March 2025 Theme Mix Tape (Side B)
The Flying Saucers Inside Our Hollow Moon: March 2025 Theme Mix Tape (Side B) 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!
You’re listening to KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m your host, DJ Ponyboy, saying “welcome back!” I am so glad you are joining me today. 🥰
This month’s tapes are themed around religious deconstruction. While my focus is on Christianity, many of the points made in the music we are enjoying can apply to any religious belief system.
We started our journey by questioning existing beliefs in Side A: I’ve Been Wondering If You’re Listening for Quite a While.
In last week’s Connections Mix Tape: Christianity Can Be a Real Drag, we explored queer artists who have deconstructed and retained their belief in god.
Make sure to return next week for the final piece of our deconstruction journey, Side C: A Few Things That Were Spared.
But today, thank you for joining me for Side B of my March 2024 Theme Mix Tape: Flying Saucers Inside Our Hollow Moon.
Today’s mix tape is about the hardest part of a deconstruction journey, letting go of beliefs that no longer serve you or no longer make sense, but have been a part of you for as long as you can remember.
Determining which ones are worth keeping and which are rubbish is a heart-wrenching exercise, and even when you are certain they’re rubbish it is still difficult to part with something so very much a part of identity. It is important to remember you will survive, you will come out the other side, and you will be triumphant.
Someday you will look back and marvel at how very different you are from who you were before – more secure, more joyful, kinder, happier – finally at peace.
Queer artist Maddie Zahm grew up heavily involved in her church in Boise, Idaho. In 2022, her song “Fat Funny Friend” went viral. Her next song, released shortly thereafter, went even more viral, and is how I first heard of her.
In this letter to her younger self, Maddie lays out the story of her deconstruction and coming out, admitting that past her probably wouldn’t like current her at first, and that’s okay.
It is important to be kind to all versions of yourself, especially during the deconstruction journey – the you you used to be, the you you are right now, the you you are becoming, and the you you might be someday.
Enjoy Maddie Zahm’s “You Might Not Like Her” on KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
“For a while you might not like her, but I do”. Maddie Zahm.
The music in this month’s mix tapes is very lyric-dependent. Below every song on this page there is a link to the lyrics for that track. I encourage you to follow these links and read along, if able, instead of only listening, as there is so much depth in the words.
Derek Webb is an American singer-songwriter who first entered the music industry as a member of the Christian contemporary band Caedmon’s Call, and later embarked on a successful solo career documenting his religious deconstruction journey across six albums.
“Maybe we’ve been wrong two thousand years, just like we were on the wrong side of crusaders’ spears. And maybe it’s time that we owned up to demanding a god that kills his only son”.
From 2023’s The Jesus Hypothesis, Derek Webb and “Some Gods Deserve Atheists”.
Some Gods Deserve Atheists Lyrics
“I was the walrus; now I’m John. So now dear friends, you’ll just have to carry on. The dream is over”.
John Lennon and “God”. Derek Webb before that with “Some Gods Deserve Atheists”.
I’m DJ Ponyboy and it was really eye-opening for me when I began to see the relationship between god and man as an abusive one.
For example, I was raised with the idea that “god gave us rainbows as a promise that he would never again destroy the world with a flood”. 🌈
Aw.
Except, that’s not a promise.
It’s a threat.
It’s kinda like saying to your kids, “Now children, pay close attention to the empty gasoline can I keep hanging on the wall.
“Every time you see a gasoline can, I want you to remember something; once, a long, long time ago, I locked my wife and kids in a trailer, soaked it in gasoline and set it on fire, watching them burn while listening to their screams.
“Every time you smell gasoline I want you to remember that I promise to never ever, ever do that to you kids and your mommy like I did those poor people way back when. Ok?
“Ok little ones, go play!”
Cat Burns is a British-Liberian singer-songwriter active since 2016 who gained prominence on TikTok in 2020.
Her song isn’t about god, but it could be. Burns describes leaving a toxic relationship in “Happier Without You” on KMTJ-DB – Denver, Colorado.
“God’s way too mean for all the power he’s got – apparently it’s a lot. I find it all obscene”. George Hrab with “God Is Not Great”. Cat Burns before that with “Happier Without You”.
If you are in the midst of questioning your beliefs, you may find this tape at once miserably sad, incredibly liberating, and downright terrifying.
Never fear, dear listener, for Side B is the darkest part, and it is always darkest before the dawn! Our journey concludes next week and along the way I promise we will hear songs of hope as well. 🥰
There is a light at the end of the tunnel – literally – our last song today is titled “The Light”.
But first, active since 1989, The Magnetic Fields are an American band founded and led by Stephin Merritt.
From 2017’s 50 Song Memoir, The Magnetic Fields with “’74: No” on KMTJ-DB, Denver.
The Magnetic Fields followed by American thrash metal band Slayer with “Read Between the Lies”.
I would like to dedicate that song to my fraternity brother Greg, better known as Slayer. Stay gold, dude. ✊
I’m DJ Ponyboy.
We continue our musical deconstruction adventure as Motörhead asks the musical questions, “If God is wise, why is he still when these false prophets call him friend? Why is he silent? Is he blind?”
“God Was Never on Your Side” on KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
God Was Never on Your Side Lyrics
American rock group A Perfect Circle was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1999.
Our next song is dedicated to the lead singer’s mother; Judith Marie Keenan suffered a stroke, relegating her to the use of a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Maynard Keenan seemed to take this harder than she did, however, as it angered him greatly that the event did not shake her faith in her god.
Perhaps Maynard was going through some dark deconstruction days of his own as he penned this ragey response: “Judith”.
A Perfect Circle and “Judith”.
You’re listening to KMTJ-DB, Denver.
I’m DJ Ponyboy. I promised you a light at the end of the tunnel, and I am a man of my word.
American heavy metal band Disturbed hails from Chicago, Illinois and was just recently featured on my March 2025 New Music Mix Tape with their brand-new track “I Will Not Break” – make sure to check it out after this tape.
Our next track, however, is from 2015, and reminds us that, “it takes an inner dark to rekindle the fire burning in you. … You need never feel broken again. Sometimes darkness can show you the light”.
Disturbed with “The Light”.
While that was the last song of this mix tape, it is not the last song of our deconstruction journey! The logical question is after deconstructing, what’s next?
Join me next week for Side C: A Few Things That Were Spared, where I answer that very question!
I’m DJ Ponyboy, and if my mix tapes touch you, please consider supporting Mix Tape Journey by signing up for my email newsletter, purchasing a product, supporting me on Patreon, joining the Mix Tape Journeyers Facebook Group, or simply sharing your favourite mix tape with someone special. Thank you for your contribution; I appreciate you!
Thank you for joining me today and every week to explore music together.
You have been listening to KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m your host, DJ Ponyboy; asking you to stay gold.