And in a smooth act of theme-progression: here's one one loan from a friend, by melbourne band Wizard Oz. Fuzzy, fanciful chanty stuff - and nary a hint of pantomime (hooray).
http://www.myspace.com/wizardozband

Another op-shop find, thank you Northcote. I obviously picked this up for it's inspired texta work and brick-veneered "Oz". (I like to think that that is a severed pink angel's wing in the background.) Listened to it for the first time today...and it reminded me why I hate music theatre.

I picked this tape up from an op-shop in Newcastle. Can't say I recognise any of the artists, but all of the songs generally feature a bit of soft piano, long wavering vowels and an absence of percussion (save cymbals and the odd bell chime). Side A is titled "The Best of Vera Lynn". Am saving that one for a rainy day.

multi-million dollar award-winning advertising campaign

Great Memories, Classic Hits...

Here are some belated images of Cassexx at the TINA zine fair. Just in time to inspire the Christmas mixtape-making season.

Time to kill.

Wile away the hours on this site....
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2868

Sad walkman

Just a fan.

Of this band....





That's all.

Oh and currently making an amazing tape on these 4 pink and white tapes I got from an op shop in Newcastle. Super Limited Edition!

AARGHBOO! Mixtape

Once my sister watched The Blairwitch Project alone in our livingroom, it was dark and I snuck up beside her and yelled boo in her ear. Oh, how she screamed! I have never been forgiven for it. Here, I try to recapture that moment. Happy Halloween y'all!

A

Lovely Head - Goldfrapp

Roses - White Ring

What Doesn't Kill You - Hole Class

God Is Black - Estrogen Highs

Killr Punx, Scary Demons - Wavves

Halfsharkhalfalligatorhalfman - Dr. Octagon

Nightmares - Jay Reatard

Flowerbeds - Fantastic Magic

Topped - Chrome Dome

Ghost Rider - Suicide

B

I Can Transform Myself into Anyone I Want - Hrsta

Molten Light - Chad VanGaalen

Sweetest Kill - Broken Social Scene

The Scary Caroler - Lambchop

The Mercy Seat - Johnny Cash

My Heart Is Not At Peace - Mount Eerie

So Sad - Vincent Gallo

Hollow Out Cakes - (Smog)

Casper The Friendly Ghost - Daniel Johnston

No Party Zolotorevo - Black Hippies

here are the zip files for sides A & B.... or send us a SASE for a copy in bona fide cassette form! Stamped self addressed envelope! Yeah! Email for the address!

Oh baby!

I bought this mixed tape at a zine fair a few years ago and it continues to bring me joy. It introduced me to one of my all time favourite songs; 'He's got the power' by The Exciters. It makes me smile everytime. It also introduced me to using the word el stupido....

I don't know who made this tape. Mystery mixed tape maker where ever you are thank you!
xx

Also here is the playlist....

A is for alfalfa
Around the go go - The Commands
fabulous diamonds (live)
uma - ooioo
he's got the power - The Exciters
chewing gum - carter family
sleeping away - the motifs
armagh - the au pairs
estupido rapez - tom ze
sucker djs - dimples d
i move around - lee hazlewood
words cannot describe - mirah

B is for basil
suspicion - Dawn Landes
I try - Built to Spill (this is the only song I generally fast foward...)
When we're through - The Desks
The Other Day - Guther
Mushaboom (Postal Service REmix) - Feist
Tu Es Malade - Julie Doiron
Your Hill - Dntel
Oh! September - Mirah, Ginger Takahashi and Friends
If you will - The Desks

Progress report: Happy birthday Steve Miller

Our four tapes are ready to hit the post again (Open theme, '97, Spooky Mix and the ever persistent Wintersongs). Don't forget to email us your address if you haven't already, and pass the word on to other mixtape makers. That's cassettejourney@gmail.com, yo.

In the meantime, October marks the birthday of Steve Miller, which is reason enough to share this clip:

Cassexxualise

This Is Not Art. It was great! But super super tiring.... If you came to our store and bought a tape or chatted to us or just kind of saw us in the corner of your eye and thought hey, that looks alright.... Thanks! You made two ladies very happy! It was so lovely to talk to other people about something that we love.
So Mixed Tape Project is Cassexx too if you are confused.... We have decided to become a legit cassette making duo!! So if you are in a band and want a tape release get in touch fool! Cos we want to hear your tunes! And put it on a tape!
xx

I posted about this in July, now it's here for you in digital glory. Songs to go with Abbra Kotlarzyck's paintings.

