Monterey native's schoolyard mixtape surfaces more than 20 years after it was made.

A few days ago, guitar savant/Pacific Grove native Matt Baldwin posted the following on Waxidermy.com:

This is a cassette release by a kid that I knew when I was eleven years old in 1993. His name was Alex but he went by Macho Alex when he made music. His first cassette album was called The Funk. He put it out in an edition of something like 15 or 20 copies which he sold at recess. I'm excited to have finally gotten my copy transferred to digital. There are all kinds of funny details about how he made the recordings - singing along to his parents record collection with a cut-in-half pog container taped over his mouth. I also have a bunch of his art from the J card that I should upload somewhere. Really bizarre and funny stuff. Makes me laugh as much now as it did then. Enjoy...

The link takes you to a bandcamp page Baldwin set up (http://psychicarts.bandcamp.com/album/the-funk) featuring the six tracks Macho Alex released to his buddies on the school playground that special day back on September 20, 1993. 

Song names include gems like "PJ's Mom Looks Like Elvis 2" and "Dracula/Lickin Tickin Wombat." It's rough-around-the-edges silliness coated in lo-fi bliss—think a three-way between early Beck, Captain Beefheart and Ariel Pink.

Baldwin goes on in the post to deliver a big thank you to Macho Alex for his tape having a bigger influence on him than he ever imagined:

PS - The Funk was the first place that I ever heard John Fahey's music - which eventually changed my life in a big way. Alex used a few Fahey songs as backing tracks (like on "Boxes"). I had no idea what I was getting into at the time. Thanks Alex.

Who is Macho Alex anyway? Alex Rinehart, a local who's delved into the world of low-budget horror films as much as low-budget recording.