July 2024 Connections Mix Tape
The Alternative Radio Saved My Life: July 2024 Connections Mix Tape can be found on Spotify. Listen in-blog below for a more rich experience, or on Spotify for uninterrupted music. Please note below each song is a link to song lyrics for accessibility. Check out more details on how to best enjoy mix tapes.
Good day and happy birthday to me! I’m DJ Ponyboy. Welcome to the Alternative Radio Saved My Life: July 2024 Connections Mix Tape on KMTJ-DB, Denver. To celebrate my birthday month, I am doing something a little different in July.
My usual Connections Mix Tape format is to find a song that relates to another song that relates to another song, ultimately connecting unlikely tunes. This month, I share with you one song that references nine additional tracks within its lyrics.
Rapper Spose has been releasing music since 2010, but his latest release isn’t rap at all. “Alternative Radio” is an alt-rock love letter to alternative rock, referencing the power of music to help us cope with this mess we call life.
Listen closely and see if you can recognize all nine song references. Better yet, did I miss any? We will then walk through the song, examining each reference and listening to the music.
Without further ado, here is Spose with his new track “Alternative Radio” on KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
What a fantastic song, eh? Let us walk through it together.
The lead singer begins to tell his life story, explaining how, when he was six years old and his parents were getting divorced, he escaped by listening to an alternative radio station; specifically, he quotes lyrics by Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, who in the third verse of our next song sings, “Oh well, whatever, nevermind”.
Here is Nirvana with 1991’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
We reconnect with the song’s protagonist at ten years old, again listening to an alternative radio station, using our next song to drown out the sound of adults fighting, as he listens to Billy Corgan singing, “Today’s the greatest day”.
Here is the Smashing Pumpkins with their 1993 track, “Today” on KMTJ-DB – Denver, Colorado.
We arrive at the first chorus where our lead singer proclaims, “Alternative radio saved my life”.
I can honestly say music has literally saved my life many times. There is something about music that can transcend language, time, space, culture, even reality.
Music can gift hope in the darkness and help to celebrate when the sun comes out again. Music can help us feel seen, allow us to express our anger, and give us a way to honour our grief.
Music has saved my life, and I hope that I can introduce you to music to save your life.
Thank you so much for joining me today. You brighten my day and make, “today the greatest day”; I hope I can in some small way brighten yours and make it a tiny bit better.
Back to the music, we pick up with our hero at twelve years old, explaining his first heartbreak and referencing our next song, from Weezer’s second album Pinkerton.
Here is Weezer with their 1996 tune, “El Scorcho” on KMTJ-DB, Denver.
Our protagonist next relays a story of being fifteen years old, getting caught drinking and smoking weed with friends while listening to the Pixies.
When he sings, “I would do little, hung over, where is my mind”, he is referencing the title of the Pixies’ second album, Doolittle, as well as the title of a Pixies track off their 1988 debut album Surfer Rosa, “Where is My Mind?”
Enjoy the Pixies with “Where Is My Mind?”
After the hook, we hear a bridge where partway through, the drums drop out, then come back in. This is the most obscure reference we’ve discussed, and is a callback to the drum intro to Weezer’s debut single, 1994’s “Undone – The Sweater Song”.
Listen to it now on KMTJ-DB, Denver.
In the third verse, the references start coming fast and thick.
It’s also where the singer reveals that he is trying to break generational trauma cycles by being there for his daughter and flipping the script from a child listening to music to drown out the troubles caused by their parents, to a child listening to music with their parent as a bonding activity, making their relationship even stronger.
In only four lines, the singer references the 1994 song “Interstate Love Song” by Stone Temple Pilots, then quotes from Sublime’s 1996 tune “What I Got” with the lyric, “Loving is what I got. Remember that,” before finally referencing 1997’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve.
Enjoy this block of three uninterrupted songs only right here on KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
Welcome back to KMTJ-DB, Denver. Are you having fun?! I know I am! All this great music! And all of you here to celebrate my birthday with me! What more could a boy ask for?
If you want to stay on top of all the most exciting happenings at Mix Tape Journey, and receive a free thank-you gift to boot, make sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter, where I – DJ Ponyboy – get a little more personal, sharing stories, memories, and laughs with you, my favourite listener.
In addition, to celebrate my birthday month, use the discount code PONYMONTH (all caps) to receive 20% off any order from the Mix Tape Journey products page all month long.
Our very last reference comes in the last verse of the song, where the singer says, “I’ll never quit getting lit like my own worst enemy”.
Here is the band Lit with “My Own Worst Enemy” on KMTJ-DB, Denver, Colorado.
Now that you’ve heard all the songs referenced in the Spose song “Alternative Radio”, I thought I should also call out the bands referenced throughout the tune whose music we didn’t hear today: The Offspring, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, and Tool – did you catch them all?
Did I catch them all? Listen closely to the song again and see if you can recognize all the references I called out, and even better, if you can find any I missed!
I’m DJ Ponyboy and this is Spose with “Alternative Radio”!
Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you had as much fun as I have. Make sure to come back next week to hear the exciting Side B conclusion to last week’s Guilty Pleasures Theme Mix Tape.
Until next time, I’m DJ Ponyboy on KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado, reminding you to stay gold.