After being inspired by the Alamo Drafthouse’s Back to School theme for their older movie screenings, I decided to take their idea and continue it with my site. Originally I was going to move forward to 1993 but I’ll save that for next week.
I kept thinking about how Heavy Metal was heading toward its inevitable nadir as it peaked around 1988: all the hype surrounding Guns n’ Roses’ debut (they still suck); Metallica’s mainstream success was swelling; Queensryche did the genre’s version of Tommy and The Wall; and the hair bands continued to roam the Earth. My roommate Paul was (and remains) a huge Metal guy. He did introduce me to some more thoughtful stuff which sounds like a paradox given the bands’ core audience. Despite the pretensions people often dismiss concept albums for having, there were some catchy tunes on Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime, namely “Spreading the Disease.” Metallica’s earlier work and previously released EP Garage Days Re-Revisited showed their Punk roots with Killing Joke and Misfits covers. This paragraph was my long way of saying, I looked forward to seeing Paul again. The last two years of university were fun, his return would get the ball rolling for year three especially after he turned 21 by the second semester!
Ergo, the cassette creature with the Gene Simmons makeup is my little tribute to Paul and the musical mood of 1988 around the Midwest; it would be hard to tell by listening the radio thanks to aging Boomers at the helm. It’s also a representation of Paul’s music collection due to the boom box he owned. To a small extent, it’s a nod to Phil too. Phil was Jose’s roommate and fellow Metal dude.
I found a bitchin’ web site with step-by-step instructions on how to create the steel look on the numbers. Hope you like it because it’s not a downloaded font, the “1988” is derived from a four-layer Photoshop file. The author made it really easy.
Lastly, I thought the cassette creature was fitting. I knew the Hipsters would inevitably attempt to revive what was the worst physical-music format ever distributed…once the vinyl thing started to catch on with the squares. Some acts are trying to bring them back with Record Store Day exclusives.
Tapes were awesome for mixes and portability. Now they’ve been supplanted by MP3 players, CD-Rs didn’t have a long opportunity. They totally sucked otherwise since they never lasted very long.