Damien Jurado's Postcards and Audio Letters: Christmas 1983

Forrest got a ghettoblaster. Tracks 3 & 4 plus voice memos with Damien about the album

Boomboxes of the ‘80s with their astounding microphones, damn! The opening of “Christmas 1983” is one of my favorite moments on the album. Is this your family? Were these your neighbors? I hate at least half of what I relate to with the dad/granddad here.

Listen to “Christmas 1983” below. For paid subscribers, Damien and I trade voice memos about the project.

🖤AV

From Atomic Pop:

These aren't plot lines from an afternoon soap opera, nor are they vignettes from Paul Thomas Anderson's latest Magnolia-like film. These are real life moments caught on tape that make up the strange and beautiful human experience…

It's the intimate nature of the tapes that initially made Jurado feel like he shouldn't listen to them. As collected on the CD, the tapes have a similar effect on other listeners. And that is part of their allure.

"These people are you, they are me," Jurado adds.

"The beautiful thing about these tapes is that there is nothing to do. I find them, I release them," he says, sounding like an audio equivalent of Duchamp or Warhol, who also relied on "found objects" to create their art.

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Damien Jurado’s
Postcards and Audio Letters (2000)

Tracks 3 & 4: Christmas 1983

1. Robert 1972
2. Angel 1972
3. Christmas 1983
4. Christmas 1983 (Part 2)
5. “Hi Dawn. This is Phil.”
6. Phil Wakes Dawn
7. Phil at the Airport
8. “Our Kid is Getting Hurt”

Tape salvation and editing: Damien Jurado
Polaroids: Adam Voith
Design: Jesse LeDoux

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More voice memos with Damien about the album. We pick up where he and I left off in our first memos, which you can hear at the end of Angel 1972.