Well, this came out of nowhere. It’s a mix cobbled together by John Xela for Boomkat, and apparently it’s an exclusive because I’ve heard absolutely nothing about it elsewhere. I went ahead and got it on a lark, and it’s pretty darn good.
For music geeks, the mix-tape (which I shall call it, regardless of medium) takes on a certain aura of history and reverence. Chances are, most of us have had a life-defining moment based on something somebody’s cooler older brother or sister put on a tape for us…something that we’d never have been exposed to otherwise. For me, it was the first time I heard “Debaser” on a tape that a high-school friend’s sister’s boyfriend had given her. I was a freshman in a redneck Georgia school, where all the local radio stations played a constant litany of country and “Classic Rock,” so the dichotomy between Francis’ hideous wailing and the sheer catchiness of the chorus was something altogether alien and liberating. Continued...