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Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves
An art form combining the skills of a DJ with the intimacy of a letter, a good mixtape was the ultimate audio valentine. Today, when the iPod and playlists reign supreme, the cassette has been rendered obsolete, and the art of crafting these sonic calling cards has been relegated to back-of-the-closet, thirty-something nostalgia. Now, thanks to Jason Bitner, we can relive our lost youth and lost loves.
In Cassette from My Ex , sixty noted writers and musicians wax poetic about their own experiences with these charming artifacts and the relationships that inspired them. Contributors
Maxim editor Joe Levy
Author Rick Moody
Former Rolling Stone writer and MTV2 veejay Jancee Dunn
The Magnetic Fields’ Claudia Gonson
Stories range from the irreverently sweet, such as the doomed love affair between a Deadhead and a Goth, to the touching, such as the heartbreaking discovery of a former love passing away. Everyone will find a story or a song to relate to. Just hit play.
In Cassette from My Ex , sixty noted writers and musicians wax poetic about their own experiences with these charming artifacts and the relationships that inspired them. Contributors
Maxim editor Joe Levy
Author Rick Moody
Former Rolling Stone writer and MTV2 veejay Jancee Dunn
The Magnetic Fields’ Claudia Gonson
Stories range from the irreverently sweet, such as the doomed love affair between a Deadhead and a Goth, to the touching, such as the heartbreaking discovery of a former love passing away. Everyone will find a story or a song to relate to. Just hit play.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 2009
21 people are currently reading
1468 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
October 10, 2012
DO NOT BUY/READ THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE OCD about your music collection. After picking it up out of the bargain bin, I ended up staying up til 2am on a work night, giddily figuring out which songs I had in my music collection and which re-discovered "lost loves" i needed to acquire by download or used hardcopy. An amazing read, but definitely the basis for a compulsion!
... a week and more down the road and I am STILL using this book as a reference to find music and songs, whether I'm downloading them or tracking them down for purchase. A dangerous book for music fans! You have been warned!!
... a week and more down the road and I am STILL using this book as a reference to find music and songs, whether I'm downloading them or tracking them down for purchase. A dangerous book for music fans! You have been warned!!
June 2, 2010
So yeah. If you know me, you know I love mix tapes. Not mix cds, though I've grown to like them pretty okay over since, say 2004. I was a late-comer and a late-leaver to the mix-tape game, and it's true, they are far superior to CDs.
Mostly, I didn't like this book. Here's why. It's compiled by those Found dudes, and I like that concept in theory, but in practice it gets kind of tedious. As this book did. The vignette authors by and large weren't very good writers and I was reading it all at a couple of goes, so the stories blurred together and got monotonous. Yes everybody had complicated relationships in high school and college and thought they were oh so freaking cool. And probably most of them were. But one after another had the undesirable effect of me saying "yeah, so what?" which is not a way I like to feel about young love. I know each of these stories was unique and profound (well, not all of them) but I just didn't feel it. My major complaint was ...well, the music on the tapes. Too too much of it I didn't know, too many of the tapes were too monotonous-single-or-only-two-genre-ed. Even if I didn't know most of the stuff, I can tell which ones I would have enjoyed and it was fewer than ten in a book of probably a hundred. And honestly, the stories didn't focus that much on the music, for all their intent to.
When I made mix tapes, lyrics were as important as style of music, full of meaning "this song is about us! listen!".. and the lyrics, as it were, should have been as important as the style (the artifacts of the tapes and liner notes themselves were often neat, sometimes dull). Unfortunately the lyrics weren't important, and as a lover of words in my books as well as my tapes, I couldn't love this book.
All these complaints expressed, I still embrace the concept that Yes Music Can Define Your Life deeply, and that's why I give this 3 stars. If I had read this book in bits and pieces I probably would have gotten more from it. Or if I was bigger into 90s indie rock. I think, also a book called Why I Made This Mix would have been better, people explaining their own choices rather than guessing half-heartedly at those of others. Or Mix Tapes I Found At Garage Sales, by Aurora Erickson, who does that. Playing musical detective with the lives of strangers is pretty fun.
Basically, I think this book could have been better written and I hope someone does write it better someday. In the meantime, back to Love Is A Mixtape.
Mostly, I didn't like this book. Here's why. It's compiled by those Found dudes, and I like that concept in theory, but in practice it gets kind of tedious. As this book did. The vignette authors by and large weren't very good writers and I was reading it all at a couple of goes, so the stories blurred together and got monotonous. Yes everybody had complicated relationships in high school and college and thought they were oh so freaking cool. And probably most of them were. But one after another had the undesirable effect of me saying "yeah, so what?" which is not a way I like to feel about young love. I know each of these stories was unique and profound (well, not all of them) but I just didn't feel it. My major complaint was ...well, the music on the tapes. Too too much of it I didn't know, too many of the tapes were too monotonous-single-or-only-two-genre-ed. Even if I didn't know most of the stuff, I can tell which ones I would have enjoyed and it was fewer than ten in a book of probably a hundred. And honestly, the stories didn't focus that much on the music, for all their intent to.
