Kid Koala

Cassettes, Wow and Flutter, and Giant Robots

Added 2020-05-01 18:34:16 +0000 UTC

Sometimes I feel like I've been tasked to dig up lost and forgotten technology and try to figure out how to give it a new chance to shine.

This Wurlitzer C110 jukebox was rarely seen in the wild. I imagine it was released during that very tiny sliver of time in audio history between vinyl jukeboxes and CD jukeboxes. It's heavier than it looks, and the amp in it sounds... very much like a jukebox. I had the machine "tuned up" before the tour but the capstan and motor was super old so there was a lot of wow and flutter (warble) happening on playback. I kinda dug that though!

As a scratch DJ who grew up in the vinyl and tape era, the cassette format has always held a special place in my heart. Something about the sound. Something about the interface. Something about buying De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising album with my paper route money, and playing it for the first time on my walkman on the bus ride home from the record store, only to miss my house by 20 stops because I was so transfixed on what I was hearing. So much so that it literally changed the course of my musical life.

This jukebox was part of the gallery in the Space Cadet Headphone Concert. My friend at Giant Robot Magazine traveled to the show to document it and posted a clip of me setting up the jukebox on Youtube. Also in the video is Terence Bernardo, one of my favorite singer songwriters, who was invited to do the opening set on that tour and whose album, Dirge, I helped record and produce at my studio in Montreal. Check out his stuff if you like singing/songwriting and also go visit Giant Robot Gallery and Store if you're ever in Los Angeles.

At any rate, I have remastered the bonus tape from this jukebox and will put it in the next post! (For some reason, I can't combine photo posts with audio posts.) Stay tuned! Exclusive audio incoming!

Eric