Various Artists, “New York Rules” cassette

nyrulespackageVarious Artists
New York Rules
(Burn Books)

Holy fucking crap. Despite my inveterate leanings against cassettes, here we are reviewing the New York Rules mixtape that Burn Books put out. Why? Well, first of all – they sent it to the Nuthouse, so it’s not like we had to pay for it. Secondly – it pretty much rules.

To listen to the damn thing, I had to take it to the day job with me. The cassette deck in our stereo upstairs is dead, and that’s the only one in the house. Thankfully, the bakery has a nice dual deck, in order to play the hundreds of cassettes accumulated over the decade and a half the place has been open.
Continue reading

Byrds of Paradise, “Teenage Symphonies” LP

cover-byrds-of-paradiseByrds of Paradise
Teenage Symphonies
(Don Giovanni)

Byrds of Paradise have absolutely nothing in common with either the Roger McGuinn fronted ’60s country rock act the Byrds, nor the Timothy Busfield program the Byrds of Paradise that also featured a young Jennifer Love Hewitt and Seth Green. I know this because I just spent an hour and a half trying to find a witty way to tie either of those “birds with a ‘y'” into this whole review.
Continue reading