Found magazine co-creator Jason Bitner’s latest book and web project, Cassette from my Ex, inspired me to dust off a late-90s mix tape from an old college boyfriend. The tunes were a pleasant mix of hip-hop from the era—think Souls of Mischief, Rasco and Colt 45—while the B-side delivered indie rock stars like Yo La Tengo, Shellac and Jon Spencer. With boom boxes in short supply this decade, I wondered how hard it would be to digitally re-create the mix on a well stocked digital play-buy-and-share site like LaLa.com. The results were a little surprising.
The tape: Made in Madison, Wisconsin, circa 1998. Not withstanding the requisite intro, outro, instrumental interlude, Bill Cosby comic bit and a track by the mix maker’s own cheeky rap act, the original tape was packed with 27 proper songs. Nothing on the tape was more obscure than early Quintron and nothing was more mainstream than Rick James’s bawdy classic, “Give it to Me Baby” (subtle, I know).
The site: With more than 7 million songs in its library, LaLa.com seemed a promising source for turning up music that’s at least a decade old, plus it’s fully licensed so you get the convenience without the guilt. The site also lets you listen to songs in their entirety for free, buy unlimited web-only plays for 10 cents per song or download MP3 versions for 79 cents. One of its best features is that it gives you access to any existing music library you might have such as iTunes so you can listen to your music on any computer anywhere. It also lets you share playlists with friends via email or embed your playlists on a web site.
Results: The site’s offerings are vast, especially when it comes to new music. Older material wasn’t as easy to come by: Of the 27 songs I searched, only ten turned up. I was pleasantly surprised to find Thee Headcoats’ “I Don’t Like the Man I Am,” although the lack of Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut,” Yo La Tengo’s “Somebody’s Baby,” the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Cool Vee” and Shellac’s “Mouthpiece” was disappointing. Worse, a search for Fugazi resulted in this message: “This artist’s albums are not yet available for listening on Lala,” though we wonder if that might have more to do with persnickety frontman Ian MacKaye’s famous indifference to making a buck.
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