Minor Threat - Out Of Step (Cassette, Remix Version) (Dischord, 1983)

Hopefully this download makes up for my absence. (And hopefully Dischord doesn't take this down, since it is a very non-standard version.)

I feel like all of my posts begin with delay, absence, disappearance, abduction. The aliens returned me in perfect shape though. Bleep Blork.

So there are a few classic punk albums that were released in very alternate forms:
Bad Brains - Rock For Light: The original mix and the much more available Caroline mix, which was sped up.
Circle Jerks - Wild In The Streets: The original mix and the much more available Frontier mix, which was cleaned up a lot, to its detriment in a lot of people's opinion. Well, a lot of old farts' opinion.
Youth Of Today - We're Not In This Alone: 3 versions! The original mix, a "better" mix, but with the drums off and the version with the vocals and something else re-recorded years later. ("Classic" might be a stretch, but I've come to not just think of them as humorless jocks.)
Snuff - Reach: Alternate test press mix. (Yes, I will include Snuff!)

And that brings us to Minor Threat - Out Of Step. I bought both their tapes from Tape World or some mall shop after seeing Another State Of Mind. They were the standouts of the entire movie for me. I listened to those cassettes hundreds of millions of tens of times, often to the chagrin of my parents on long car rides. They were the perfect mix of musicianship, anger, melody, danger and 3 other things. I followed every band the members did after that. I tattooed their name on my forehead. Okay, not that one.

But I grew up with that cassette. And until recently I still threw it on in the car when I went home to visit my parents. I had since replaced it with the Discography CD, but Out Of Step is the highlight for me. Well at some point I noticed that the CD version of the songs didn't quite sound the same. Some different parts, not quite as punchy. What gives?

I only learned a few years ago that there were 2 mixes of Out Of Step. The original mix is on the CD. The remix is on the cassette version I have. I still don't understand it, since the original mix seems to have some weird effects that you would think would come later.

So I've started to digitize some rare cassettes I have, to mixed results. Some sound muddy. Some have annoying warble. But my old ass Out Of Step cassette, maybe my most played cassette ever, sounds great! Now, admittedly, if you don't listen to music on headphones, you might not notice much. But compared to the original mix on the CD and vinyl, I think this sounds brighter, the bass is punchy as fuck, and since it's from cassette, no annoying clicks and pops. I really can't believe that Dischord hasn't released both versions digitally. I'm sure lots of other people grew up with this version and I find it hard to believe that anyone would prefer the other.

Minor Threat - Out Of Step (vbr 0)