Dub Tapes
Monday, April 6th, 2009
As you can see from the various tapes I have posted on this site, my labeling of individual tapes was pretty atrocious. I used to know exactly what was on each tape just by these simple labels. Some of these are now a mystery, but a quick run through the Walkman clears things up. This tape has an R.E.M album on one side and a dub of U2’s fan club-only release called Melon, which was later released commercially over a year later. Melon was an electronic remix album of songs from Zooropa and Achtung Baby. I got the dub from Pat DiMichelle when he got the envelope from the U2 club office. I have to say, Achtung Baby and the Zooropa interlude was what we thought of as good U2. Most U2 fans complained, as the story goes, and electronic U2 faded away after the release of the Passengers album.
Submitted by:
Nick De Pirro
Tags: cassette, DiMichelle, dub, fan club, Maxell, Melon, Nick De Pirro, Pat, tape, u2
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes, Live Recordings | No Comments »
Saturday, April 4th, 2009
This is a dub of Cure for Pain that somebody left in my cheap radio at the Columbus College of Art and Design when I was doing a one year sabbatical replacement teaching position there in 2001. I don’t have too much to say about it. I guess it is just a relic from that year of teaching in a private art school. I really enjoyed it, but I have lost contact with most of my old students. Posting this tape has put a little string around my finger to reach out to a few of the old sculpture crew.
Posted by
Nick De Pirro
Tags: 2001, cassette, CCAD, Columbus, Cure for Pain, Morphine, relic, sculpture, tape
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes | No Comments »
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
This is my dub of the original Naïve album with the orange cover art, not to be confused with the later remix album Naïve Hell to Go with the green cover art. I was never quite sure what that was all about, but it gave us long time fans something to mark our history as fans of the band once they briefly became popular nationally, and especially in the Chicago area because it is where Wax Trax was. Everybody got the Drug Against War single once the video hit MTV. Some people bought some other albums, but ha! They all got the green cover graphics.
This is another dub from Randy. The other side is a dub of What Do You Know, Deutschland? We saw KMFDM play numerous times. I will never forget the first KMFDM show that I saw at Metro in Chicago that was part of the Money tour. As far as I know, they really had only done the Ministry tour before that, but I could be wrong. I had been to a few big concerts before that show, but maybe not too much in a little hall like Metro. It was simple and amazing.
I should have been more careful with this tape. It appears to have a chunk missing from the upper right.
Submitted by
Nick De Pirro
Tags: Cabaret Metro, cassette, Deutschland?, dub, KMFDM, Maxell, Naive, Nick De Pirro, Randy, Wax Trax, What Do You Know, XL II 100
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes, Live Recordings | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
This tape is a dub of Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet and INXS Listen Like Thieves on sides B and A respectivley. I am just scanning just about everything that isn’t a commercially produced cassette, so this is just another one that goes way back to high school. No real story to speak of for this tape. It is just one of mine.
Note the scotch tape over the recording tabs. Apparently this one had something important on it, that I later thought was less important than INXS. Well, I can’t blame my past self for that.
Submitted by:
Nick De Pirro
Tags: 90, De Pirro, INXS, Memorex, Nick, Public Enemy
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes | No Comments »
Friday, March 20th, 2009
[audio:mix.mp3]
This is one of the mix tapes that I probably made for myself, but I am not sure. The cursory and careless treatment of the label just about guarantees it. I would estimate that this is from as far back as 1991 or 1992. It had to be pretty close to the Ten release date. All the other songs are 1990 or earlier. I generally split alt rock from industrial when I made tapes. I am not exactly sure why, but they seemed pretty incompatible. The tape is just labeled with the word mix. It is pretty standard stuff that I liked and still like for the most part. The best thing on this tape is a live track from R.E.M that I recorded from WXRT. It is a pretty rough recording. Radio recordings are pretty cool. A definite thing of the past. I have not listened to anything from Ten for years, but I think I will revisit it after hearing Once on this mix tape when digitizing it. Maybe this tape was just a way to get some variety while mowing the lawn. I have no idea.
Side B is Revolting Cocks Beers Steers and Queers that I dubbed from Randy. That album also has a 1990 release date so it all makes sense, I guess.
