Jamie normally writes a very straightforward music column about very straightforward music things, but for the next few installments he will be exploring a childhood mixtape, recently found in a box in his closet. This is part one. 

My hands rummage through an old orange shoebox from the top shelf of my closet. I’m looking for last year’s tax return–a document that always seems to stay lost. Wrist-deep in the box, I dig through an odd assortment of artifacts: pens, guitar picks, two pocket knifes, an old watch, cocktail recipes scribbled furiously on scraps of cardboard. Buried in the rubble, sandwiched between old check books, is a single cassette.

I pull it out and turn it over in my hands. It’s a mixtape, one of those old Maxell 90-minute cassettes I used to buy in packs of 20 at Circuit City. I find the title on the spine: “Jamie’s Mix, 1999.” I’m floored. This isn’t any ordinary mixtape–it’s the first mixtape I ever made.

Continue reading [Hype Hype Hooray] The Mixtape, Part 1: Unearthing a Relic →