“How awesome is it when you’re driving along and one of your favourite songs comes on the radio?”
“I don’t know about you, but I turn that sucker up.”
“It doesn’t matter what the volume is beforehand, or what song comes on next, I crank my radio up as loud as it can possibly go.”
“Every minute that song plays is like a moment of ecstasy. It makes the journey better, it makes life better – even if only for that moment. Everyone knows what it feels like when you have to turn the radio back down after the song comes to an end.”
“That miserable feeling.”
“That want and desire to feel what you just felt again.”
“Some people counter that by buying the cassette tape.”
“That way they can push the tape into the radio and listen to their favourite song as much as they want, as loud as they want. The only problem with cassette tapes is that unless stored in proper conditions – unless treated properly when ejected from the radio and put back into their case, they don’t last.”
“Simon and Pyre – The Blackharts, they’ve been driving this loud obnoxious little vehicle for a while now and they’re insistent on playing the same damn song, over and over.”
“Louder and louder.”
“They bought the tape and added it to their little collection and now that thing gets played whenever they want, on repeat, for as long as they want.”
“Only, they haven’t really taken care of the cassette. It’s been thrown around, beaten up, slapped and punched. It’s been tossed aside, chipped away at and frankly, it’s on its last legs.”
“Now when they try and play it on the cassette player on their radio, it sounds a little worse than before. It’s a little garbled. It doesn’t quite play the song the way they remember it.”
“Most people would buy another cassette.”
“But not Simon and Pyre. No. Instead of replacing the tape with something else or finding a new favourite song, they’ve taken to beating the living heck out of the tape. They’ve taken to pulling out it’s innards and winding them back in.”
“You know, I don’t give a darn about Jet Set Radio. It’s one tape that I’d never have in my collection. What I do care about is The Rainbow Party and that’s one song, one party, despite losing the DJ – that still rocks all night long.”
“Simon, you can beat the holy crap out of Tag and Ether all you want. You can whoop them around that ring until they sing; but the tape is broken, man. You just can’t see it. That tape won’t ever play the same song in the same way and this week, you’re going to find out what real music sounds like.”
“We’re the sound of that music.”