An incredible thing is happening this month. The Cure released a new album, Songs Of A Lost World, and it topped charts of all kinds in the United States.
It’s a pretty wild things for a band of their age to be topping charts with a new album. It should happen way more but it rarely does. Good for The Cure and good for music. We all need to be paying attention more when “way past their prime” bands come out with new stuff.
Anyway, I was pleased to see that The Cure came out with cassette tapes for their, now-acclaimed, new album. You can pre-order them on their website – there is a limited amount so don’t dick around, waiting to buy them.
Growing up I would have never considered myself a Cure fan, but, not too long ago, I saw The Cure play at Shoreline Amphitheater in the South Bay and they were so good, I became a fan.
My fandom is now solidified after watching their live show for the album release:
The poster pulled me in. I was unaware of the punk supergroup, OFF!, until then. Also, excited to find out they do have a cassette of Free LSD available on Bandcamp.
If you scroll down the album’s Bandcamp page, you will find the perfectly pink cassette of which (at the time of this posting) there are surprisingly still some left:
I had planned this post for a while and just now finally getting it up. Since then we have all experienced the passing of Steve Albini, making the Shellac/OFF! show in Chicago a somber one – or maybe there will be appreciatively joyful respect for still being around to see a killer live show.
Sadly there isn’t a tape of the acclaimed new Shellac album. But you can always get some blanks and make one (something I plan to do). I feel like Steve would be cool with a bootleg of a Shellac album.
The almighty Instagram algorithm found a new-to-me (even though they are Grammy winners) folk rock band, Larkin Poe. Very nice stuff, enjoying it. So of course things get around to me asking “Does Larkin Poe have any cassette tapes?”
Turns out they have two. Two of the same album, Blood Harmony:
Two because the band (also sisters Rebecca & Megan) made a cassette tape for each sister. Very funny and rad. There is a Rebecca J-card and a Megan J-card.
I only feel bad for the sister that has the lesser-selling tape.
Charlotte Weidenbach – likely listening to metalcore
Metalcore Cassette Tapes Inspired By a Peloton Instructor
One of my favorite instructors on Peloton (I am @TheBlogCycle there – if you happen to be) is Charlotte Weidenbach. One reason is she is a big metalhead. You don’t get to see that much out of the metal music fan bubble.
In a recent ride I took of hers she turned me onto four new-to-me metal/metalcore bands. And I of course wondered if they had tapes.
Yes. Their 2022 release, The Death Of Peace Of Mind, is out there. It sold rather quickly when it was released. There is plenty of vinyl on eBay and Amazon, but not the tape. I found it on Discogs, but not for sale.
This is a tough one to come by and should be put on any Bad Omens fan’s watchlist.
What About The Other Two Bands?!
I could not find tapes for We Came As Romans or While She Sleeps. Maybe there are some out there but I could not find them with my limited skills. We can still watch some videos of them too though:
“The album did 118,500 in pure album sales and 128,000 in total activity. That breaks down to 78,000 CDs, 18,000 vinyl LPs, 22,000 paid digital downloads, 9500 in streaming-equivalent albums, and a negligible amount of cassettes.”
A negligible amount? Ha!
The funny thing is that I am happy cassette sales got a mention. I will take a ‘negligible tape sales’ shout-out, any day.
Even the small amount of tape sales at least means there is at least a tape released. Cool (even if I don’t think I will be buying it.
Except there is not (at least one that I can find) a regular version of Rockstar on cassette tape. But there is a version.
I guess it’s sort of a version of this 4 LP Pink Rockstar on Amazon. (This is as good a time as any to give you a heads-up that I am an affiliate of Amazon)
So there is no normal cassette version of Rockstar, but there is a limited edition version floating around out there.
Where do you purchase Dolly’s “Rockstar” cassette?
You would think it would be on here website and it is nowhere to be found.
Sort of bizarre. I am tempted to ask the eBay seller where they got theirs but I am too lazy.
My working theory on this seemingly rare Dolly Parton tape, is that was sent to radio stations as a promo package of some sort, but there isn’t a regular cassette of Rockstar out there to buy.
Guess I will preview some of the music and call it a day for now as I get weirded out listening to Dolly Parton singing Purple Rain:
Okay, good looking out for some Dolly. BTW, one of Dolly’s friends (Willie Nelson) has a lot of cassettes that you might want to check out too.
