Finally, a museum devoted to the 8 Track

I couldn't make this up if I tried. And no this isn't something from The Onion.

Yep, a museum devoted to the 8 Track tape is opening next month in Dallas. As the museum motto says, "No track left behind."

Admit it: You've been waiting for this day for decades. I mean, who wouldn't want to celebrate a technology that, by design, interrupted music midsong to change tracks?

Museum "formatician" Bucks Burnett is proud to have a whole bunch of 500 shrinkwrapped copies of "The Rutles." I like The Rutles but am not sure it's something to brag about as a centerpiece of one's museum. I mean, I could imagine getting all giddy about a cache of 3 Dog Night tapes, something more befitting what actually got played on 8 Track players.

Click.

Cassettes on the comeback?

I was catching up on some recent podcasts while taking a short vacation and enjoyed this "Soundcheck" episode on the alleged renaissance of cassette tapes among cool musicians.

First it was vinyl coming back, then a whisper of hope for 8-tracks, of all things. But cassettes, a ridiculous format prone to sound decay or the player chewing the tape itself? What's next, Hit Clips?

But I can actually see a little upside for this cassette trend, if there is one, as younger generations co-opt tape decks tossed aside by their parents or buy older cars that still play cassettes.

I for one am longing for a tape deck to play any of the dozens of mix tapes or punk albums I've still got stored in the garage. The deck in my '95 Explorer just died, so I'm unable to dig into lost treasures, many of which only exist for me in that format. They include this Urge Overkill classic, the last song that Explorer deck was able to play:

The Pistols, unpeeled

I can't get enough of a VH1 Classic series called "Classic Albums." I haven't seen a bum episode yet but the study of The Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks" is the only one that repeatedly pulls me back in whenever I run across it. 

YouTube has the episode posted in seven separate clips, and I've posted Part 3 above. I singled out this third segment because its interviews with the original quartet, producer, engineer and manager  capture the magic behind an album that still packs a wallop 35 years later. 

There's a telling quote from singer Johnny (Rotten) Lydon, about midway in the clip: "We controlled the energy. Our songs are not raging fast, they're real slow-tempoed. But they come over blistering."

I've never heard a more apt description of the Pistols' sound. Engineer Bill Price, a punk legend, re-creates the tight layers of "Anarchy in the U.K" at about 1:20 into this clip, and it still gives me chills every time I hear the breakdown of the individual audio tracks. Give close attention to the bits about Lydon's diction, subtle tricks that gave his snarl a little extra bite. 

Update on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 10:42 PM by Logan Molen

Ran across this detailed piece from Sound On Sound that dissects the recording of "Anarchy in the UK."

Couple highlights:

• Studio layout from Sound On SoundEngineer Bill Price worked with some of the biggest names in music before tackling the Pistols and other punk bands. I had thought he just kind of surfaced in the punk craze but he in fact was a staff engineer with serious chops, working with Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Mott the Hoople, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.
• Much of "Never Mind the Bollocks" was recorded on a cash-first basis, despite all the money being tossed around by competing labels.
• Paul Cook was still learning to play the drums, so many of the drum tracks were composites from repeated takes. And in a reverse of most live studio set-ups, the drums were placed in the center of the studio without isolation glass, allowing the sound to carry throughout the room, while the guitars were isolated behind sound walls.