17 Comments
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Lindsey Pojar's avatar

Also, is that David Hasselhoff on your tool box?

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The Shins's avatar

Ha! Totally. It was from a set of puffy stickers we bought at a truck stop somewhere on tour. Probably 1997!

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Ami's avatar

😁 Seems like Macgyver oughtta be there too.

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jeff werner's avatar

This olde cassette recorder by James Mercer . Love it !

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pachyderm's avatar

lol

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Sean Brennan's avatar

This was cool, thanks. As a fellow music man, sometimes I struggle with how temporary it is. Like, the existence of a song is just data, it can be deleted and lost forever. Or if it's on tape, like you said, that stuff will breakdown over time. Soon it will be gone. You can back it all up digitally but that's not bulletproof, technology is fragile. So as songwriters we're creating something out of thin air, something very personal, but just like ourselves those songs will not stand the test of time. They are not permanent. It's spooky and sends me into an existential crisis from time to time. Ha!

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Pollinators's avatar

I wonder if songs are more in the oral tradition like the odyssey - like, once you created it and people know it, it’s forever, even if the technology and documentation changes over time, the song exists in and of itself

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Janet Kropp's avatar

What a kick! I was an attorney (the good kind, representing injured workers), many years retired now. I had the big machine and multiple little machines. If I had known what you were using them for I would have appreciated them much more. It’s fun to see a person and musician I so admire just talk about these everyday things.

And I apologize for saying this, something you no doubt have heard way too many times, but New Slang really did change my life.

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Lindsey Pojar's avatar

What cool collection. The closest thing I had was a Talk Boy, lol.

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Pollinators's avatar

Awesome! I was so lucky I had a grandparent who gave me their Panasonic micro cassette recorder when I was a child and it fast tracked my way into recording too - more skits and sketches at first, eventually music

Good to know about this repair tip

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Don's avatar

With one foot still in the analog world... I really appreciate that video... Thanks James... Climate control is key with those old (and new) rubber bands....

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pachyderm's avatar

Can yo show us how to re-sole a shoe next week? :P

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Lindsay Glenn's avatar

Sick video man !! 89 !! Year I was born lol

What was the feeling like when u got ur computer stolen with the original chutes to narrow album on it ? Was the album on the stolen computer much different to when the released album was?

Cheers :)

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The Shins's avatar

It was oh inverted world actually they got stolen. It felt terrible! The thing that’s so annoying. Is the computer was such a piece of junk. I’m sure they just ended up throwing it away. Ha!

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Lindsay Glenn's avatar

Ohh inverted world ! Hahaha yeah must of felt terrible ! All that hard work but oh inverted world is amazing so it’s ok lol

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Pollinators's avatar

Has any found material from your box of microcassettes found its way onto the new album? So cool to see!

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bryan parker's avatar

for eternity, I had a landline w an answering machine. when a tape got full, I'd put in a new microcassette. the difference is: I don't want to revisit any of them (but I do have a boxful).

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