We broke the Boombox 📻

April 29, 2025

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We broke Scott’s boombox.

Sure he’s had it since the night after he saw “Say Anything” in 1989, but that’s not the point. We broke Scott’s boombox and we feel bad about that. Sure, it weighed 40+ pounds and OSHA Regulations required at least two people spotting you if you wanted to lift it above your head, but.. we feel bad. We’re sure Scott had a lot of good memories of yanking yards of cassette tape out of the motor and spindles because you were supposed to clean the boombox, but who the hell ever did that?

The thing about boomboxes is the fascination of hearing the same tunes you played on the boombox for the first time on a proper stereo system, and realizing that every ’80s pop group did NOT use fuzz bass on their songs, and that your boombox speakers have been broken for years and had been buzzing, and THAT’S why you could never understand the lyrics.

No, we didn’t kick the boombox down the stairs. Scott doesn’t have any stairs. We broke the boombox with METROPOLIS.

Scott was playing the new 2 CD Metropolis Soundtrack on his 40+ pound John Cusack Signature Boombox. He couldn’t understand any of the lyrics, but he was really digging all the awesome fuzz bass tones I had come up with, when Track 5 “Captivity” started to play. That’s when the boombox hesitated, jittered a bit, tried to pick up where it left off and then unceremoniously spit out the CD. Scott popped it back in the slot. There were some weird crunching sounds and a voice that reminded Scott of the famous “I buried Paul” moment on “Strawberry Fields” and then “pop.” The CD appeared from the tiny slot and all the lights went out. On the boombox. All the other lights stayed on.

Scott said not to worry about it. He then played both METROPOLIS CDs on his cool Sony 7.1 Surround Sound System and said he could understand all the lyrics and thought the big fat rock bass tones were much better than the fuzzy ones.

We feel bad though and are researching getting him a new boombox. We can’t afford the John Cusack Signature Boombox. It’s vintage and the prices are stupid high on eBay. Besides, we can’t afford to get OSHA Certified, so we’re looking into getting him an inflatable boombox. They weigh like… nothing, you can bring them in the shower with you, and… you still can’t understand the lyrics over all the fuzzy bass!

Technology… you gotta love it.

Like the technology in Fritz Lang’s epic sci fi silent film METROPOLIS. (Come on, that was an amazing transition, even for me).

Tomorrow we have our first two Los Angeles shows about the world of tomorrow, METROPOLIS. We’re super excited. The cinematic concert version of METROPOLIS is very cool. It’s a real celebration of the film and the band is a-ma-zing! They are all so good and really bring an urgency and fire to the epically eclectic mix of pop, rock and “crazy” that I’ve combined with some classic Hollywood film scoring.

We’ve been having a blast and, if you’re in the Los Angeles area, we hope you can be with us.

If not, you can always grab the CD here.The music is epic, sounds good on your phone and… I’ve stitched the tracks together so you get to hear it just like you would at the shows in LA.