Category: Tape Collecting

HUM – You’d Prefer An Astronaut (On Cassette)

Mike Seay

Instagram scrolling I came upon a clip of HUM playing “Stars” on Conan O’Brien and it reminded me of how much I loved that song. I then went and watched their performance of it on “120 Minutes” (they played it tighter this time):

So now I am like, well, I never had “You’d Prefer An Astronaut“, maybe it’s about time to find it on cassette. And now I discovered it’s a little bit valuable.

There is one on sale on Amazon for fifty bucks, which is pretty wild.

But hey, that is someone on Amazon, maybe it’s bullshit. Well, apparently not.

On eBay there is a factory-sealed “You’d Prefer An Astronaut” going for $115.00. So I have again wandered into a rare cassette I wasn’t aware existed.

Something to look out for next garage sale or thrift shop wander.

In The Window: “Agnosiareign” by Cementation Anxiety

Mike Seay


I dunno if I am renaming my Tape Pull segment here or starting a new one but today I was reminded that there was a time when I walked home from school near a record store and I would make sure to walk by the shop to see if there was anything new in the window or inside.

So I felt like starting a no-frills In The Window series. Just posting a new/new-to-me album (with a tape available) whenever I can, so you have something new to see on the blog (and later on the newsletter).

Today, I have been listening to “Agnosiareign” by Cemntation Anxiety from the experimental label, Black Artifact.

Tape Pull: Off! “Free LSD” on Cassette

Mike Seay


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.

I Have Added a Cassette Tape Forum (It’s Likely a Big Mistake)

Mike Seay

What have I done and why have I done it?

  1. I started an old-school message board/forum for this blog.
  2. Because I miss blog forums.

You might be saying, “But Mike, there’s Reddit, Discord, Facebook Groups, Instagram comments, etc, for that stuff now!”

You’re right, but it’s all kind of exhausting. We’re too spread out. Scrolling too much. At least I am.

I thought it would be nice to hang out with and get info from a like-minded cassette tape playing music and analog loving community.

Social media only gives you want it wants you to see and then it goes away – message board stuff stays up and there is no algo’ involved.

Maybe I will be alone on the board. That would suck, but at least I would have this idea out of my system (I have been thinking about doing it for years on other blogs I have). And, quite frankly, I haven’t seen a good forum on even the best music blogs.

But maybe it will be cool too. I hope you join me.