Submitted by:
Nick De Pirro
Tags: cassette, Maxell, mix, Nick, Nick De Pirro, Once, Pearl Jam, Rev Co, tape, Ten, WXRT, XL II 90
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes, Live Recordings, Mix Tapes | No Comments »
Monday, March 16th, 2009
This is easily the dirtiest tape that I have in the tape pile. Again, studio dirt, but this time it appears to be bronze dust. This makes sense, because at the old Columbus, OH studio, this guy Shawn was subletting from me, and one time he went out of control sanding some terrible bronze sculpture for somebody and covered everything with a layer of bronze powder.
This album is a compilation of Leæther Strip’s best. I love this album. It is by far one of the best industrial albums that you can buy, or dub, for that matter especially if you are not familiar with the genre. It is not an album, in the purest terms, but it plays like one, and for me it was an album because I didn’t have any other Leæther Strip tapes at the time, and honestly, they were kind of hard to find. I have had this tape since high school, and it still plays. I now have the CD and of course, the .mp3 rip of the CD, but I will probably keep this tape forever. Why throw it out? These things don’t take up that much space, you know? Like many other dubs that I have, this one was from a CD that Randy had. I believe that I did this dub myself due to the handwriting analysis. Also, the tape runs out on side one, and I start the song over again on side two. A sure sign of my incompetent engineering.
I see that Claus has a new album scheduled for release this month. I will have to check it out.
Submitted by:
Nick De Pirro
Tags: black, bronze, cassette, citizen, Claus Larsen, dirt, dust, Industrial, Leæther Strip, Maxell, OH, powder, satanic, sculpture, studio, tape
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes | No Comments »
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
[audio:Logan_Mix.mp3]
This tape is titled Logan Mix because Side B was a mix recording that this total wooker Mike Logan made for me in high school. I believe it was sophomore year, but it could have been junior year. I am not sure. Maybe after I think about it for a few days I will put it all together in my head. Whichever it was, it was right at the begining of the year and this dude known as Logan sat behind me in Spanish class. We both hated Spanish so we talked about music. He was talking up Pearl Jam’s Ten album and was amazed that I had the tape. He said he had a concert recording, so I gave him a blank. Turns out it was just recorded from 93 XRT and I had already heard it. The concert dub is on Side A. I recall that Logan went to the last Chicago Naked Raygun show at Metro and I was so jealous. He also liked Fishbone, but what do you expect, right?
The gem was not the Pearl Jam, the real deal here is the mix tape that is found on Side B. The B Sides in this case were an assortment of new hippie bands that I had not heard such as Afghan Wigs, Clock Hammer, and Swerve Driver. He also put a Rollins track on here and Bury Me by Smashing Pumpkins. Because he was a wookie, he slacked off and didn’t fill the tape. I rounded out the mix with Renegade Soundwave and a Negative Land track at the end. So the tape starts off long-hair alt rock, and ends with proto-techno tracks.
Submitted by:
Nick De Pirro
Tags: 93 XRT, Add new tag, Afghan Wigs, Alt Rock, blur, Bury Me, dub, High School, Logan, Maxell, Mike, mix, mix tape, Pearl Jam, Renegade Soundwave, Rollins, Side B, Swerve Driver, Ten, wigs, Wookie, XL II 100
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Monday, February 23rd, 2009
This is a dainty little dub of ZZ Top’s First Album. I am known to be a ZZ Top fan to some. I have seen them live, I own most of their albums, and have, but don’t own the rest, if you get my meaning. This tape was recorded by my brother Matt for my mother to listen to in her painting studio. My ZZ Top fandom was inherited from her. I recall hanging out in her studio with Eliminator on the stereo, looking at books or drawing while she worked on paintings. I snagged the tape to listen to while I worked in the studio in college. It’s sort of weird, but I associate ZZ Top with working in the studio. It is probably a little unusual, but they are really awesome. For real. This particular tape has that dry kind of recorded at the incorrect level feel. A little too much hiss, in other words. I am not sure when this tape was recorded. I think Matt may have made it right before he shipped to Kuwait for Operation Desert Shield. That would make sense. Now, if could just find my dub of Steve Albini’s cover of Just Got Paid, I will be very pleased.
Posted by: Nick De Pirro
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes | No Comments »
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
This dub tape of Pegboy’s Strong Reaction was made for me by Jeff Hedin in either my junior or senior year of high school. This was a very BMX heavy time. Lots of feeble grinds and shows at Cabaret Metro in Chicago including Pegboy. Pegboy is a good Chicago style punk band. Part of the band is composed of former members of Naked Raygun, so guys like Ian think it ain’t legit because it ain’t New York style. All you have to do is compare regional pizza formulas to know that this stuff has got to be pretty good.