When I made mix tapes, lyrics were as important as style of music, full of meaning "this song is about us! listen!".. and the lyrics, as it were, should have been as important as the style (the artifacts of the tapes and liner notes themselves were often neat, sometimes dull). Unfortunately the lyrics weren't important, and as a lover of words in my books as well as my tapes, I couldn't love this book.
All these complaints expressed, I still embrace the concept that Yes Music Can Define Your Life deeply, and that's why I give this 3 stars. If I had read this book in bits and pieces I probably would have gotten more from it. Or if I was bigger into 90s indie rock. I think, also a book called Why I Made This Mix would have been better, people explaining their own choices rather than guessing half-heartedly at those of others. Or Mix Tapes I Found At Garage Sales, by Aurora Erickson, who does that. Playing musical detective with the lives of strangers is pretty fun.
Basically, I think this book could have been better written and I hope someone does write it better someday. In the meantime, back to Love Is A Mixtape.
February 9, 2010
This was just a wonderful book. Short little vignettes that show just how much a mixtape once meant. Being a child of the late 80s, I just barely caught the tail end of the mixtape world, and by the time I was really old enough to swap one that would have any meaning, the format had moved to mix CDs. Now, in an era of playlists and file sharing, it's so refreshing to read a book about the art of the mixtape - not just the song selection, but the presentation, the inside jokes, the art, everything. It's also amazing to think that in our current, disposable culture that so many of these tapes have lasted the test of time; most of the authors brought in tapes that were a minimum of fifteen years old, and most traveled with the authors over a series of moves. Nowadays, your pet pees on an external hard drive and your music is lost, and while you're upset, files are either backed up or easily retrieved.
But enough of my crotchety old man ranting. It's a great read. It's heartwarming, even for a cynical crank like myself, and it's something you can pick up and put down frequently without feeling like you're missing anything. Though, I must mention, putting it down is rather difficult.
But enough of my crotchety old man ranting. It's a great read. It's heartwarming, even for a cynical crank like myself, and it's something you can pick up and put down frequently without feeling like you're missing anything. Though, I must mention, putting it down is rather difficult.
September 2, 2010
Hit or miss stories, but overall and interesting and memory-inducing read. While I've always been an avid mix maker, I never had friends (especially girlfriends) who were as interested in music as I was. I remember making mixes for myself and various events. In gym class, for example, we could make tapes to be played during stretching. I'll never forget making that tape because I had to be very careful in bleeping out any cuss words which I accomplished by quickly hitting and releasing the pause button on my mom's boombox. I remember my mix getting played but not for long. Apparently the idea was for more Top 40 music, not the Violent Femmes and MXPX that filled my tape.
January 1, 2014
Honestly I started getting a superiority complex while reading this book. I just felt that every mix tape I ever made or received was way better than anything in this book. I guess that is the nostalgia speaking which is the only reason this book even gets three stars - its simply because of the nostalgia. The format was interesting and I enjoyed the concept but it did get a bit tedious after a while and I didn't know anything about most of the writers. I enjoyed my own trip down memory lane while reading this more than the actual stories.
June 7, 2010
I really thought I was going to like this book more considering my love for making mix tapes. It is a compilation of cassette-tape-related memoirs from different writers. About half way through the book I just got kind of bored with reading everyone's only slightly varied versions of the same angst-y, teenage relationships that played out on tapes.
November 28, 2010
I like the design even more than the text (although many of the essays were very amusing). Beautiful book.
March 2, 2016
I recently saw a news piece on how cassette tapes are making a bit of a comeback and are quite popular amongs music lovers. And not only are they popular with nostalgic with Generation X, who have fond memories of creating their own cassette tapes. They are also gaining popularity amongst teens and twenty-somethings. Inspired by this new found tidbit, I just had to post the following review I published for an old blog of mine.
Co-creator of Found magazine Jason Bitner was cleaning out his basement when he came across a mix tape from an old girlfriend. Intrigued by this musical part of his past, he created a blog and asked some of his friends to submit stories about the mix tapes they received from former boyfriends and girlfriends. Now he has gathered around 60 of these stories and published them in Cassette from My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves.
Long before we burned CDs and way before we downloaded songs into our iPods, people made mix tapes. We used these lovingly-crafted compilations to express our feelings or just to show off our musical taste. And though iPods are convenient, mix tapes had a human quality that mp3 players lack. Perhaps, it was the warm hiss a cassette made when it was played in a boom box, or the handwritten labels that adorned them. Either way, the essays truly convey how much these simple tapes meant to the writers.
You’re probably already familiar with book’s essayists that include Maxim‘s editor- in-chief Joe Levy, Bust magazine managing editor Emily Rems and Claudia Gonson of the Magnetic Fields, all contributed. Former Rolling Stone writer Jancee Dunn is also included and music journalist Rob Sheffield (who wrote the ultimate musical memoir with “Love Is a Mix Tape”) has also written an essay.
Stories run the gamut from funny to heartbreaking and everything in between. Arthur Jones has difficulty getting it on with his girlfriend because her music of choice was Pearl Jam at the time. Nina Katchadourian remembers a tape she got from a boyfriend while she spent a summer in France. Rick Moody and Stacey Richter share their memories of their cassettes via letters to each other. Anne Jensen finds out she is the receiver of a hand-me-down tape. And sadly, Starlee Kline’s old mix tape brings up memories of her college boyfriend who got cancer.
Interspersed throughout Cassette from My Ex are a few tidbits about making mix tapes. One segment tells us about the types of mixes people traded and the “dos” and “don’ts” to making a mix tape. Do use your own music collection. But don’t forget the track listing. Not everyone is psychic and is going to know every song you include on a tape.
I do have a few reservations about this book. The demographics of the writers are mostly white, college-educated and middle to upper-middle class. There is plenty of talk of traveling throughout Europe and exotic locations. Also, a majority of the writers work in creative fields-media, film, design, etc. I think it would have been interesting to read stories by people who didn’t go to college or who have more working class backgrounds. And as much as I adore creative people, accountants, police officers and nurses also love music. And I bet a lot of them can write, too.
But for the most part, this was a great read. In fact, I got so nostalgic that I dug through some of my old cassettes and played a few of my own mixes. I often refrained from making tapes for the guys I dated; far too many of them looked down on my musical taste. So I made them for my girlfriends instead, usually when they suffered a bad break-up. Somehow, I’ve always been able to find the right songs to go with heartbreak.
If you’re looking for a way to travel down a musical memory lane, you can’t go wrong with Cassette from my Ex.
Originally published at The Book Self
https://thebookselfblog.wordpress.com...
Co-creator of Found magazine Jason Bitner was cleaning out his basement when he came across a mix tape from an old girlfriend. Intrigued by this musical part of his past, he created a blog and asked some of his friends to submit stories about the mix tapes they received from former boyfriends and girlfriends. Now he has gathered around 60 of these stories and published them in Cassette from My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves.
Long before we burned CDs and way before we downloaded songs into our iPods, people made mix tapes. We used these lovingly-crafted compilations to express our feelings or just to show off our musical taste. And though iPods are convenient, mix tapes had a human quality that mp3 players lack. Perhaps, it was the warm hiss a cassette made when it was played in a boom box, or the handwritten labels that adorned them. Either way, the essays truly convey how much these simple tapes meant to the writers.
You’re probably already familiar with book’s essayists that include Maxim‘s editor- in-chief Joe Levy, Bust magazine managing editor Emily Rems and Claudia Gonson of the Magnetic Fields, all contributed. Former Rolling Stone writer Jancee Dunn is also included and music journalist Rob Sheffield (who wrote the ultimate musical memoir with “Love Is a Mix Tape”) has also written an essay.
Stories run the gamut from funny to heartbreaking and everything in between. Arthur Jones has difficulty getting it on with his girlfriend because her music of choice was Pearl Jam at the time. Nina Katchadourian remembers a tape she got from a boyfriend while she spent a summer in France. Rick Moody and Stacey Richter share their memories of their cassettes via letters to each other. Anne Jensen finds out she is the receiver of a hand-me-down tape. And sadly, Starlee Kline’s old mix tape brings up memories of her college boyfriend who got cancer.
Interspersed throughout Cassette from My Ex are a few tidbits about making mix tapes. One segment tells us about the types of mixes people traded and the “dos” and “don’ts” to making a mix tape. Do use your own music collection. But don’t forget the track listing. Not everyone is psychic and is going to know every song you include on a tape.
I do have a few reservations about this book. The demographics of the writers are mostly white, college-educated and middle to upper-middle class. There is plenty of talk of traveling throughout Europe and exotic locations. Also, a majority of the writers work in creative fields-media, film, design, etc. I think it would have been interesting to read stories by people who didn’t go to college or who have more working class backgrounds. And as much as I adore creative people, accountants, police officers and nurses also love music. And I bet a lot of them can write, too.
But for the most part, this was a great read. In fact, I got so nostalgic that I dug through some of my old cassettes and played a few of my own mixes. I often refrained from making tapes for the guys I dated; far too many of them looked down on my musical taste. So I made them for my girlfriends instead, usually when they suffered a bad break-up. Somehow, I’ve always been able to find the right songs to go with heartbreak.
If you’re looking for a way to travel down a musical memory lane, you can’t go wrong with Cassette from my Ex.
Originally published at The Book Self
https://thebookselfblog.wordpress.com...
July 27, 2010
I really enjoyed reading and browsing through this book and it made me nostalgic for the days that my friends and I would trade mix tapes. I remember pouring over my records and CDs looking for the perfect songs to complete each mix tape. I remember listening to and analyzing the possible hidden meaning in the songs on a tape made for me by a crush. This book is full of personal stories involving the making of or receiving of a mix tape. Some are sad and painful to read, while others are full of joy at remembering a wonderful youthful time. After the first ten or so personal reflections, I started browsing through the book without reading every word.
December 2, 2009
As with any compilation of stories by different authors, some tales were better told than other. I enjoyed this book, overall, but there was a sense of same-ness to it all - all the relationships are of a certain age and generation (the one that exchanged mix tapes), the relationships are all hetero, and, of course, they all end in break-up. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had set the book down between stories, rather than read them one right after the other - the same-ness might not have been so apparent.
February 22, 2013
This book is put together by one of the editors of Found magazine and I recognized a few of the contributors. It's a nostalgic, of course, and I liked the stories and the feel of the book, reminding me of so many of the 'zine-y books that came out in the early 2000s. I love making mixed tapes and I've been on the receiving end of some pretty fantastic ones so I'm giving it a half star bump on nostalgia grounds. 3.5 stars.
Read
March 8, 2013Each story in this book seems to ring true to the reader...doesnt everyone still have that one or 100 cassettte tapes they stilll play? and when they play them arent they magically transported to that amazing time in their life when music meant much more thatn a video on tv or a flashy show of who won what award? classic...
May 20, 2022
I think for one to really enjoy this, it should be read slowly: think one essay every other day or so. If only because there are only so many stories of high school breakups that one can be expected to ingest in one sitting.
One exception to the usual template of story that starts with “the first time I saw X, she was…” and ends with “…and then we broke up” comes from a series of letters between two authors as they try to remember the track list of a mix tape they shared years and years ago. A truly lovely piece of bittersweet nostalgia.
One exception to the usual template of story that starts with “the first time I saw X, she was…” and ends with “…and then we broke up” comes from a series of letters between two authors as they try to remember the track list of a mix tape they shared years and years ago. A truly lovely piece of bittersweet nostalgia.
October 6, 2018
Made me want to go dig in my box of tapes and listen to them all again.
November 29, 2021
I am not the target age for this book. Boomers made mixtapes, too.
March 21, 2017
What a great concept- each writer wrote a brief story about a mix tape received from a lost love. Really took me back as some of the stories overlapped my college years. So thankful to the people who turned me on to new music over the years.
March 27, 2011
Mini-essays about past loves and the music that went with them.
I don't think I ever made a mixtape for a love interest, and I'm 99% sure I never received a mixtape from a love interest. I've made and received mixtapes and mix CDs for/from friends and people I didn't know, but never as part of a romantic situation. I obviously missed out on good times. Still, as someone who loves music, loves sharing music, and is anally retentive about getting mixes *just right*, I thought this was a charming book, and definitely an idea that speaks to my heart and the way my mind works.
Reading these essays, it was interesting to see the choices of music (duh), especially looking for songs by bands I like (and strangely, there weren't a whole lot of those). Even more interesting was the common bands that kept popping up -- for example, The Magnetic Fields is a name I recognize but know nothing about, but quite a few of the mixtapes included The Magnetic Fields. The people who made/received these tapes were obviously much cooler than I was/am. It was also fun to play the "How old are they?" game, trying to determine the author's and love interest's age based on the music included on the tapes. The related game of "Are they my age?"/"Was this music I listened to?" was also fun.
This book is also extremely interesting as a coffee-table/art book. The layout and graphics (pictures of the tapes, pulling elements from the tapes' artwork and using them for backgrounds for the essays, the author bio pages) are visually stimulating, and after a while, when I realized how cool each essay's layout was, I started looking forward to the layouts even more than I looked forward to the essays. Lissi Erwin is a good art director!
