. In what has been a common trait for all of these mixtapes, I did not take into account how much time I had at the end of a side, so therefore I missed the entire transition into thrash that the song made, making it sound like two completely different tracks whenever I flipped over the tape. "Bullet In The Head" has forever felt like a film with a missing reel in my mind since this tape is how I'm most familiar with the song.
I also distinctly remember recording "Closer" on that night as well, mainly because it felt like the perfect midnight song. It might have also been the first time that I ever heard it on the radio since my only exposure to it had been on MTV back in 1994. The piano outro for the video version was shorter than the version on The Downward Spiral, which caught me off-guard. That resulted in me prematurely hitting the stop button and then hitting record again once I realized the song wasn't over. Listening back to it, it sounds as if the record skipped instead. The song itself was definitely one of my favorites during the time and it was still jolting to listen to, even without the assist of Mark Romanek's vision.
I know that "What's Up?" briefly made it on a previous mixtape, but it's once again relegated to snippet status here. I just couldn't catch a break getting this song in its entirety, but to be fair, I was about three years too late in attempting to do so. It's probably one of the most polarizing songs of the 90s. People either dug it or hated it with a passion. I've always liked how the melody has an off-kilter sing-in-the-shower vibe to it.
This mixtape was particularly enjoyable for me because it featured some of my favorite songs by artists I listened to a lot at the time. "Buddy Holly," "I Will Buy You A New Life," "My Hero," "Heart-Shaped Box," "Closer" and "Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart" are all probably close to being top five songs for their respective artists in my opinion. To be honest, I don't know how many more better songs Stone Temple Pilots recorded than this one.
During this time, the Chicago Bulls dynasty was still going strong, which meant that "Rock & Roll Part 2" was still relevant to me as a basketball fan. It always brought me joy whenever the Bulls played a home game and went on a run that forced the other team to call a timeout, which was the perfect cue for this song and to get the crowd at the United Center on their feet to all shout "HEY!" in unison. Not much else can be said about how epic this track is as far giving off energy. Sometimes I played it for myself in the comfort of my room during Bulls games.
As much I listened to it, this tape has always seemed like an afterthought to me because it felt like the running time wasn't long enough for it to gain any kind of traction. While the earliest mixtapes were even shorter than this, they held a sentimental value because of the order they came in and also because I was pickier about what went on there due to the length. After dealing with a few 60-minute mixtapes, something below that time didn't have the same appeal. I still listened to it fairly often and enjoyed it greatly, but it just didn't feel official to me.
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