"I received this cassette in 2005 through a blind mixtape trade. The exchange took place via the elusive record collector forum, Hard Rock Piss Strunk. It was sent to me from a gentleman in Canada, whom of I did not know and to this day I still cannot remember the name of.
At the time of first listening to the tape I was 20 years old and completely stuck in my drunken, pot-smoking bubble. My eyes were skewed with everything in life, especially music. If it wasn't fast, it was boring. If it wasn't "heavy" I simply didn't care. At that moment, this tape was too far ahead of the curb for me to give it much of a chance. I barely remember listening to it more than once or twice. I simply wrote it off as "trendy-KBD-wimpy-pop-shit" and filed it away on the shelf with my other cassettes.
My overall impression was that there was not much love invested into this tape. It seemed impersonal and somewhat lackluster in contrast to what I had hoped to receive in the trade.
Fast forward four years: I've sobered up and matured with life and music. My naive punk rock insecurities have faded and over time I've begun to discover and appreciate music in a completely different way. Six months of unemployment during the delightful 2009 recession severely curbed my record purchasing habit, so I begin to re-explore my tape collection. The spring weather is just starting to creep into the New England atmosphere. Nothing better to serve as a soundtrack to the season than some "trendy-KBD-wimpy-pop-shit". I put the tape on and proceeded to eat my youthful words one track at a time.
This tape remained firmly in my cassette deck and was played on an almost daily basis for the rest of the summer. There is not a bad song on the entire tape. It is flawless and only reminds me of how blindly ignorant I was at 20 years old. The impersonal creation of the cassette combined with the anonymity of the individual who made it only furthered my appreciation of it's concept and seemingly unique existence.
It has since become one of my favorite mixtapes in my collection. It has reinforced my love of sharing music and it has reminded me why it's always wise to give something a second chance. I had been meaning to post this tape for share online for a while, and now that the summer has begun, it seems like the perfect time.
Cheers,
- Max"
