Pitchfork Talks About Tapes

Photo via sharky_p2p on Flickr

Today Pitchfork's Marc Hogan put out a big three-page instruction manual on why you might want to check out cassettes. It's pretty awesome but I'm not sure how to feel about it. My emotions are torn in so many directions at once... Two directions maybe.

Here are the major points from the post:

1. There are lots of "indie-inclined outfits embracing the tape format."
2. Dirty Projectors released Bitte Orca on cassette!!!
3. Cassettes are arguably the least expensive physical recording format available.
4. Kevin Greenspon, who runs Southern California-based Bridgetown Records, said, "You can't skip around through the tracklisting, so the actual tape and the album become one and the same."
5. Oneida's Kid Millions draws a loose connection to the handmade or craft movement going on outside the music world.
6. "Cassettes and vinyl are the analogue cockroaches to the nuclear Armageddon that is digital formats," Super Furry Animals' Rhys proclaims. "Back in the 90s when Super Furry Animals were starting out, we used to master tunes to digital DAT tapes if we didn't have the budget for reel to reel tapes. Most of these are unplayable today.
7. "There's already a cassette industry, but it's pretty subterranean," Thurston Moore told CBC radio last summer.

Remember: Tapes are cheap and they outlast DAT tapes. So when you are remastering your albums, be sure to dust off those old cassettes so that no one can skip around through the tracklisting, and listeners can focus on the handmade craft movement when they listen to your tunes. Don't use computers because they are incorporeal and don't exist physically. Just don't expect anyone to buy it unless they are subterraneans.

So to Mr. Hogan, Thank you for your long article with many quotes from interesting people. Now I know that if a person likes cassettes, we all know why. I now also know that if a person doesn't like cassettes, we all know that too. The list of cassettes is probably great. Unfortunately, I am one of those people that likes listening to music only on my iPod or computer. If I buy a record I usually just give it to one of my friends and listen to it when I'm over at their house.

Thanks though!

Check it out here on Pitchfork.

Updated Feb 22 at 5:33 p.m. — So I couldn't help myself and went to Jerry's Records in Pittsburgh and got a mighty fistful of old vinyl. Now I am going to convince my friends to invite me over so I can listen to them.

Updated Feb 23 2:36 p.m. — So Matthew Perpetua over yon FluxBlog just reamed Marc Hogan also. I mean, I didn't ream Mark Hogan. Gotta keep it clean.

Marc Hogan’s article about contemporary tape culture is very interesting, but also — at least for me — kinda agitating, as so much of it is a mixture of Luddite bullshit, icky nostalgia, and blatant contrarianism. It’s definitely a thing going on, but it feels a bit over-sold in terms of actual relevance. Anyway, two huge questions I have, maybe Marc can answer them directly: 1) Where are people buying the non-underground cassettes? (ie, Jagged Edge, the top-selling cassette of 2009.) 2) Where are people getting tape decks these days, or is it all mainly used/old equipment?