Ethno-music.. etc.: The punk mixtapes, 1: Mike Pace's "Ben Blattburg Looks Just Like Jesus Christ"

The title for this mixtape probably only makes sense if you remember that I had shoulder-length hair in high school; and also a penchant for knocking over the tables of money-changers. In my memory, this is probably the first mixtape given to me by one of my friends who listened to punk / ska.

Back then, I was a bit of "musical orphan," which is the phrase I used even then to describe how I didn't really have a musical thing--no one band or type of music that I always liked. Which somehow translated into me being a target for musical evangelists. So I'm sure Mike Pace was joking when he wrote this--

--but there's an element of truth to that. What he wrote on side B, however--

--was just a joke about the band my brother had in high school, and which my friends often liked to joke about back then.

This mix is from high school (and, if memory serves, includes a clip of Mike Pace as DJ at the high school radio station). So what music was I being evangelized about back then?

1. Minor Threat: I don't wanna hear it
2. Minor Threat: Small man, big mouth
3. Rocket from the Crypt: Sturdy wrists
4. Screeching Weasel: I was a high school psychopath
5. The Queers: Ben Weasel
6. The Vandals: Summer Lovin'
7. Rancid: Detroit
8. Down by Law: 500 Miles
9. Slayer: Dittohead
10. SOD: Ballad of Jimi Hendrix
11. Voodoo Glow Skulls: Insubordination
12. Man or Astroman?: Destination Venus
13. Bouncing Souls: Neurotic
14. Downset: Holding Hands
15. They Might Be Giants: Whirlpool
16. Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Someday I suppose
17. Ice-T: Ed
18. Beck: Fuckin' with my head
19. Sloppy Seconds: It finally happened
20. Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Dogs and Chaplains
21. Social Distortion: Makin' Believe
22. Cracker: Can I take my gun to heaven?
23. Rancid: Nihilism
24. Rev. Horton Heat: Bullet
25. Paul Simon: Crazy Love, Vol II
26. Rocket from the Crypt: Ditch Digger
27. Total Chaos: Babylon
28. Operation Ivy: Knowledge
29. MU330: Hoosier Love
30. Mule: Charger
31. Ween: Pumpin' 4 the man
32. Silent Majority: Knewsong
33. Propagandhi: Ska sucks
34. Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Where'd you go?
35. Down by Law: Sam
36. Government Issue: I'm James Dean
37. SOD: Diamonds & Rust
38. SOD: Hey Gordy!

I loved my mixtapes a lot, but this first one doesn't hold up as well. Or rather, there are some songs and bands here that I would listen to at the drop of a record needle. Who doesn't like Paul Simon and the Reverend Horton Heat? At the same time, I'm not sure SOD ("Stormtroopers of Death") have come up in my memory any time in the last decade.

Also, how much do I love that a good friend in high school misspelled my last name? A LOT.