This guy Jeff who recorded the tape was one of those guys who you are briefly friends with, but then you go to college and you don’t really ever see them again save once or twice. The title tag is in his handwriting. After high school, I remember that he had a black cat named Mr. Pink and lived in an apartment in Chicago down the hall from Veruca Salt. I think that was the last time I saw him. Maybe once in Bloomington, IN for some reason, I don’t recall if he lived there or was just visiting. Back in the day, he was into BMX riding, so he got into our bike clan. We basically rode constantly. Get off the bus, ride dirt. After dinner, ride street ’til late, that was our life for a good two years. The bike clan included: Jeff, Gary “Blue Tooth” Bates, Randy Laterneau, myself, and sometimes Jake Eitel and my brother, but these last two guys were not part of the core group. I don’t have contact information for any of these guys, so if you are out there, email me a cool tape. I know you have some, because I recorded some of them.
Tags: Cabaret Metro, De Pirro, dub, Jeff Hedin, Maxell, Nick, Pegboy, Strong Reaction
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes | No Comments »
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
I made this dub of Dusk by The The for Jessica Lakin from a CD of the album belonging to Lamfo in my junior year of high school. I believe that Side B features R.E.M.’s Life’s Rich Pagent. This tape was not a relationship mix tape or anything like that, but I did marry the girl in the story.
This tape is no longer playable due to a liquid spill.
Submitted by: Nick De Pirro
Tags: Add new tag, dub, Dusk, DYNAREC, Jessica, JVC, Lake Central, Lamfo, Liquid Spill, Nick, The The
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Friday, February 20th, 2009
This tape changed my life.
No, I am serious. OK, here is the story. It is spring 1990. I am in 8th grade. It is some sort of orientation night and my best friend Dan and i are visiting the high school we will attend the following year. The school is filled with teachers and high school students trying to make it seem as though going to high school is nothing to be scared about. At one point in the night a frizzy-haired kid approaches Dan and inquires about our music interest. Being very cool 8th graders (as if there is such a thing) we told him that we were into alternative music and listed such bands as the Smiths, the Cure, …I can’t even remember now but you get the drift. The kid introduced himself as Kevin, he was a junior at the high school and he was in a hardcore band. We had never really heard of hardcore music, so Kevin proceeded to tell us about some of its basic philosophical beliefs. Now understanding that this 1990 in New Jersey, we heard about positive political grassroots action, straight edge, vegetarianism, and the bastions of east coast posi-core. We traded info somehow (i can’t remember how that worked the in the b.c. {before cell phone} era), and a few weeks later, Dan and I met up with Kevin again. At this time he presented me with the mix tape that changed my life.* this tape contained music by the bands Gorilla Biscuits, Insted and Beyond. This was my first time hearing aggressive punk/hardcore music. I was immediately hooked. I listened to this tape almost non-stop throughout the summer. In a way, it was the soundtrack to my coming of age. It was one of the rare times when you can feel and understand your life changing. This was my induction into a culture, a way of thinking, a lifestyle. I soon began going to shows with Dan and Kevin, and before long we formed our own hardcore band. Being a part of a band and the hardcore community shaped my values, my friends, my life.
This mix tape may not be considered a mix tape in the traditional sense. It did not feature a different artist for every song, but rather was a collection of three shorter albums by three artists. I believe this does fit in the mix tape genre, especially when considering the underground punk/hardcore movement which predominantly utilized the 7″ vinyl format.
Submitted by: Ian Williams
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes, Mix Tapes | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
This is the primer tape. Let’s prime the site for a healthy flow of tapes. The only thing I know for certain is that this tape contains a mix of songs, one of which is Renegade Soundwave’s Just Biting my Nails. This tape was recorded circa 1993 or a bit later. I suppose that I really need to find a working cassette player so I can play these things and list what they contain more accurately. Also, we have to get the streaming audio working. This is sort of a test at this stage anyway. I believe that there is also a song called Pitbull that was recorded off the radio. It features a dog barking and a kid crying. I wrote I Like Cool Tapes on it today to give it that extra flair so I could use it in the main site graphic, but it lost out to the one that you currently see up top.
Submitted by: Nick De Pirro
Tags: De Pirro, I Like Cool Tapes, Nick, pitbull, Renegade Soundwave, SONY
Posted in All Tapes, Dub Tapes, Mix Tapes | No Comments »
