The Audacity Project

I'm slooowly working my way through a box of my old cassette tapes from the 80s and 90s, converting them to MP3 by way of a neat, free program called Audacity. Briefly, it's a program that allows me to record the input from a borrowed cassette player (thanks, Dad! I'll return it someday soon, I promise!) as a .wav file on my hard drive. I record each side of a tape as its own file, then go back through and chop it up into individual tracks. For the most part I've been happy with the results, although albums that feature tracks fading into each other can be tough to split up. Into the Labyrinth by Dead Can Dance, for example, was a royal pain.

I just finished converting one of my favorite tapes from my early college days, Only Life by The Feelies. I remember hearing "Away" for the first time on 120 Minutes, back in 1989 or so. That show lead me to a lot of good music back in the days before the Interwub...but that's a different post. Anyway, here's a link to the MP3 of "Away." Illegal, I guess, so check it out before The Man shuts me down.

Next up: Floodland by The Sisters of Mercy. Bring on the gothy goodness!