The Overnightscape Underground

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1:33:46 – Welcome to Tape Land! On each episode, I’ll present the audio of a cassette tape from my collection. It’s a way to help motivate me to digitize more of my archives.

God’s Ass was an audio project I briefly worked in in the mid 1990s – probably sometime from 1994 to 1996. The idea was to collect my old childhood recordings (from the 70s and 80s) and repackage them as a kind of weird audio experience – actually quite similar to this current Tape Land project.

On a Maxell XLII 90-minute cassette, side 1 is labeled “GOD’S ASS I”, and side 2 is labeled “GOD’S ASS II”. There may be more God’s Ass tapes – though I’m not sure. As I continue forward with the Tape Land project I’ll find them if they exist.

On the name “God’s Ass” – it was the name of a song on the sixth and last “Little Frankie Nora” album, “Ending the Era with Calm Music” from 1987 (see Tape Land 23). It was also the name of a poem from my “Abaxial Usufruct” collection from a few years later (available in the Onsug Radio Vault ZIP in Channel 202).

The tape itself contains segments from a variety of tapes – many of which I have yet to encounter in the Tape Land project…

[0:00:00] A Saturday afternoon in the Mid 1980s. The original tape had “Alvin and the Chipmunks” music, with us recording over it, but also using it as part of our parody of MTV. We read from the newspaper – comic strips, soap opera recaps, etc. – which could date this audio more precisely with more research. Then you hear a younger me talking about the Chipmunks music, and attempting to do the chipmunk voice by talking slow and paying it on fast forward.

[0:19:33] Random stuff: TI-99/4A data, Herculoids?, Odd Couple, 2XL.

[0:21:37] Montana 1980 (Part One) (previously released in Onsug)

[0:27:52] March 3, 1984. John talks about the situation. Then he reads from a Star Trek game book.

[0:34:19] DRAGONMAP. I’ve been trying to find this audio for a long time. It’s a parody of Spinal Tap, circa early 1985. Interviewing the band Arrowhead about their new album “Dragonmap”. Playing clips from The Herculoids, The Little Rascals, and a Disney record. Imitating Merv Griffin. Listening to Montana 1980 Prelude (previously released on Onsug).

[0:59:03] Nova Ravenwood. Story about pirates, Loch Ness Monster, Puff the Magic Dragon, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc.

[1:09:43] Manhattan Project documentary, us talking in the background.

[1:15:00] TV – Learning Disabilities PSA, commercials (Life Savers, Neet, Bain De Soleil)

[1:16:36] Stereo Test #47

[1:17:22] Twilight Zone stories (Pickle Story, Green Light Story).

[1:23:24] June 24, 1983, Christmas Music, Interview with Chris, Hitchhiker’s Guide.

License for this track: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Attribution: by Frank Edward Nora – more info at onsug.com