Mixology: cool shit

Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.

cool shit (1/22/95)

I've been searching for this mix for months now. I couldn't find it anywhere and was convinced I'd lost it until I was down in the basement to get a box fan and decided to poke through a stack of cassettes I have down there. Then I noticed a plastic bag with a couple of tapes in it; I think it was the remnants of the glove box from the old Civic I drove several years ago. And sure enough, this tape was in there. There's still a few more from this era that I have stashed away somewhere, but this was a good 'un.

In January '95, I was still working at the paper, still living on Essex Street downtown. I was also working at the YMCA part-time. It was there that I met a woman I'd been dating on-and-off for a few months. She was pretty cool, but she was also kinda crazy. Depending on the day of the week, she was either really into me or really distant. I stupidly put up with her crap until after the holidays, when I finally just stopped calling her. Cold turkey. Of course, I still saw her at the damn gym all the time, but then I found out she was seeing some other dude, so that made it easier to get over her. I haven't seen her in several years, but I'm sure she's making some other poor bastard miserable.

All that post-holiday piss and vinegar was evident on this mix from the song titles alone, some of them anyway: "Hooray for Me," "Hot Wire My Heart," "Fire in the Hole," "Piece of Crap." Guess I was trying to psych myself up a little bit. I saw Pulp Fiction a few times at the Cabot Theater in Beverly in January and loved it; the soundtrack was brilliant as well, so I picked it up and immediately threw two songs from it on this tape. Everything else was stuff I had been listening to in the previous few months.

For Christmas, my brother bought me Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Orange, which totally blew me away. I just loved the raw energy of the band's lo-fi punk blues and went out and bought the previous album Extra Width. On the other end of the rock spectrum, I had picked up Jeff Buckley's Grace because I had heard his song "Mojo Pin" and it reminded me of Zeppelin. Some of the songs on the album bordered on hamminess, but there was no denying the sheer power of his voice.

Yeah, I was a little pissed off when I made this tape, but that was nothing compared to later in the year. It's all relative, I suppose.

Side A: cool
Misirlou - Dick Dale
One Time for Me - Reverend Horton Heat
Blues X Man - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Hooray for Me - Bad Religion
Hot Wire My Heart - Sonic Youth
Whipping - Pearl Jam
Coming Down - The Cult
Gee Angel - Sugar
Circus Envy - R.E.M.
Fire in the Hole - The Tragically Hip
Piece of Crap - Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Lion's Mouth - Big Chief
Having an Average Weekend - Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
Coax Me - Sloan

Side B: shit
Mojo Pin - Jeff Buckley
Piggy - Nine Inch Nails
Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Nirvana
Corduroy - Pearl Jam
Comanche - The Revels
Cinco de Mayo - Liz Phair
Deep Shag - Luscious Jackson
Strange Currencies - R.E.M.
Lightning Crashes - Live
Shiny Like Gold - Orangutang
Grace, Too - The Tragically Hip
Full Grown - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion




Gee Angel:


Shiny Like Gold: