Cassettes & Chocolate Milk

Quite recently, I found myself completely wrecked, washed ashore, ruined. It was an accident really. The day before my birthday, I had asked my brother Andrew to get the microphone to work on my computer. I had a bunch of people coming around the next night and I had uploaded no less than 139 slop-tastic pop hits onto the freeware program, UltraStar, all in anticipation that we'd all have a bit of a wail. It's a bit like SingStar, except you can upload your own songs. Boney M. East 17. EMF. Whatever!

I came home from work and I was informed of the news: "Ugh. Your computer is broken." How? "I don't know but your operating system is not operating anymore." At the time, I took it on the chin. It was going to be OK. Sure, it meant there would be no howling karaoke shenanigans at my gathering. No Ganggagang. No Roxette. No Interpol. But I could deal with that. I suppose I can talk to my guests, if I really have to.

What followed was a severely long spell of computerlessness. It must have been a month, maybe more. I became aware of my totally crippling and unforgivably geeky addiction to my computer. It was like losing a limb, if a limb were as valuable as my hard disc. It was like my past had been deleted. Everything I loved, everything I was working on.. and perhaps everything I had envisioned myself to be. Pretty deep for a piece of hardware, don't you think?

Yet however grim that last paragraph, all was not lost. The very night of my birthday gathering, Louise carefully prepared a mixed CD simply entitled: Verses & Choruses for Eleanor's Birthday. It had been so long since I'd received a mix. I seem to recall I once found myself wrecked, washed ashore and ruined because of one. Even still, Louise's mix was so infectiously catchy, so heedlessly uplifting and so very carefully crafted. In my month of computerlessness, I listened to it endlessly and it made me feel so much better.

Andrew and my Dad bravely performed many many hours of painstaking surgery on my computer. The shonky sheisters at Microsoft even squeezed another upgrade out of us. But after all their hard work and persistence, my computer was up and running again! The programs were all scrambled, the drives were a little confused, but everything was great. I even had a new C:\ drive! Yes! You heard me! Gillions of more gigabytes to waste on mod revivalist compilations! I'd never been so grateful in all my life!


On an unrelated note: Roger Taylor at Narita Airport, 1975
My first order of business was to rip Louise's mix, Versus & Choruses. It was a breath of fresh air in the otherwise small, dingy, dusty cupboard that is my life. I thought it only appropriate, that after such a story that I would provide a linkie to that compilation. It's also appropriate because I have neither the time nor confidence to do C&CM Britpop Podcast #13. Maybe when self esteem comes in pill form?

Versus & Choruses
1. Psapp - Hi
2. Jens Lekman - Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa
3. Camera Obscura - Teenager
4. Asobi Seksu - Thursday
5. Ariel Pink - The People I'm Not
6. Frida Hyvonen - Enemy Within
7. Kraked Unit - Douala Paris
8. Serge Gainsbourg - Ford Mustang
9. Yelle - A Cause Des Garcons
10. Katerine - Louxor J'adore
11. Inquiet - Middle of the World
12. Chad Vangaalen - Building a Home Like a Bee
13. Diane Cluck - Heat From Every Corner
14. Bon Iver - Blindsided
15. My Favourite - The Suburbs Are Killing Us (Remix)
16. MGMT - Of Moons, Birds & Monsters
17. Camille - Waves
18. Animal Collective - No More Runnin
19. Ladytron - Versus

Download (109 MB)