However, for me, this wasn't one of those essay books that could be read in long spells. I could read a few essays at a time, then they all started to sound like each other (And really, in the end, aren't they all pretty much the same? "There was this person I liked. This person liked me. We liked each other. S/He made me a mixtape. We are no longer together." It's the nature of the beast of a book whose title includes "Cassette" and "Ex." The details vary, but the general outline is still the same.), so I had to put the book down for a day or two. Still, the idea behind the book is an interesting one, and reading about the relevance of music in other people's lives--mainly why the mixtape creator picked particular songs, be it because the title spoke to a particular motivation, or the lyrics spoke to a motivation, or because they were silly songs or inside jokes, etc.--is touching (and at times like eavesdropping on their brain). This book is also wonderful for getting ideas for future mixes ;)
I don't think I ever made a mixtape for a love interest, and I'm 99% sure I never received a mixtape from a love interest. I've made and received mixtapes and mix CDs for/from friends and people I didn't know, but never as part of a romantic situation. I obviously missed out on good times. Still, as someone who loves music, loves sharing music, and is anally retentive about getting mixes *just right*, I thought this was a charming book, and definitely an idea that speaks to my heart and the way my mind works.
Reading these essays, it was interesting to see the choices of music (duh), especially looking for songs by bands I like (and strangely, there weren't a whole lot of those). Even more interesting was the common bands that kept popping up -- for example, The Magnetic Fields is a name I recognize but know nothing about, but quite a few of the mixtapes included The Magnetic Fields. The people who made/received these tapes were obviously much cooler than I was/am. It was also fun to play the "How old are they?" game, trying to determine the author's and love interest's age based on the music included on the tapes. The related game of "Are they my age?"/"Was this music I listened to?" was also fun.
This book is also extremely interesting as a coffee-table/art book. The layout and graphics (pictures of the tapes, pulling elements from the tapes' artwork and using them for backgrounds for the essays, the author bio pages) are visually stimulating, and after a while, when I realized how cool each essay's layout was, I started looking forward to the layouts even more than I looked forward to the essays. Lissi Erwin is a good art director!
However, for me, this wasn't one of those essay books that could be read in long spells. I could read a few essays at a time, then they all started to sound like each other (And really, in the end, aren't they all pretty much the same? "There was this person I liked. This person liked me. We liked each other. S/He made me a mixtape. We are no longer together." It's the nature of the beast of a book whose title includes "Cassette" and "Ex." The details vary, but the general outline is still the same.), so I had to put the book down for a day or two. Still, the idea behind the book is an interesting one, and reading about the relevance of music in other people's lives--mainly why the mixtape creator picked particular songs, be it because the title spoke to a particular motivation, or the lyrics spoke to a motivation, or because they were silly songs or inside jokes, etc.--is touching (and at times like eavesdropping on their brain). This book is also wonderful for getting ideas for future mixes ;)
March 13, 2015
Cassette from my Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves, edited by Jason Bitner (finished 3/12/15): Given my obsession with (and passion for) the mix tape (now CD), I loved this book. I had (have) the ability to follow a theme/keep a flow. I possess an overflowing library of tunes. I walk the thin line between obsessive-compulsive and creative. My only regret is that no one thought to ask me to submit a story (or three). I only recognized a few names from the Table of Contents but, reading bios of the contributors, with their music writing backgrounds, as well as their colorful selections, I of course understood:
“Live Free or Die” by Jodyne L. Speyer: “My first kiss ended in bloodshed. His name was Jonathan and the kiss was the result of a mixtape he made me. He was a Deadhead, I was a Goth.”
“Almost Senior Mix” by Jamie Wetherbe: “Phil was my high school crush, my prom date, my last innocent relationship. We were barely seventeen, living in the suburbs of the Midwest.”
“Novios” by Sara Lamm: “Not long after, we kissed good-bye in the parking lot next to Time Out Chicken. Francisco got into his new Subaru, headed west.”
Still... I coulda been a contendah... :-)
Each two- or three-page chapter is a frozen-in-time snippet of a relationship... told in a clever, poignant or regretful tone... with illustrations often consisting of the original tape and handwritten insert... and also includes the tracklists in typed fashion for readability's sake. For many of us, mix tapes are the currency of love, as the editor explains in his Introduction:
"Mixtapes are like personal time capsules. Not only do you get the physical tape and homemade artwork, but you’ve got memories attached to each of the handpicked songs. Forget flowers and jewelry — cassettes were the perfect vehicle for expressing love. When you made a tape for someone, your intentions were clear: I’m into you. Whether it was a crush tape or a compilation of a couple’s favorite songs, a mix could win over a lover in one listen, or nix a relationship just as quickly. No matter how the relationship ended, the mixtape lasts as a physical reminder of what took place between those two people."
