Listen to the entire album free!
Visit M.D.G.'s new video channel
Ladyheads and Gentlemutts,
The Archival Reel Society of Unlimited Auditory Chickens and Matthew D. Guarnere proudly present the latest in
silly digital compilation technology! Finally, the legendary schizophrenic teenager chronicles that you've been
waiting over 20 long and boring years to hear again and again in perfectly crystal clear sonic soundbytes,
are now within the realm of your clicking little mouse! That's right folks, it's M.D.G's The Best of
the Mass Produced Cassette! And it's FREE!
For those of you outside my immediate family and friends circle, I think l'll probably need to explain what a
Mass Produced Cassette is, or rather, was.
The Mass Produced Cassette (or M.P.C.) was a numerously duplicated series of 60-minute
tapes containing a vast array of original spoken word comedy, radio spoof stuff, and music related tracks both
silly and serious. With the exception of a few co-written bits (and perhaps the odd snippet of an 80's radio hit
here and there) I wrote, produced, and recorded all of the M.P.C. material in and around my bedroom studio
between 1985 and 1988. During that entire period, I was a busy high school student having to dodge around homework
assignments, early bedtimes, and school bus rides, but somehow I managed to put together a new volume of
The Mass Produced Cassette each year. I would always set a December deadline primarily because I needed
to cover my ass for Christmas presents, but as it turned out,
people really did end up enjoying a lot of the M.P.C. material. Or at least they all said they did.
I desperately wanted to make this Best Of album ages ago, but I was afraid of how truly mammoth a project it
would be. Well, folks, I was dead right! Fortunately, I had the good sense to start with all the necessary
tape baking (in a special round oven-it's true!) and all the analog-to-digital tape transferring way back in
July, because in the end, I needed every last minute of elapsed time to meet my scheduled December 2007 release
date. I think I may have even sprouted some new gray hairs during the process, several of which seem to have
appeared someplace else besides my head! Did I mention this was a BIG job?
And, of course, a BIG job such as this should feature nothing less than a BIG album cover, so I called upon the
great talent of illustrator, Ryan DeClerck
(a.k.a. "Dudeski").
I first became aware of Ryan's
work through his association with Animatus Studio, but
what really sold me was
the extraordinary concert posters he used to design for a top-notch jam band called The Niche. My all-time
favorite of Ryan's posters shows a little green alien in a bathroom standing in front of a urinal disguised as
Frank Zappa!
Judging from this image, you might suspect Ryan to be a little bit bonkers,
but in reality I found him to be pretty normal.
We got together in late
September to discuss my cat-on-the-couch/80's time capsule cover concept. It took several months of us both
E-mailing sketches and suggestions back and forth before we started to arrive at the finished design. Once Ryan
completed the drawing and coloring of the cover, I decided to go even further with the 80's time warp effect.
I searched all over my apartment as well as my storage space for as many pertinent period items as I could find.
I proceeded to scan them all into the computer and then I strategically placed each image inside Manfred's room
one by one. Look carefully at the magnificent Best of the Mass Produced Cassette album cover and see
if you can spot all of the old Rochester music store & radio station bumper stickers, the portrait of Manny
The Frog, the collection of highly influential comedy LP's, my 1987/1988 Olympia High School yearbooks, a couple
of old band logos, and last, but not least, an actual rejection letter from Doctor Dimento for the song
No Fleas Please! Now I think the album looks every bit like it sounds!
And what kind of sounds are we talkin' about exactly? Let the bullets fire!
So are you ready for a wild ride? Now for the first time in any digital format, the complete Best of the Mass Produced
Cassette can be streamed or downloaded
here for free!
The album actually
contains 21 tracks with a total running time of 50 minutes, but this online version
has been grouped together into just 8 parts for your convenience. Click here
to read all of the album's liner notes including detailed information about every single track (and I do mean detailed).
There's even an additional paragraph from the back cover that further explains the history of The Mass Produced
Cassette. I really hope you enjoy the new album and I want to invite everyone to go ahead and share it with as
many people as possible. I won't ever be selling this one, folks. It's a freebie forever, so share, share, share!
And finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Robert Blackburn and the mighty
Blackdog Recording Studios staff for assisting me in this very
involved project. After more than three years now, I've become quite comfortable here and it feels great to be part of
such a resourceful team. Screw autonomy!
So until next time, Geddy says, "Thank you ... good night!"
-M.D.G.
February 2008
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MDGWHATSREAL CHANNEL
Matthew D. Guarnere's You Tube channel has loads of video clips, both contemporary and classic! See if you can keep count of M.D.G.'s ever-evolving hairstyles! Click here ... www.youtube.com/mdgwhatsreal |
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