Watching the Sunset with FLUX CAPACITOR

Just a short, somewhat nostalgic post from me tonight. It may only mean something to one other person out there, but I think it's worth it, regardless.

I was goofing off with my MySpace profile about two weeks ago (yes, I'm a grown man with a MySpace profile), and I decided to add an old DJ Shadow song from Endtroducing as the music on my page. My old friend Olivia -- who sat next to me back at my first post-collegiate job, doing peon work for a major magazine which shall remain nameless out of spite -- wrote me a note not long afterward, talking about how the song reminded her of that job and our shared love of music that brought us together in that hellhole of an office.

I made Olivia a shitload of mixes in the year and a half we worked together (a tradition I try to continue to this day). It was years before I had the technology to burn CDs, so for years I inundated her with good old fashioned cassette tapes. Some were good, some were blah, and some (if I may toot my own horn) bordered on the sublime.

I'm not sure how many of those tapes live on at this point. Some were probably lost, while others died the inevitable death of the mix tape. In a cheesy way, all that remains is sometimes the effect that a song or series of songs, paired with the time and place they were heard, have on the listener. Which is probably why that DJ Shadow song made Olivia think about our old job, her old car and the misery/joy we felt almost a decade ago.

In a way, tonight's post is another little reminder for Olivia and myself. Back to a time when I lived in my brother's house in Delaware and she in her father's home in Pennsylvania. Back when we made exodus after exodus into the city of Philadelphia. Back when I made mix tapes, meticulously poring over track lengths and musical compatibility, long before you could just swap tracks around in iTunes until you found the best segues.

Tonight's two songs appeared on sides A and B of one of those tapes. They're from a little known Delaware band called FLUX CAPACITOR. I originally found them as the A/B sides on a 7-inch single in a Delaware record store. I liked the song titles (sometimes that's all it takes) and, as a newbie to the state of DE, wanted to try and support any local music scene I could find.

Luckily, Olivia loved the songs as much as I did. I think she even had a thing for one of the guys in the band, but we won't go into that.

Olivia, happy birthday. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to celebrate with you, but I want you to know I'm always thinking of you. Maybe the rest of you won't like these, but I know they meant something to someone. Enjoy:

"Watching the Sunset for the Last Time on Earth"

"This is What the Girl's Been Through"

FOR MORE:
- If you ever find yourself in Delaware, wondering what to do after you've just uttered that one line from Wayne's World, check out Bert's Music on Route 202 in Wilmington. It's a small but incredible store that took many a paycheck out of my hands.