Modern Rock

Today, the family went out to McKay’s Used Books on the west side, and if you’ve never had a chance to go to a McKay’s, make the trip. It’s that cool. It was an absolute ant farm today, though, and our trades took a long time to process, so we had some time to kill. Eventually, we made our way up to the catwalk where they keep all of the music.

Why am I telling you all of this? Let me rewind the tape (foreshadow!) to a couple weeks ago. Liz told me about a TikTok she had seen about a Gen Z/Alpha youth attempting to operate a vintage 1980s Sony Walkman. Said youth was utterly defeated by the cassette case. In retrospect, I think we only knew how they worked because we’d always had them; it was second nature.

As we’re strolling along the catwalk on our way back to the elevator, I notice the wall of cassettes. Yes, they still have cassettes!! Liz suggested that I should teach the kid how to open a case and spare her the future humiliation of being unable to operate obsolete media formats. I looked over and there was one tape sitting on top of the shelf, so I grabbed it. “Hey Lia, have you ever seen a cassette?”

Lia, who is now 10, is at that transitional age where things are still filled with wonder if they’re not SUS. I’m not sure I could exactly tell which it was, but I showed her how the case opened and that it was a spool of magnetic tape. After relaying this bit of analog tech, I got thinking about it myself and what a wonder it was that these things survived at all. After the 30 seconds it took to decide that she was over it, I went to put the cassette back when something in the back of my mind triggered. I took another look at the cover of the random tape I picked up as a demonstration.

When all the dots connected, I was momentarily transported to 1995. I was perusing the music section at the old Tunnel Road Wal-Mart in Asheville, NC, looking for anything new and/or cool that I could afford as an out-of-state student. Of course, most of the things that had come out in 1995 were new and/or cool, but I had a budget of maybe $5, unless I wanted to put back the 10-pack of ramen and splurge. I was particularly taken by this one compilation disc that had 10 songs on it for $4, and I actually recognized a couple of artist names. Notably, Sponge and Matthew Sweet (with whom I was mildly obsessed at the time). I grabbed the disc and figured, what the hell, if only 3 songs are decent, it’s still worth the money.

As it turned out, I discovered a couple of what were to become favorite bands on this CD. Here’s the complete track listing:

• Molly (Sixteen Candles) – Sponge: An evergreen 90s classic foreshadowing the wave of 80s nostalgia to come.
• Weird-Out – Dandelion: True to its name, it’s a bit weird, but in a mid-90s cool way. In a weird circuitous timeline, I actually ended up buying this disc used at McKay’s in Manassas years later.
• We’re The Same – Matthew Sweet: 100% Fun is an underrated gem, some of MS’s best work. This is still a jam.
• Lump – TPOTUSA: The Presidents were just hitting and I was stoked to get this one.
• Deep As You Go – October Project: I remember the first time I heard this, I was like…um, what is this doing here? After repeated listens, though, this turned out to be one of my favorite songs. STRONG suggest looking this up if you’ve never heard it.
• The Big Burn – The Bogmen: I usually skipped this one. I don’t actually remember much about it. Possibly the only real “miss” on the list.
• Hope – Our Lady Peace: Naveed is still a must-have from the post-grunge era. As soon as I had the money, this was one of the first full discs I bought because of this compilation.
• Walk This World – Heather Nova: Not exactly one of the standout female artists when there were so many. It’s not an objectively bad song, but it drowned in the rest of this collection.
• Jump In The Water – emmet swimming: This was the absolute standout of the group. I’d never heard anything quite like emmet and I was absolutely captured. When I found out they were from Fairfax, I was a fan for life. I still listen to Arlington to Boston any day I need a pick-me-up. I managed to see them several times around NoVA.
• Blind – Korn: Looking back, it was no wonder Korn blew up, but when I got this, very few people knew who they were. As the last track, I remember reeling back to emmet and then just taking the disc out without this one.

When I came to, in current-day McKay’s, I blurted out about how I’d bought this when I was first a student and how formative it had been to my musical tastes. I was blown away by the fate or serendipity that *this* of the entire wall of cassettes they had on display would be the one I would randomly grab. I only wanted to show Lia what the thing even was.

EDIT: I created a Spotify Playlist of these 10 in order. Enjoy!