VARIOUS ARTISTS
“Kind
of Funny, Kind of Strange: the ONLY Donnie Darko Companion Tape”
(Bee
Sides Tapes)
I’ve
held off on writing about this cassette for a very long time because this album
is really a mystery to me. This cassette came with a small magnifying glass
taped to the front of the case, and when I opened it I found a long and
detailed booklet with words so tiny that I couldn’t read them without using the
magnifying glass. Inside the booklet, there were four interviews with people
all discussing why Donnie Darko is not only their favorite movie, but how it
also “incited a throng of soon to be revered movie soundtrack compilers into
action.”
I was starting
to wonder if this would just end up being a cassette of the movie’s original
soundtrack, but it turns out that it’s covers of the soundtrack by this labels
artists. It’s such an interesting idea, but my biggest problem is that they
seemingly let the artists pick any song that they want to cover. While that might
sound like a good idea, what you end up with is a bunch of covers of the same
songs. Even with that said, it’s actually really interesting to hear the insane
differences in what two different bands will turn a song into. I’ve always been
a big fan of Free Cake for Every Creature so I’ve got to say that their cover
of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was my favorite.
This love letter
to Donnie Darko is one of the strangest cassettes that I’ve gotten while
writing for Cassette Gods, and I dig it.
“The
children have to save themselves these days because the parents have no clue.”
-
Garrett Douglas