I was reflecting on Steve Albini’s death (like a lot of the music world has been doing) and listening to his 20 favorite songs.
One of them is “I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement” by The Ramones from their 1977 self-titled album. It helped me realize that I do not possess this album, in any format, let alone cassette.
I need to fix this soon.
P.S. For a Steve Albini story you very likely haven’t heard, check out my friend Joshua Tehee’s local music newsletter where he tells the story of how a Fresno band was fortunate enough to have Albini engineer one of their albums.
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.
It is a long list this time out for Record Store Day. I went through and pulled out all the tapes you might be able to find if you are out looking on Saturday. Have a seat and brace yourself…
Yep, one cassette that is buried inside a box set. One. You can look for yourself, good luck finding something.
At least that is all that I saw as I went through the list. If you are an indie cassette label or band releasing a tape for Record Store Day, please let me know.
And yes, I know it’s RECORD Store Day and not Cassette Store Day. But there is no such thing as Cassette Store Day, even though there should be (maybe you and I should start it). So we need to glam-onto RSD.
Really though, the term Record Store, in this kind of context means a store that sells music. So it doesn’t have to be vinyl. It’s all music formats. Why are the cassette releases so weak?
I am probably missing something. Somebody has gotta be doing something for RSD in the cassette community that I am not aware of. If so, please clue me in.
thetapeplayerblog[@]gmail.com or leave a comment and let me/us know.
I was pleasantly surprised to receive new music from People Places Records in the mail the other day. They gave me the tape of Shawn Mativelsky’s new album, Temporal Waves.
Shawn is known for playing the tabla and is at the forefront of bringing the tabla into the electronic music world. Read more about it here.
I can attest it is nice (and sometimes intense) to have on while writing and having a good beer. It’s a great addition to any ambient cassette fan’s collection.
