Where to begin with this wonderful gem?
I heard this while probably in the Laus' family Cressida (?) in the early 90s judging by the copyright statement on the cassette. I knew that it was via a friend of Big Mike. [Mike the Younger is my brainmate; Mike the Elder is our leader, and a key mentor of mine.] I was hooked on My Ideas from the very beginning. Like any work of art, you were left with more questions after you were finished with it than before you started. And it just keeps you coming back. What in the world is this? Who is this Deb Hiett and from where did she come?! And Poppy Seed Bread was also an instant classic. "Who threw the loaf? --The woman in the building." Seriously, I think I heard this tape all the way through maybe 5 times over the course of 6 months.
Years, YEARS have gone by. It is 2007 for Pete's sake, and these musical-lyrical touchstones are ever fresh in my memory. In some spasm of desperation many years back, I managed to find Deb Hiett online and contact her through a website, but due to various circumstances I was not able to procure a copy if this most desirable object.
It was it seemed destined to be the most boutique pleasure, shared only between myself and Mike Laus the Younger. That is until my kids and I visited him in Portland. On a Sunday night, after my kids had konked out in his guestroom, and his wife and 2 year old had turned in, Mike and I poured another glass of wine and got out an old box of cassettes. There were the usual guilty pleasures of old mixed tapes that chronicled our mindsets during a given month, or band practice tapes, etc. but then, THEN...
I knew every musical turn, every lyric. With so much nostalgia, there is the very real danger that something will never quite live up to the feeling that has been growing around it as we have aged (old music videos of your favorite songs on youtube). I was so excited to learn, of course, that this music has no such shelflife. It was. It is. And here it is.
I brought home the cassette, digitized it on my Mackie 1202-DLZ PRO, going into my M-Audio Audiophile 192 soundcard at 96000 Hz. I knew I had to share it, so I Googled Deb immediately and contacted her. The icing on the cake came almost immediately: she was happy to hear from me, remembered Mike the Elder and was happy for me to share this music. I made a CD for me, one for Mike the Younger and one for Deb. A selection of 320 kbps mp3s are posted here below.
Please enjoy, and check out Deb online at debhiett.com and myspace.com/debhiett.
My Ideas 2.96MB
The Poppy Seed Bread 3.20MB
The Flying Rotinis 3.21MB