Cassingle Of The Week: Sorry Again

Kids today, with their rock and roll and Chat Rooms and hula hoops.
They can have your .99 cent Download. Give me a Cassingle and I’m a happy man. No object so perfectly personifies my generation, the early-to-mid 90’s, than the commercially produced Cassette Single. Why, for the unbelievable low price of only $3.99 I could get not only a song, but also a B-SIDE, WITH a cardboard sleeve. A sleeve. CARDBOARD!

Sorry Again represents one of the biggest hits from Velocity Girl, an early, East-coast, alterna-grunge-era band. But they were known, unfairly or not, as "Bubble-Grunge", and if you listen to their music, you'll sorta get it. They have a little bit of Shoegazer in them, so i like it. And I tend to like that 90's, awkward-girl-singing-over-distortion sound. I love the backing "Whoo-Hoo!"'s in the chorus. There's Only One Thing Left To Say is the B-Side.

This particular cassingle appears to be the product of a joint-venture between Sub Pop and Urban Outfitters, probably to expose the bands to the store's customers as they buy muted, torn flannel shirts and some AirWalks. I probably grabbed this cassingle for free, 14 years ago, from the counter as I was buying a new pair of 10-hole Doc Martens or something.

Hear the song and video.

My Grade:

Single: A
Perfect little 3 minute pop song I've been playing in my car all summer.

B-Side: B-
Great song pulled from the album...BUT, it's not a rare, unreleased, non-album track , so not a true B-Side in my book.

Packaging: C+
Not great , but the graphics are culled from the original album. A pretty standard commercially-driven promotional item.

Presentation: A
Single and B-side are represented on BOTH sides of the tape . Very nice.

Cassingle Of The Week: Girlfriend

Kids today, with their rock and roll and Chat Rooms and hula hoops.
They can have your .99 cent Download. Give me a Cassingle and I’m a happy man. No object so perfectly personifies my generation, the early-to-mid 90’s, than the commercially produced Cassette Single. Why, for the unbelievable low price of only $3.99 I could get not only a song, but also a B-SIDE, WITH a cardboard sleeve. A sleeve. CARDBOARD.

Go ahead, shoe shine boy, make a “Playlist” and set it to “shuffle” like a lazy ass. I get to push eject, flip the tape over, place it back into the deck and listen to it again. The Cassingle involves the listener to participate in the enjoyment in the music instead of sitting there passively, tapping their littlest finger on an Ipod like a slave to the establishment.

The comforting “whir” of the magnetic tape sliding against plastic. The muscular smell of the paper sleeve. So begins a new feature on my blog: Cassingle Of The Week (Or Month, whatever) where I share with you the magic of my Cassette collection. Strap yourself in…..it’s going to be a bumpy ride.




Matthew Sweet’s album “Girlfriend” is one of the only albums I remember listening to, besides “Check Your Head” and The Cure’s Disentegration, in 1992. All the songs on “Girlfriend” are about girlfriends, except for a couple about religion and war like “Holy War” , one of my favorite tracks. Matthew Sweet was one of the first examples of 90’s “Alternative rock” I got into, because I didn’t listen to Nirvana. Sweet does the sunny 60’s style alternative guitar pop with sad lyrics that I normally don’t listen to but he’s the best at it so I give him respect. I love the slow country song “Your Sweet Voice” and “Winona” which might be about Winona Ryder.

Matthew Sweet appears to be “One of us”, that is to say, a comic nerd. The song “Evangeline” is apparently based of the Chuck Dixon comic by the same name. I have a copy. And check out the video for “Girlfriend” which features clips from the anime/comic called “Space Adventure Cobra” . though, I wish the video would stop showing his creepy head floating around and focus on the anime.

The B-side, “Superdeformed” is a rough, demo-style rocker that’s not as good as the songs on the album.