My story would be "Ghost" (from the Indigo Girls' song), which was the title of the cassette I received oh so many years ago:
"and the Mississippi's mighty but it starts in Minnesota
at a place where you could walk across with five steps down
and i guess that's how you started like a pinprick to my heart
but at this point you rush right through me and i start to drown"
The rest, as they say, is history... <3
“Live Free or Die” by Jodyne L. Speyer: “My first kiss ended in bloodshed. His name was Jonathan and the kiss was the result of a mixtape he made me. He was a Deadhead, I was a Goth.”
“Almost Senior Mix” by Jamie Wetherbe: “Phil was my high school crush, my prom date, my last innocent relationship. We were barely seventeen, living in the suburbs of the Midwest.”
“Novios” by Sara Lamm: “Not long after, we kissed good-bye in the parking lot next to Time Out Chicken. Francisco got into his new Subaru, headed west.”
Still... I coulda been a contendah... :-)
Each two- or three-page chapter is a frozen-in-time snippet of a relationship... told in a clever, poignant or regretful tone... with illustrations often consisting of the original tape and handwritten insert... and also includes the tracklists in typed fashion for readability's sake. For many of us, mix tapes are the currency of love, as the editor explains in his Introduction:
"Mixtapes are like personal time capsules. Not only do you get the physical tape and homemade artwork, but you’ve got memories attached to each of the handpicked songs. Forget flowers and jewelry — cassettes were the perfect vehicle for expressing love. When you made a tape for someone, your intentions were clear: I’m into you. Whether it was a crush tape or a compilation of a couple’s favorite songs, a mix could win over a lover in one listen, or nix a relationship just as quickly. No matter how the relationship ended, the mixtape lasts as a physical reminder of what took place between those two people."
My story would be "Ghost" (from the Indigo Girls' song), which was the title of the cassette I received oh so many years ago:
"and the Mississippi's mighty but it starts in Minnesota
at a place where you could walk across with five steps down
and i guess that's how you started like a pinprick to my heart
but at this point you rush right through me and i start to drown"
The rest, as they say, is history... <3
November 4, 2009
Go here for full review with links: http://www.iheartdaily.com/2009/10/ca...
The mixtape was a major art form of the 80s and 90s -- you'd make one for your best friends and longtime crushes, painstakingly choosing every song and then putting them in the right order. Don't even get me started on how much effort went into naming each side and decorating the case. Well, all good art movements deserve a tribute book, and now the mixtape has one: Cassette From My Ex (St. Martin's, $23) is a collection of stories and soundtracks of lost loves edited by Jason Bitner of FOUND Magazine fame.
In its pages you'll find not only heartfelt essays by rock writers Jancee Dunn, Rob Sheffield and The Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson, but also the soundtracks that go along with their stories -- the track lists for the mix tapes that inspired each tale.
Hear about Marie Hansen's "Punk and Not Punk" tape, the product of her 8th grade relationship with a decidedly Not Punk boy. Read the history of Annie Tomlin's "Summer Pick-Up," made for her by Ben, whose "lips looked as though they were stained with Kool-Aid." And close with Sarah Grace McCandless' heart-wrenching mix from David, the boy who left for college and said his final adieu with "The Tape I Finally Made," which includes The Cure, Depeche Mode and Bon Jovi's "Never Say Goodbye." Way to make a girl weep, David.
You might call your mixtape a "playlist" today, but never forget that every time you put a bunch of songs together and give that music to someone else, you're continuing a long tradition of emo art.
PS-Okay, full disclosure: I have a mixtape story, and it embarrassingly involves Sarah McLaughlin and Hootie and the Blowfish. It's here. (Choose your track lists wisely, everyone.)
The mixtape was a major art form of the 80s and 90s -- you'd make one for your best friends and longtime crushes, painstakingly choosing every song and then putting them in the right order. Don't even get me started on how much effort went into naming each side and decorating the case. Well, all good art movements deserve a tribute book, and now the mixtape has one: Cassette From My Ex (St. Martin's, $23) is a collection of stories and soundtracks of lost loves edited by Jason Bitner of FOUND Magazine fame.
In its pages you'll find not only heartfelt essays by rock writers Jancee Dunn, Rob Sheffield and The Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson, but also the soundtracks that go along with their stories -- the track lists for the mix tapes that inspired each tale.
Hear about Marie Hansen's "Punk and Not Punk" tape, the product of her 8th grade relationship with a decidedly Not Punk boy. Read the history of Annie Tomlin's "Summer Pick-Up," made for her by Ben, whose "lips looked as though they were stained with Kool-Aid." And close with Sarah Grace McCandless' heart-wrenching mix from David, the boy who left for college and said his final adieu with "The Tape I Finally Made," which includes The Cure, Depeche Mode and Bon Jovi's "Never Say Goodbye." Way to make a girl weep, David.
