#bostonrocks

Hand-written playlist for “Mystery Tape #1″, one of my many tapes onto which I’d record Boston-area radio programming for later review and editing.

Not long after discovering local bands via the free, WFNX-sponsored concerts I attended in 1988, I started listening to Boston Rocks, WFNX’s local music show on Sunday nights. It was at least two hours long, maybe three, and I found it hard to keep up with all of the new sounds and bands broadcasting into my suburban bedroom. The show also started late—10pm or 11pm—and I often found myself getting sleepy while trying to stay tuned for the whole thing.

Solution? Tape it!

I would regularly buy sleeves of Maxell XLII cassettes, since they were the best quality (duh) aside from the pricier, top-of-the-line Maxell XLII-S. While I’d eventually end up using most of my blank cassette stash to record live concerts when I got a professional Sony Walkman for my 17th birthday, taping off the radio was the initial goal. I’d accumulate a stack of these tapes before eventually going back and listening to them, writing down everything that was played as best I could understand from the DJ breaks.

This tape is mostly a recording of an episode of Boston Rocks from March 11, 1990. I put small notes next to some of the bands to indicate whether I thought they were any good. Next to the cover of Shonen Knife’s “Ice Cream City” by the band Christmas, I put: “v. good.” The judgement stands.

Before the start of Boston Rocks, it looks like I’d used the tape to record a Marty Willson-Piper in-studio performance on February 10, 1990. He was touring the U.S. to promote his latest album, Rhyme, and had stopped by WFNX prior to that night’s concert at local rock club The Rat. Like the last time I tried seeing a show at The Rat, I got kicked out trying to see MWP.

“The kids and teenagers are in the basement listening to records and playing Pong and cards”

Hand-written playlist for “Mystery Tape #2″, one of my many tapes onto which I’d record Boston-area radio programming for later review and editing.

As I mentioned in my previous “mystery tape” post, most every week in high school I'd record WFNX’s local music show, Boston Rocks. This is the playlist from one such tape, a recording of Boston Rocks from March 4, 1990—or so I believed. I’d go back and listen to each tape some time after recording it to create these playlists, and I didn’t always remember to label each cassette with the date.

I put “SAVED” next to the songs or other material I wanted to keep. Those I’d dub onto a fresh tape with segments from other recordings to create custom compilations of my favorites. Here, I was particularly interested in capturing the music by, and interview segments with, garage rock back The Titanics.