"dollar store" by Orange Cake Mix
In early June this year a ‘new’ collection of Orange Cake Mix songs surprisingly came across my Instagram feed. A fan of Jim Rao’s lo-fi 90s pop, I was intrigued.
Released by Magma Sphere, memories long forgotten, is a “beautiful compilation of Orange Cake Mix’s best Bandcamp selections”. Fittingly, the compilation, available on CD, is the first of an “Interesting People Series” from the label.
memories long forgotten includes songs that you can find among the Orange Cake Mix treasure trove. The collection includes twenty tracks, most clocking in under 3 minutes. Of course you’ll find Jim’s typically comforting four-track style here with usual quirky titles like “yearbook photograph”, “the one you did the most for never really cared” and my favorite, “dollar store”. If you listened to episode 27 of blank mood, you probably heard this one minute and fifty-four second gem.
“dollar store” was about strange days in Bristol,” explained Jim. “Certain things happened around then. Not sure what year it was. Maybe 2013? But no deep or hidden meanings… or maybe sort of.”
I asked Jim if Bristol was the one in Connecticut, realizing after I asked that it would have been unlikely for him to write a song about Bristol, UK and call it “dollar store”… or maybe not! I then proceeded to recount the current weather in Amsterdam in New England speak… “heatwave here this week. wicked scorcher.”
“Yes, Bristol, CT. Heatwave here too. So awful.”
Anyway, bring memories long forgotten into the autumn and winter with you this year. As with a lot of Jim’s songs, you’ll find many references to seasons and adapting to changes in life. In this collection alone you’ll find “autumn waves goodbye”, “dead leaves of november” and “cold winter clouds”. But perhaps the saddest song in this collection is “the one you did the most for never really cared”, reflecting with tender bitterness on the decay and death of a past relationship.
Listen to days of Orange Cake Mix songs on Bandcamp or buy the full OCM digital discography for a ridiculously good price.