You might call your mixtape a "playlist" today, but never forget that every time you put a bunch of songs together and give that music to someone else, you're continuing a long tradition of emo art.
PS-Okay, full disclosure: I have a mixtape story, and it embarrassingly involves Sarah McLaughlin and Hootie and the Blowfish. It's here. (Choose your track lists wisely, everyone.)
May 10, 2011
I fell in love with this book the instant I picked it up. I had been sitting in Shakespeare & Co. for hours, leafing through cover after cover, searching for an epic book to take home with me from this most wonderful of bookstores. I knew this was it before I'd finished the first page.
I started making cassette recordings as a kid in the '90s, with my siblings and a couple friends. I didn't know then that it would turn into a lifelong obsession with creating and giving mix tapes. The tapes have turned into CDs, but with the use of a sharpie, they become equally effective canvases for the musical gems stored within.
These gifts are a very personal reflection of my feelings for the recipient, and often times speak louder than letters of condolence, affection, or positivity. They create an immortal feeling of connection.
That is why I immediately connected with this book. It captured the very essence of the transcendental medium of the mix tape. The nostalgia of childhood summers, the raw yearnings of first loves, and the bittersweet reflections of broken romances.
I started making cassette recordings as a kid in the '90s, with my siblings and a couple friends. I didn't know then that it would turn into a lifelong obsession with creating and giving mix tapes. The tapes have turned into CDs, but with the use of a sharpie, they become equally effective canvases for the musical gems stored within.
These gifts are a very personal reflection of my feelings for the recipient, and often times speak louder than letters of condolence, affection, or positivity. They create an immortal feeling of connection.
That is why I immediately connected with this book. It captured the very essence of the transcendental medium of the mix tape. The nostalgia of childhood summers, the raw yearnings of first loves, and the bittersweet reflections of broken romances.
January 13, 2015
I found a receipt inside my copy from Borders dated 3/24/10 which shows that A. M. Mullen bought this book in Peoria IL (they had the full name listed which I find pretty invasive for a receipt but what the heck do I know)
Sadly--this little tidbit was about as interesting as the book.
I loved making mix-tapes, having a bunch of favorite songs on one tape--the ones you listened to when your day needed a pick-up, the ones you made to take to work or for the bus ride to help psych yourself up for the day ahead. I loved the few mix-tapes I received, mostly from co-workers. Some of my favorite music came from being introduced to things via mix-tape (Thank you Justin Lacher!!)
1 star for the idea, 1 star for the section by Rick Moody & Stacey Richter and 1 star for making me look up this song (the only song I was tempted to look up which is very sad for a book about music!) which Julie Shapiro claims is ..."one of the most romantic songs ever written."
Crimpshrine--Pretty Mess
Sadly--this little tidbit was about as interesting as the book.
I loved making mix-tapes, having a bunch of favorite songs on one tape--the ones you listened to when your day needed a pick-up, the ones you made to take to work or for the bus ride to help psych yourself up for the day ahead. I loved the few mix-tapes I received, mostly from co-workers. Some of my favorite music came from being introduced to things via mix-tape (Thank you Justin Lacher!!)
1 star for the idea, 1 star for the section by Rick Moody & Stacey Richter and 1 star for making me look up this song (the only song I was tempted to look up which is very sad for a book about music!) which Julie Shapiro claims is ..."one of the most romantic songs ever written."
Crimpshrine--Pretty Mess
February 14, 2015
This book hit the spot because I read it while transferring my music from an old computer to a new one. The result was that I felt encouraged to rediscover songs from my own past, as well as create a couple new mixes.
Each story in the book is only a couple pages. So yes, it can be tedious to read specifics about when a couple met and what they shared in common, but the stories are so short that I didn't mind. Each has a touch of humor and a clear pull of nostalgia.
I grew up at the very end of the cassette trend, so very few of the book's mixes seemed to fall within my era. Meh, no worries. My generation then got flooded with too much access to music (first with programs like Napster, then being able to stream any and every song in the universe) so it's nice to now see, in my opinion, the younger generations rediscovering the importance of music curation. Mixtapes will keep hopping mediums but they'll never go away.
Each story in the book is only a couple pages. So yes, it can be tedious to read specifics about when a couple met and what they shared in common, but the stories are so short that I didn't mind. Each has a touch of humor and a clear pull of nostalgia.
I grew up at the very end of the cassette trend, so very few of the book's mixes seemed to fall within my era. Meh, no worries. My generation then got flooded with too much access to music (first with programs like Napster, then being able to stream any and every song in the universe) so it's nice to now see, in my opinion, the younger generations rediscovering the importance of music curation. Mixtapes will keep hopping mediums but they'll never go away.
