Tapes (7)

I haven’t done one of these for a bit but I had to go into the tape-box earlier in the week to look for my old copy of ‘Rattlesnakes’ by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (don’t worry, it was for blip rather than listening purposes – I’ve got a copy on CD – not to mention the marvellous mechanical apple-device – for that but I seem to recall that the cassette had a rather nice fold out sleeve with a photo of an old wooden house on it I wanted to look at.) It turned out not to have survived an earlier cull but I noticed that for some reason I did still have my copy of The Wedding Present’s ‘Hit Parade 1’ singles compilation – not only that but, despite my earlier comments, an HMV receipt tucked into the sleeve informs me that I paid a full-whack £7.99 for it on the 8th of June 1992, which must have been pretty much the date of release. Obviously disillusion set in slightly later – I’m pretty sure I bought a copy of volume 2 as well but it was definitely somewhat later and at a reduced price.

Anyway, whilst I sat pontificating on the floor of the bedroom (the tape box being currently housed in the blanket drawer at the bottom of my wardrobe – don’t tell Beck!), Katie came in to pose the perfectly reasonable question of why someone would keep a box of tapes when they don’t have the wherewithal to play them (One of those questions that are better simply not raised!) It turns out her little CD player has a tape deck too (she’d just never had the need or inclination to see if it works), so I handed her the first cassette that came to hand (an excellent Homestead Records compilation called ‘The Wailing Ultimate’, featuring the pre-Jr. Dinosaur, Big Black and a whole host of lesser lights from the Amerindie alternative underbelly of the eighties, like Squirrel Bait and the Phantom Tollbooth.) She duly tested the machine and declared what issued forth “a horrible noise…!” At some point I’m going to use her little ghetto blaster to listen to the remainder of the tapes here: an NME punk compilation called ‘Pogo-a-Go-Go’ (which has got Swell Maps’ ‘Read About Seymour’ on it), an album by Spring Heel Jack (drum ‘n’ bass apparently) about which I remember nothing other than I used to like it a lot but couldn’t find a copy on the internet when I looked and Grant McLennan’s second (and best) solo album, ‘Fireboy’, which features the rather brilliant ‘Riddle In The Rain’, amongst others...