A

wanderlust ratatat mix - ratatat

sun squint - magic magic

st.elmo's fire - brian eno

assignment song - nina simone

city of gold (reprise) - hrsta

foreground - grizzly bear

ribbon bow - twin sister

grizelda - yeasayer

download

B

between two mysteries - mount eerie

the lemon of pink - the books

ahab - here we go magic

phedre - swann

who? - brian jonestown massacre

blood red bird - smog

believe me - augiemarch

providence - sonic youth

montanita - ratatat

mountains - radar brothers

download

Sell! Sell! Sell!

We are having a market store during This Is Not Art. And one tape will feature this gem!
The theme is Japan. I heard this track whilst shopping in the greatest area of Tokyo, Shimokitazawa. I ended up buying an amazing vintage one piece bathing suit, a red one that has illustrations of drum kits and guitars and says 'rock and roll'.





Remember Shampoo? They were rad! They also sung this song....


This is the song that has continually been in my head since 1995.

So remember TINA yay!!

progress report: nineties jammin' but no Pearl Jam

This came in the mail today as a supplement to the '97 mixtape. Apparently the author of this tape was responsible for a similar mix-tape-projectesque experiment years earlier. What do you know.

side A

morning glory - oasis

i want to be there when you come - echo and the bunnymen

elevate me later - pavement

in bloom - nirvana

invisible man - the breeders

blow out - radiohead

unwind - sonic youth

olson - boards of canada

side B

0x4 - ride

held - smog

sometimes - my bloody valentine

softer softest - hole

ignoreland - r.e.m

feel the pain - dinosaur jnr

mars - television

The song chosen for the 1997 tape itself is "You're So Great" by Blur, and came with this thoughtful little note:

In other news, Wintersongs has made it's belated return, and now sounds like this

Fuck winter with Scotch

A precious little compilation from Scotch Tapes, who hate winter and write reviews in haiku.

if you made this mix you should claim it

Hey mystery mix. I like you, I really do. I can't really remember the details of our meeting but that doesn't cheapen the experience. I like how you get so excited by a topic that you have to blurt it out all at once: like three bits from Orquesta Sinfonica De Tenerife in a row. Wow. What's Surf Stitch?

You can have it here

Progress report: August

It's been about a month or so since the first blank tapes were sent out to be sullied by wicked tunes. Here is the first progress report:

TAPE 1 "open themed" has been lost in the post.

TAPE 2 "Wintersongs" Kicked off with Aztec Camera's cry, Walk Out To Winter. However, the second track was taking such a stubborn long time to get taped that "Wintersongs" has been cancelled. A replacement Spring/Summer line is expected in time for paddlepop lick-a-prize season.

TAPE 3 "1997" is coming along nicely. Who doesn't love '97? The first track is Avalanches Rock City.

TAPE 4 "open theme" Is a secret until I can work out how to upload songs, words don't really do justice. A clue is: early 80's new-wave eccentricity.

and now...

another mixtape for grimey creepy chills. If in doubt, ask yourself, "what would Casper do?"

ALL TAPES COME WITH BAD QUALITY CASSETTE THEMED FAKE-TATTOOS! SEE IMAGE ABOVE!

ROBOTS from the FUTURE!!!!!

One half of the mixed tape project is heading to the land of the future (Japan) tomorrow for a few weeks. Then she will be back ready to launch into all the new and exciting projects we have in store over the month of September! It will be a big one for us so stay reading this blog, or if you read this in the past after the exciting projects have been launched try to remember a time before these projects existed and how your life had that little hole in it, and how we filled that hole with delightful future tapes..... hmmm. Ok now here are some more robots with cassettes.

This is the kind of tape they should be showing kids in mixtape school. Beach Boys, followed by the Supremes, followed by Beyonce. And then JANELLE MONAE!, for crying out loud. Although I can't get past rewinding back to the start of "Home" by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros. And oh the artwork, the artwork.

Some mixtapes that won't get lost in the mail

Micromix 25 by Bradford Cox - If this doesn't make you want to quit your job to be a chinese-food delivery boy, tell me what will.
http://deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com/2010/02/micromix-25.html

Summer Mix by The Morning Benders - features a stupidly beautiful cassette version of Twin Sister's Lady Daydream. More summer than pine lime Splice.
http://saymayday.com/2010/07/the-morning-benders-echomix1/

Fabulous Diamonds mixtape
http://www.threethousand.com.au/hear/fabulous-diamonds-mixtape/

Jens Mixing times

Summer in 3/4 time. Next level mix.

http://www.jenslekman.com/a%20summe%20in%203-4%20time.mp3

Another 'un

Flooding the market. Because who can be blessed waiting for a turn?

