The Mix Tape is Still King

When I was in high school, I was in a band called Mitten that prided itself on two things: our unrelenting amateurism and the commitment to play anywhere we were invited, no matter how silly or lame. This led to us playing at a library to senior citizens, on the Mall in DC on a plank of wood for an Amnesty International event, at the summer camp where I was a counselor for 8-12 year olds and in an empty coffee shop on the Jersey Shore.

One time my brother, who was also a guitarist in the band, was having a house party in his college home 'The Planetarium' and invited his own band to play at the affair. The rest of us lived over 2 hours away but jumped at the chance to play another gig, packed up our gear and were on our way. The show was an intense mess. We were crammed into a tiny space in a tiny basement competing with the understandably inattentive crowd. At one point, the sound proof wall fell down on the drummer's head midsong and had to be held up by the head of the bass player's instrument. It must have looked pretty pitiful. At one point, one of the guests came downstairs and said to his friend, "What is up with this Post-Polvo Snooze Fest." It was surely the best one sentence assessment of a band since the infamous "shit sandwich" review. It was also the perfect name for a fanzine.

The following summer, 3/4 of the band and Listmaker worked diligently to put together our first fanzine. It was made the old fashioned way with glue sticks, tape and the help of a friend at Kinko's who promised to look the other way as we used their services at no charge. Post Polvo Snooze Fest was dedicated the art of the mixtape and we were so proud of it. Looking back on it now I can see that it was insanely low budget and slapped together but it's still chock full of good advice. Years later we made Volume 2 but this one was all digital - no more paper cuts. They're the perfect way to waste time on this slow spring day so check them out and relive the old days before iPods and MP3s, when cassettes still ruled the world. Or at least my world.