June 16, 2012
Hmmm... Absolutely in love with the idea of this book (hence why I purchased it), but was ultimately a bit disappointed.
The quality of writing of many of the contributors left a bit to be desired for my tastes, too many of the stories were too similar (which could be a statement about mix tape culture more than the book or authors, I suppose), and there seemed to be too little analysis of lyrical content and why the playlists were what they were...
Still, for someone who is more than a little voyeuristic and obsessed with the art of the mix (no, not me, certainly...) there was enough to keep me reading and there were even beautiful moments and stories sprinkled within.
Too many of the tracks were filler, though, I have to say. Not the best compilation I've ever read.
The quality of writing of many of the contributors left a bit to be desired for my tastes, too many of the stories were too similar (which could be a statement about mix tape culture more than the book or authors, I suppose), and there seemed to be too little analysis of lyrical content and why the playlists were what they were...
Still, for someone who is more than a little voyeuristic and obsessed with the art of the mix (no, not me, certainly...) there was enough to keep me reading and there were even beautiful moments and stories sprinkled within.
Too many of the tracks were filler, though, I have to say. Not the best compilation I've ever read.
Want to read
October 29, 2009From Flavorwire:
Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves is a wonderful, nostalgic, charmingly obsessive ode to the mixtape — in particular, to mixtapes made by ex-lovers. Jason Bitner, co-creator of FOUND magazine, conceived of the project while cleaning out his basement, where he found an old mixtape given to him by his first girlfriend in the dark ages of 1991. Inspired by the nature of the tape as a time capsule (and as the “perfect vehicle for expressing love”), he rounded up 60 writers and musicians and asked them to share their favorite cassettes from their exes — and the stories that go with them.
Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves is a wonderful, nostalgic, charmingly obsessive ode to the mixtape — in particular, to mixtapes made by ex-lovers. Jason Bitner, co-creator of FOUND magazine, conceived of the project while cleaning out his basement, where he found an old mixtape given to him by his first girlfriend in the dark ages of 1991. Inspired by the nature of the tape as a time capsule (and as the “perfect vehicle for expressing love”), he rounded up 60 writers and musicians and asked them to share their favorite cassettes from their exes — and the stories that go with them.
August 6, 2011
Great concept and format. The highlights of this book are the mixtape track listings themselves, along with the photos and scans of the notes that went along with them. The vignettes weren't particularly well-written, unfortunately; I would have liked to see more authors and musicians with whom I was familiar, and all of the narratives were heteronormative, as far as I could see. (I also skipped the stories towards the end and just read the mixtape listings). Apparently I'd better reconsider before I put another Velvet Underground song on a mixtape cuz it's all been done before ;)
May 1, 2015
My first comment about this book is, “Where was I when they were writing it? I have received a treasure trove of mix tapes, have lovingly made just as many, and have great stories to go with each of them. In college, they were serious business in my circle of friends. I have at least one of each category listed in the different types of mixes. So I enjoyed this book cover to cover. I liked seeing the actual tapes, as some of the cassettes were the same brands that my mixes are on. Truly it is a lost art.
November 27, 2011
A brilliant nostalgia-fest extolling the virtues of the nearly-lost art of the mixed tape. The quality of the essays is wildly uneven, but it hardly matters - the point of the stories and carefully recreated playlists is to stimulate memories of your own mixed-tape moments, and this collection more than does its job. Complete with do and don't lists on every aspect of mix making, Cassette from my Ex is a blast from the past that makes you laugh, cry, and maybe even hum along.
July 7, 2015
Digno para haberse editado por Taschen. Uno puede pensar mucho sobre este libro pero la verdad las historias son sosas y a veces los cassettes (mix tapes) no son los protagonistas. Relatos de una cultura distinta (American Way of life) en donde es difícil poder sentirse identificado. Lo que más me gustó de este libro son los tips y datos que dan sobre este precioso formato: Compact Cassette. Algo muy rescatable obvio son las fotografías de maxell, TDK y sony, aunque faltaron ampex y memorex.
January 30, 2011
The mixed tape is a lost art. It was fun to revisit it in these short essays. They were mostly about lost loves but there were a few about friends, family, and muses mixed in. It inspired me to dig in the vaults of my mixes. The book even included snapshots of the cassette and the artwork on the case, which made the experience even more enjoyable.
August 19, 2011
fun concept, but not very innovative. really enjoyed the first 100 pages but it was too predictable. would have enjoyed a more thorough explanation from 6-8 of the authors, instead of new, quick stories every 3 pages.
however, i still really appreciate the sentiment: mix tapes are special and memorable. and so is love!
however, i still really appreciate the sentiment: mix tapes are special and memorable. and so is love!
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