The Avalanches - Run DNA (Live - Recovery)

1997!!

Why 1997? Well that was the year I got seriously into music and became a sullen angsty teenager that is why.
I had very few friends in the town of Woy Woy on the NSW Central Coast and would watch Recovery every Saturday morning and sit by the radio every night listening to triple J with my fingers at the ready to record the latest track I was into onto a cassette.
I had a very crude catalogue system for each tape. They were all numbered and I had the corresponding track listings typed and printed and filed into a folder.
Sigh. If only I still had that folder.....
A comment on the 1997 musical number above
The Avalanches - El Producto came out in 1997. I only saw them live once at a Sydney Big Day Out and the sound was really bad and they kept on having major technical difficulties. After a few tracks they had to stop the show because nothing was working. Sad times.

on the topic of musical responses...

Once upon a time, circa 2007, I thought it healthy to feed myself almost exclusively on a diet of Bill Callahan/Smog. Evidently I made a mix for a friend (...either to express myself or to enforce my own good taste down his throat) I can't remember exactly what was on that mix or why, although "Sunday Morning Coming Down" hints that I must've included Bill's "Drinking at the Dam". And probably entertained fantasies of becoming an all-American whursky soaked man. Helll yes, potent late night music.

The one thing better than a mix-tape is a thoughtful response. Put that on a bumper sticker.

More sights and sounds

I took a sick day from work and made this tape for Abbra's amazing exhibition.

Sounds and pictures

A playlist inspired by the paintings of Abbra Kotlarczyk, who last night opened her exhibition Igneous Faux Pas (Rock World). Staggering genius. Have a look at her artworks at http://abbrakotlarczyk.wordpress.com/

It's begun

Finally, finally after much wait the first tapes are out there. They follow three fine themes:

TAPE 1 - OPEN THEME

This needs no explanation, it is the mixed bag of compilations. Mints, jubes, licorice - it's all a matter of taste, right?

TAPE 2 - WINTERSONGS

For the songs that you can't get out of your head this winter, listened to endlessly on repeat over the hum of a fan-forced heater. For songs that remind you of July, through mention of snow or chill or cold-blooded killers. Songs for listening to indoors, with windows shut and the volume turned up. But please - no Frosty The Snowman.

TAPE 3 - 1997

The year the Spice Girls numbed the minds of primary school girls world-wide. Also the year of The Titanic, The Castle, Stuart Diver and Tony Blair. Princess Diana passed away and left us to contend with Elton John's Candle In The Wind. But lots of good things happened, too. See Michelle's list below.

(ps, I did know every word of Wannabe. Even the faux-rap section.)

Teen times

I just found the greatest representation of who I was when I was 13 nearly 14 in 1997.
Here is the track listing....
Side A
1. Today - Smashing Pumpkins
2. Firestarter - The Prodigy
3. Dammit - Blink 182
4.Trip like I do - Crystal Method and Filter
5. Freak - Silverchair
6. Thunder - The Mavis's
7. I give in - Effigy
8. Zero - Smashing Pumpkins
9. D.A.F - Powderfinger
10. Naked Eye - Luscious Jackson
11. Buy me a pony - Spiderbait
12. Bullet with Butterfly wings - Smashing Pumpkins
13. Ready to go - Republica
14. Professional Widow - Tori Amos

Side B
1. Mankind - Pearl Jam
2. Goldfinger - Ash
3. In the meantime - Spacehog
4. Gold Dust Woman - Hole
5. What's come over me? - Frente
6. Hey Dude - Kula Shaker
7. Tonight Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins
8. If I could talk I'd tell you - Lemonheads
9. Until it Sleeps - Metallica
10. Popular - Nada Surf
11. Aneurysm - Nirvana
12. La La Land - Shihad

Also on the tape I have written on it that Oasis Sux.

The beginning...

We are currently scouting for themes for these mixed tapes...
Here are some suggestions...

A word.....
Welcome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0U0AlLVqpk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUBB1lOLD6k

A year.....
1997

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uYWYWPc9HU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mgjZK46_uw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVAiGf-fku0

A person....
Ricky Nelson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLkCWT2neuI

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=sxzR9BjbxQ4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=CLFklYZt6fo&feature=related

A time frame...
Under 2mins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q27BfBkRHbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Eck6rox0s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHdTnAY_GmE

Email us with your own suggestions! ! !