Rocking out

For the New Year's weekend, a bunch of us went snowboarding in Mammoth. To get there, you don't fly, take a train, or ride a bus. You drive from the 5 to the 14 to the 395. We sat in a Chevy Astro van for roughly five hours each way. No MP3 player and not even a CD changer, but the radio takes cassettes.

So I dug into the drawer and came out with the following:
The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me/Don't Tell A Soul. The band's second, maybe third transition period from polished rock to proto alt-country. Still holds up. I put b-sides (the "I'll Be You" flip with Tom Waits vocals and the "Cruella D. Ville" cover) and weird covers by Minutemen, Husker Du, and Celebrity Skin on the ends. You don't get that on burned CDs or MP3s. A great album, but maybe not for a long drive.
X - Mixtape. 90 minutes of songs from Wild Gift through More Fun in the New World. Sounds great on lo-fi cassette. These days, I'd add "4th of July" and "See How We Are" to the mix.
Jets To Brazil - Orange Rhyming Dictionary / The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good. The former is perfect music for driving through the landscape. The latter just makes you feel restless.
John Trubee - Calls to Idiots. I had to stop this one prank call into the Side 1 because Wendy's younger cousin was with us.

Brought, but not played: Seaweed mix tape, Clash mix tape, Sonic Youth - Goo/Dirty, Johnny Cash mix tape. Crap, how could I forget that last one?