Cassette From My Ex Book Release Party At The Hideout

We can't imagine reminiscing first loves and past friendships without the appearance of the ubiquitous mixtape. While kids these days might opt for a CD, or even a .zip file, our fond memories center around hours spent alone in our room, painstakingly crafting the perfect expression of our teenage emotions onto a double-sided cassette tape. We mailed our mixtapes to pen pals we'd never met, slipped them into the locker of a crush and when we were scorned, our mixtapes became little plastic outlets for misery and rage.

Thankfully our shared memories are no longer restricted to conversational exchanges. In the vein of confessional projects like PostSecret, Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves compiles sixty tales of mixtapes and memories from a great cast of writers and musicians that include The Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson, This American Life's Starlee Kine and music critic and Love Is A Mixtape author, Rob Sheffield. The Hideout will host a release party for Cassette From My Ex on November 9 with special guests Kyle Ryan of The A.V. Club, artist (and rogue Juggalo documentarian) Derek Erdman and Arthur Jones of Post-It Note Stories. If you can't make the release party, you can order your copy of the book here.

Cassette From My Ex release party, Monday, November 9, at the Hideout, 1354 W Wabansia, 8 p.m., $5.