Justin's Mixtape

    Introduction.

    My friend Justin, who lives far away from me, sent me a mix tape of songs from bands I have never heard of. He did not label any of the songs or bands on the mix tape. Last night, after I came home from the bar feeling only slightly buzzed, I decided to turn it on and write the first things that popped into my head for each song as I continued drinking, slowly sliding from slightly buzzed to full on drunk. Please note: what follows is not reviews of songs, but actually just one drunk fool's thoughts on the soundtrack of his journey down the deluge. After, reading it again this morning, I thought it was kind of funny. I pretty sure I reached drunken clarity at song 14.

    Justin's Mix Tape.

1. Hey! Babe! Whatcha doing to me, doing to me?
2. *Quiet tormented lyrics that are inaudible* Spacey guitar, but this is actually hardcore.
3. Postmodern Johnny Cash Gospel with electronic buzzing in the background. "I saw the face of God!"
4. These guys sound like The Boredoms, but meaner. Is that on purpose? We're angry as hell and we burn out fast!
5. Les Claypool's son wants his records back. I'm glad that not everyone has written off slap bass. It has always had potential in the right hands.
6. Power Pop use to make me cringe, but now it makes me smile and think about young love. Keep it up, young man, you will get that girl or a shit load of other girls.
7. Spacey droning juxtaposed with any other musical genre will be successful on some, often many, and occasionally all levels. It always sounds a little sacred.
8. Meh. Seems like a waste of time.
9. Variation on Doo Wop. Whoa guitar! Go for it. Fame doesn't make you a bad person. Why not cover all bases? Make me 2005 famous.
Note: I do not even know what kind of music is hugely popular in this country anymore.
10. Second Gospel number. Have you realized that you are Jesus reincarnate, Justin?
Note: My words stretch and wiggle when the booze kicks in.
11. Hardcore. Metal. Tape-splitting. Fake tape-splitting. Making the bad sound good by making the good sound pretend bad before making it good again.
12. Young love, again.
13.  I don't think I can explain this. Gangster Oy Emo?
14. This seems dumb in the best possible way. Skills, eccentrics, melody that drags you into the mire. A dusty carnival in a wind storm out in a desert and there is no one attending. I like it!
15. A variation on song number three. Johnny Cash Gospel. This could or could not be drenched in irony. It is a tough distinction. The ending may haunt me. I like this better than song three.
16. That last song made me not care about this one. I can't understand the lyrics and the music is
precise, but uninteresting.
17. That's right! Why not make an impression?
18. That's right: give them time. Give them time for you to make an impression. The impression that you love the band Primus. "Right!"
19. This sounds like a retrospect from the first washes of sounds presented. In retrospect, I am inevitably hardcore at the base of my being. This is who I am, no matter what changes you might point my way. This is something I will never be able to change... even though I try. You. Must. Accept. This.
20. Yep. Its still a carnival. You are perpetually caught in this carnival.

-It was at this point that I passed out.

Aaron C. Molden.